What are the disadvantages of a smart watch
Top 5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Smartwatches You Should Know!
Every major company has an offering in the smartwatch space. While they launch devices on a spree, an everlasting question is stuck in every consumers head do I need a smartwatch? We can help you answer this question as you read what we think some advantages and disadvantages of smartwatches are.
What are the Advantages of a Smartwatch?
Given their size, smartwatches pack in an overwhelming amount of features. This makes it hard to filter out what you need and dont. Apart from all the mainstream features, heres a broader overview of a smartwatchs advantages.
The Ideal Smartphone Companion
Smartwatches are ideal companions for your phone. You can ask any extensive smartwatch user they seldom feel like living without a smartwatch. The way it seamlessly integrates into your daily life is quite impressive.
Little pieces of information like weather, news, and time can be easily accessed on your wrist. If you do not use a fully-featured smartwatch, fitness trackers display weather and other basic details.
As a companion device, you can significantly minimize your phone screen time usage. A major contributing factor is the ability to access notifications. Once you start receiving notifications on your smartwatch, you can easily select the one you want to act for. Smartwatches can also let you push in quick replies or even type a message.
This way, you can ensure you do not open your smartphone for every notification. If you ever want easier access to all the core information on your smartphone, a smartwatch is your best bet for a companion device.
Health Data Monitoring
When smartwatches came into existence, an important feature they carried was the step tracker. This could easily measure your steps and post that it could give you valuable insights like the number of steps walked, speed, distance covered, and calories burnt.
Then, slowly, smartwatches started integrating heart rate monitors to measure your pulse rate. This pulse detection could help derive and gather more data. Smartwatches could now detect your blood oxygen level a life-saving feature during the pandemic.
Later, Apple took a step ahead and added an ECG monitor, and Samsung added a blood pressure monitor. Smartwatches can also track sleep and help you improve your sleeping cycles.
There have been many questions regarding the health datas accuracy. Still, comparisons and tests with medical-grade monitors proved that this data could be helpful in providing essential insights to the user.
Smartwatches, therefore, can act as personal health data monitors, and from fitness bands to expensive watches, every devices primary goal is to provide you with health monitoring data.
Apple Watch does the best job of adding a few life-saving health-related features. Take fall detection, for example. Fall Detection on the Apple Watch is designed to detect when you go through a hard fall while the watch is on your wrist.
When it detects one, it sounds an alarm, taps you on the wrist, and shows an alert. You get the option to call emergency services if youre in trouble. But if the watch detects no response, it automatically calls the emergency services and contacts and plays the audio telling that you are in an emergency.
Smartwatches are Great Activity Tracker
This is one feature that smartwatches do a great job in. Smartwatches are great fitness trackers. You can track your steps and all other movements, using which a lot of helpful information can be provided.
For example, the amount of calories burnt is useful for someone working on managing their weight. Besides that, smartwatches can detect a wide range of activities like cycling, strength training, yoga, running, swimming, and a wide range of sports like tennis, badminton, etc.
Using the companion app, you can keep track of all the activities and how much it has helped you get fit. While not all smartwatches offer the same fitness features, even the most basic ones offer insightful fitness features. Therefore, this can be a good reason to go ahead and pick up a smartwatch.
GPS Navigation on Your Wrist!
GPS navigation on smartwatches is quite a useful feature. It always feels better to look at directions on your wrist than to hold your phone in your palm. Some smartwatches can come with dedicated GPS sensors, and you can get directions without a smartphone.
The ones without a GPS sensor can get you to turn-by-turn directions using the GPS data available on your smartphone. The GPS directions on a smartwatch are handy during cycling, walking, or running. This can be an excellent reason to pick up a smartwatch.
Quick Replies
Not all notifications and messages require a detailed response. If you were to reply to a message with a single word, most smartwatches could help you do this. It gives you a few standard responses that you can select as a response to your messages.
This prevents you from pulling up your smartphone for every notification or message. So, as mentioned earlier, if you aim to minimize your phone use, this feature could be a good enough reason to pick up a smartwatch.
MicroEntertainment Device!
You can control music, see pictures, and watch YouTube videos on your smartwatch. As hard as it is to believe, you can do all these on a top-tier smartwatch like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Apple Watch.
