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I'll make no excuse for the title as it seems to fit quite well for how I feel about it.
About two weeks ago I purchased a Sony SW3. Lovely watch and kindof does what I want BUT.... Android wear seems little more than a proof of concept.
At the risk of infuriating AW fans, here are some of my observations:
- I turn gestures off, but the watch still turns itself on when I turn my wrist, this is intermittent behaviour but this can't be rocket science to fix and I'm on V5!
- Was travelling somewhere strange the other day and I routinely add the address of where I'm going to my diary entry (Google calendar). When I was reminded to leave, I was offer the opportunity to navigate there, but I was using a train for most of the journey so only wanted to use navigate when I got the the end station. Call up the 'agenda' entry on my watch, can see the entry, can see the address, but do you think I could get the navigate function to work... NO, touching the address didn;t work, voice commands didn't recognise the foreign restaurant name, and I had no way of entering the address manually! Arrgh
- Cards/notices appearing. What a lovely feature, each time I get a message, email or whatever, my watch lights up and buzzes. Really? Ok I can see that some will find this useful, but really I want to gentle reminder , eg a buzz and if it's convenient I'll see what caused it by switching it on. A bit like theatre/Cinema mode, but I need the vibration to alert me... What I don't need is the thing lighting up every time I get a 'notice', draining the battery and telling everyone who can see! I get quite a few messages and find it strange this feature has not been considered/withdrawn by now. In fact the only useful time the watch should light up is an incoming call so I can see who and accept/reject.
- Whilst on the subject of rejecting a call, why doesn't it offer me the option of rejecting and sending a text message at the same time, a bit like you can when you reject a call on the handset.... Seems an obvious feature really.
- OK Google, doesn't launch applications I've downloaded, eg: I downloaded from the apps store a compass application. OK Google, compass - it gets me info on a company called compass!
- OK Google, Natigate to (insert a name of a contact)... Brings up a linkedin profile....
OK, rant over and I'm happy to concede that it may be my ignorance that I am frustrated so I'm happy to be correctly by fellow early adopters.... Or am I not alone
You've done the same mistake as all wear beginners when it comes to gestures. Forget that setting in watch menu and instead investigate wear companion app settings closer.
Hi thanks for the advice. Just searched the store but couldn't find anything. Suggestions appreciated?
Iain
The wear companion app is the app on your phone which you connect to your phone via. Click cog wheel. Click watch name. Untick tilt to wake option.
When I tell my watch to navigate to somewhere, a beautiful Maps shows up and gets me there... I think you are too fast at judging A.Wear Take time to discover it!
Install Android wear mini launcher also.
Android Wear is built to be minimal - it compliments your phone, it's not supposed to replace it. It just decreases the amount of times you have to pull your phone out of your pocket.
The Apple Watch is the one that's supposed to "replace" your phone in more instances. It's more complicated.
Android Wear is for quick replies, information, and helpful tools.
Welcome to the team by the way!
Sent from my Blu using Tapatalk
So, the recommendation I have heard over and over again is in order to increase battery life, disable the features that make the watch useful. Tilt to wake is important, and disabling it on the sw3 does not significantly improve battery life. There are problems with this software. I am on my third watch, and still after a lot of tweaking only get 24 hours (when I am lucky) per charge. This watch is supposed to last over two days. When I am not lucky, I get two hours on a charge.
lekofraggle said:
So, the recommendation I have heard over and over again is in order to increase battery life, disable the features that make the watch useful. Tilt to wake is important, and disabling it on the sw3 does not significantly improve battery life. There are problems with this software. I am on my third watch, and still after a lot of tweaking only get 24 hours (when I am lucky) per charge. This watch is supposed to last over two days. When I am not lucky, I get two hours on a charge.
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Click to collapse
Yeah. battery life was great on 5.0.2 We just have to wait until the next update, which both sony and google have said that they are working on.
Recharge once a day, and on unplugging, restart the watch. Many people have reported this gives the best results. FWIW I have all options turned on, and as long as I'm not hit with the bug, battery life is about what it was before 5.1.1.
Interesting, but...
Thanks everybody for your thoughts.
Firstly, I have tried switching off motion gestures using the Phones Wear application, but there wasn't an independent setting. I therefore downloaded a third party 'advance setting' application. It offered me more choices but didn't make a blind bit of difference.
Secondly, gestures are a personal thing so I'm not speaking for everybody. As I've already said I don't want the watch switching on every time I turn my wrist (my lifestyle is to active and I find it switching on when I'm doing something rather than when I want to read the time or message) or when I get a message (as I said before I want to choose when I read my messages and I don't want anyone close by to A) see I've got a message and B) be able to read the subject and who it's from). In addition battery life is, for the foreseeable future, a finite resource and all this switching on will reduce the battery life of the watch so it really annoys me that a simple setting 'Gesture OFF' is being completely ignored. I would also vote for 'Cinema mode, including vibrate'..
Thirdly, Yesterday, not for the first time, my battery drained itself in about half a day so I had to recharge the watch by about 3pm. But this time it was a little different. First thing in the morning I noticed the watch struggling to connect to my wifi, it would connect and then connect and then connect. Before anyone jumps on me saying there a problem with my wifi, there are about 10 devices that connect to my wifi and none of them get a problem. In addition I have more than one access point by different manufacturers and the watch has access to two different access points. Security is by password AND MAC address. This got me thinking. Is the wifi chip going into overdrive when it's not connected to an access point and draining the battery? I can't say for sure, but I did notice that the other days the battery suddenly drains is when I'm out and about so it may have been attempting to attached to all the access points when I'm walking about... Only a theory, but what does everybody else think?
Iain
Yea. Drain is somewhere between decent and awful depending on setup. I get two days out of mine.
Gestures is not the same as "tilt to wake". Gestures are let you interact with Google cards by flipping your wrist. Tilt to wake is what you're after. It does just what it says and is turned off in the wear companion app on your phone. The app is called "android wear" and in the app you press a cog wheel symbol, then press the name of your watch. They're you'll find three check box settings.
Always-on screen (eats your battery like omnomnom)
Tilt to wake screen (the one you're after)
Show Google cards (shows notifications on watch)
Two days?
Wow you're getting two days out of your battery, I can only dream...
Actually I'm not being truthful with the above. After my discovery with WiFi yesterday, I turned it off today. But for good measure, I switched screen on, to on.
It's been 18 hours off charge and the battery still has 56% left... OK it's not quite a day yet and as with all testing needs to be conducted over a few days but what a difference, even better considering your comment about the battery drain with the screen on!
Thank you for the tip re tilt to wake, I've now turned it off so in theory that should improve the battery life still further.
If today's results become consistent over the next few days it'll pretty conclusive that there's a problem with the WiFi.
I tried tilt to wake for a day. It went on all the time. Always on is so dim I can't see the watch anyway. I use tap to wake with highest brightness
I've just started to try gestures. I wanna see if it's a gimmick or actually useful.
WiFi to blame
OK, is been two nearly three days since I switched WiFi off.
