Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Since they were first announced, I stayed away from smart watches. They seemed like toys, with very little real use. I had a little extra funds this Christmas and decided to take the plunge. Here's what I found... There are a few reasons why I really like this watch...what I'd consider the "killer" apps: 1. Watch faces. OK, it's a watch and should tell time. But the range of faces available is large enough to meet most peoples' tastes. I prefer the interactive faces that allow me to click an area of the watch and pull up key information I view frequently, like the weather, my emails, the calendar and text messages. 2. Hands free, voice texting in the car. I already have my wrist close to my mouth when my hand is on the steering wheel. I can use S Voice to call up the text messaging, compose the text message by voice, it reads the text back to me, and I tell it to send. All this without taking my eye off the road. I don't text on my phone when I'm driving, but my car can read texts to me. When something important comes in, I prefer to respond without having to pull over. This watch makes it easy. 3. MST pay. I've used the watch to pay at almost every store I use...Panera, grocery store, hardware store, etc. Even if the store doesn't have Android Pay, the MST pay feature allows me to use the watch to pay. I've tried the same with my phone (Samsung Edge S7) and it works only sometimes and is just about the same as pulling out my wallet. This is easy...works all the time. 4. Speaker phone. Yeah, I have a phone nearby with a speaker. But I find that I fumble the phone many times and lose a call. So I tried taking a call with my watch. The speaker is loud enough to hear without holding it to my ear. And the microphone must be good enough because those on the other end of the line never complain about not hearing me. The speaker (not available on the S2) also allows the watch to interact much better through S-Voice. I'd say those four capabilities make the watch worth the money (it's a tech luxury, but worth it). The other things I like about the watch include: - Easy to read screen. It's a big watch but no bigger than the high end mechanical watch I had been using before. The big screen is crystal clear and, even with my aging eyes, I can see it perfectly well. - Looks great. The watch looks very high end, especially with some of the nicer watch faces installed (see 3 of my favorite watch faces, attached photos). - Buttons and bezel. The mechanical elements (turning bezel and side buttons) have a nice feel to them...don't feel cheap. And they always work. - Battery life. I use my watch constantly as I have lots of messages every day. I still get a solid two days on a charge from it. I've worn it to sleep to have the watch monitor my sleep cycle, but that feels gimmicky to me...so I end up taking it off and charging it every night. Not even close to running out of battery in a day. Normally, I go to bed with the watch at 75% battery left. - Heartbeat monitor. I like that I can see my beats/min over time. It's not a killer app and doesn't impact my existence. But it's a cool bio-thing to monitor. - Exercise monitor. The watch is accurate at picking up my activities and stores it through my Samsung S-Health account. Again, not life changing, but it keeps me thinking about moving and exercising more often...probably not a bad thing. So, I give this 5 stars after a month of use. I'd recommend it to any technophile. It's not a toy like Apple watch. It feels like the kind of thing a business person would use. If you're one of those people that never stops looking at their phone (I'm not), you don't need a smart watch. Save your money. But, if you're like me, and hate pulling out your phone and prefer to leave it in your pocket or bag...this is worth considering.