While obviously, it is no match to the experience on a larger screen, at least controlling and playing music can be quite a useful feature on a smartwatch. Or, if you just quickly want to read something or take notes, you can pull up an image on your smartwatch. Now you know why smartwatches are banned in examination halls.
What are the Disadvantages of a Smartwatch?
While smartwatches pack in many bells and whistles, there are a few downsides, like every other piece of technology. Therefore, I do not see the disadvantages as means not to purchase a smartwatch but to be mindful about a few things and what to expect. While each smartwatch has disadvantages, heres a list of downsides from a broader perspective.
Bad Features-to-Battery Ratio
Smartwatches add many features, and some pack in as many as twenty sensors! These obviously will demand a lot of power, and batteries on most smartwatches are not up to the mark. Or at least, we hope there were better battery life standards on a smartwatch.
Most full-fledged smartwatches struggle to last beyond two days. On the other hand, fitness bands do a better job of lasting around a week or more with moderate usage. Therefore, we feel that the battery capacity is not proportional to the number of features on a smartwatch.
Misleading Claims by Brands
Our Editor recently shared his experience of how watches are different in reality from the renders. There has been a typical pattern in the way smartwatches are marketed. The advertisements are often quite misleading, especially in terms of looks.
If you ever come across an online listing for a low-end smartwatch, the images published are far from how it looks in real life. Unfortunately, some users realize this after they buy a smartwatch. Therefore, watching video reviews of smartwatches on the internet is always helpful.
This is not the only misleading claim by smartwatch brands. There are more harmful ones, too, when it comes to health-related features. For example, a few smartwatch brands claim to measure blood pressure without packing in the necessary tech.
If a user is unaware of this and uses the blood pressure data in real life, it can cause potential harm to ones health. This must be stopped, or buyers must be aware before picking up a smartwatch.
Effects of Wearing a Watch 247
Any piece of technology, when overused, has its negative effects. Wearing smartwatches all the time can cause a few specific harmful effects. Skin irritation is the first and the most common issue if you wear a smartwatch or band all day. There can be situations like your skin is sensitive, which might cause rashes or skin issues.
Unless the material is of low quality, a smartwatch can contribute little to skin issues as most brands use good quality rubber, and it is not an expensive addition that is worth skipping for brands.
So, if a smartwatch is causing you skin issues, you should visit a medical professional.
The biggest concern has to be radiation. Before concluding whether the radiation can affect you badly, there is something that we need to know. There are two types of radiation ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Our area of interest here is non-ionizing radiation.
Smartwatches mainly emit radiation in radio waves, visible light, and microwaves, all of which are non-ionizing forms of radiation. This means that they do not have the capability of stripping electrons from your atoms. So unless your smartwatch emits a lot of heat that can burn your skin you are safe.
Mainly, the radio waves emitted are quantified as SAR values, and the SAR values for any device in the market must be below the permissible limits prescribed by governing authorities, so even in that sense, you are safe.
Over-exposure to any visible light or screen can cause a little discomfort, but not to a point where you need to worry about being affected deeply. As long as you are mindful of your usage, you will remain unaffected by a smartwatch.
Lack of Basic Sensors and Inaccuracy on Low-end Devices
As mentioned earlier, smartwatches and fitness trackers are good smartphone companions, and youd expect to use them outside indoor environments.
They boast of packing in many sensors, but some smartwatches and most fitness bands do not pack in an auto-brightness sensor, which can be a disadvantage when you step outdoors.
More importantly, a few smartwatches come with inaccurate sensors. This can usually happen due to a lack of calibration or using a low-end sensor. This defeats the purpose of adding fitness-related data, as most fitness data are meant to make sense over time. And minor errors compounded over time can mislead the users interpretation.
These inaccuracies can also cause harm when it comes to reading health-related data. Therefore, if you are a user who meticulously cares about the data a smartwatch provides, you will probably need a watch in the flagship zone.
More than Ever Access to Data: Anxiety?
The problem of todays world is abundance. Everything is available in a lot of amounts, which causes problems in todays world. When you can access so much information on your wrist, there is always anticipatory anxiety about what you might see next. You can have a flood of notifications on your watch, which can get quite distracting, too.