In that time by the end of the day (with the watch face always on) I've been left with between 50% to 25% depending on actual use. Given that it sometimes would run out of battery by 3pm this is a great improvement and highlights that there are serious problems with the WiFi implementation.
I'm now happy I purchased
I like the tilt to wake but I notice it comes on a lot. Especially when I drive at night and my whole car lights up. I like the tilt features for scrolling through notifications. I wish there was one for dismissing, but that would probably lead to missed cards.
My LG G Watch is pretty much ready for a charge by the end of the day.
Sadly my hopes for a smart watch was to save battery life on my phone, but I am finding that bluetooth on all day tends to yield me the same battery life as if I just pull my phone out each time. Overall i love the watch for when I am in the pool and busy at work.
I agree!
Tilt to wake is problematic and poorly thought through as there are way to many scenarios where it activates when not required.
I can see the logic behind moving through cards via tilt but for me I continue to switch this off as well as I find it's very easy using my other hand and there are not many time I can't do that unless driving, but then, I shouldn't be reading my messages when driving anyway... : -)
Also since turning WiFi off, after 18 hours off charge I normally have between 30-40 battery left so the battery life has stabilised.
Now looking forward to the next Sony smart watch that should be release in November.
Latest update of the port to Samsung gear 2 allows for screen always on for two workdays. I can go with that. On my wishlist now is dismiss card gesture.
I actually like the gestures. With them on, I easily go through a day. On the weekends I can see me turning it off just to conserve battery. But I use it to turn on the screen and flip through notifications all the time, and seems pretty consistant. It always does what I want when I want. The problem is it comes on when I dont want.
If the watch had an AMOLED, you could fix this by using the same black face for both ambient and active modes.
I really like the Gear S, but hopefully the 2nd gen Android watches include some of the same features. Honestly all I need from the LG G Watch is a speaker and I'd be set.
1
I'm using Sony Z ultra and really want to buy SW3 for more option. Howere, when i see your review, i'm a little bit dissapointed:crying:
Depends
I can understand your disappointment, but I'm not disappointed as I consider it to be new technology and I was keen to get in early and I expected some issues.
For my part, I'm now very happy with my purchase and Amazon in the UK are now selling it at just under £100 so I also believe good value.
I am however, beginning to wonder if Wifi is the cause of the battery drain. Whilst I haven't had Wifi on since my first observation I'm thinking now it is probably a shirt sleeve activating the watch when I'm not aware and thats draining the battery very quickly. It's early days at the moment, but on two occasions I've been out and wearing a coat, on both occasions the battery was dead by the time I got home. Today I went out and wore a coat but switched cinema mode on... Battery perfect! Needs some more testing, but....
lekofraggle said:
So, the recommendation I have heard over and over again is in order to increase battery life, disable the features that make the watch useful. Tilt to wake is important, and disabling it on the sw3 does not significantly improve battery life. There are problems with this software. I am on my third watch, and still after a lot of tweaking only get 24 hours (when I am lucky) per charge. This watch is supposed to last over two days. When I am not lucky, I get two hours on a charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When have ever beats any manufacturer of a watch our phone give realistic battery life specs.
Hello All,
I'm trying to decide which smartwatch I want to buy and I'm torn between samsung gear s2 and huawei watch.
I think, I already watched almost all of tests /reviews but none of them had answers for my questions related to samsung gear s2. Please help me with them ,so I could finally made my decision
1) Notifications - no one never tell/show how the notification is working. As assume that when I receive any notification, watch will turn on and vibrate will be on. But what happen when I miss it?
I heard that there is some "orange" notification? How it looks like ? Can we see it in ambient mode?
Is there any "you go XX notification" counter or its more like you have new notification scroll the dial to see how much and from what apps?
I came back from garmin vivosmart band where once it receive notification it show it on screen, then goes black but when I wake it up it show mail icon with number of unread notifications.
2) Ambient mode - I didn't see it on person in samsung gear s2. On Huawei Watch its look sharp and very detailed but on pictures on net ambient mode in gear s2 looks less sharp and limited. Not downgraded "ambient mode" like moto360 but I get a feeling that is less detailed. Is that tue or ambient mode is the same sharp/crisp like normal watchface but in black/white mode?
3) Ambient mode #2 - I like that on huawei watch ambient mode is very detailed and can stay always on. I read that there is potential issue with samsung that after some time, while still wearing watch on hand it will turn black, even if there is always on ambient mode enabled. Is that true ? Thsi is a major sells point because I want to have it always on when I have it on my wrist.
4) Endurance - Most of you have this watch for a long time now. Is there are any problem with battery, screen burn in ect on it? Again my vivosmart have oled screen issue that start to show black pixels after 5-9 months ( depending on the usage) and this is now a known hardware problem that happen on all the devices. So I would know if there are "known" hardware issues that could pop-up after a while or not.
Thanks in advance for your help.
wiilczek said:
Hello All,
I'm trying to decide which smartwatch I want to buy and I'm torn between samsung gear s2 and huawei watch. HUAWEI IS OK BUT TOO THICK FOR ME. I LIKE THE FEEL OF THE GEAR. PLUS BATTERY LIFE IS ALOT WORSE ACCORDING TO FORUMS. tHAT'S A SHOW STOPPER FOR ME.
I think, I already watched almost all of tests /reviews but none of them had answers for my questions related to samsung gear s2. Please help me with them ,so I could finally made my decision
1) Notifications - no one never tell/show how the notification is working. As assume that when I receive any notification, watch will turn on and vibrate will be on. But what happen when I miss it?
I heard that there is some "orange" notification? How it looks like ? Can we see it in ambient mode? NOTIFICATIONS WORK JUST LIKE YOU DESCRIBE - VIBRATE AND AN NOTICE ON THE WATCH FOR AFEW SECONDS. IF YOU MISS IT, YOU MISS IT. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS SWIPE RIGHT AND YOU CAN SEE YOUR NOTIFICATION. THE ORANGE DOT THING ISN'T IN THE US YET, IF YOU ARE HERE.
Is there any "you go XX notification" counter or its more like you have new notification scroll the dial to see how much and from what apps? NOT ON A SCREEN WHERE YOU CAN SEE (AT LEAST THAT I HAVE FOUND) BUT THERE ARE WATCH FACES YOU CAN GET THAT DO THAT. JUST NOT STOCK.
I came back from garmin vivosmart band where once it receive notification it show it on screen, then goes black but when I wake it up it show mail icon with number of unread notifications.
2) Ambient mode - I didn't see it on person in samsung gear s2. On Huawei Watch its look sharp and very detailed but on pictures on net ambient mode in gear s2 looks less sharp and limited. Not downgraded "ambient mode" like moto360 but I get a feeling that is less detailed. Is that tue or ambient mode is the same sharp/crisp like normal watchface but in black/white mode? THERE ISN'T AN AMBIENT MODE AS YOU DESCRIBE. THERE IS AN ALWAYS ON MODE WITH LESS INFO BUT I THINK MOST PEOPLE SIMPLY DIM THEIR SCREENS. IT HASN'T BEEN AN ISSUE WITH ME.
