Noor
We live in a world where smartphones are a must in every household. The mothers have always cursed the phones of their children and declared every mishap to be a direct result of the phone over usage of their kid. Despite these atrocities, the phones have survived pretty well.
In an attempt to save its child (i.e., the smartphone) from further curses, technology took a leap ahead and conceived a younger sibling for the smartphone. The smartwatch is the prodigy of the technology family and is destined to be better than the elder sibling.
Is Smartwatch Worth Buying?
You have arrived at this article for one of these two reasons.
1. You are completely unaware of the smartwatch world and want to find answers to questions such as what are the advantages of a smartwatch.
2. You have to win an argument from your parents and want to justify that the smartwatch you bought has numerous benefits and justifies the expensive deal that you have done on Amazon.
In any case, we are here to aid you by informing you of smartwatch benefits, uses, and why you should buy a smartwatch.
Want to know what you can do with a smartwatch? Jump into our article.
Smartwatch Advantages
1. Time
Well, yeah, time. Who doesn’t know that (duh)? But if it is fancy, we can’t deny the fact that it tells time. Smartwatches are a great way of knowing the time.
You are probably wondering why get a smartwatch instead of a common mechanical watch just to see the time? The answer is pretty clear. Most of the smartwatches offer multiple customizable watch faces. The way the clock on your watch looks can be changed in the settings.
You want to stick to a primitive analog look of the watch, then select an analog clock that chooses your style. Have trouble getting accurate readings from the analog watch? Switch to an easier and more accurate digital watch face.
On the other hand, the mechanical watch provides the same watch face every day until it cracks, and the screen makes a kaleidoscope out of itself.
So yes, the smartwatch outdoes the average watch in the most basic department of “Showing the time.”
2. Style statement
“Technology is the new fashion.”I coined the line myself, so please don’t be angry as I shall explain this. Today everything is related to technology somehow or the other.
When I was young, the mainstay of my amusement used to be the new pencil box for school. Getting new shoes and sports items used to be the bliss of life. But the tables have turned now. We, along with the present young generation, do not find any joy in these “petty” items.
To rejoice in your toddler, you have to buy him a PlayStation or an expensive smartphone. Today everyone brags about his/her phone. The Apple fanatics boast the bitten Apple wherever they go. Similarly, every teenager loves to brag about the phone he/she carries.
Smartwatches have made this showing off easier. You don’t have to reach your pocket to show how rich you are or how good your device is. The fancy watch on your wrist says it all.
Thus, the smartwatch has become an integral part of fashion. Wearing a primitive watch is considered so outdated and old-school. You ought to get a smartwatch because it is the present fashion trend and a style statement.
3. Replacement of a smartphone
Can I use my smartwatch without a phone?
Yes, you can, thanks to the advent of smartwatches with sim card. You can use your smartwatches as individual entities independent of the phones. The ability to make a phone call and reply to text messages is one of the many smartwatch features offered.
A number of smartwatches such as the Apple Watch Series 5 and the TicWatch Pro 4G smartwatch provide you the freedom of independent use. In the mentioned watches, you can slide in a 4G LTE or a 2G/3G sim card and make calls and send text messages without phone.
You don’t want to carry your phone along, then don’t. Just put on your smartwatch and head out for a game of tennis or camp in the jungle.
4. Fitness Coach
A smartwatch can be anything it wants to be. The most evident and Must-have feature of a smartwatch is the ability to record your activity data. In the modern-day, a notion exists that a smartwatch is Made to record fitness data.
Almost all the watches provide fitness tracking of one sort or the other. A basic pedometer along with pace, distance, and calorie counter are found in virtually all the notable smartwatches present.
However, some brands take a notch above and provide more fitness tracking features. Devices such as the Fitbit Versa 2 come with a specialized fitness coaching premium program that acts as your personal fitness coach.
