Have you noticed more people wearing smartwatches lately? Many people probably think of the Apple Watch when they hear “smartwatch,” but plenty of manufacturers other than Apple are releasing them as well.
In this review, I’ll be taking a look at a smartwatch from SOUNDPEATS, a brand well-known for its earphones.
Pochipp
- Smartwatch available for under 5,000 yen
- Equipped with blood oxygen level measurement
- Accurate sleep and heart rate monitoring
- Supports Japanese notifications
- Waterproof and dustproof
- Dedicated app drains too much battery (not usable)
- Charging is difficult due to the magnets
- No support for electronic payments
Basic Information on the “SOUNDPEATS Watch 2”
Specs
| Screen Size | 1.28 inches |
| Resolution | 240×240 |
| Dimensions | 45.7×42.6×11.6 mm |
| Weight | 38g |
| Bluetooth Version | 5.0 |
| Water/Dust Resistance | IP68 |
| Battery Life | 7 days (when heart rate monitoring is always enabled) |
| Battery Capacity | 220mAh |
- Dedicated app and customizable watch faces
- Can measure blood oxygen saturation
- High-precision sleep and heart rate monitoring
A major feature of this smartwatch is its ability to measure blood oxygen saturation, which became a hot topic during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, since it is not designed as a medical device, these values should only be used as a reference.
Included Items
- Watch body
- Instruction manual
- Charging cable
Design
It seems to have won a VGP Award 2022, as there was a sticker on the box.
Personally, I see the VGP Award on so many different products that I sometimes wonder how credible it actually is (laughs).
When I opened the box, my first thought was that it didn’t look as cheap as I expected.
Charging is done using the included cable as shown. It doesn’t connect via USB; it attaches magnetically to charge.
Actual Usage Experience
A dedicated app is required, and it drains the battery like crazy
To get straight to the point, you should not buy this smartwatch. As mentioned in the heading, a dedicated app is required, and it drains the battery like crazy. It is not usable.
The image above is a screenshot taken after charging my phone to 100% and using it until it reached 20%. Since it’s 21% out of 80%, this app used roughly 1/4 of my phone’s battery.
Ever since I installed this app, my phone’s battery life has clearly worsened.
It’s not that there are no workarounds. If you prevent it from running in the background, the battery consumption will naturally settle down.
However, the trade-off is that you won’t receive message notifications, and data won’t sync automatically.
That completely defeats the purpose of a smartwatch!
You can create your own watch face
The image above shows the app’s settings screen. You can customize the watch face using your favorite images from the watch face settings.
It displays more naturally than I expected. However, since the resolution isn’t particularly high, detailed rendering is likely impossible.
It’s probably fine for illustrations, but if you use a photo of a person, the face will likely look distorted.
Few watch faces offer digital display down to the second
View watch face types here
As you can see, there are very few watch faces that can display digital time down to the second.
Considering the sheer number of watch face options, this is a major disappointment for me personally.
It’s really convenient to be able to see the time down to the second when you’re transferring trains…
Summary
I cannot recommend this at all
As I mentioned earlier, you should not buy this smartwatch.
The device itself is actually quite nice, but it’s a real shame that the dedicated app is so poor. If you’re going to buy this, you’d be much better off spending a little more money to buy a smartwatch from another well-known manufacturer.
- Smartwatch available for under 5,000 yen
- Equipped with blood oxygen level measurement
- Accurate sleep and heart rate monitoring
- Supports Japanese notifications
- Waterproof and dustproof
- Dedicated app drains too much battery (not usable)
- Charging is difficult due to the magnets
- No support for electronic payments
Recommended for
- People who just really love SOUNDPEATS
Pochipp
Thank you for reading until the end!
- Product prices and information are accurate as of the time of writing.
- Please note that this site assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies in this information.
- Product and service names mentioned on this site are trademarks of their respective companies.
This article was originally written in Japanese and has been translated.
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