3) Ambient mode #2 - I like that on huawei watch ambient mode is very detailed and can stay always on. I read that there is potential issue with samsung that after some time, while still wearing watch on hand it will turn black, even if there is always on ambient mode enabled. Is that true ? Thsi is a major sells point because I want to have it always on when I have it on my wrist. THERE IS AN ALWAY ON MODE BUT IT EATS UP BATTERY AND THE DETAIL ISN'T THE SAME.
4) Endurance - Most of you have this watch for a long time now. Is there are any problem with battery, screen burn in ect on it? Again my vivosmart have oled screen issue that start to show black pixels after 5-9 months ( depending on the usage) and this is now a known hardware problem that happen on all the devices. So I would know if there are "known" hardware issues that could pop-up after a while or not. HAD MINE FOR ABOUT 3 MONTHS. NO SCREEN BURN, BATTERY IS FINE BECAUSE I'M NOT CALCULATING THE NATIONAL DEBT EVERY 5 MINS AND I DON'T USE THINGS I DON'T NEED. I GET ABOUT 2 DAYS.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
..
wiilczek said:
Hello All,
I'm trying to decide which smartwatch I want to buy and I'm torn between samsung gear s2 and huawei watch.
I think, I already watched almost all of tests /reviews but none of them had answers for my questions related to samsung gear s2. Please help me with them ,so I could finally made my decision
1) Notifications - no one never tell/show how the notification is working. As assume that when I receive any notification, watch will turn on and vibrate will be on. But what happen when I miss it?
I heard that there is some "orange" notification? How it looks like ? Can we see it in ambient mode?
Is there any "you go XX notification" counter or its more like you have new notification scroll the dial to see how much and from what apps?
I came back from garmin vivosmart band where once it receive notification it show it on screen, then goes black but when I wake it up it show mail icon with number of unread notifications.
2) Ambient mode - I didn't see it on person in samsung gear s2. On Huawei Watch its look sharp and very detailed but on pictures on net ambient mode in gear s2 looks less sharp and limited. Not downgraded "ambient mode" like moto360 but I get a feeling that is less detailed. Is that tue or ambient mode is the same sharp/crisp like normal watchface but in black/white mode?
3) Ambient mode #2 - I like that on huawei watch ambient mode is very detailed and can stay always on. I read that there is potential issue with samsung that after some time, while still wearing watch on hand it will turn black, even if there is always on ambient mode enabled. Is that true ? Thsi is a major sells point because I want to have it always on when I have it on my wrist.
4) Endurance - Most of you have this watch for a long time now. Is there are any problem with battery, screen burn in ect on it? Again my vivosmart have oled screen issue that start to show black pixels after 5-9 months ( depending on the usage) and this is now a known hardware problem that happen on all the devices. So I would know if there are "known" hardware issues that could pop-up after a while or not.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try to answer you. I've had my Classic since December 26.
If the watch is on your wrist, it will vibrate when a Notification arrives. Different apps handle and send notifications differently. GoogleApp will only show last one. SMS will only show last one. (But, the Message App will let you scroll through all of them). TypeApp will show last one, but will also show a number of emails. If you click on that you can scroll through emails. There is a separate "queue" of email notifcations for each email account I have synched.
Each app has it's own notification queue. You can access them by scrolling wheel to the left. Or, swiping to the right. You can get rid of the notification by swiping to the top.
In the version in the US, with the current firmware, we don't have the orange notification. The version is Korea seems to have it, but I don't know if the version rolling out in Europe does.
The ambient mode watch face is a separate watch face that the watch designer designs. It doesn't have to look like the normal watch face. The intent is to be a low power mode only white pixels used. Mine never turns off when the watch is on the wrist, but some have reported issues with theirs going completely black. I have the setting for Always On. I also have the setting turned on for the Wake Up Gesture. This wil turn on the full watch face when you flick your wrist. Can be disconcerting in the cinema or driving at night, to have your watch turn on. Especially if you use a mostly white face like I do. (I currently use Pavilion by Liongate - mostly because it has a good ambient mode)
I've been wearing my watch every day, all day long and "it takes a licking, and still keeps ticking". I get a good 2 days on a full charge. But, most days I recharge when I sleep.
Thank you rlichtefeld and rogerperk for your kind reply !
It seems that samsung in term of functionality is the best option. However based on my experience with samsung device ( I had several smartphones) I worried that after a year, support for samsung gear s2 will be droped and the apps/firmware for "new" samsung watch will not be compatible with this model. Android wear is more "update proof" as still you can update the system on older moto360. What I geeting from review and this forum is that gear s2 is a "great device but lack of apps/support" . Well.. it would be simpler if this "companion devices" for smartphones was little bit cheaper, because at this price point its not that easy to decide.
And speaking about the price, currently after a little price drop by huawei (in Europe) I can buy huawei watch silver/black band model in the same price as samsung gear s2 classic. So its even harder to choose "best" option.
wiilczek said:
Thank you rlichtefeld and rogerperk for your kind reply !
It seems that samsung in term of functionality is the best option. However based on my experience with samsung device ( I had several smartphones) I worried that after a year, support for samsung gear s2 will be droped and the apps/firmware for "new" samsung watch will not be compatible with this model. Android wear is more "update proof" as still you can update the system on older moto360. What I geeting from review and this forum is that gear s2 is a "great device but lack of apps/support" . Well.. it would be simpler if this "companion devices" for smartphones was little bit cheaper, because at this price point its not that easy to decide.
And speaking about the price, currently after a little price drop by huawei (in Europe) I can buy huawei watch silver/black band model in the same price as samsung gear s2 classic. So its even harder to choose "best" option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As with anything dealing with electronics, if you wait long enough there will always be something cheaper and more powerful. However, while you wait, you don't get to use the tools/toys that you can get right now.
The S2 Classic is what I wanted in a smart watch. It is the correct size for me, and the rotating bezel works extremely well. I also wanted a watch where I could switch out the watch band.
Everyone has different wants and needs. As my grandfather used to say: "If everyone all liked the same thing, there would have been a big fight over your grandma".
Could the watch be better? Certainly. But, it is a very, very good smart watch.
Rob
rlichtefeld said:
As with anything dealing with electronics, if you wait long enough there will always be something cheaper and more powerful. However, while you wait, you don't get to use the tools/toys that you can get right now.
The S2 Classic is what I wanted in a smart watch. It is the correct size for me, and the rotating bezel works extremely well. I also wanted a watch where I could switch out the watch band.
Everyone has different wants and needs. As my grandfather used to say: "If everyone all liked the same thing, there would have been a big fight over your grandma".
Could the watch be better? Certainly. But, it is a very, very good smart watch.
Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you again for your kind answer. You are absolutely right with waiting . I appreciate your argument , but finally I decided and bought.. huawei watch. What can I say? Samsung gear S2 is a very good smartwatch (for todays standard) but when I had an opportunity to take in both hands samsung gear s2 and huawei watch (price was not a factor because in the store they cost more/less the same), samsung feels more like sport active watch (similar to garmin watches) and huawei feels more like a classic watch.
