I got a cheapo Xiaomi one a few years back.
Pretty sure it just makes the heart rate up and infers it from how many steps you’re doing.
When it gets wet, it randomly skips songs on Spotify.
The water thing is just a quirk of capacitive touchscreens. The same happens on the most expensive watches too, which is why there is usually a water mode that you can put the watch into. It sorta locks the touchscreen until you disable it using one of the physical buttons.
I think you need to pay extra for physical buttons.
This one sometimes has a “lockscreen” that needs a swipe up to unlock, but the rain can do that.
Interestingly it doesn’t always have a lockscreen. Sometimes it just switches it on and off depending on how it feels.
the rain falling down can swipe up on the watch?
what a backwards ass world we live inRain comes down. Rain goes up. You can’t explain that.
Better rain going up than fire coming down.
I’ve got one of the bands (10, I think). That seems to be a solved problem. I can’t interact with it in the shower, but it doesn’t go haywire.
As for the heart rate, it’s at least consistent. It matches what my blood pressure measurements report, and follows exercise, rather than steps.
I’m bad at breaking or losing watches. I don’t buy expensive smart watches, I aim for a cheap, functional one.
All I want is a smartwatch which will let me own all my personal health data, I don’t want to get locked in to some monthly subscription just to access my own health metrics
The FOSS app GadgetBridge, has a number of supported smartwatches.
Supported watches can sync your health, activity, GPS, heart, O2, sleep data to GadgetBridge locally on your phone, instead of sending it online to who knows where.
May need to use the watches app to set it up, but then all happens locally.
Get something which works with GadgetBridge. You’ll be in complete control.
I have a rule: I never preorder anything. I broke that rule recently. https://www.repebble.com/
Their website has a question at the bottom “Are you still interested in Pebble?” And if you click yes, it’ll show you their new models, but there’s also a button for No, which takes you to Google’s latest smart watch. The “we’re not a big tech msgacorp” vibes are strong with this one.
The only reason Pebble has come back is that Google agreed to open source the software after the original pebble founder pleaded with them.
This is probably a cheap “thank you” for that.
Pebble in its current state is absolutely not a big tech megacorp lol
It sent me to the Apple Watch. I have a Mac, so it’s probably using the User Agent.
I mean this project was made by Google engineers (some of whom are ex Pebble engineers) so it’s not exactly a unbiased decision to link to Google smart watches
Someone else has it direct then to Apple store. They were on a Mac. They figure it’s user agent based and not Google being Google
Pretty wild that the author didn’t set up app notifications. Getting specific notifications from specific people on my wrist is a big part of the reason I use a smartwatch. But to each their own.
It’d be pretty cool to get a significant use case of my pricey pricey Garmin for ~CAD$40.
I’m the author. I’ve now set up notifications on the advice of just about everyone. It’s pretty cool!
Nice!
I enjoyed reading your blog. It’s been a while since I looked at an honest to goodness enthusiast blog. Thanks for writing it!
You like breakfast? Anywhere near Massachusetts?
I’ve been working on a super simple blog about breakfast in all 351 cities/towns. I’m at 133.
Can throw a link if you wanna look.
I’m nowhere near Massachusetts but I am a huge fan of breakfast food so I applaud your efforts.
Mmmm… eggs bene 😁
Shakshuka is my novel breakfast these days
Okie dokie
What do you mean, specific notifications? Like an allowlist or something? Where, in android, the companion app or GB?
I’m genuinely confused.
Yeah. GadgetBridge allows me to set up an allow-list / block-list for notifications. So I can get SMS on my wrist but ignore social media pings.
I’m warning you, im going to remember this.
That sounds amazing 🤩
Sure, but the allow/block list in GB is for app level notifications, where does “from specific people” (indicating a sender filter) come in?
On Android you can designate certain notifications to be high priority.
Or, in GB, on the notifications app list you can click the cog next to an app and use those filters. I haven’t played much with it yet though.
I keep looking weird at people who say phones give you cancer and that you should never sleep with one next to you. Same people wear smartwatch with sensors pressing against your skin 24/7
The joys of not understanding ionising radiation
Honestly, it’s baffling how good some of the stuff you can get off of AliExpress is, especially when taking the low price into account.
My ~$100 N100 server is a testament to that. Just need to score some additional storage for it
I just ordered a shitload of little soldering projects for $1-4 to practice soldering and have been quite satisfied. The instructions are only in Chinese and minimal, but easy enough to translate with a phone camera and the lack of hand holding sorta encourages learning.
Which one do you use/have?
I got a GMKtec G3.
I was able to pair it with GadgetBridge by pretending it was a Colmi V79. Most of the functionality worked - I was able to see heart rate, steps, change some settings etc. I’ve requested GadgetBridge support which should make it possible to get notifications etc.
Proper GB support and this is seriously attractive.
Happy to say the latest nightly does support notifications. My wrist is buzzing with action!
Oh, your user name. Now I get it.
Does this mean it’s basically fully supported with the core features, including hands-free? Thanks for being the type of person that adds device requests to the repo, I only browse for devices already fully supported. 😔
Is there a dedicated profile in GB or are you still spoofing the 79?
And for the most important question of then all - Does 2048 come with the standard 4x4 grid only or is there optional sizes for those long, chill games of
cookie clickermath swiper?
dude this thing has a flashlight? you son of a bitch, I’m in
No, he said torch. I assume butane.
Close, propane.
I tell you hwat.
Taste the meat not the heat.
Should I Buy One?
That’s up to you, champ. I’m not your real dad and I’m not trying to take his place. But I’m here for you if you need me.
Love it. 🤣🤣🤣
I really like my Amazfit Neo. Okay, it doesn’t charge with USB-C but I appreciate its “always on” display and retro aesthetic. Can’t believe they don’t make 'em anymore!
Is there a worthy successor or can anybody recommend a similar minimalist smartwatch that won’t break the bank?
I’ve had my Amazfit Bip (the original) for 6 or 7 years and the only complaint I have is the shitty original non-breathing silicon strap. After I replaced it with nylon strap, it was pretty much perfect.
The battery still lasts over three weeks. The display glass only has a few tiny scratches on it, despite that I’ve worn the watch basically 24/7 all these years.
It has all the basic functionalities I need built in and the not-so-important-but-nice ones I can get via Tasker.
And it was really cheap, I originally bought it just to see what the fuss about smartwatches was all about. But it’s been so damn useful and trustworthy that I won’t even consider upgrading until it fails someday.
After checking out the specs, I think I might go for a Bip next, tnx. Always worth having a backup watch too for when your main is getting charged.
I bought an $80 Seiko because it doesn’t require electricity at all. Can’t read my emails on it though.
Can’t read my emails on it though.
Great feature!!
I had no idea USB C charging was such a rarity for smart watches
I’m curious about the reliability of this port on a sweaty wrist exposed to dust and general labor environments. My phones, even back to the proprietary plug days, have had the charge port covered and my wrist watch would get wrecked.
It has a small rubber lug - which has worked so far at keeping out the grime. But I don’t have a manual labour job.
Is it esp32 based?
No, its something different, according to the blog:
First up, the brains of the watch is the JL7012 - which is a deliberately underpowered chip.
Heh, of course it has a knock-off UI too.
Please check in with an update after 6 months.
This article was right up my alley. I’ve been considering buying a cheapo smartwatch. I suppose this one couldn’t be used as a mp3 player for jogging though.
It doesn’t have storage or a headphone port. But it will stream music over Bluetooth. So if you want to annoy everyone you job with, you can listen to its tinny speaker :-)