Health data is available on your wrist, and overusing these features can make you over-conscious and a little anxious about your health. Its always recommended you visit a medical professional for an accurate diagnosis. Smartwatches should only be used as an indication to consult a doctor but not as a means of self-diagnosis.
All in all, one can try using a DND mode on a smartwatch and set up alerts and notifications from necessary apps during necessary times only. One must understand that technology can either help you or have a negative effect and it only comes down to how one uses it.
Wrapping Up
Those were some of the advantages and disadvantages of smartwatches. This is all you need to know about both sides of the story of a smartwatch. We hope this article can help you make a purchase decision. As always, we produce exciting and informative articles on GadgetsToUse; thus, never miss an update on our websites, and stay tuned to our upcoming guides and content related to wearables!
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using a Smart Watch: Almost Everything You Should Know
While cell phones have seen a continuous improvement, a watch to put on your wrist may be somewhat left out. For what reason would you need an item to inform you about the time while you have a phone with such an ability and far more?
Nonetheless, amid the phone evolution, watches have become enhanced as well. And the result is the introduction of smartwatches to coordinate the cell phones smartness.
How does its usage have to do with the present generation? Furthermore, what are a couple of this products primary highlights and advantages to make it deserve your investment? And do not forget to consider the disadvantages of using a smart watch.
Smart wrist devices: What are they?
It is the extraordinary incredible grandson of the grandchild of your grandparents traditional watch. These days, that smart wearable is more like a small, easy-to-wear PC when compared to the mechanical time-keeping gadget.
Partly intended for meeting the needs and wants of the present digitally progressed generation, this wearable computing devices capabilities have gotten increasingly desirable. It, currently, is capable of serving you much more than just informing you about the time.
Statistically, these products have kept on making headway, and their sales have witnessed the consistent growth.
What a smartwatch can do
Smartwatches, a seamless mix and match with your way of life, offer quick access to not only time. For example, they let you be most current about your social media notifications, respond to text messages, and receive your phone calls fast. For more information about their uses, you may want to read through this post.
Advantages of various types of smartwatches
In case you do not know, companies have been designing various gadgets for various sorts of individuals?
For instance, you would prefer not to purchase your small youngster a similar sort of wearable to a pro athletes, in light of the fact that they do not have demands in common. You may appreciate that reliable firms have made a horde of various smartwatch kinds so that you can opt for in view of your own requirements.
1. It allows for the contactless payment solution to cover the bills
At this point, every one of the large firms has allowed for covering the bills, etc., utilizing your smart gadget. Garmin, Apple, Samsung, etc., come with Pay applications that enable swiping your device on a reader and paying.
On the one hand, the innovation is still moderately new; on the other hand, it is acknowledged increasingly more at large (and less sizable) stores everywhere on the globe.
2. Serves as an entertainment source
Then again, there are models centered around entertainment.
The memory capacity of a few of them is more prominent. Along these lines, it enables more games. Some product units feature enhanced stocking space or improved speakers to let you tune in to music any place you go.
3. A support for those who undergo a decrease in the ability to see
The good news is that smartwatches have become enhanced to aid the visually impaired, moreover. For instance, the Dot watch enables people with some kind of visual loss to get informed about the time, aside from letting them know about helpful info such as social media notifications and text messages, all in the form of the written language for blind people.
4. Gives your children a good time
A few product units are unequivocally intended for youngsters. And they bring about certain advantages, such as being simple to wear and entertaining your kids with entertainment applications. Some smart wrist watches also enable you as their mom/ dad, to track them via GPS, thus ensuring the kid is safe and sound at whatever point they are not near you.
5. An intelligent device that athletes love
By and by, sports are a considerable business domain for smart wearable makers. Based on the physical activity you want to hone for example, swimming, bike riding, and golf, you have the option to buy an appropriate smartwatch for you.
You can expect the model to track your pulse, the degree of oxygen in your circulation system, and your speed, and determine the total number of calories you consume. Whats more, numerous units accessible today are water-resistant, mainly helpful for water-associated sports such as swimming.
6. Ensures your wellbeing
Much the same as large brands that are creating smartwatches with the capability to monitor the number of heartbeats per unit of time for sports, they are likewise constructing select models for individuals handling different medical problems.