And this is what I need. A smartwatch that replicates classic feeling, and with the great skymaster pilot watchface I'm more than happy now.
wiilczek said:
Thank you again for your kind answer. You are absolutely right with waiting . I appreciate your argument , but finally I decided and bought.. huawei watch. What can I say? Samsung gear S2 is a very good smartwatch (for todays standard) but when I had an opportunity to take in both hands samsung gear s2 and huawei watch (price was not a factor because in the store they cost more/less the same), samsung feels more like sport active watch (similar to garmin watches) and huawei feels more like a classic watch.
And this is what I need. A smartwatch that replicates classic feeling, and with the great skymaster pilot watchface I'm more than happy now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i actually just switched from huawei watch to gear s2. huawei watch has consistent performance issues, even after rooting. connection issues too. it also weighs a ton and looks like some kind of insane homing beacon you would attach to a walrus or something. battery life isnt the greatest either, and i found it to be erratic, despite my actual SOT or quantity of messages. some days i would get home with 65% left and some days 25%, which i found to be the stupidest of the stoop as far as features go. best feature was voice command... when it worked.
gear s2 pretty much performs the same all the time, which is pretty well. i havent had any connection issues with it either. it connects fast and stays connected (note 4 - CM13). it weighs about what a normal watch would weigh and is the perfect size. doesnt protrude from the wrist like the walrus beacon. the sensor in it is so fast that i can actually leave ambient-mode off and strictly rely on flicking my wrist to turn the screen on. huawei watch sensor was slow so i always ambient mode on. s-voice leaves something to be desired, but the functionality and battery life (which is also very consistent) are really awesome on this watch. i dont regret switching one bit.
WaxysDargle said:
i actually just switched from huawei watch to gear s2. huawei watch has consistent performance issues, even after rooting. connection issues too. it also weighs a ton and looks like some kind of insane homing beacon you would attach to a walrus or something. battery life isnt the greatest either, and i found it to be erratic, despite my actual SOT or quantity of messages. some days i would get home with 65% left and some days 25%, which i found to be the stupidest of the stoop as far as features go. best feature was voice command... when it worked.
gear s2 pretty much performs the same all the time, which is pretty well. i havent had any connection issues with it either. it connects fast and stays connected (note 4 - CM13). it weighs about what a normal watch would weigh and is the perfect size. doesnt protrude from the wrist like the walrus beacon. the sensor in it is so fast that i can actually leave ambient-mode off and strictly rely on flicking my wrist to turn the screen on. huawei watch sensor was slow so i always ambient mode on. s-voice leaves something to be desired, but the functionality and battery life (which is also very consistent) are really awesome on this watch. i dont regret switching one bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks WaxyDargle for your comment. My shop give me 10 days back policy if I want to return huawei watch. To reply to your comment I will try to answer objectively what I thought about huawei after 2 days ( I paired it with samsung S5 with custom Rom)
Performance issues - for me I didn't accounter any but maybe its to soon to comment.
Connection issues - again I had few problems (about this later) but the connection itself was solid.
Battery - I take it to office at 7:50 AM yesterday and today at 4 PM it says " you got 5% battery". From this moment watch turn of "always on mode" and "wifi mode" and the brightness was way below minimum you can set . Still watch finally give up just after 20 PM . So first impression: battery is acceptable. During that time I receive several calls, mails, facebook notification so I can say that I use it a lot.
watch design&look - You said that it "weights a ton" but for me its very very light and I didnt see any noticible differents in weight to samsung gear s2. During a day I forget that I had it on the wrist. Regarding thickness - it doesnt look thick when you put it on a wrist.
voice command - yup. Working 2 out of 10 but when its recognize voice its working correctly. "WHEN" ...
Biggest Pros so far: Please check attachments where I put my ambient and normal mode. IT LOOKS GREAT . Its stay that way and it didn't went to black when I have it on the wrist .To add more my co-worker that was sterring at my watch for a while didnt notice that was a smartwatch unitl screen light on to show a message.
Biggest cons : Samsung vibration is just BETTER. I mean compared to huawei watch I need to use special 3rd party app on huawei just to set vibration pattern to be noticable . Now it's OK but not "Great". "Out of the box" you definitelly will miss more incoming messages in huawei than in samsung.
Android Wear has several issues : sometimes not every message will show on a watch and in current 1.4 release there is 3 seconds (!!!) delay to incoming call after it will show on the watch. Downgrading to version 1.2 will solve this issue (no delays) but some other notification will/could not show up. Overall to not get too deep into issues, after reading several post here on the XDA I menaged to (hopefully) "solve" all of them but I believe that for customer who is no technician/dont know XDA or dont have a time to solving android issues (that currently exist on android wear) this would be a major let down. If Samsung is stable in synchronizing incoming notification - I would recommend samsung/tizen for most people.
So in the end currently I still prefer huawei but it have it flaws and not everyone will like it.
wiilczek said:
Thanks WaxyDargle for your comment. My shop give me 10 days back policy if I want to return huawei watch. To reply to your comment I will try to answer objectively what I thought about huawei after 2 days ( I paired it with samsung S5 with custom Rom)
Performance issues - for me I didn't accounter any but maybe its to soon to comment.
Connection issues - again I had few problems (about this later) but the connection itself was solid.
Battery - I take it to office at 7:50 AM yesterday and today at 4 PM it says " you got 5% battery". From this moment watch turn of "always on mode" and "wifi mode" and the brightness was way below minimum you can set . Still watch finally give up just after 20 PM . So first impression: battery is acceptable. During that time I receive several calls, mails, facebook notification so I can say that I use it a lot.
watch design&look - You said that it "weights a ton" but for me its very very light and I didnt see any noticible differents in weight to samsung gear s2. During a day I forget that I had it on the wrist. Regarding thickness - it doesnt look thick when you put it on a wrist.
voice command - yup. Working 2 out of 10 but when its recognize voice its working correctly. "WHEN" ...
Biggest Pros so far: Please check attachments where I put my ambient and normal mode. IT LOOKS GREAT . Its stay that way and it didn't went to black when I have it on the wrist .To add more my co-worker that was sterring at my watch for a while didnt notice that was a smartwatch unitl screen light on to show a message.
Biggest cons : Samsung vibration is just BETTER. I mean compared to huawei watch I need to use special 3rd party app on huawei just to set vibration pattern to be noticable . Now it's OK but not "Great". "Out of the box" you definitelly will miss more incoming messages in huawei than in samsung.
Android Wear has several issues : sometimes not every message will show on a watch and in current 1.4 release there is 3 seconds (!!!) delay to incoming call after it will show on the watch. Downgrading to version 1.2 will solve this issue (no delays) but some other notification will/could not show up. Overall to not get too deep into issues, after reading several post here on the XDA I menaged to (hopefully) "solve" all of them but I believe that for customer who is no technician/dont know XDA or dont have a time to solving android issues (that currently exist on android wear) this would be a major let down. If Samsung is stable in synchronizing incoming notification - I would recommend samsung/tizen for most people.
