Five interesting "players" in the smartwatch market in 2018

The ambitious Chinese company Xiaomi penetrates into new areas every day, significantly expanding the range of products. Partners provide unbearable assistance to her in the development of "new lands", in particular, the Huami company has taken care of the production of smartwatches on its shoulders.

A wearable gadget named Amazfit Bip hides a progressive hardware in an almost weightless case (32 g). The visible part of the watch's design is a 1.28-inch display built using transflective technology. The better the information is read from it, the brighter the sun shines, and in the dark the screen backlight comes to the rescue (there are 5 gradations of its brightness). It doesn't matter if the display is only with viewing angles, but this flaw completely fades against the background of its minimal "energy-voracity" when displaying the picture.

Low power consumption is one of the key characteristics of smartwatches, thanks to which they can boast of a long working time on a single charge of a 190 mAh battery.On a "full tank", the watches work "hard" for up to one and a half months in a row, and in standby mode (time display, step counting and sleep monitoring), their battery life increases to 4 months. Only an active GPS module can negatively affect the battery charge, but its very presence on board a smartwatch should be counted among the advantages of the model.

The skills of Xiaomi Huami Amazfit Bip are quite standard, as for a kind of smartwatch. The wearable gadget measures the parameters of the user's physical activity (including determining the heart rate), monitors the quality of sleep and, of course, performs the function of duplicating notifications. All collected data is imported into the MiFit application. But the "smart" alarm clock of the model was "not brought", as a result, we will have to be content with the standard solution from Xiaomi, the response time of which it is possible to set only from a smartphone.

The entire electronic "filling" of the device is reliably protected from dust and moisture according to the IP68 standard. Finally, the decisive argument "for" in case of doubts about the correctness of the choice becomes a tasty price tag, for which even flaws in the localization of the interface of the international version of the gadget are forgivable. There is nothing to say about the Chinese assembly of the model — it is possible to understand the principles of its management only by intuitive pictograms opposite each of the menu items.

The model with the M430 index from the Finnish brand Polar is a watch that is pumped in all aspects Polar M400 for adherents of an active lifestyle who have won an army of fans around the globe. In particular, the wearable gadget will be appreciated among runners.

A key innovation in the design of the watch was the appearance of an optical sensor for counting the number of contractions of the heart muscle, which measures the pulse during training and sleep. Also, the watch got a long-awaited vibration motor. Instead of annoying for the surrounding sound signals, it quietly, but clearly enough lets the owner of the model know about all kinds of notifications — whether it's alerts from applications or signals about the start of work or the end of training.

The Polar M430's display is monochrome, complemented by an eye-pleasing blue backlight for better data visibility in the dark. For the sake of saving battery power, it is almost always in the off state. The information on the screen is displayed in several lines, and its total resolution is 128x128 pixels. With an inactive GPS module, you will need to recharge the watch less than twice a month, and in the mode of active GPS tracking with the most accurate location determination, the gadget is able to stay "afloat" for about 8 hours.

One of the crown "chips" of smartwatches is the ability to build training programs to achieve certain goals in running with a training duration of 9 to 15 weeks (for example, to overcome the distance of a half marathon). The watch acts as a kind of personal trainer who paints a detailed activity plan for several weeks ahead. It includes interval training, strength exercises, muscle training, static, stretching and provides time for rest.

Separate lines in the story about the Polar M430 are taken care of by the SleepPlus technology, which helps to learn more about how you sleep. The watch not only makes standard measurements of the quality and phases of sleep, but also allows you to set the desired duration of rest. Every morning, the gadget evaluates sleep on a scale from 1 to 5 and gives recommendations for improving its quality for better well-being. It is best to analyze all the data obtained through the Polar Flow web client, although there is also an application of the same name for mobile devices.

For the implementation of the ZeTime hybrid watch project from the Swiss startup MyKronoz, it was collected from the world by a thread on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. The idea of such a product was so positively received by the public that instead of the planned 50K dollars required for the launch of serial production of watches, it was possible to attract investments worth over 5 million in the "evergreen" currency.

The massive case of the MyKronoz ZeTime, which is made of stainless steel, closely combines timeless classics (arrow mechanism) and modern trends (touch colour display on the front side and optical heart rate sensor from the rear). The arrows serve to show the current time without having to turn on the clock display once again, which positively affects the "survivability" of the model without recharging — it's no joke, not every wearable smart gadget can work for almost a month in a row without being energized from the outside.