What is fantastic is that smartwatches these days are good at tracking your body temperature, blood sugar, pulse, etc. Plus, you can put them on in bed and keep track of the sleep pattern.
That is not all; a couple of units do a terrific job of assisting those going through dementia or something. The gadgets will notify caregivers in case the patient has come out of a prearranged zone and assist them in following that persons trail. Taking into account the number of individuals with neurological concerns who get lost annually, such advancement is enormous.
Above all, a few specially constructed smartwatches are capable of guiding their wearer to return to their personal residence set in advance in case they get lost.
7. Leverage the smart wearable to follow the course of your pet
Indeed, these days, your pet has the chance to appreciate its own smartwatch in some way or other. The Fitbark and some other reliable smart collars work correspondingly to a smartwatch, and their increasing good fame is no joke. It will enable you to follow the trail of your pet making use of the smartwatch, and is particularly helpful in case your dog is fond of wandering here and there.
Such gadgets are likewise good at keeping track of their wellbeing, which you may find to be a precarious matter. As it is impossible for your dog/ cat to share with you about what is going on, a suitable smartwatch collar will manage to caution you about whatever is strange in their body. That way, you can bring your furry friend to the animal doctor quickly.
8. A notification system for people with the hearing loss
Additionally, those hard of hearing will appreciate the smartwatch application developed mainly for them; it works to send out call notifications, health alerts, to name a few.
9. An aid for those who are old
Regardless of whether they do not suffer from dementia or something, that they put on a smartwatch is highly recommended. As you probably are aware, numerous elderly do not bring cell phones with them as frequently as the younger people; thus, thanks to using a smart wearable, they can receive help anyplace they go.
For instance, in case they are, out of nowhere, confronting powerlessness to inhale or other unexpected health problems, they have the choice to hit the emergency button that alarms their carers, etc.
That is not all; a couple of models comes with the practical Fall Detection application. For example, the Watch 5 & 4 from Apple are capable of recognizing a hard fall and delivering a notification, allowing their wearer to figure and decide whether to deny or proceed. You have the option to set them to alarm emergency services in case the wearer does not deny the notification; else, their setting enables contacting a relative and all that.
On the one hand, the capability like this is generally helpful to the older; on the other hand, it is incredible for anybody.
Read: Best smartwatches for the seniors.
10. A wearable PC for making your team stay connected
Those watches guarantee your employees wellbeing and enable them to send notifications & the most current information regarding shared errands to each other so that they will stay connected.
As per Samsung, particularly-constructed smartwatches can likewise prove useful to firemen, cops, and other people working in the field by telling them about a caution more quickly than how a phone or something could.
11. An approach to attain your musical goals
That is right; you would now be able to rely on the smartwatch to monitor the decibel degree or tune an instrument. Likewise, a selective model for artists enables you to match up with musicians and keep a consistent rhythm, hence being great assistance during training.
12. Your reliable, handy co-pilot
As indicated by the United States Air Force, pilots put on satellite navigation smartwatches since they are valuable in getting the proper signals and keeping up GPS navigation by taking advantage of different sources.
13. Utilize it to find your phone
Indeed, many smartwatches function with a phone, so the smartwatch firms have your phones safety as a main priority. Owing to Find My Phone and other comparable applications, you have the option to connect the phone to your smartwatch and find your missing gadget with a breeze.
A summary of smartwatch attributes & usage
Attributes | Uses |
Space Orientation | CompassAltimeterBarometerMap |
Entertainment | CameraPhoto galleryMusicGames |
Notifications | Notifications on social mediaText messagesPhone calls |
Sports | Steps takenDistance coveredCalorie consumptionOxygen degreeTemperatureSpeedPulse |
Wellbeing | Track sleepFollowing those who undergo dementiaBlood sugarTemperatureOxygen degreePulseBlood pressure |
GPS | Following the course of your fragile family members, such as your kidFollow the trail of your furry friends activities.Not getting lost while climbing/ engaging in the outdoors.Feeling of mindfulness at times of hunting. |
Smartwatch vs. Smartphone: Which wins?
Smartwatches are capable of satisfying a large number of the undertakings usually associated with a cell phone; that is why numerous people contemplate whether they would not be more beneficial to count on a watch.