So in the end currently I still prefer huawei but it have it flaws and not everyone will like it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
one thing i did on the huawei that almost completely fixed the connection issue was to install android wear 1.3 on my phone. version 1.4 made those issues drastically worse.
WaxysDargle said:
one thing i did on the huawei that almost completely fixed the connection issue was to install android wear 1.3 on my phone. version 1.4 made those issues drastically worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True . They massed it up in new version, but its android fault not a huawei itself - "Blame the game not the player". For now after few "extra tricks" from XDA its working ok. However If the problem will reappear in upcoming days I will consider to switch on samsung. Will see.
wiilczek said:
True . They massed it up in new version, but its android fault not a huawei itself - "Blame the game not the player". For now after few "extra tricks" from XDA its working ok. However If the problem will reappear in upcoming days I will consider to switch on samsung. Will see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
honestly, i am just waiting for android to get it right. im not a huge fan of samsung, and will probably just return it for an android wear later on as part of my protection plan. samsung is better right now but wont be for long
WaxysDargle said:
honestly, i am just waiting for android to get it right. im not a huge fan of samsung, and will probably just return it for an android wear later on as part of my protection plan. samsung is better right now but wont be for long
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This week huawei should receive android wear 6.0.1 with speaker support. Supposedly it works better. I will post an update after this upgrade will arrive via OTA if it was worth the wait.
Hi,
Coming from a Moto Z and before that a 6P.
Ok... I didn't intend to hate this phone but... Why are notifications broken? Why dont PocketCasts playback controls work?
I know this is "1 aspect" but to me notifications are vital and i simply don't understand this phone.
- i receive a notification and screen lights up (i set that per app)
- but then I unlock phone
- notifications still in notification shade. I lock device.
- they are no longer on lock screen
Why?
That's not how any other device i have owned worked?
And lock screen music playback is... A disaster?
I consider this phone basically unusable... Yet reviews never mentioned this. Am I alone?
I agree with you, mostly. I'm coming from a Nexus 6P (and many Nexi before that since the One), so I'm used to the plain Vanilla and love it. I was able to rectify some of the notification issues by enabling banner and lockscreen notifications from the Settings >> Notification & Status Bar >> Notification Management area. It doesn't fix everything, and at times (especially the beginning) it was very frustrating. I have it for 5 days now and am at a point where I think it's usable and am waiting for LineageOS to come out with a vanilla-ish version.
http://lineagerom.com/huawei-mate-9-lineage-nougat-update/
The battery is what drew me to the phone and it doesn't disappoint. I can get about 24 hours and that impresses me.
Thanks, have that set for important apps. Feels like a massive part of Android (notifications) are basically missing. Rest is good/ok/great but.... Just feels like madness that this is acceptable in 2017.
yup, hw software sux. end of. waiting for stock-ed customs
Just you
Sent from my MHA-L29 using Tapatalk
Yea, that's what ended up being the deal breaker for me. I absolutely loved everything else with the phone, but notifications are the baseline of what a phone should be (at least to me), and this phone failed at that miserably. Not being able to reply to a text without unlocking the phone is a no go for 2017. I also kept hearing how battery life was amazing...I never really saw that either considering the size of the battery and a 1080p screen. I've got a Moto Z Play and I can tell you that this is truly amazing battery life. I'm now sitting at 53% with 4:39 sot and been off charger since 9:45a...It's now 1a the following morning. Not putting down Mate 9, as I really did like the rest of the phone...So much so that I'm on here looking to see if they have come out with an update for the glaring problem you guys are discussing. It looks as they Huawei doesn't even acknowledge the issue, so not counting on a fix. Oh well
Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk
I'm really surprised Huawei get a free pass on this. I read about 10 reviews, saw lots of YouTube videos and I had no idea how this phone handles notifications. I simply don't believe that someone coming from "normal" Android versions wouldn't find this different enough to warrant a huge rant?
Very frustrating. I like so many aspects of this device but the basic things are terrible. Madness.
for lock screen music playback -
settings> then uptop type in notifications> notifications panal> notification managment. then find the app you want to allow on the lockscreen. hope that helps.
Spot on! I'm 700 USD in on this phone. Only thing going for it on my side is the battery (so far) and dual sim as I travel a lot.
The rest is just unacceptable... At the very best. Likely the first and the last Huawei I'll own.
It's not just software that is bad for notifications. The hardware is poor too. The LED is tiny and almost invisible. The vibration is very weak so you can't feel it in your pocket.
This is a great phone underneath, but the little things really spoil it.
Huawei had a great opportunity to take business off Samsung, but they have blown it.
This has put me off Huawei. I'll be trading in the Mate for a Note 8. Or perhaps I won't wait for that. The S8+ is looking good.
Coming from a Nexus 6, the software has it's issues, but overall I like my Mate 9 so much more. Thought I would be missing the stock Android in a daily basis, but I seem to be very happy with my new phone.
-ErrorFile- said:
Coming from a Nexus 6, the software has it's issues, but overall I like my Mate 9 so much more. Thought I would be missing the stock Android in a daily basis, but I seem to be very happy with my new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from the disastrous year of Samsungs (s7 Active, s7 Edge, Note 7) Im loving the mate 9. Getting 10 hours of screen on time, notifications havent been an issue at all (Ive had to unlock the phone to reply to a text on every single phone Ive used including iPhone). I prefer the lockscreen stay clean and the led flash when I have something unread. Out of all the phones Ive used this past year, this is the only one Ive kept. Ive got a Moto Z Force sitting on my table thats for sale and once its gone all Ill have left is my iPhone 6s plus and the Mate 9.
wingzfan said:
Coming from the disastrous year of Samsungs (s7 Active, s7 Edge, Note 7) Im loving the mate 9. Getting 10 hours fo screen on time, notifications havent been an issue at all (Ive had to unlock the phone to reply to a text on very single phone Ive used including iPhone). I prefer the lockscreen stay clean and the led flash when I have something unread. Out of all the phones Ive used this past year, this is the only one Ive kept. Ive got a Moto Z Force sitting on my table thats for sale and once its gone all Ill have left is my iPhone 6s plus and the Mate 9.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you find the LED bright enough and the vibration strong enough? If so I have a different phone to yours
RR-99 said:
Do you find the LED bright enough and the vibration strong enough? If so I have a different phone to yours
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no issues with the brightness of the led at all, in fact I prefer it to the absurd brightness of the s7 series. My phone is primarily on a desk or table and I havent missied any notifications at all. Also my volume is always on so I hear my phone go off and never really pay attention to the vibration of it but I would say its right on par with my iPhone. Another thing is I use Textra and always have so Ive got the vibration set to "multiple short" and if the phone is for some reason on silent I still hear the vibration when a notification comes in. Honestly I have no complaints about anything with this phone especially now that Ive been able to change out the emojis without root (hate android emojis).
coming from a pixel
i really like the mate 9, the software could do with abit more though.
if it was pure vanilla, this phone would be the end all.
