Sony smartband talk swr310 đánh giá năm 2024

There's a single thought that I have about the Sony SmartBand Talk that's been on my wrist for a few weeks now, and it is this. It is (very nearly) the perfect smartwatch for me. It doesn't meet every need and the flaws are obvious, but those same flaws are small enough that I can live with them.

The Sony SmartBand Talk has the unenviable task of bringing together two of Sony's recent peripheral lines. The first is the fitness tracker and lifestyle bookmark tool of the Sony SmartBand (reviewed here on Forbes), and Sony's own line of SmartWatches running in-house software, i.e. the SmartWatch 2 unit (and not the Android Wear powered SmartWatch 3, which feels more like a contractual obligation in the line-up).

The SmartBand Talk does this by bringing in all the functionality of the original SmartBand (i.e. step counting, fitness tracking, alarms, and the life logger button to bookmark a time and place in the associated software), and pairing it up with an eInk display screen and smartwatch features, including additional applications, notification alerts, and smartphone controls. The eInk does have a touch of memory effect when moving through screens, but the watch does a full wipe and refresh each time the watch face is updated (i.e. every minute) so it's not been a huge issue for me. It's also waterproof to 1.5 meters (dustproof as well) thanks to the IP68 rating, which matches Sony's smartphone waterproofing.

The SmartBand Talk will only connect to an Android device - obviously Sony would prefer you to use it with an Xperia handset but it works comfortably with other handsets. There is a SmartBand app to interface with the watch and configure the settings and additional apps. Previous Sony peripherals used its SmartConnect app as a one-stop interface, and while the SmartBand Talk does show up here, you will be handed back to the bespoke application to do any set-up work. Having a separate app is a much easier way of working with this peripheral.

Fitness Tracking

The tracking side of the equation feels unchanged from the first SmartBand. Accelerometers will estimate your pace and steps from cadence rhythm and wrist movement. It's not perfect and it has a tendency to overcompensate by over ten percent in some of my tests. What it does have is consistency. If you are looking to meet or exceed targets, then the consistently high measurement will be negated, because you are always using the same methodology.

With no GPS in the hardware, positioning data from your phone is used by the SmartBand Talk to discern your location, although the internal sensors will do their best to the difference between walking, running, cycling, and using motorised transport (with a bit of help from GPS if available). Again, it's not perfect, and you can't force the recording to switch to a specific mode, you have to trust the software.

The one change that leaves me slightly apprehensive is the change to the sleep tracking. At launch this wasn't built-in to the software of the SmartBand Talk, but an over-the-air update added this into the band. But rather than set specific 'sleep times' in the application that will move the watch to recording sleep data, or a physical control that would force the SmartBand to realise that you were asleep, the SmartBand Talk promises to automatically know when you are sleeping and when you are awake.

This is rather hit and miss. Some nights the SmartBand Talk software gets it right (within minutes), and other times it dropped ten hours of sleep for no discernible reason. I would really like to see a manual sleep' activation, and also an on-screen display to confirm the watch is in sleep mode. For me this was one of the big benefits of the first SmartBand. I was hesitant to upgrade to the SmartBand Talk until it picked up sleep functionality, and now I'm here to find that it is a downgrade from the first generation product is disappointing.

All of this data is synced to Sony's Lifelog service. This has a client on your handset, and syncs data to the cloud so you can move between devices and still retain your health data, although with no export data option I'm still wary of locking data into Sony's ecosystem.

The SmartBand Talk should not be considered an all-up fitness tracker - there are not enough options in the Android app, and without calibration or manual overrides it cannot be relied upon to pick up an exercise session. It's also lacking sensors for more accurate readings, or extra data points such as heart rate.

Not everyone needs that depth of accuracy though, and even the basic tracking functions that the SmartBand Talk offers, and the automatic selection of modes, can be of benefit. It can provide motivation, and a baseline to build on with very little active input during the day from the user. That's a good thing in my book.

Next: Sony adds smartwatch functions to its fitness band...

Now With Added Smartwatch Capabilities

I've seen all of this before with the original SmartBand. What makes the SmartBand Talk stand out is that it brings smartwatch functionality to the wrist. By choosing to go with an actual eInk screen, the display is easy to read in sunlight, is always visible, and certainly when you go for a black background and white ink, looks stylish on the black wristband with the display almost blending into the band itself. It looks very nice, although with no illumination it's almost impossible to see at night-time in a darkened room!

