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Setup:
After its initial charge, the i’m Watch requires some bit of setup before use. Upon power on, using the touchscreen, the following items will need to be configured:
- Language
- Time Zone
- This is a lengthy list, so it can take some time locating your particular time zone.
- Date
- Time
- Calibration
- Leveraging the integrated Accelerometer, the i’m Watch supports motions gestures to perform certain tasks. For example, shaking the watch will reject an incoming call.
- Register I’m Watch
- In order to configure pre-installed apps, purchase additional apps, or take advantage of other functions, the i’m Watch will need to be registered.
- Connect to smartphone
- This will immediately launch you into the setup for connecting your i’m Watch to your smartphone via Bluetooth.
For the most part, the setup is pretty straight forward. However, this is will be the first time you interact with the i’m Watch using the touchscreen, and it’s here that I personally noted that the responsiveness wasn’t quite up to my expectations. The sensitivity appeared inaccurate at times, and there were noticeable delays in selections made. With the setup complete, it was time to see just exactly what this smartwatch could do.
Feature, functionality, and operation:
Right off the bat, the i’m Watch presents you with a simplified androidOS home screen. This home screen displays the time, date, local weather (once configured), and three customizable “quick apps” (default being phone, mail, and address book). Double tapping on the home screen will change the display into a traditional dial type watch display, and holding the button on the side will return back to the standard home screen. Along the top of the home screen, is the notification bar which can display USB and Bluetooth connectivity, battery, alerts, and app notifications. The notification bar can be “pulled” down to offer expanded details on notifications, sound options, settings, cloud re-sync (explained later in this review), and a trash option for clearing notifications. Additionally, if the i’m Watch is connected via USB, it is here that you can select to mount the i’m Watch as a removable drive for loading media, and i’m Watch updates. From the home screen, scrolling to the left window, will display call history. Additionally, from the home screen, scrolling to the right window, will display all pre-installed apps. Navigation is good, but not great. Scrolling feels a little sloppy and delayed. The touch sensitivity seems accurate and inconsistent at the same time. By that I mean, initial scrolling starts out great and then just stops without you releasing your finger. Anyone with a modern smartphone will immediately be disappointed with the touchscreen experience. The single button on the right side of the i’m Watch can always be used to go back to a previous screen, which is nice.
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When it comes to apps on the i’m Watch, it’s important to point out that even thou the i’m Watch is an android based device, there is no access to the Google Play store. Therefore, I regret to inform you that you won’t be installing angry birds or your favorite apps onto your i’m Watch. Instead, the i’m Watch requires you to register your smartwatch on i’m Cloud by visiting the i’m SpA site. Once registered, you can configure the various pre-installed apps, which include (as of update 2.1.1):
- Alarm Clock
- Appointments
- Address book (imports contacts from your smartphone)
- Calculator
- Compass
- Facebook (customer i’m FB)
- i’m Gallery
- i’m Time (quick access to different configurable time zones)
- i’m Tweet (Twitter notifications from your twitter account)
- i’mages (view loaded pictures)
- i’mail (access to configured email account)
- i’market (selection of add-on apps, majority of them at an additional cost)
- i’moticon (emoticon instant messaging)
- i’mplayer (play loaded mp3 media)
- i’msport (stopwatch, heart rate, etc…)
- i’music (subscription based music library)
- Messages (text messages)
- News (access to configured news feeds)
- Stock (access to configured stock tickers)
- Weather (access to configured weather conditions)
Although the list appears pretty long, once you break them down, there isn’t a lot of “apps” available. I think it’s safe to say that not all of the pre-installed apps will appeal or will even be useful to everyone. Unfortunately, the i’market doesn’t offer any help in the variety department. There are currently 97 apps available on the i’market, and many of those are watch face variants, niche’ functional apps ( stopwatch, metronome, etc…), and a few games (tic/tac/toe, solitaire, and four-in-a-row). Over the course of my review new apps have hit the i’market, which is good, but all in all the app selection is pretty underwhelming. The apps I did find useful, once configured, worked well but won’t give you the full fledge experience you may be accustomed too. Facebook, email, twitter, etc.. will allow notify you to any updates and you can view them right on your i’m Watch, but these updates come via the smart tethering (the i’m Watch essentially piggy backs on to your smartphones internet connectivity) support on your smartphone back to the I’m Cloud. The minimum update interval is 15 minutes, which I found annoying to be honest, since I would hear the alert on my phone and ultimately end up checking my phone as it would take too long to hit the i’m Watch. Of course you can manually force the i’m Watch to sync to the i’m Cloud, but it’s an annoying added step. I understand that shorter update intervals would likely impact the battery life, but at some point I believe that if it can’t be done right…don’t try to do it at all.
So, maybe you’re not interested in apps on your smartwatch (which I would suspect would be the minority), and you’re only interest was using its phone functions. Initially my impressions of this support were good, incoming calls are clearly displayed on the face of the i’m Watch. You have the option to accept/reject an incoming call by using the touchscreen or shaking the watch using a motion gesture. However, once a call is accepted, the built-in microphone and speakers are horrible. For the microphone to pick up your voice with any clarity, the i’m Watch has to be no farther than a few inches from your face. This leads to you looking awfully silly when attempting this in public. Additionally, whoever is calling you needs to speak just short of shouting for the audio to output to the internal speaker on the i’m Watch. At first I thought maybe the internal speaker was simply inadequate, but playing an mp3 audio file through them debunks that theory as they are at least audible and clear. So the incoming call quality seems to be affected somewhere in software or possibly the Bluetooth connection (I used two different smartphones to rule out a compatibility issue). I had the i’m Watch for several months and over that time a few updates were made available for the i’m Watch, but the call quality never improved. It’s unfortunate that i’m SpA couldn’t seem to get this part right, as I could see this being the sole reason someone might consider a smartwatch.
The battery life for the i’m Watch seems respectable. With lite use, it would last me a couple days. With heavy use however, maybe 4 hours or so…was my finding. Of course the i’m Watch can be charged via USB, and will function while charging, but the included cable is “extremely” short and since it’s non-standard (3.5mm on one end), you’re forced to take the watch off to charge it. I suppose if the cable was longer, people may actually try and charge while still wearing the watch and that opens up additional safety concerns (and laughable moments for your co-workers).
Lastly, I feel compelled to touch on support. Since i’m SpA is an Italian based company, their support hours of operation aren’t US friendly whatsoever. Additionally, my interactions with their support team (via email, as phone support has to be scheduled in advance) were painful. Maybe much of our correspondence was “lost in translation”, but my issue was never really addressed and their follow-up to resolve an issue was non-existent. So, based on my experience, their technical support leaves you feeling on your own. This is only compounded by their poor product documentation. The First Use guide included with your i’m Watch is thick, and initially impressed me until I realized it was a 2 page guide translated in 36 languages. The online documentation available on the i’m SpA site, although more complete, leaves a lot to be desired.
I bought black colour I`m watchsmart watch on 29.11.2013 by HDFC bank acct .But till date i received no such watch and reason of delay is communicated to me.What to do with that ?. Lalremtluanga
I would try to contact the company first, and failing a reply I would try to get your money back from your credit card which should be easy to do if you havent received the product. After that leave negative feedback on the BBB.
I bought I`m watchwatch black colour on 29.11.2013 vide HDFC bank acct.But till date I receive no such watch nor reason of such delay was communicated to me