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Your Smartwatch Buying Guide: Top 5 Features You Must Look Into
The top smartwatches on the market are all brilliant in their own right, but not all of them are suitable for everyone. Several firms produce smartwatches that bring notifications, apps, and more to your wrist, ranging from major technology giants like Apple, Samsung, Amazfit, Huawei and Garmin Smart Watch to conventional watchmakers such as Fossil. More recent watches like the Apple Watch Series 8 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 expand the capabilities even more.
Although they come in a variety of features and styles, smartwatches can help you save time and better monitor your health. Most have GPS and a heart rate sensor as built-in fitness measures. Some are touted as health-focused devices, while some can function as an extension of your phone.
This buying guide for smartwatches breaks down all the different aspects you should take into account when determining if the Apple Watch, a Samsung Galaxy Watch, a Fitbit, or a gadget from some other leading wearable brand would be the correct choice for you.
LCD vs. OLED Comparison
Most smartwatches come with an AMOLED or colorful LCD display, which tends to be brighter and allows you to view pictures, applications, and other things in richer color. Shorter battery life is the trade-off, though manufacturers of smartwatches are making the devices more effective. Some can last for a few days or even weeks, but for the longest longevity, choose a black and white display.
The transparent OLED displays used in more costly smartwatches allow for smaller designs than LCD panels. To make the original Apple Watch as slim as possible, Apple created the first OLED display. Yet it should be recalled that in 2013, Samsung produced the Galaxy Gear, the first-ever OLED smartwatch.
Touchless versus touchscreen
It would seem obvious to choose a touchscreen for your smartwatch. On a smaller touch screen, though, selecting items might be challenging, and some gesture-based user interfaces aren't very clear.
While Wear OS does a fantastic job of showing card-based notifications that you can quickly dismiss with a swipe, accessing other apps and features within apps requires a lot of swiping. Yet, with a flick of the wrist, you can change between the cards.
Design and customization
The finest smartwatches have interchangeable straps or let you switch them out for other brands. If your goal is to customize the appearance of your gadget, this is crucial. The majority of modern smartwatches offer a wide range of customization options before purchase.
Fitness features and other functions
Activity-monitoring features are being included into smartwatches as fitness trackers continue to garner interest. While some smartwatches rely on your smartphone to track your activity, the majority at the very least contain a built-in pedometer for step tracking or counting.
Fitness trackers with smartwatch-like capabilities, like the Fitbit Charge 5 or even the Garmin Forerunner 245, both of which enable you to change the watch face and view notifications, may be something to take into consideration if you want to use a smartwatch mainly for working out.
Mobile payments
As many smartwatches contain NFC chips, you can employ them to make purchases even when your phone is not nearby. Even without an iPhone or an LTE connection, all Apple Watch models support Apple Pay. watches with the Wear OS that accept Google Pay. All of Samsung's most recent models are compatible with Samsung Pay, its own mobile payment solution.
The popular fitness-focused watch brands Garmin and Fitbit have also included mobile payments into their most recent models.
Finally, here are some quick tips before you buy a smartwatch:
- Never purchase a smartwatch before you have made sure it is compatible with your mobile phone.
- If you're a health-conscious person, choose a watch with a heart-rate monitor and GPS (to help you track your runs).
- When purchasing a battery, always pay attention to the rated battery life.
- Make sure the clasp or buckle on the watch band is simple to use and simple to swap. Moreover, make sure it will be simple for you to locate replacement bands.
- One aspect which definitely distinguishes Wear OS from watchOS is the variety of applications. Despite this, interoperability, design, and other factors are far more crucial.
