In a world with so many wearables to choose from, could Sony’s SmartBand possibly find a way to step out of the crowd? Its social activity feature definitely points in that direction.
As of today, Sony’s SmartBand SWR10 is available in all of the company’s brick-and-mortar stores from all over the US. There are plenty of smart wristbands out there, so you might wonder what is it that makes Sony’s so special. First of all, this SmartBand comes at an incredible price, the company’s strategy in this regard being quite aggressive. More precisely, it costs half as much as Samsung’s Gear Fit, and it’s not based on the South Korean company’s proprietary mobile operating system, Tizen OS.
Sony pointed out that “In addition to tracking your walking, running and sleep motion activity, SmartBand also works as a useful, unobtrusive extension to your smartphone with functions that include smart alarm and vibration notifications for income calls and messages, calendar events, and more.”
From this point of view, there’s not much different from other smart wristbands, as most of the competition’s products act like companions to smartphones, displaying notifications and helping people wake up. What sets the Smartband SWR10 apart is the connectivity with Sony’s entertainment network. Fortunately, the PlayStation 4 video game console is included in the equation, so people can easily keep track of their achievements while working out.
At its core, the SmartBand is a fitness tracker, and pairing it with the Android Lifelog app enables people to monitor the following, among others:
- Location
- Weather
- Photos
- Music
- Personal notes
SmartBand is also equipped with smartphone music controls, so playing, pausing or skipping tracks only requires wearers to tap the band using a certain pattern.
Not at last, Sony’s smart wristband vibrates when reaching the limit of the Bluetooth range with your smartphone, thus reminding you to retrace your steps in order to find the misplaced or forgotten device. Below is a video of the SmartBand in action:
The price includes two adjustable black wristbands with different dimensions, the removable core unit and an instruction manual. As mentioned before, SmartBand uses Bluetooth to connect to Android smartphones, more precisely, the 4.0 Low Energy variety. As a word of advice, smartphones running Android versions older than KitKat are compatible with Sony’s fitness tracker, so you might want to change your phone if you want to use SmartBand.
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