In addition to its new vivofit activity tracker for kids, Garmin has unveiled the Legacy Saga Series, a pair of smartwatches that feature Star Wars imagery including character insignias and digital elements. The designs come only months ahead of the Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker movie scheduled to arrive in theaters this December.
Garmin has launched a new version of its vívofit jr. 2 fitness tracker for kids, one featuring a Star Wars theme. The new product packs a themed band with embedded Star Wars imagery, as well as a companion app that brings experiences inspired by the franchise. Kids will be able to unlock new adventures and get help with Star Wars characters, motivating them to get enough activity during the day.
Smartwatches are a dime a dozen these days, including those not even running on Wear OS by Google, many of them sporting nearly identical hardware and features. Standing out from the crowd, therefore, all boils down to how you market those features and when it comes to presentation, Garmin's new MARQ Commander might take the cake. Save for one or two features, the smartwatch almost sounds like any other but the way Garmin talks about this "tactical timepiece" makes it sound like you're reading about 007's latest toy.
Samsung seems to be on a trajectory that will see its iconic rotating bezel disappear from its smartwatches. For the second time in a row, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 sported no such control, replacing it with thin, classy-looking borders instead. Samsung did make one compromise and made those bezels touch-sensitive. Strangely, it shipped the smartwatches with that feature disabled out of the box and it is now pushing out an update that flips the switch for everyone.
Huawei has started to portray an image of independence from US companies, at least as far as some hardware components go. It has touted its own Kirin system-on-chip (SoC) to rival Qualcomm's and even Samsung's and Apple's on the smartphone side of things. Now it's doing the same for wearables with the newly revealed Kirin A1. But more than just a processor for smartphones, Huawei is billing it as the first chip to support both traditional smartwatches and fitness trackers as well as Bluetooth earphones and headphones.
This morning the folks at Samsung revealed sale details for the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2. This is a smartwatch from the company that's also releasing their first foldable-display-toting smartphone, the Galaxy Fold. Samsung will have their Galaxy Watch Active2 smartwatch available for sale starting this week.
The larger 44 mm series 5 Apple Watch may have not changed that much from its predecessor but, almost ironically, the smaller 40 mm model has a better story to tell. While the innards remain the same, the battery has changed considerably in more than appearance. While the exact reason and effects are still officially unknown, the new aluminum-encased battery in the smaller Apple Watch 5 could be good news for repairing the advanced wearable or at least keeping its safe.
The smaller electronic devices get, the more sophisticated their components become. The more sophisticated components are, the harder they are to repair or replace. Those statements apply all too well even to Apple's latest smartwatch, the Watch Series 5. The good news is that most of the knowledge that was gained in tearing down the Apple Watch 4 exactly applies to the Apple Watch 5. The bad news is that none of the parts can be reused.
When it comes to smartwatches, there's the Apple Watch and then there's everything else. Five generations of wearable have seen Cupertino's timepiece lose most of its rough edges; now, the Apple Watch Series 5 is taking one of the last big usability issues to task. With an always-on display, the new Apple Watch aims to keep out-shining the competition.
Smartwatches are primarily designed to be partners rather than full extensions of smartphones. Because of their size, squeezing in components are harder to do than on smartphones but, at the same time, they're often not needed. That said, it is also quite a feat when someone crams more hardware and features into such a tiny space. That may be one of the highlights of Movado's new Connect 2.0 smartwatch that brings the latest hardware and 1 GB of RAM to Wear OS by Google. Fortunately, it does also come with a more enticing price tag.
I've spent the past week with the Apple Watch Series 5 on my wrist, and while it's still a little too early for a full review, I've definitely come to appreciate some of the headline features. The always-on display addresses one of the lingering criticisms of the smartwatch, both from owners and would-be wearers, that you couldn't see the time or other information without waking the Apple Watch first. Apple fixes that, and it does it in a clever way.
The next-generation Huawei Watch GT 2 was revealed today with two different sizes and potentials for days-long battery life. There's the Huawei Watch GT 2 42mm series that "can operate continuously for up to one week," then there's the Huawei Watch GT 2 46mm that can operate "continuously for up to two weeks." Huawei suggests these battery life numbers come from a "perfect combination of high performance and efficient power consumption."