Sony shows at CES in Las Vegas a new version of its LiveView accessory for Android smartphones, which now SmartWatch is called. The new version of the device need to be a lot longer on a single charge.
At the booth of Sony, only non-functional mock-ups to find, but an employee of the company was so nice to have a working copy to borrow for a short hands-on. The SmartWatch is just like its predecessor from a square screen with a clip on a rubber wrist strap can be attached. For example, the device as a watch should, but also, for example, on a board be confirmed. Very hip, he looks not matter, but the weight is by 41.5 grams low, and if watch the whole pretty comfortable.
The SmartWatch with bluetooth to an Android smartphone attached, and can then small apps and widgets to display on the oled screen of 128 by 128 pixels. Apps on the phone can rotate data forwarding to the SmartWatch. The icons on the screen are in a grid of 2×2 shown, and by means of the small touch screen can be used by the existing apps geswiped. By using two fingers, tap the screen, you go back to the previous screen, a new feature compared to the LiveView.
For reading, for example, text messages and Facebook messages, the screen us too small. The widgets got a lot better from the paint, such as, for example, one that is the forecast for the next three days gave. Also the music widget, which via the bluetooth audio protocol is the music player on a smartphone, can be operated stuck well together. The touch screen seemed not quite nice to work with. The swipe went in the line fine, but especially the tap with two fingers to a screen, back to go, sometimes doesn’t.
The present Sony employee let us know that the LiveView not a commercial success and wijtte that partly to the poor battery life. The SmartWatch should on average use three to four days go on a full battery and that is according to the company’s quite longer than the battery life of the LiveView. The SmartWatch must be in the second quarter worldwide release and $ 149 cost.