The specialized apps can devise a fitness routine of strenuous workouts and even weight-loss strategies for you. Manufacturers like Fitbit and Amazfit give you the freedom of playing whatever sport you want to play as they can record a number of sports activities ranging from walking, running, and treadmill to yoga and swimming.
Therefore, a good smartwatch can help you out with your fitness regime and make your physique more attractive than ever.
5. Health monitoring
With the advent of smart devices, medical health technology has shifted from big scary medical rooms to the access of your wrists. Modern smartwatches are laced with the immensely useful feature of health monitoring.
We have a variety of health monitoring features in different devices in the market. Still, the most common ones are Heart-rate sensors, sleep monitors, female health monitors, and Pulse oximeters. Though this equipment is not considered an aid to medical diagnosis, still having the know-how of your body is great.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 2 and the Apple Watch Series 5 are braced with the latest medical technologies. The Apple Watch Series 5 contains Optical heart-rate scanners and measure Female health too.
The Garmin Vivoactive 3 and the Fitbit Versa 2 accurately measure the Oxygen Saturation in the blood.
The sleep tracker is present in almost all of the big names and tracks the REM, light, and deep sleep to provide you with your stress levels using an internal algorithm.
Heart-rate monitoring can help Arrhythmia patients keep an eye on the abrupt changes in the heartbeat. Similarly, Oxygen Saturation is of pivotal importance in the growing scenarios of the Coronavirus crisis.
6. Mobile Payment
Perhaps the most beneficial feature of a smartwatch is Mobile Payment. This is an unmatchable advantage of a watch as it provides you maximum freedom.
The world has now shifted from paper money to digital currency. People feel easier and safer carrying credit/debit cards instead of lumps of heavy papers in their wallets. Technology is making us lazier and more demanding.
Carrying handfuls of money didn’t bother us until credit cards came into play, and now Mobile payment has resulted in credit cards feeling like a burden. Mobile Payments from the phone seem to be a blessing for many.
The powerful feature is now available in the smartwatches that use NFC to pay for the morning coffee via Mobile Payment. If you live in a country like Venezuela, where electronic payment is a significant means of payment, the Mobile Payment feature on the smartwatch will be a savior.
All famous brands offer their mobile payment apps. Apple has Apple Pay, Samsung provides Samsung Pay, high-end devices of Fitbit, and Garmin allows Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay, respectively. A number of watches such as those from Fossil work on Google OS, and they also allow Mobile payment via Google Pay.
7. Partner in loneliness
If you are a lonely single and don’t have anyone to talk to on rainy nights, then worry not. We got your back. A smartwatch can prove to be a sun that yonders through the darkness of your clouds of gloom. Is the article becoming more Shakespeare’y?
Ok, so you still feel What a smartwatch can do in this case? The smartwatch will surprise you. Many high-end wrist devices are capable of giving you a personal voice assistant. The voice assistant spends time with you and obeys your commands.
Apple’s polite Siri assistant comes with the Watch Series. On the other hand, Samsung gives Bixby as your servant. Amazon Alexa is an obedient servant too.
So, in alone times rejoice the company of your smartwatch.
8. Receive Notifications
I know a lot of people who have stiff necks. The reason for this condition is the constant checking of their phone for notifications. If you have a friend that keeps you tagging in memes on Facebook and you are tired of unlocking your phone to check what has happened, then the smartwatch is your must-have device.
A smartwatch can save you the effort of frequently logging into your Facebook on the phone, as you can receive notifications on the smartwatch.
Not only Fb notifications but all the important notifications can be checked on this mini version of a smartphone. Received a text message or missed a call, and the phone is far away from charging, the smartwatch can aid you with your laziness. Just twist your wrist to give a glance to the smartwatch screen and know of all the notifications.
9. Entertainment on the wrist
Gone are the days when the hipsters used to carry around the radios and the cassette players for entertainment. All the entertainment has found abode in the tiny wrist device that you wear every day.
Yes! My friend, you heard it right. The beautiful pieces of technology that you don on your wrist have the capability to show you pictures, take pictures and play music online and offline.