The month of battery life can be discussed only with regard to the mechanical part of the watch, and with the active use of smart functions, it will be necessary to chain them to the outlet about once every 3 days. By the way, so that the arrows do not interfere with the readability of the data from the display, when working with notifications, they move to the "9:15" position, after which they automatically return to their proper place.

In the role of a wrist smart device, the watch performs the full range of tasks characteristic of this kind of device: from duplicating notifications from a connected smartphone to counting the number of steps taken and calories burned, as well as monitoring the quality of sleep. And if the owner of the watch has stayed in place too long, the wearable gadget will offer to stretch a little.

MyKronoz ZeTime is "friends" with mobile phones running Android and iOS, for which an application of the same name with the model name must be installed on their board. In addition to the category of the watch's strengths, water resistance is ranked, which is maintained up to a diving depth of 30 m. The model also has a couple of disadvantages: not the most responsive touch screen (due to the peculiarities of the structure of the clock display) and the visibility of individual pixels on the screen (its resolution is 240x240 pixels with a 1.22-inch diagonal). However, you will not find an equal to a wearable device during the day with fire, so you definitely should not focus on minor mistakes in its hybrid "body".

The name of the Nike company does not appear for nothing in the full naming of the special version of the third generation of Apple smartwatches. This famous sports brand participated in the design of exclusive straps with multiple perforations and installed proprietary software for athletes-runners on the watch, which collects detailed running statistics. Also, the differences between the model and the "classics" are the additional dials from Nike.

The watch itself is made in the usual square form factor, i.e. the continuity of generations with previous versions of the Apple Watch is on the face. As a result, it is fully compatible with a wide accessory park of straps for smartwatches (for example, in the event that branded ones will not fit into a business suit). The front panel of the wearable gadget is entirely given over to a 1.65-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 312x290 pixels — bright, contrasting, with good readability in bright sunlight.

All the most interesting things are hidden from prying eyes under the outer shell of the "smart" watch. In the cramped space, and no offense, there peacefully sheltered a powerful W2 processor, which provides a smart responsiveness to the gadget, a GPS module, an NFC chip and a set of sensors for monitoring physical activity parameters (heart rate monitor, accelerometer, gyroscope and altimeter). Moreover, the red mark on the Digital Crown wheel indicates that the Apple Watch 3 Nike+ 42 mm Cellular is equipped with a telephone module with support for voice calls and Internet access via LTE networks. However, this case works only in regions where the eSIM standard is implemented.

In the characteristics of the model, emphasis is placed on full water protection — the manufacturer declares the possibility of submerging his offspring under water to a depth of up to 50 m. However, it is still not recommended to go diving in hours. As for charging, which is done by wireless technology (see the article "Brief educational programme on fast and wireless charging technologies"), a wearable device requires replenishing energy reserves in the built-in battery after one day of activity. And in fact, this moment is almost the only drawback of the model, because on other points it supports the authority of the most advanced smartwatches for the masses with all its might.

The fifth "Phoenix" from Garmin is a good example of what a serious smartwatch should be. The model is clearly not aimed at everyone and most of all will appeal to avid adherents of an active lifestyle.

First of all, Garmin Fenix 5 Sapphire is captivated by the vastness and accuracy of the data collected. Judge for yourself, the watch case is packed to the brim with all kinds of sensors, which are tasked with collecting the maximum amount of information about the user's activity during training. An optical heart rate monitor visible to the eye starts the relay on the back of the waterproof case of the model, and GPS and GLONASS geo-positioning modules, a gyroscope, a barometer, a thermometer, a 3-axis compass and a barometric altimeter are located under the outer "wrapper" of the watch.

Based on the measurements made, the watch plots activity, gives recommendations during training, and also calculates the recovery time at the end of sports. Flexible customization of the watch interface helps to control your indicators in real time, so that a number of interesting parameters can be displayed on their screen (for example, the pulse along with the speed of jogging or the pace of cycling along with data on the distance covered).

The screen of the model turned out to be far from the best in the top class of wearable gadgets: it lacks touch input support, displays a picture in low resolution (240x240 pixels) and can show only 64 colours. However, before us is a bird of a different flight, which does not chase the outstanding characteristics of the display, but simply and without unnecessary pathos ensures the readability of data in any conditions. In addition, the watch screen, covered with high—strength sapphire glass (see the article "Varieties of glasses in wristwatches"), is made using transflective technology, which positively affects the duration of the gadget's operation without recharging — in mixed mode, you need to chain the Phoenix to the outlet once a week, and with continuous GPS tracking, energy reserves in the battery they are exhausted after 20 hours of activity.