Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

*******Edit 8/10/2015: Revised from 5 stars to 2 stars to 1 star - (more edits below original post) ******* Okay, I'm getting to the bottom of the issues at least the ones that I've experienced; its not looking too good for the time being as some of the issues will require some action from google and some from Sony, but so far its been months of waiting and little to no response. GPS: Connectivity is lost / diminished when wet (or sweaty). Not good if you have sports use in mind for this watch. Sony appears to have acknowledged this on their site and I've contacted their support but they wouldn't say when a fix would be released nor would they give any indication on what the fix would be. I suspect that they will have to release a watch band that prevents moisture from getting where it doesn't belong, but given they are not commenting on what the fix is or when it is coming I cant believe that it will be in the near future (days - weeks) but suspect that if they don't have a new model in the works they will have to have it resolved by the holiday season if they continue to stand behind this product. Battery Issues: Google has been provided bug reports from my device and they said that they are certain that there is an issue contained in them as they were abnormally large. Given this has been going on since the 5.1.1 update was released in May (and supposedly acknowledged by google in mid June) I'm not hopeful that there will be a quick fix there either. To learn more about the 2 above issues I would recommend exploring the Sony support forums for the SWR50 as both issues are well represented there. I really wanted to like this watch and when it works I still see a lot of potential. Given that it is marketed as a fitness device and has such glaring issues with GPS when used for fitness and that there is a bug causing the battery to suddenly drain I cant say that it is a finished product nor would I recommend it for anybody who doesn't want to be a beta tester. This will likely be my last update as I am going to get getting rid of this watch after this. *******Edit 8/10/2015 (#2)******* I received an unexpected email response from Sony regarding the wet GPS issues that I've posted below: "We apologize for the delay in our response. In regards to your inquiry, if wearing the device in wet or moisture environments, or sweating a lot, the GPS tracking accuracy may be affected by condensation between the device and the wrist. The quality of the GPS signal is dependent on the wristband construction, not the hardware device itself. An improved wristband will be available by week 49, depending on market and region. Contact your retailer or a Sony Mobile repair partner for further assistance." Now week 49 sounds weird so I did some digging and am guessing that it correlates to the calendar year meaning the week of November 30 - December 6. *******Original Post with Edits below******* The Good: * Offline GPS! Using Ghostracer to sync run data to Runkeeper is great and allow s for speed / elevation analysis of your run data. As of right now, this is the only Android Wear watch that has standalone GPS! * Screen I will admit that the screen at first glance seemed a little disappointing when compared to my phone or other smart watches on the market. I quickly realized that this screen was picked specifically for its ability to be visible in bright environments and really offers the best of both worlds when compared to the competition (e-ink display on the pebble on one end of the spectrum and AMOLED / Samsung on the other). AMOLED screens need to compensate for bright environments by cranking up the brightness (battery drain) and e-ink displays are fairly low resolution and dont offer a touch screen environment (so far) * Battery Most reviews I've read indicate about 2 days of life from a full charge; I personally haven't seen that so far but am still working out the kinks and expect it to be entirely possible now that I've figured out where my early problems were. The battery included in this watch has a 420mAh rating; from my research that is the biggest for any smart watch to date. * Charging I'm impressed with how quick the watch will charge (30 minutes will get you most of the way there, but a full charge will take a bit longer). I both love and hate that this watch can charge with a standard micro USB cable. The connection is much more secure than any smartphone I have ever had and I'm confident that it isn't going to wear out fast. * Waterproof This watch is waterproof not just water resistant like most of the others. * Standard Strap The standard strap feels heavy duty, secure and I kind of like its appearance; there are notable shortcomings below. The Bad: * Standard Strap The standard strap included with this watch is really thick at the bottom and quickly becomes uncomfortable when your wrist is resting on a desk, such as when typing on a computer. I've found that sliding the watch up my wrist helps, but it