The Garmin Vivoactive Music Watch allows you to store and play music offline while in numerous devices allow accessing online playlists of Spotify. You can even access your YouTube playlists. Devices that support 4G connection give the freedom of staying connected to online music Anywhere, anytime.
Another one of the economical watches, i.e., the Padgene DZ09 watch, provides a memory card slot. You can slide in your card and play whatever music you have stored in it.
10. Safety Features
A smartwatch can be a safety device and a very important one. Smartwatches do not only target teens and the mature but kids smartwatches are readily available in the market and lend a lot of safety features.
For example, the Tictalk 3 LTE phone smartwatch for kids provides the parents’ peace of mind. The watch has built-in GPS and a camera that allows parents to communicate with their kids via 2-way audio and video calling.
Another smart feature is the Geofencing and SOS feature, according to which the kid can not move out of a specified region on the map that is set by the parents. The SOS feature immediately sends an emergency message to the emergency contact list with the child’s location.
So, a smartwatch isn’t just fun and entertainment. It offers pretty impressive and beneficial features that can be helpful in times of distress.
It would be unfair if I only told the advantages of a smartwatch. We all admit to the fact that smartwatches have grave benefits, but everything that exists in this world has a darker side too. So now to get on with the cons of having a smartwatch.
Disadvantages of a Smartwatch
1. Expensive items
A sarcastic line exists for the iPhone that You have to sell your kidney to buy the latest iPhone, and it is no different when it comes to an Apple Watch. The greatest con of going for a smartwatch instead of a normal watch is that these small smart devices are pretty expensive.
The most famous Apple and Samsung brands have a price tag that is out of reach for most people. With watches ranging from a $200 to $300 price tag, affordability is pretty tricky.
Those who purchase these smartwatches live their lives in constant pressure of care and maintenance of the devices that they have bought for so many bills.
2. Limited Battery-life
A very unpleasant and rather disheartening downside of smartwatches is the meager battery time they provide. The better the watch, the worse the battery timing. I have seen people hang up to the charging ports to give some life to their smartwatches.
The Apple Watch Series 5 is considered as the epitome of smartwatches. But alas! This device sucks at battery life. The watch lasts for a mere 18 hours at max with average usage.
The petty batteries contribute to a number of people rejecting the purchase of a smartwatch.
3. Bluetooth Pairing
A vast majority of smartwatches work by pairing with smartphones (except for the standalone watches) and rely on them for most of the functions. This is a con as it needs a smartphone to work.
What’s even worse is that the watches are connected to smartphones via Bluetooth and need to be in close contact with the phone. A slight distance between the devices results in a weak or completely lost connection.
So, you have to keep the smartphone tied to yourself for using a smartwatch too.
4. Small-sized screens
Whatever we do or claim, a smartwatch is a small device and delivers a small screen. Smartwatch screens can be used by the sharp-sighted only. People suffering from sight issues can not burden their eyes to enjoy the smartwatch screen. Most of the elders suffer from sight problems and can not use the small screens of a smartwatch.
Conclusion
In this article, we tried to solve the famous question. What are the pros and cons of a smartwatch? If we were to put the pros and cons of having a smartwatch on a scale, we would find the pros side heavier.
Smartwatches are great pieces of jewelry and provide you with a lot of beneficial features that can go a long way. The price and the poor battery performance are negative aspects, but the advantages surpass the negativities. So, we recommend you go for a smartwatch than an average watch.
Frequently Asked Questions About Smartwatches
Does a smartwatch need a memory card?
A small number of smartwatches such as the Padgene DZ09 give the option of inserting a memory card, but it is not necessary for the working of a watch.
How do the standalone smartwatches work?
Standalone smartwatches have the option of working with a sim. Thus, they work in collaboration with the cellular network.
How accurate are smartwatches in tracking fitness and monitoring health?
For the answer to this, please refer to the article How accurate is Fitbit.