RR-99 said:
Do you find the LED bright enough and the vibration strong enough? If so I have a different phone to yours
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use an app called Flash notificationn 2. basically on any missed notifications it keeps flashing the camera and lights up the screen( set every min or so). it works very well. coming from a note 4 i was also tossed. I do love this phone and at 599.00 seems a steal. does it have shortcomings , ya it does. but so does every phone. price to price with the s8+ or note 8 rumored at close to a grand makes this phone a steal. especially considering the list of shortcomings the galaxys 8 will have.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manzy.flashnotification2&hl=en
admorris said:
Not being able to reply to a text without unlocking the phone is a no go for 2017.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That seems like an odd issue to me. All it takes to unlock the phone is touching a sensor. Unless the complaint is about doing it while sitting flat on a surface, then I agree the sensor placement isn't optimal. But if replying to a text without unlocking the phone is important, that's easily solved with a 3rd party text app, like Textra.
I also haven't noticed the issues with notifications in my usage that others have had. But I do agree the notification LED could be brighter, and the vibration stronger.
tommy281 said:
for lock screen music playback -
settings> then uptop type in notifications> notifications panal> notification managment. then find the app you want to allow on the lockscreen. hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This just doesn't work reliably. Spotify works 60% of the time maybe but PocketCasts about 5%. Totally rubbish.
Really mixed bag of opinions here.
I'm almost wondering if there are multiple software versions showing different behaviour?
The 2 notifications issues i have are :
1. Music playback controls. Dreadful. Seems like some apps whitelisted but even those don't work 100% of the time. PocketCasts (even latest version from 2 days ago) works basically never, meaning i need to unlock phone to pause. A total joke.
2. Notifications. Lock screen shows them once and once only. As soon as i unlock, all notifications are not shown again on lock screen, unlike normal Android.
For those that "don't have issue with the notifications"... Do you see what i see?
tommy281 said:
for lock screen music playback -
settings> then uptop type in notifications> notifications panal> notification managment. then find the app you want to allow on the lockscreen. hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That doesn't fix the issue...It's a known problem.
Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 05:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:36 PM ----------
RealEvil said:
Really mixed bag of opinions here.
I'm almost wondering if there are multiple software versions showing different behaviour?
The 2 notifications issues i have are :
1. Music playback controls. Dreadful. Seems like some apps whitelisted but even those don't work 100% of the time. PocketCasts (even latest version from 2 days ago) works basically never, meaning i need to unlock phone to pause. A total joke.
2. Notifications. Lock screen shows them once and once only. As soon as i unlock, all notifications are not shown again on lock screen, unlike normal Android.
For those that "don't have issue with the notifications"... Do you see what i see?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think what you have are two types of people on here...Not two software versions. You have people that have given up on the phone and people who are justifying their purchase...lol
Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk
After nearly 2 years I have had enough and will change.
The whole time I had the watch with Huawei P9 > Nokia 8 > Honor View 10 > P30 Pro there have been issues with the bluetooth constantly disconnecting and removing from trusted device unlock.
To happen with all these phones is clearly something wrong with how it connects to Android / bluetooth stack.
I love the watch so put up with constantly going into Wear app and "reconnecting" but now the battery is draining at an insane amount.
At the start I could manage 2 days without charge, now I am charging it before sleep and waking up with 23% left.
you know i guess there might be something wrong with your device because my hw2 always stays connected to my phone and in the past year I have only noticed one or two times of disconnection, and i wear it at least 8 hrs a day.
It most be your watch
I agree with Kianush, must a problem with your watch. I have a Huawei Watch 2 Classic and I've never had those issues. I do charge before going to sleep, but even doing sleep monitoring in the morning I have usually 75% and it lasts thru the day.
As I say battery was very good until recently so maybe it is on it's way out.
The bluetooth has always had disconnection issues for me at random points in the day.
Also seems it can't handle other BT devices connecting to the phone - i.e. earphones or car head unit will make it disconnect and then it will not reconnect and I need to go into Wear app on phone and reconnect which of course means Smart Lock needs to be added again.
shaunydub said:
As I say battery was very good until recently so maybe it is on it's way out.
The Bluetooth has always had disconnection issues for me at random points in the day.
Also seems it can't handle other BT devices connecting to the phone - i.e. earphones or car head unit will make it disconnect and then it will not reconnect and I need to go into Wear app on phone and reconnect which of course means Smart Lock needs to be added again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had always the problem of it disconnecting randomly as well (and I changed a bunch of phones in the meanwhile as well). But, after all, it is still good looking
I bought a fossil gen 5 the other week and I sent it back... It was slightly faster (I recently installed on the HW2 the janjan ROM+KERNEL) but, I couldn't stand how it was looking with a part of the screen that actually was bazel (at least the HW2 fake a big crown ) So, waiting for next-gen or I'll buy a Ticwatch pro LTE that has 1gb of ram as well (processor wise, won't change anything in term of speed) but it has a bigger full screen
mr-mauro said:
I had always the problem of it disconnecting randomly as well (and I changed a bunch of phones in the meanwhile as well). But, after all, it is still good looking
I bought a fossil gen 5 the other week and I sent it back... It was slightly faster (I recently installed on the HW2 the janjan ROM+KERNEL) but, I couldn't stand how it was looking with a part of the screen that actually was bazel (at least the HW2 fake a big crown ) So, waiting for next-gen or I'll buy a tickwatch pro LTE that has 1gb of ram as well but a bigger full screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I like the watch very much but the disconnection issue is just annoying, somedays it never disconnects and other days its every 10 minutes even under the same circumstances.
I decided to try Galaxy Active 2 for now, doesn't look like Huawei will make a HW3 with Wear anytime soon.
shaunydub said:
Yes, I like the watch very much but the disconnection issue is just annoying, somedays it never disconnects and other days its every 10 minutes even under the same circumstances.
I decided to try Galaxy Active 2 for now, doesn't look like Huawei will make a HW3 with Wear anytime soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Galaxy Active 2 is nice and it has faster processor than the snapdragon400-2100-3100 My only concern is the fact that it doesn't run WearOS Let us know how will it work out with Tizen
mr-mauro said:
Galaxy Active 2 is nice and it has faster processor than the snapdragon400-2100-3100 My only concern is the fact that it doesn't run WearOS Let us know how will it work out with Tizen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I am also slightly nervous about Tizen but watched a Youtube video of Tizen vs Wear vs Android on several devices and it seems to be very similar in use + I found an app that synchronises data to Google Fit.
However I do use several Android apps on my HW2 such as Keep Notes and Fotmob, plus I like the media controls so I will need to fully test this with my P30 Pro before deciding to keep the Active 2.
So I have had the Galaxy Watch Active 2 for a week now and all I can saw is WOW.
This feels like huge upgrade from Huawei Watch 2 in nearly all areas.
The watch itself feels premium, feels more like a real watch on the arm.