would be nice if this was a little more refined. * Charging it would be nice if there was a charging base option for this watch, at the same time, that would be just one more thing to lug along. Ideally, it would include some type of inductive charging option (QI), but I can't fully fault them for not requiring me to have a dedicated charging platform / base. * Screen It would be nice if the screen was more vivid. Overall Reaction: I have to admit that I wasn't very impressed in my first few hours of use. I had a long out of box update process and glitches when first getting things running most of which I have since attributed to my phone (and possibly a custom watch face that was installed). After updating all applications on my phone (yes this matters) and resetting the watch then repairing with the phone things are much improved and, dare I say, impressive. I keep my phone on vibrate most of the time just to avoid loud notifications, but this results in me not always catching texts and calls. Having the watch vibrate on my wrist is more noticeable when an alert is received and also easier to check. Also, Being able to voice respond to texts without having to pull out the phone is great when you are in a quit area, but I suspect I wont use it much when in public areas and it simply doesn't work in loud areas. There are many voice commands / options that I'm yet to fully utilize; I may comment more as I've had more time to use them. Finally, some reviews that I've seen fault this watch for going so heavily in the sports direction without including a built in heart-rate monitor, and I initially was among that group. After a little more thought I realized that I've never really found a heart rate monitor that can accurately read heart rate when I'm in the midst of a heavy work out or run. That being said, there are Bluetooth monitors that can be used with this watch if heart rate data is that important. Also, I suspect that watches that are incorporating heart-rate monitoring out of the box or more gimmicky than anything, but that's just my opinion. My personal reasons for picking this watch: * GPS - This is the only Android Wear watch that has its own GPS (no need to bring your phone with for runs) * Internal Storage - Can stream music to Bluetooth devices. * Future Proof - Includes features not fully utilized by Wear yet (WIFI, NFC); and a respectable processor * Battery - Good overall battery life compared to other Android Wear devices My must have apps for this watch: * Ghostracker - Track Running / Biking without your phone and upload to Runkeeper * Runkeeper - Great for analyzing data captured with Ghostracker (the Offline GPS function of Runkeeper isn't yet very reliable) * Google Keep - Voice note taking * Sleep as Android - Sleep monitoring application *******Edit 7/30/2015******* Revised review from 5 stars to 2 stars. I have had this watch for nearly 6 months now and for the first 1-2 months things were pretty good. After that there were some updates that were released that have caused several issues with this watch and have effectively turned it into a paperweight (unless your fine with the frustration of finding out that your watch is malfunctioning again on a nearly daily basis). Issues that I have personally had include: GPS randomly loosing accuracy or not working at all Sudden battery drain; from full to empty in 1-3 hours (Google has acknowledged this bug but has not followed up) I've had to factory reset this watch several times to get it to re-synchronize with my phone properly Unreliable reminders (today I got one at a store I go to all the time that I had set 1-2 months ago) Simply put, you shouldn't have to try this hard to like a product. I would avoid any android wear device at this time as there is simply very little level of support for them. I've tried submitting help requests through the wear tool (requesting feedback) and never hear anything after weeks. If the support was there and the product actually worked I would not hesitate to rate it at 5 stars, but for now I would stay away. *******Edit 8/4/2015******* I found a different way to engage Google support and now have a case open on the battery drain bug. I've been escalated to level 3 and they are reporting that they are unaware of any issues (this has been going on since late May and someone from google supposedly acknowledged the bug publicly in mid June). This is absolutely ridiculous. Search "smartwatch 3 battery bug" on google for more info or look on the Sony support forums for the SWR50. I should mention that the support was pleasant, but so far unhelpful (I cant believe that they are not aware of any battery issues). Stay away from this device for now until google has an official confirmation that it is fixed and it is confirmed fixed on the forums. Normally I would say you could just install the old wear firmware (if technically savvy) but I'm not confident that is an option as I had experienced GPS bugs on the last firmware (the reason I upgraded in the first place).