Gadgetory

back in April we made a video about how there just aren't very many good smartwatches for Android users but since then a whole lot has happened there's a new chip that's coming out for where OS smartwatches and there's a new version of where OS its 2.0 and it's coming out to smartwatches right now and it has a whole new interface but oh wait actually now it says it's where OS 2.1 they they keep changing it I mean I don't know whatever the important thing is it's the new version of where or less here's a question has anything really changed where OS as you know works with both iPhones and Android phones but the truth is if you have an iPhone and you want a SmartWatch your best option it really is the new Apple watch it's it's really great but if you have an Android phone I still think you're basically looking at those same three options I talked about in the last video and just to review that is a where OS SmartWatch it is a third-party SmartWatch with the screen or a hybrid SmartWatch which doesn't have a screen now I think right now the best third-party SmartWatch is the Galaxy watch which is nice but I kind of don't like it if you're not using a Samsung phone because there's a bunch of extra software and the hybrid smartwatches they're fighting they're still doing their thing but the real question is what's going on now with where OS and actually there's quite a lot welcomed has announced a new processor for where OS it's called the snapdragon 3100 and before you get too excited about it the main thing that you should know about it is that it has a little co processor that runs the thing in ambient mode and also can detect all the sensors and it allows it to run in low power for a longer time but the main processor isn't any faster so it still feels basically the same when you use it that's not necessarily a problem assuming that where OS has been updated to work better on like the existing chips so I've been using where Oso the past week or so and you know what it's been updated to work better but the other thing about this new processor is we haven't seen any watches using it yet that may seem confusing cuz you may have seen that a bunch of smart watches just gonna announced at that tech show in Berlin called Aoife but you should know that all those watches still have the old processor and here's one of them right here it's the fossil Q Explorer HR Gen 4 and the HR stands for heart rate because it can read your heart right now it costs two hundred fifty five bucks the other new thing that it has is NFC so you can use it with Google pay and you know honestly it's pretty nice it's got a really big screen it's you know kind of thick but it's not too thick and I think it looks pretty good and I do kind of like it but I don't know if I like it to the tune of two hundred and fifty five dollars for a SmartWatch with an old processor kind of like it you know what I mean also honestly the battery life it's it's not that great at a high level the biggest change is that Google seems to have feared out what a smart watches for finally or maybe again I don't know Google seems to have a really clear idea if you take a look at what's happening here you begin to see something really important so let's look at the new gestures on where OS so when you swipe down from the top you get a new quick settings screen and it's just a lot more coherent than before there's a whole lot of new buttons here there's a Google pay button so if you have NFC you can just turn on Google pay really quickly there's a button to find your phone right away do not disturb airplane mode it's just it's a much nicer quick settings interface now if you swipe up you get the new notifications interface and it is way better than the last version of where OS because everything is on a single scrollable sheet you can still expand them you can still see stuff grouped and you can still swipe stuff away to get smeared on your phone good job way better thank you for making it the way it was now from the home screen if you swipe right swipe right yes well if you swipe left to go to the right swiping is hard I'd be really bad at tinder by the way it's a good thing I'm old anyway you get to the new version of Google Fit which just got updated it's got two new scores and Google really simplified it and made it easier to understand so good job there Google and then when you swipe right you get to the left-hand screen which is the Google feed this is the place where you can see you know ambient information you're gonna get the weather you're gonna get what Google thinks is you know the next thing in your calendar or whatever this is where they can be a little bit more experimental put it all together look at all the stuff in the new gestures what do you really see well here's what I see number one I see an operating system that is maybe slightly faster and a little bit more responsive than it was before now this could just be new watch syndrome anytime you get a new gadget you just think it's faster but I don't know I do think Google has optimized things just a little bit number two finally we see a coherent focus on the two things that people most want out of a SmartWatch fitness and notifications both of those things are way better now and they're easy to get to from the home screen or the watch face anyway the features are more purposeful now and they're also more useful especially google fit now Google isn't trying to compete at every level with the Apple watch Google fit is maybe just a little bit more basic than the health stuff on the Apple watch but you know what it works and I do think it's enough for a lot of people and then the third thing that we see here and this might be the most important one there is room to grow and especially in the Google feed is it great yet now maybe it will be someday that's always how we feel about the Google feed but it is a place where Google can experiment with new features and ideas without mucking around with the core functions of the SmartWatch add those three things up and what I think we're really looking at here is a reset where OS is now simpler and it's easier to understand and that's more than I've been able to say about it for kind of a long time so I want to go back to that very very first question has anything changed well you know what let's look at what I said in the last video and see if it still holds up now when you use an Android phone and you want to wear a SmartWatch your choices are actually kind of grim yeah you know what grim is mean but it's not wrong the problem with where OS is Google hasn't done right by its users with this platform the new update actually shows Google listening to its users and I'm really happy about it the third-party apps are like not that great if you can find them at all and digging through the piles and piles of watch faces to find the one good one that you like just takes forever Google recently put this like quality like filter on the App Store for iOS so that really low quality junky stuff kind of will go away so hopefully that will make it easier to find the good watch faces and what few good apps there actually are I kind of want to go back to where OS which seems like a really bad choice yeah I actually kind of liked it especially with this new interface it's great as long as you know you don't need to have your watch work after 10:00 p.m. because the battery dies even though it might be the right choice for me I don't think I can recommend a wear LS watch to really anybody else still true but that might not be the case forever and let me explain why wear OS is in a much better place now than it was six months ago and that comes down to Google solving the same problem that Apple solved with its watch knowing what a SmartWatch is for Time Fitness notifications everything else is stuff you build on top of that foundation and foundations should be simple and sturdy and wear OS it finally is but that doesn't mean that now is a great time to buy o arrow s SmartWatch sorry it's worth waiting to see what these new qualcomm processors do on new smartwatches and if it makes a big difference and honestly it's worth waiting to see software wise what Google can build on top of this new foundation hey everybody thank you so much for watching you know we made this video because so many of you were asking for an update to our last SmartWatch video and I don't know if you like this kind of video let me know in the comments maybe we'll do it again sometime lastly have you ever listened to our podcast the verge cast I co-hosted with Nilay Patel and Paul Miller it's fun you should go to listen