It also significantly increases battery endurance when compared to an LCD screen, and this is reflected in the endurance of the SmartBand Talk - it can go for five days as a standalone watch and recorder or three days on a single charge while picking up notifications and information over BlueTooth. It is charged using a regular microUSB cable. An AC adaptor is not supplied but there is a short microUSB cable to connect it to a computer for charging.

That battery life does take a hit if you use the titular 'talk' feature in the SmartBand Talk, with ten minutes of calling enough to drop the battery life to two days.

The SmartBand Talk allows you to receive calls to your wrist. The built-in speaker and microphone will let you answer your calls with your best Dick Tracy impression as you talk into your wristwatch, and everyone around you can hear your reply. It's a nice touch and a good point of differentiation with other smartwatches. It's also surprisingly useful when your hands are occupied - even at arm's length the microphone would pick up my voice, although that does sound a touch echo-y and distant.

You can also call from your SmartBand, but it's a limited feature. With no voice recognition or audio relay back to your smartphone, you can only start a call to a favorite number you have already selected in the SmartBand's phone application. Still, if you need to make a quick call home, then just tap on the phone app, you'll be connected, and away you go!

One thing that the SmartBand Talk is missing is a decent set of controls. The screen is not touch-sensitive, but the band is set up to register a 'tap' on the unit as an input. It does need quite a firm tap to register - presumably as the accelerometer is being used, rather than a physical button. In general the 'tap' is used to cycle through the various screens of an application - the next appointment in the calendar, to open up a notification on-screen, or to see the next display on the numerical dashboard.

While there is a volume rocker, this is only used for the ringer on the SmartBand itself, or your smartphone's volume if you are using the MP3 player control app (which, with just volume and play/pause the tap control, I found lacking). The only other button is below the rocker, and is used to advance to the next application or to move back to the clock app directly with a long press.

These are all good controls, and feel well thought out. It's just that they don't provide a huge amount of interaction with the information. Sony has taken that to heart and focused the SmartBand Talk applications on providing information from your smartphone, rather than controlling your smartphone or reacting to the information. The SmartBand Talk is more about triage and 'should I deal with this now or later'?, which is a different proposition to the methodology of AndroidWear.

This is helped by the tight 'per app' filtering that you can do in the Android app, so you can limit alerts to just incoming email and Google Talk IM's, or add in apps like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. The notifications are driven by the Android notification system, so as long as an app will send a regular notification, the SmartBand Talk software has the potential to see it.

Just be aware that when you get a notification on the SmartBand Talk that you do want to deal with, you will need to navigate to the correct app in your smartphone, it won;t be waiting for you on-screen.

There are only a handful of apps that can be loaded onto the SmartBand Talk, and they all come from Sony. They include a weather application, music controller, a slide advancer tool for presentations, the lifelong bookmark button (to mimic the functionality of the first SmartBand), and a few more, all available from the Google Play app store to download for free.

I found the majority of these apps to be a bit of a hindrance, and although I loaded them all on the SmartBand Talk initially, since then I've been stripping away the apps one by one and reducing the interface to just four: the main time app; the world time clock (set to New York time, mostly because that's the time zone the Forbes website uses); the stats display of steps on walking, alarms, and battery life; and the calendar app which lists my next ten appointments from Google Calendar in the selected calendars.

I just wish that there were some alternate watch faces available, although I am partial to Sony's digital look of a bold font for the hour and normal weighting for the minutes.

Next: Summing up the SmartBand Talk, has it done enough to impress me?

Conclusions

The Sony SmartBand Talk is not a strong performer in any single area. Its fitness functions are bettered by dedicated devices from the likes of FitBit, and while its smartwatch credentials are ahead of Android Wear anyone looking for a fully interactive smartwatch should be looking at a Pebble (or waiting to see what Apple come up with in April).

That said, there is something about the SmartBand Talk that attracts me to it.

With a little bit more interactivity in the applications to reduce the passive one-way nature of the data it presents; with a little more effort in the applications to add in some extra functionality; and a little bit more control over the lifestyle tracking; I'd argue that the SmartBand Talk would be one of the smartest watches on the market.

All of those features could be added over the air in a software update (just as sleep tracking was added to the hardware before Christmas).

Right now I think the Sony SmartBand Talk lives up to the 'smart' moniker both in form and in function. It shows a lot of promise, and has already been upgraded once since it was announced in September. If I was convinced that Sony would keep on updating and improving the software I would find it very easy to recommend. But with Sony's current downsizing in the mobile unit, the SmartBand Talk can only have a qualified recommendation, and a note that you shouldn't hold out too much hope for improved software.

If you can live with the functionality that the watch has just now (and I personally think I could), there are no other show-stoppers to stop you buying with confidence.