The colours are bright and vivid, the speed the watch operates at puts Wear OS to shame, the speaker is great and so many more options with sound and notifications and pretty much everything.
My initial concern was about the lack of Wear OS store and while I do not have Outlook or Fotmob apps everything works., the main app I miss is Google Keep Notes.
I can control my music on my P30 Pro, I can respond to messages in Whatsapp or SMS with voice or type.
Ok it has Bixby instead of Google Assistant but I never used it and I can achieve some similar results such as "set alarm" etc.
It is the first time I tried a non Wear OS watch and I am pretty surprised by it and can't see how Wear can catch up, it is just too slow and dull in comparison.
Plus it has wireless charging and you can backup the watch ready for if you need to wipe or transfer to new phone.
I loved my HW2 for a long time but now GA2 is the new king (although nothing still has the UV sensor I had on my MS Band 2)
Does anyone have any other idea's about what to upgrade to? I'm not a fan of Tizan, but do we wait for the never appearing Pixel watch? Has anyone else updated since this thread started? If so, what to and how is it?
Apart from Fossil there were no real options hence my semi forced move to Samsung.
I like it and it performs much better but I miss some apps like Keep Notes.
And Bixby is useless.
Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk
So, I received mine on September 1.
I just put in the return for today and will most likely send it back tomorrow.
Here are my reasons:
* Constant disconnects from sleep tracking
* Hit-or-miss notifications, they really just didn't work when synced from phone, GW3 never has this issue
* AWFUL, and I can't stress this enough, AWFUL battery life
* NO watchfaces
* Half Tizen/Half WearOS, neither one works
* How many of the actual features were dropped that were the point of buying this thing?
* Have I mentioned the just ridiculious battery life? Not even a full day with minimal usage
* Workouts just don't sync between the watch and the phone even though BOTH are samsung devices, sometimes, the workouts don't even start recording on the watch
After the watch ran down literally after 12.5 hours of use and then when I put it on the charger and the phone STILL read 84% charge while the watch showed 3%, I was done.
It's like they WANTED to kill this version of the watch and made something that just was totally frustrating to use and didn't work. They rushed this thing to market for whatever reason and did NOTHING to support it. It's literally half-finished in almost every way.
There is plenty of bugs that need to be sorting out on the Watch 4, I'm also a bit disappointed with it though some of the issues you have with your's i don't have, like battery life which is pretty decent for me and i have everything on continuous monitoring.
I've put mine back in the box won't be selling just yet, I'm gonna give Samsung a chance to sort these bugs out first, in the meantime I've gone back to using my Active 2 44mm, which has been solid for me for the past couple of years i've had it.
I think Samsung decided or was force to ditch Tizen in favor of Watch OS because of the pressure from Apple with the Apple Watch ie app support being the main thing, something that was severely lacking on Tizen.
I personally didn't really care about having more apps as i never used any other than what came with the watch, fitness tracking and notifications was all i needed and the past, & Tizen watches did this without any issues, even Samsung pay I could use running my card though Curve as my Bank doesn't support Samsung Pay, but alas it is nice to have the useful google services now on a Samsung Watch.
Ultimately the Watch 4 44mm i have is better than my Active 2 in many ways ie google pay, google maps & hopefully google assistant at some point plus a few new health features, but atm it just not there stability wise to be used on a daily basis.
Hi
Coming from the Gear S3 Classic.
SLEEPTRACKING - Consistent with performance I got with the Gear S3. No disconnects.
NOTIFICATIONS - Not noticed any issues with this.
BATTERY - I am now getting two days (as opposed to about 2.5 days on the Gear S3), that is AOD off, wrist wake up on, notifications on, Heartrate 10 mins, Blood Oxygen manual, using a watchmaker face. It would have been better if the battery time was the same as the Gear S3 but its enough to meet my expectations.
WATCHFACES - Only really use two, a Rolex GMT on Watchmaker and the digital one that comes with the watch.
TIZEN/WEAR - It works as well as Tizen did, some bits not as good some better. I expect it will improve with updates as Tizen did. Samsung Pay was very temperamental for me with the Gear S3 but works flawlessly on the GW4 as an example.
MISSING FEATURES - Agree with you on this one, not including Google Assistant is a big negative, Bixby might be a bit better but it is still not great and I do not use it. No sure what other features you are missing but not a big deal for me.
WORKOUTS - Not used these yet, and I only occasionally used them on the Gear S3.
Unfortunately we live in a time where phones, smart watches all get released with bugs and not quite polished OS, but they do tend to get it right overtime. The downside of being an early adopter.
Regards
spangelaregreat said:
Hi
Coming from the Gear S3 Classic.
SLEEPTRACKING - Consistent with performance I got with the Gear S3. No disconnects.
NOTIFICATIONS - Not noticed any issues with this.
BATTERY - I am now getting two days (as opposed to about 2.5 days on the Gear S3), that is AOD off, wrist wake up on, notifications on, Heartrate 10 mins, Blood Oxygen manual, using a watchmaker face. It would have been better if the battery time was the same as the Gear S3 but its enough to meet my expectations.
WATCHFACES - Only really use two, a Rolex GMT on Watchmaker and the digital one that comes with the watch.
TIZEN/WEAR - It works as well as Tizen did, some bits not as good some better. I expect it will improve with updates as Tizen did. Samsung Pay was very temperamental for me with the Gear S3 but works flawlessly on the GW4 as an example.
MISSING FEATURES - Agree with you on this one, not including Google Assistant is a big negative, Bixby might be a bit better but it is still not great and I do not use it. No sure what other features you are missing but not a big deal for me.
WORKOUTS - Not used these yet, and I only occasionally used them on the Gear S3.
Unfortunately we live in a time where phones, smart watches all get released with bugs and not quite polished OS, but they do tend to get it right overtime. The downside of being an early adopter.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree with your last sentiment most of all. This was released without proper testing making us the (you pay) beta testers. This should have been tested A LOT MORE than it was. I don't think it was.
I'ts nice you only use two watch faces. That's you. Me, I don't want to have to give up actual functionality simply because there's new hardware that doesn't work with the software provided.
The battery DOES NOT LAST, maybe if you've turned off ALL functionality in the watch and are using it "watch only" mode, sure, but then, what's the point of having a smartwatch? I'm not using that much functionality, but waking up and seeing that I have less than half of the watch battery left after only one night of use to track sleep AND that the sleep app was disconnected halfway throught the night. What WAS IT TRACKING to use that much battery, then?
Notifications, that is a deal-breaker. The fact that notifications DO NOT TRIGGER for mail, and almost ANY of the other apps that triggered normally on the GW3, that made me just want to not use this "new" hardware.
If you're not using the workouts feature then that's on you. It's a very big selling point for most of us. If the accuracy isn't there and so many have reported that it isn't, then there's no point in the "upgrade" if you can't get the same basic functionalty you had in the previous version.