As you can find in anything, it comes without a surprise that some decide on a smart wearable on the wrist over a cell phone while others think cell phones are better than smartwatches.
Advantages of smartwatches over smartphones
1. Carrying with you is simpler
When it comes to phones, stuff for example, a pocket, is necessary to carry it, and you should be careful so that you will not have your pocket picked or lose it.
Meanwhile, in terms of smart wristwatches, you get it safely secured on the wrist and just are cool as a cucumber and press on. According to statistics, smartwatches have been consistently acquiring ubiquity lately.
2. Accessibility
Likewise, these wearables are accessible compared to cell phones. No need to put your hand into your pocket or something, undo the lock of your phone, and so forth. You have the quick approach to every one of the information & applications tied to your wrist
3. Fitness tracking
The smart wristwatch is capable of filling in as a wellness monitor and is much more exact in comparison with phones.
4. Remaining connected without losing your valuable minutes
Are you among those who are on the active side? Then, thanks to smartwatches, you can remain connected without losing your valuable time.
For instance, you are running, and through your earphones, you hear some notifications. Without a smart wristwatch, you will necessarily cut running short, reach into your pocket to take the phone out, and look at the messages and all that. On the other hand, smartwatches allow you to rapidly look down at the wrist without expecting to stop what you are being into.
Disadvantages of using a smart watch
Still, be that as it may, there are drawbacks to smart watches when contrasted and cell phones.
1. The screen size
You may need to account for this factor.
When it comes to smart wristwatches, firms have been doing their best to make their models screens more sizable and more capable of showing information. However, please bear in mind that a limited amount of screen sizes are available for you to choose from. Till now, it is impossible to move here and there with a phone-sized smartwatch tied to the wrist.
2. Power supply
By the less sizable attribute of a smart watch, we mean its power supply tends to be smaller as well. Some customers (even people who buy smartwatches from Samsung or other large firms) are not genuinely happy about their gadgets restricted battery life.
Based on the amount of the gadgets functionality you utilize, a good-grade smart wearable ought to get the job done for you. Yet, in case you depend intensely on it for the duration of the day, you may want to rely on a smartphone instead since its hardware becomes further developed.
Also, oh well, smart wearables you see these days, more often than not, do not work alone/ unaided, is not that right? As addressed before, these items are connectible with a cell phone as well as access a crowd of applications, thus enabling you to play, communicate, tune in to music, and so on. Yet, be that as it may, they need to access a generally existing mobile gadget to do so.
On the one hand, there is potential for future smart wearables coping with this concern; on the other hand, as of now, it is a significant genuine hindrance.
Along these lines, based on what you are hoping to gain from a smart wristwatch, some can justify these small wrist gadgets while others cannot yet. As you can see, the two sides have good and awful things to share.
All in all: Advantages and disadvantages of using a smart watch?
As we would like to think, indeed, this smart wrist device is justified, despite some of the downsides. You have the choice to buy a budget model or invest in a premium product unit, contingent upon your spending plan. As a lot of large companies have been delving increasingly more in-depth into the smart wearable trade, you have a lot of options for these items.
Notwithstanding, what we encourage you to do is cautiously think about why you are purchasing this type of watch as well as what you intend to do with it. The general rule of thumb is that the answer being more appropriate means your higher chance of discovering a gadget that matches your demands and preferences.
Bestsellers from Amazon
# | Preview | Product | Price | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Smart Watch for Men Women,Alexa Built-in Smartwatch(Answer/Make Calls),1.83" HD Fitness... | $49.99 | See on Amazon | |
2 | Smart Watch(Answer/Make Call), 1.85" Smartwatch for Men Women IP68 Waterproof, 100+ Sport Modes... | $29.99 | See on Amazon | |
3 | Amazfit Bip 5 Smart Watch, GPS, Bluetooth Calling, 10-Day Battery, Ultra-Large Display, Step... | $79.99 | See on Amazon | |
4 | SAMSUNG Galaxy Watch 4 40mm Smartwatch with ECG Monitor Tracker for Health, Fitness, Running,... | $169.99 | See on Amazon | |
5 | Fitbit Versa 4 Fitness Smartwatch with Daily Readiness, GPS, 24/7 Heart Rate, 40+ Exercise Modes,... | $199.95 | See on Amazon |