Is This Tech Watch Out Before Its Time?
January 28, 2013 Post a Comment 
This is one of those gadgets I wanted to love. Image having apps, phone, email, music, Facebook, etc. all on your wrist! It’s what the I'm Watch folks said their device could do. I was pre-approved to pick up a review unit at CES, and I did. When I got back to my hotel room I couldn’t wait to crank it up so I could proudly wear it. But when I opened the box I found a tiny screw at the bottom, not a good sign. I examined the watch and couldn’t figure where the screw came from. After I charged the I’m Watch and tried to put it on, the band fell in two. Turns out the screw I found held the watchband together. The screw was stripped, so there was no hope of putting the band back together, or being able to wear the watch. I started to explore it anyway. I paired it with my Samsung Galaxy 3, which took a bit of doing. One major drawback I quickly discovered is battery power. Even lying on my desk, the battery barely lasts from morning to night. It features a touch-screen face, but if you do some fast swipes with your finger to get to various apps, the watch will freeze until it catches up, or just crash. I had both happen numerous times. I made a couple of calls via the I'm Watch and it's quite something to dial a number on your watch and hear the phone ring at the other end. (You need glasses or good eyesight to read the keypad.) Unfortunately, the call voice quality is not good. Between the way-too-short battery life and the stalling, freezing and need to reboot the watch, plus the fact I couldn’t even wear it, I just gave up on it. For the record, it runs Android 1.6 (updated to 2.0) and has 128MB of ram. There’s a decent amount of onboard storage (for a watch) 4GB. It has a 1.54” screen with a 240X240 display. The idea of the I’m Watch is great, but it needs a lot of work, and a much lower price. The current price is $389.00. And remember it needs to be paired to a Bluetooth enabled Smart Phone for phone service and cloud storage.
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