This may have been an "upgrade" in some respects, it was a HUGE step back in ALL of them:
* battery
* workout tracking
* notifications
* sleep tracking
* watchfaces
Those are the basic things that this was doing well in GW3 that are either broken or don't work in the GW4.
It's sad you don't think having non-buggy to the point of non-functioning software is your baseline. I work in software and I'd be embarrassed to have released this thing in its present state.
Calm down dude, just giving you my experience of it. If it don't work for you then send it back. Life is too short to stress about a watch.
spangelaregreat said:
Calm down dude, just giving you my experience of it. If it don't work for you then send it back. Life is too short to stress about a watch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Telling someone to "calm down" because they disagree with you is childish. You're coming from a watch that is YEARS old. I'm coming from a watch that is literally still being sold alongside this "new" one and being touted as the next awesome thing when clearly it's not.
* The software is buggy
* The hardware is lackluster (and not a vast improvement from the previous version)
* We paid for this, it wasn't a freebie, when you pay for a product that's talked up everywhere, you expect non-****ty results instead, what we got was subpar performance and a confusing mess for a UI/UX
Even the $50 trade-in coupons are coming up with issues. I've read over and over where people are being told you can't use the $50 coupons for WATCH-RELATED items at Samsung???
I don't have any of these problems to be honest.
Why post here just send it back and be happy...
Btw battery life, had mine about a month and it's increased week by week as batteries tend to do, getting a day and a half here with most things switched on...
What a pointless post, if you are not happy with your watch return it. Probably you have a faulty device anyway as mine has no issues at all with notifications, sleep tracking and workout syncing between watch and phone. With regards to battery life after a couple of weeks I am getting consistently two days with everything on except for AOD. This include an 1-hour workout a day. You say that the other poster is childish while your post is the childish one ranting in a forum about your unique issues instead of just returning your device and moving on. Plenty of options out there, good luck with finding a better one.
Interesting. I have none of the issues you are speaking of. My watch has never had issues with: sleep tracking, notifications, or workouts not syncing (and I don't have a Samsung phone).
With watch faces I pretty much use Matteo Dini's faces exclusively (have been for years) and he has all ready converted 31 of his Tizen faces to Wear faces.
As far as battery time I don't believe I have gone less than 2 days for the last 4 charges. I had a charge last week that lasted 3 days 11 hours. I do not have any functionality turned off. Location on, HR every 10 minutes, notifications on (texts, gmail, messenger), and always on display off. I only use bluetooth (wifi and NFC off). I also use bedtime mode when sleeping.
Have you considered if this might be an issue with your specific watch? Might there be an app you have installed which is creating these issues?
sanjsrik said:
Notifications, that is a deal-breaker. The fact that notifications DO NOT TRIGGER for mail, and almost ANY of the other apps that triggered normally on the GW3, that made me just want to not use this "new" hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this issue at first, I would get notifications for certain apps on my phone but not my watch. The reason for that is because many apps are disabled by default, not because the watch is broken. There's a section in the Galaxy Wearable app for choosing what notifications pop up on your watch
Sounds like you jumped a bit quick on this device. Updates tend to always make them better and knowing samsung they tend to sort all these issues out and the new device 99% of the time ends up being the better device than the previous generation.
IMHO.
Samsung doing this ever and ever again...
Spit out "new" Product...
"Nothing" work... "nothing" available...
Few "features" Country restricted... so also not available...
IMHO not every user has time enough to wait monthS... sometimes yearS before "perfect" Product...
They NOT spread enough infos nor Tools to App Developer... to start BEFORE this "magic" is in Store...
This is so funny...
3 Apps...
No idea if it makes sense to buy Apple Product...
I have not enough money...
Only as info...
My personal opinion.
Best Regards
adfree said:
IMHO.
Samsung doing this ever and ever again...
Spit out "new" Product...
"Nothing" work... "nothing" available...
Few "features" Country restricted... so also not available...
IMHO not every user has time enough to wait monthS... sometimes yearS before "perfect" Product...
They NOT spread enough infos nor Tools to App Developer... to start BEFORE this "magic" is in Store...
This is so funny...
3 Apps...
No idea if it makes sense to buy Apple Product...
I have not enough money...
Only as info...
My personal opinion.
Best Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. And that's why you don't be an early adopter if you want a "perfect" stable device. Keep using your current tech until the new stuff has been out, updated and reviewed so you can make an informative decision on what to buy. Don't be the guy that preorders and complains when it has an issue 2 weeks after release.
kkellogg378 said:
I had this issue at first, I would get notifications for certain apps on my phone but not my watch. The reason for that is because many apps are disabled by default, not because the watch is broken. There's a section in the Galaxy Wearable app for choosing what notifications pop up on your watch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it. Doesn't fix the issue.
spangelaregreat said:
Hi
Coming from the Gear S3 Classic.
Samsung Pay was very temperamental for me with the Gear S3 but works flawlessly on the GW4 as an example.
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Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I'm still rocking the Gear S3, and I've wondered whether having MST might be the source of some of the Samsung Pay fails - it seems to me that sometimes the pay terminal picks up both the NFC and MST signal, and that causes the 'card read error.' I've even wondered if that might be at least part of the reason Samsung chose to remove MST, and why the newer watches work more reliably with Samsung Pay. It's just a theory of mine - welcome other views.
behzad.bz said:
I don't have any of these problems to be honest.
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Me neither (Galaxy Watch 4), and I have POCO F3 phone and modded health monitor from Dante. Maybe it's bad bluetooth in his Samsung phone, so watch always connects through wifi which uses more energy?
Agree with original poster, did send mine back after 2 weeks. Not worth upgrading from my Watch 3. I will skip this year and see what they come up with next year. Using the watch with Fold 2. No major issues with Watch 3, occasional stutter switching between apps but excellent battery life. Screen always on, full day use ( 14 hrs + ) and at the end of the day still 36%...
carlitos66 said:
Agree with original poster, did send mine back after 2 weeks. Not worth upgrading from my Watch 3. I will skip this year and see what they come up with next year. Using the watch with Fold 2. No major issues with Watch 3, occasional stutter switching between apps but excellent battery life. Screen always on, full day use ( 14 hrs + ) and at the end of the day still 36%...
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I have like 50% with the same setting on my GW4
My first Smart watch so cant really comment vs any previous models.
Still, over the moon with my watch classic 4 - and yes, this is the "Dreaded" 42mm version - on LTE (durrr durrr dummmmmm!!!!! - cue evil music etc etc).
I have disconnected LTE for the most part as i can make calls via bluetooth using my phone - more than ample for my needs
I have also disconnected wifi - again, I don't need the extra connections when the phone is ample and i can watch youtube videos on my watch over the bluetooth connection on odd browser (completely pointless but proves this sentiment)
AOD only serves a purpose if you are heavily exercising or want to pretend you have a rolex or something stupid like that - that has been turned off as it takes about quarter of a second for the screen to wake each and every time i raise it to view - more than ample.
Yesterday i decided to see what all the *****ing about battery was about - Between 9am and 3pm i had only lost about 15% battery life.
There is ###k all wrong with this device