i am shocked

Choices

There are some hard choices that people have to make at some point in their lives. And decisions are not easy, but still one has to choose.

One of these lifechanging moments is when you choose whether you want your smartwatch to be more smart than watch or the exact opposite.

A SMARTwatch or a smartWATCH?

I have had more than my fair share of SMARTwatches, so it was time to see what a smartWATCH may offer.

There are not quite as many smartWATCHES as SMARTwatches but still there are some out there.

The Citizen eco proximity, the Casio G-Shock GB-6900 and some more.

The Casio bluetooth enabled watch

So, i have the Casio in my hands (not wrist, mind you) and i am going to give you the general idea.

First of all let me confess that i have never been a fan of the whole indestructible G-shock watch concept. Let me tell you why: Why should i care if my watch can survive -40 degrees Celsius, being submerged a hundred meters underwater or being run over by a monster truck? Why? I do not want to be in these places and since i feel this way there is no need for my watch to be there as well. Meanwhile, if i happen to be in any of these places then i really do not care how the intact G-Shock will look on my dead wrist which (hopefully) is attached to my even deader body. Get the picture? I do not want my legacy to humanity to be a watch, always thought it shall be something spiritual (i am referring to this fine blog, of course). (The whole issue of what happens with your digital life when you die comes to my mind, but i will skip it for the time being.)

The review

Anyway, let me start the damned review of the Casio GB-6900AA smartWATCH.

The good: 

• The battery lasts forever. Casio says it will outlast humanity by a few thousand years. Nuhh, just kidding. But it still has enough juice for approximately two years. Yes. You are not drunk. (Too early in the day, maybe?) Your eyes are still good. Let me just tell you that there are SMART(?)watches out there that have a battery life of half a day on a good day.
• It is tough as nails. You can act normally while wearing the Casio. You can have a shower, go swimming, wash the dishes, dance in the rain, accidentally bang your hand on a door frame and it is guranteed to survive with remarkable ease. World War 3 may present some more challenge but i am fairly confident it can withstand anything less than that. Even that is not entirely out of the question.
• The vibration motor is strong and really does perform the way you'd want it too. Yeap, i know how that sounds. But it is the truth.
• The screen is always on. After all it's mainly a watch, right?
• It works (kind of) with both iOS and Android, as long as the phone supports BT 4.0 of course.
• It comes in many colours.
• If the watch loses connection with the phone, because for example you left it on the back seat of the cab that just achieved warp speed 9.6 the watch vibrates. You will never find the cab, but at least you will know where you lost the phone.

The bad:

• It has a tiny screen that serves as notification window. Text scrolls all the time and it is quite annoying, to say the least.
• The notifications themselves are severely limited when you use it with an iPhone. Casio is not the one to blame here, still all you get is email sender info (provided your mail service is Gmail or smth quite as big), a social notification icon that only shows that smth happened in FB or Twitter or Weibo (which should be popular in the East), a notification that a call or an SMS is coming but of course no caller ID or even number. Calendar notifications are also available. If you use the watch with a Galaxy S4 you get Caller ID and SMS sender as well, if you can follow the little scrolling text for as long as it takes for you to actually ready the damned ID.

The ugly:

• It is ugly. No, wait. That was quite an understatement. It is very ugly. This is a strictly personal opinion of course, but i think most people past their years of early prime will agree. Especially the glossy black i have. By the way, glossy seems to contradict (at least superficially/visually) the whole G-Shock appearance thing.
• The buttons on the watch itself are very hard to press, since no water is allowed to enter the watch after the fish have long picked your bones clean in the abyss. G-Shock and all that...
• Setting up the initial connection takes at least three attempts before you can start actually hoping it may work this time.

The unbearable:

• If you turn BT off on the iPhone side or close the Casio app you have to re-initiatate the connection. (It is supposed to auto re-connect but i did not ever see that happen.) And as i've told you, it is going to take more than three attempts. Oh my God. I know it sounds crazy but it is the truth. 
• The watch is not at all comfortable. On my wrist, at least. No matter what i do, it just feels wrong. Although it is light, it just feels awkward. I think it has to do more with the band (it is supposed to work as an absorber for these times that the watch (person who wears it preferably not included) drops from 10 meters high onto concrete) than the watch itself, but the problem is always there. Again: This is a strictly personal opinion, but the damned watch could not sit on my wrist without feeling bad and looking awful.

Should you buy it?

If you really love the G-shock design then maybe yes. However, you should always keep in mind that it is mainly a watch. The smart side is not that smart, if you see what i mean. If it looks and feels like a monstrosity on your tiny wrist (that was my case), please do your self a favour and go buy a Pebble. Or go get the Galaxy Gear (if you have a compatible phone) or do the right thing: Just wait for the iWatch (i know we may all have grandchildren by the times it becomes a real product, but hope dies last).

What about the latest models?

It seems to me that Casio is selling the same hardware (paint job excluded) with some additional BT profiles in two more variations. The latest one that can show fitness tracking info from your phone could be smth a die hard triathlete could maybe consider mainly because of it's endurance to wear and tear and weather elements and water and mud and snow (and you get the meaning). However one would also need a (not even close to equally) die hard phone to feed the data to the watch in the first place, which renders the whole concept kind of futile. Why pay for both when one can buy a dedicated fitness watch that can withstand the elements?

Dedication: 

This post is dedicated to Fanis. Nice talking to you man.