Gadgetory

I'll be honest when I first laid eyes on it at CES 2015 the Alcatel OneTouch watch struck me as a poor-man's moto 360 at the time there weren't many round smartwatches on the market so between that the steel casing and the circular display complete with the flat tire at the bottom it was tough not to draw an immediate comparison it took wearing the watch for over a week to understand what it isn't what it is and what it might be for you I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and this is our video review of the Alcatel OneTouch watch it's round casing isn't as rare as it once was but one thing that sets this apart from other wearables is its size or its lack thereof the 1.2 inch display is flanked by fairly minimal bezels resulting in a casing diameter of just 41 millimetres but even though that's wider than some of its Android competition on the wrist it feels much smaller than any SmartWatch I've used with the possible exception of the original pebble now the watch was made with an eye toward affordability and that shines through at some points for big screws hold the back cover on and they're flanked by four more screws keeping the band in place that plus the heart rate sensor gives the back of the watch a pockmarked mass-produced look and the unnecessary numerals and hash marks on the front don't really do it any favors either though it's certainly not alone in this respect also the band attachment is a simple fold-over clasp with no safety tab or push-button release which gives me pause about its long-term durability still the clasp does a fine job of holding the watch to your wrist for now and while you might be inclined to chafe at the stiff non changeable band you'll change your tune pretty quickly once you realize what's built in an NFC contact point for easy pairing with your smartphone and a concealed USB 2.0 charging connector that can plug into almost any computer or smartphone charger that means you don't have to worry about carrying a cord or charging cradle when you travel with the watch if you have to charge at all that is more on that in a minute with the watch Alcatel OneTouch decided to forego a common platform like Android we're opting instead for its own proprietary OS the company was going for simplicity here and in this respect it hits a home run raise your wrist and most of the time the screen will light right up tap the screen and a ribbon of 14 boxes appears most of which aren't apps but single purpose toggles that give the word OneTouch a new significance there's no Settings menu nor any need of one if you want to turn vibrations on or off there's a button for that same for airplane mode same for screen brightness and watch face style you get the idea the weather and health functions are about as complicated as things get and all they require is a side-to-side swipe to see their different screens when you're done press the back button beneath the display to go back to the watch face and whether you sync it to an Android smartphone or an iPhone the companion app is just as simple and straightforward seriously you'll have the watch figured out two minutes after you unbox it give it another few minutes and you'll be changing wallpapers and watch styles to suit your own personal possibly nerdy tastes get too far away from your phone and the watch will automatically remind you not to leave it behind again it's all dead simple as with any bonafide smart watch the main purpose here is to pass phone notifications to your wrist as they come in and the watch does this pretty well alerts are signified by a small bubble icon appearing on the watch face accompanied by a powerful vibration that you definitely won't miss even if you're not wearing the watch swiping up from the bottom of the display brings up the notification view with alerts accumulating to the right as they stack up some like text messages you can read right on the watch others like Gmail only give you small sips of info like the subject it's meant to give you a heads up that you have a message not necessarily act as a conduit to deliver the message to you well that's a fine philosophy it's not always ideal displaying an SMS for example carries an unnecessary extra step on other watches the text just pops up so you can read it instantly on the watch you only get a nondescript bubble on the face and you need to tap it to see what the message says it's only one extra step but it's still inconvenient which is unfortunate on a device designed for convenience there's also no significant delineation between some alert vibrations a calendar reminder will buzz just as loudly and insistently as a phone call which gets annoying fast also the list of supported notification types is fairly short at this point and due to an API limitation the watch currently won't buzz for an incoming call on iOS only for a missed one hopefully we'll see those capabilities grow soon and hopefully we'll get a few more watch features - like a countdown timer and the ability to set alarms right on the watch rather than using the app on your phone personally I'd find those simple features much more useful than a remote camera shutter or a media player that only works with the stock music app those are some of the costs associated with making a dead simple smart watch there are certainly benefits - and the biggest one is battery life the first time we took the watch off the charger it lasted over 76 hours of normal use that's over three full days and on our second cycle it's already doing even better we've seen other watches beat this figure but few if any had a circular color touchscreen and when the watch does eventually run dry it charges quickly through that convenient integrated plug the Alcatel OneTouch watch has a lot going for it an attractive design straightforward software robust fitness tracking and it serves as tangible evidence that the company that built it is capable of some really cool innovation it works with Android and iPhones and it lasts for days on a single charge plus at 149 dollars it's cheaper than much of its competition but crucially it also doesn't bring as much value motorola recently slashed its moto 360 to just 165 dollars so for $15 more you get a bigger screen higher build quality changeable bands and all the power of the Android wear ecosystem on the other side the black and white pebble steel seems pretty overpriced at $1.99 until you remember that it has something in common with its Android competition an ecosystem a platform something developers can build apps for to make the watch grow with you over time right now the Alcatel OneTouch watch doesn't have such a platform to be fair that is by design it was specifically built to be simple and accessible and it deserves kudos for succeeding it's just that it's price tag should reflect that at $99 this would be a must buy SmartWatch at its current price it's a little harder to justify for more on the Alcatel OneTouch watch tune into the PocketNow weekly podcast on Thursday April 16th for some deeper discussion and check out our reviews of the competition in the videos above and at pocketnow.com till next time this has been michael fisher captain two phones on twitter reminding you to keep your hash clasped thanks for watching everyone we'll see you next time you