Day 44.Today, I am going to wear a BozGo Bozlun smart watch.
I am not sure what it is with smart watches. I sort of love them and hate them at the same time. Case in point. I was browsing smart watches online and I came across this watch that had a different looking interface that caught my attention. When I looked at the price, It was hard to not go for it as it was well under 100 dollars. Once I ordered it, I did a bit more researching and found out that the watch started life as a kickstarter campaign.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1237640011/bozgo-24-7-health-tracking-smarsmurfch-with-live-3dYes, we are talking about a BozGo Bozlun smart watch.
The reason why I love smart watches so much...is the capabilities that are above and beyond what a normal watch can do. The reason why I hate them so much is two fold. 1-they are mostly on and off devices necessitating either a flick of the wrist or a push of a button to turn on the device in order to read the time. 2-there is an app that is required to go onto your cellphone that is quite often the Achilles heel of the device. Quite often, the app is terrible, and will either not pair with your phone, or if it does, will kill your battery on the phone quickly when on. The App for this one isn't so bad...but I do have a big issue with it which I will explain a little later in this mini review.
The packaging is rather beautiful due to its colourful rounded metal canister. A little humour is interjected on the packaging as it states "No more Time! BozGo! That is an odd statement...but then again, lots of oddity appears on Chinese items. I must assume something got lost in the translation to English. Included in the packaging is the watch (I got the blue bracelet version), a colourful instruction manual that is first half Chinese, second half English, and one of those magnetic USB charging cables.
Looking on the back of the watch, you can see the heart rate sensor, and the charging port.
The magnetic coupler is fairly strong. Because of the exposed pins, I would attach the charging cable to the phone first, and then plug it in afterwards for fear of shorting something out.
Here is the bottom stick on the cute packaging. Note that the manufacturer is Shenzhen Berace Technology Company, Limited.
The watch features 5 buttons, Pressing the middle one for 3 seconds will turn the watch on/off. What originally attracted me to this watch was the "3D" graphics. Well...I must say, there is no such thing as a 3D feature on this watch. In hand, you quickly notice that the watch is simply 2D with animations. There are 3 main screens you can rotate through. I am quite happy to state that the watch will remember which main screen you are one. I had read a review that someone hated the interface as it would always revert to the main page. I am happy that it remembers as the main screen looks good on the computer but is a bit hard to read on your wrist. I imagine this is because once you flicked your wrist to turn on the watch to read, it only gives you a very limited time to do so. The reading of the time on the main screen is something you couldn't just do on a glance. There is a space theme that runs throughout the 3 main screens. I am ok with that.
Here is the main screen. You need to quickly locate little red triangles to read the hour and minute. During this time, the earth is rotating which does distract you a little...that is until you get used to the interface.
Forgive my photographic skills here. It was a bit difficult to capture the watch while one. Regardless, this is the analogue version of the main screen. Note the continuation of the space theme on this screen as well. The solar system is also animated.
Last but not least, my favorite main screen. At least I can read the time quickly in the short time that the screen flashes on and off.
Some of the watch features are pretty good for what it is. The heart rate monitor is kinda cool. You can set it up to constantly take heart rates during an exercise period for example. Here is the best I could do while juggling a camera, etc.
I wore the watch last night during my sleep (something I never do is wear a watch during sleep), to see what the sleep function is all about. To be honest, I didn't receive anything during my sleep cycle. Now, the watch is supposed to analyze your sleep patterns, and even wake you up during a light sleep phase as opposed to waking you up in a deep sleep. I haven't tried this feature, as I haven't played with the alarm setting. Maybe I need to wear this watch several times before the sleep analysis will take place. Quite possibly, I may have to fork a lot of my personal data to the company to be allowed access to this function in the application...more on this later. I have as yet to be sold on any of these sleep monitoring functions on any watch that I own that has this feature. Here is the sleep monitoring screen.
The battery on this watch is amazing. It is nice to not have to recharge the watch every night. Here is the battery icon that shows battery charge.
