Gadgetory

we've been talking about smart watches for a long time years and we've seen a lot of devices even a few good ones but for the first time thanks to google and android wear smartwatches feel like a thing a thing with a future and a market android is huge it's everywhere and now Google is committed to putting it on our wrists we have one version of Android wear and two watches running it and we have our best look yet at Google's vision for the future of wearables if this is the future it's going to look a lot different from what we thought let's start with the hardware there are two Android wear watches available for pre-order now they'll be available on July seventh for two hundred and twenty nine dollars you'll get the LG G watch one hundred ninety nine dollars buys you the Samsung gear live that's odd actually because on almost every front the gear life seems like the more high-end device it's a square watch with sharp chrome edges in a rigid rubbery strap it comes in black or in wine red and both are sort of a simplified version of samsung's new gear too it's a little chunky as watches go and I really don't like the toothy clasp on the strap but it's a decent looking device there's a button on the side that activates the gear lives 1.6 3-inch 320 x 320 Super AMOLED screen and a heart rate monitor on the bottom next to the 5 contact pins for the gear lives awkward clip on charter this is not the best looking wash I've ever tried on but it's decent looking decent looking is kind of a feat to next to the almost ridiculously boring LG G watch there's just nothing to that you watch it's a square with a rubber strap that comes in either black or white there are no buttons no eye catching design touches no nothing the G watch is at least inoffensive it's hard to find something to really dislike about it but only because there's nothing really to say about it in general the G watch does score some design points with a long list of custom watch faces which give it a cooler look than the gear lives pretty bland options but once developers can build their own both watches will get a lot better looking the G watch has a slightly larger display than the gear live one point six five inches versus 1.63 and it's slightly lower res actually 280 x 2 80 instead of samsung's 320 x 320 neither is great then neither is terrible but the gear lives display is definitely superior its colors are more accurate it's viewing angles much better neither works especially well in bright sunlight which is a big problem for a device you're supposed to look at all day but the gear live does do a bit better the G watch is also imperceptibly heavier that 2.2 ounces and at 9.95 millimeters thick it's a little heavier than the eight point nine millimeter gear live but actually in practice since the G watch is less rigid and stiff it's the more comfortable watch both displays are always on 24 hours a day there's what's called ambient mode which is just a simple watch face that kicks in a few seconds after you stop using the watch the power controls are buried in settings and they're literally isn't a way to turn the G watch back on once it's off without connecting it to the charger they both have batteries that last one day maybe slightly more but prepare to set their awkward chargers next to your bed every single night all the differences that exist between these two watches are tiny they run 1.2 gigahertz processors with four gigs of internal storage and 512 megabytes of RAM they both work as basic step counters which is handy and and this is the important part they run the same software just about exactly the same way that software is Android wear when you download the where app and connect either the G watch or the gear live to your Android phone you'll immediately start getting your full stream of notifications on to your watch text emails snapchats system stuff everything imagine Android wear is a grid in one tall column in the center is a running list of all your notifications your home screen is at the top of that list but also off to the left when you push a notification away you're scrolling through the list and back towards your home screen off to the right is extra information week views for the weather archive and reply options for email and in a cloud hovering over the whole thing is Google now listening for your voice it's sort of a clunky metaphor and sort of a clunky interface but it mostly works some notifications you can just read and dismiss others you actually do something with on your wrist you can all cover a reply to an email you can answer a text you can answer a phone call or quickly deny it with a can text like can't talk right now what's up you also get information about the weather when Google thinks it's useful or flight info if you have one coming up basically Android wear is google now writ large it's a card based operating system designed to let you do a few things but mostly to do a lot of things for you the problem is it's all very inconsistent some things are notifications which you can swipe a way to get back to the home screen but other times you're actually in a nap and have to move around a bunch to get back home everything you can actually do on the watch starts with a tap on the screen or the words ok Google then you can set a reminder or see your calendar for the day or do a Google search you can take notes set alarms and a few other things too it's all pretty basic and for any other than a handful of small things you're going to have to pick up your phone though the watch can make it so your phone is instantly on the page you're looking for eventually google hopes there will be much more to do you'll be able to say okay google get me a car and pick whether you want your watch to use uber or lyft to find it take a note will work in google keep as it does now but maybe also in Evernote or simple note the possibilities are theoretically endless it's just up to developers to figure out what to build but none of that is why you'd buy the g watch or the gear live you should buy one if and only if you're willing to give all your data to Google to trust it to show you everything you need at exactly the right time sometimes Android wear feels like magic other times when i accidentally swipe a notification to the right and then it's gone forever it feels like a headache before it's really interesting google needs to work out that balance between giving you things to do and doing them for you i want my watch to be a watch first and foremost but i want to be able to do more to like get directions or open google search results and i don't want to have to get out my phone every time if you do want to buy an android wear watch right now you can basically close your eyes and pick one the both sort of boring they have ups and downs and they both run android wear quite well i'd pick the gear live because i like the screen better and actually like the slightly classier design but if you'd rather have a simpler watch and a bunch of cooler looking watch faces the g watches for you of course neither one is preventing me from holding my breath for the Moto 360 and the next generation of even better looking devices if we're all going to wear something on our wrist all day but only is it occasionally it's going to have to be jewelry good looking fashionable something I want to wear and be seen wearing that's why I we're watching the first place so I hope Android wear devices improve at least as fast as Android wear it does I'm eventually going to want a watch like this but neither of the first two options really catches my eye you