Smartwatches have fast become a worldwide phenomenon among techies (and non-techies alike). Over the years, smartwatches have evolved and taken on more features that can often make them appear as mini smartphones. Wearables now come in handy, with features such as push notifications, fitness apps, GPS, musicplayback, calculator and other things. In fact, the least appreciated feature of a smartwatch is the ability to tell time.
Top tier smartwatches come at a price some might consider hefty for “just a wristwatch”. However, the market also affords some budget friendly smartwatches you can cop for just a few bucks.
ASUS Zenwatch 2
The Asus Zenwatch 2 is a strongly built, functional and stylish watch. It’s a great option for people trying their hands on a smartwatch for the first time. It’s highly functional, with tools that allow you to send text messages, make and reject phone calls, and interact with email and social media notifications.
It has an IP67 water and dust resistant rating and the display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. You can customize the watch face with the FaceApp Designer app. Battery life can last up to 48 hours and it charges fast too. Both Androidand iPhone users can use the watch.
Moto 360
The Motorola Moto 360 is a favorite for techies as it combines functionality, comfort and elegance.It has a 1.56” round display with LED screen that has a bright display with bright colors. It provides good functionality and works with almost any Android app. It can also charge wirelessly using a Qi wireless charger. 4-gigabyte storage and 512 RAM affords for good performance. It is IP67 rated and has a useful health tracking app which provides you with stats on your heart rate, body activeness rate, number of calories burned, etc.
Samsung Gear S2
The Gear S2 is another affordable wearable that offers great value for money. It runs on Samsung’sTizen OS, and has a cool rotating bezel for navigating through the interface. The AMOLED screen provides excellent contrast and vivid colours, making stuff easy to read. It’s bright too, when necessary, so you shouldn’t have any problems in direct sunlight.
The device is powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 3250 chipset and battery life is also great.
Sony Smartwatch 3
The Sony Smartwatch 3 is a decent wearable that offers great fitness features. It has a built-in step tracker which provide you with handy information like calories burned or hours slept when linked with a phone that has the Sony Lifelog app in it. It also boasts a great in-built GPS system. It also ships with apps found in most smartwatches such as agenda, calendar, alarm, push notifications, gyro, accelerometer, etc.
It comes with a great IP68 water and dust resistant rating, and Battery life of about 48 hours. The display is also very vibrant even when viewed in direct sunlight.
LG Watch Urbane
LG Watch Urbane is popular for its elegant and fashionable design and great build quality. It runs an updated Android 5.1.1 OS and supports push notification. It has a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. Battery life caps out at about 48 hours which is fair enough. Like the Asus Zenwatch 2, it also has an IP67 water and dust resistant rate.
Music lovers can also store and play music from this smartwatch. You’ll need an external Bluetooth device to really play the music. Fitness buffs can also use this smartwatch’s heart rate monitor, which readily connects with Google fit to track your calories and steps.
Pebble Time Steel
Pebble Time Steel Smartwatch’s offers a week long battery life making it stand out from the competition. The Pebble brand is one of the most popular smartwatches on the market. It comes with push notification feature, calendar, text messaging, alarm clock, pedometer, etc. Strongly built with a dust-proof, shockproof and waterproof frame and is compatible with Android 4.0+ and iOS 8+. It also has its own microphone which you can use to dictate messages. However, it doesn’t do so well display wise, and lacks important features such as Wi-Fi connectivity and GPS.