Here is the "normal" state of the BozGo. I was able to make setting changes using the app to enable "gestures". This allows the watch to turn on when you turn your wrist to look at it. This generally works well, albeit a bit distracting as you go about your business with the smart watch going nuts turning itself on and off during the day. The watch is very light, and this surprised me somewhat when I got it. At the time, I wasn't aware that there were two versions of this watch, the BozGo, and the BoxGo Premium. The Premium features a stainless steel bezel ring. My more basic copy features a plastic bezel. Frankly, if all that is different is the metal disk, I do not mind owning the less fancy watch. Not sure what plastic they use, but is appears durable. What I do not like about the watch on a purely aesthetic basis, is the world time places around the bezel. They are only there for fashion and are not usable. Much like fake sub-dials, I am not much a fan of the fake inscriptions. On the plus side, the bracelet is large enough for me to get to the third hole if needed, and the bracelet is comfortable.
Now onto the App. As far as connectivity goes, I will have to rate this application high marks. I do this because it was easy to pair the application with my cell phone, which is an LG G6. Once paired via Bluetooth, it remained paired. I have other "smart watches" who's applications are terrible and fairly unusable. With that said, there is a big issue with me, and that is one of privacy. If you have read about China and the US, and even Canada, or for that matter, China versus many other nations, there is a big worry about identify theft. This application does not dissuade you from this notion that China wants to know everything about you. For instance, I have as yet created an account. It asks a lot of personal data from you, such as your cell phone, age, date of birth, etc. A lot of things that I am not comfortable in giving over to this company. There is a "tourist mode" that allows me basic functionality such as watch settings that I probably wouldn't be able to access if I had to fork over so much of my personal information. In tourist mode (how quaint), I cannot use a lot of the functions of this application like creating profiles, etc. Consequently, the application defaults to calling you "Hail".
Here is the main screen of the application "RaceFitPro".
At least you can access some of the watch functions with a "tourist" account...which means you sign in with no account.
Here is the Record section. If you scroll down, there are several other function graphs you can access such as heart rate, and sleep analysis.
The sport section only gives you two sections...running and bicycling. I didn't take a screen shot but it is similar to the above "record" section.
So what do I think about the BozGo smart watch by Bozlun. I will just write my impressions and list them in no particular order.
1. The watch is light and thin. Wearing this for any length of time is no hardship. In fact, you might even forget you are wearing it.
2. The watch materials, although not premium, does feel sturdy enough. The light weight does give the user an overall cheap feeling to the watch though. Either that, or I am used to watches that weight more.
3. The application RaceFitPro connects to my LG well. A big negative is all the personal info I need to fork over in order to access most of the apps functionality.
4. There are a few listed features such as the constant heart rate monitoring, and an alarm that is supposed to wake you up with vibrations during your not so deep sleep cycles...both I have as yet tried.
5. Only 3 watch faces, and they are a lot alike. The 3D interface claim is a joke. albeit a bit unique visually from what is out there.
6. Standard smart watch functions are also here, such as shake wrist to take a photo from your cell phone (I tried this and it works nicely), find your phone, etc. Nothing unusual that I haven't already mentioned.
7. Magnetic charging cable does feel rubbery cheap, but the magnets are strong, even if the pins stick out a little more than I would like to. Attaching the cable to the watch first, and then plugging the USB cable into a USB port second should eliminate the possibility of shorting something out.
So there you have it. A somewhat unique smart watch with an application that forces you to give up a lot of personal data to the Chinese to gain full functionality of your watch features...well that isn't cool at all. At least you can enter "visitor mode" without give up all your secrets to a hostile foreign nation...and if you have been following the news with China and Canada...hostile is the word of these times, I would rate this watch relatively higher than I am willing to today. Overall, the interface is cute if by no means 3D. I do like the planet animation themes. You can use the watch as a standard watch...and the gestures do work well here. The battery life is a winner as well. I think the watch should last 5 days on a single charge. There is a lot to like here...but I can't get over their asking for my phone number, date of birth, full name, etc. Seems down right creepy to fork all of that over to get full access to RaceFitPro application. Furthermore, if you read their app legal section, they have access to all your very personal information such as sleep cycles, health, etc...anything that this watch monitors. Could be I am suffering from a tinge of paranoia, but to me, something smells rotten here. Just saying.
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