If you ever get stuck in a debate about future wearables and about the recent wearable technologies, you may find yourself talking about smartwatches a lot.
With the digital world evolving day by day, people are getting more curious about the involved technology. Whereas one side people who use smartwatches will favor the smartwatch world, there will be those people too who do not like the idea of it.
So who’s side will you choose? Do you know every major pros and cons of a smartwatch? If not, this article will help you to decide whether this wearable technology is suitable for you or not.
Starting with some positivity both in our lives and in this article, let’s talk about the pros of a smartwatch.
Pros Of Having A Smartwatch
1. Convenient Features
Features are considered to be the topmost priority to look for if you are interested in investing in any smartwatch. Today’s smartwatch’s features are extremely convenient for anyone who is wearing it.
Talking about some premium features, you can have access to contactless payment modes in many smartwatches where you will not need your wallet or your smartphone nearby. You can also receive real-time text and calls on your smartwatch.
The smartwatches also come up with some amazing display features which let you use it in bright sunlight too.
Not only that, but you can also enjoy several built-in voice command features as well as the Google Assistant itself on many Wear OS smartwatches by Google.
Many smartwatches also come with motion sensors where you can activate your smartwatch by moving your wrists.
2. Compatibility With Smartphones
This is one of the most accepted advantages of having a smartwatch. Your smartwatch can easily sync with your smartphone, that is, now you can use most of your smartphone features on your smartwatch as well.
You can receive various app notifications, calendar alerts, and even text messages on several smartwatches in the market.
Where you have the privilege to only accept and decline calls in many smartwatches, some premium smartwatches even let you converse through your smartwatch which is one thing that surely reflects a glimpse of the wearable future.
You can also use various apps of your smartphone in your smartwatch when both are synced with each other. You can listen to music using your smartwatch and even use your smartphone’s GPS on a smartwatch.
With this syncing feature, you don’t need to pull out your smartphone from your pocket every time it rings. This lets you have a comfortable drive, a fine dinner, and a smooth workflow because you have an alternate of your smartphone right on your wrists.
3. Fitness Features
Smartwatches are just not meant for the purpose to see the time. They are meant to be both, smart feature-focused as well as fitness-focused.
You can have access to several trackers like the heart-rate monitor, Pedometer, sleep analysis tracker, blood pressure monitor, etc. These high-end fitness features right on your wrist definitely takes the smartwatches to a next level.
These features are extremely beneficial for people who need to give constant attention to their various health problems and for all the fitness freaks out there.
There are also several built-in workout routines that can function with and without the help of GPS, for example, running, cycling, etc.
You can note down several personal insights like the number of calories burned, steps walked, and so on.
Along with these features, smartwatches are also waterproof with several swim-tracking features that let you dive deep into your pool and note down the number of strokes and various other swimming stats.
4. High-end design
For people who are bored with traditional watches, a smartwatch can give you a futuristic feel and definitely quite a different vibe.
You can have access to some high-end designs like the rotating bezel in Samsung smartwatches, which will not only make your smartwatch fashion-focused but also makes the navigation of apps and features much easier.
These smartwatches, which can either be lightweight or bulky, also come up with different shapes of the watch case. For example, Fitbit Versa is rectangular which sits flat on any wrist. Hence, extremely comfortable to wear.
People can have a great number of options to decide according to their level of comfort.
Meanwhile, one of the most notable advantages of the designs of smartwatches is that they are quite versatile. There are smartwatches that come by the name hybrid smartwatch, that gives a look of a classic dial watch and there are also those smartwatches that reflect future techs.
5. Emergency Support
Along with several features and built-in technologies, smartwatches have proved to give reliable emergency support.
Many times, parents worry about the safety of their children and even sometimes for themselves when they forget their smartphones or any necessary item at home.
In any case, If any kind of emergency situation occurs where you are not able to contact your friends or family for help, you can use the emergency services provided by your smartwatch.
You can use the emergency call feature whenever you find yourself in danger and you need help. Not only this but with premium smartwatches, if you are not responding back after falling down on the ground during cycling or running, your location details will be automatically shared to get you help as soon as possible.
This feature is one of the greatest advantages of a smartwatch where you can have extremely reliable emergency support right on your wrists.
6. Entertainment
Smartwatches can provide you with some great useful features and several other advantages. And unlike normal watches, smartwatches can also be a source of entertainment for many.
Here, the advantage is that you can listen to music. With the music feature, you can turn your smartwatch into an mp3 player.
In the case of premium smartwatches, you can listen to your favorite songs & playlist via built-in speakers of your smartwatch. If in case your smartwatch doesn’t have speakers, you can always use your smartwatch’s Bluetooth and connect it to your AirPods or whichever Bluetooth headset you have in your pockets.
You can either store your own preferred songs on your smartwatch or you can download your preferred music provider, that is, users can have access to certain built-in and third-party apps.
Other than music, you can also enjoy the radio, several podcasts, and many fitness workouts on your smartwatch.
This unique entertainment experience on a watch makes the smartwatch world super awesome.
7. Premium User Interface and User Experience
While normal watches cannot provide you with some high-quality interface, smartwatches have been soaring high in the market for a while. The touchscreen interface is the most common feature here. Besides that, there are several UI concepts in smartwatches which you may definitely like.
Talking about some of the most creative user interface concepts of a smartwatch, you can have taxi animation, FM Radio UI, Android wear fitness, sleep tracking concepts, and a thousand others which can either be related to any built-in feature or any known concept of the digital world. Hence, you will never get bored with your smartwatch’s interface.
Because of the perfect interface, the user experience is also top-notch. The design in various premium smartwatches revolves around the core features of the watch and the built-in apps and thus, it becomes very easy for the user to operate the smartwatch.
Therefore, for the smartwatch users, customer satisfaction with respect to UI and UX is very good.
8. Highly Customizable
Among all the premium features and benefits of a smartwatch, being customizable gives it a good position amidst the wearable future.
People often get bored with the same watch and the same features. However, in smartwatches, you have the privilege to change every bit of your smartwatch. From interface designs to the wallpaper, from the watch face to the number of apps, and several other characteristics.
This level of customization in any smartwatch makes that wearable tech better than any other normal watch out there in the market.
Not only you can customize the screen, but also you can customize several premium apps and features. For example, not only you can use your favorite weather app but also you can set what information you want to see from your weather app on your home screen.
Cons Of Having A Smartwatch
While there are several benefits of having a smartwatch on your wrists, there are some disadvantages of a smartwatch too. Just like the two sides of the same coin, here are the 8 cons which you should always keep in mind.
1. The Screen Is Quite Small
Though the smartwatch can be synced with the smartphone quite easily, you can only enjoy the features of the smartphone and not the other privileges like the big screen. Having such a small screen can be of huge concern as it is quite frustrating to use and navigate such small screens.
People with large hands and large fingers usually come across such small screen problems. Sometimes there are a bunch of apps placed extremely closer to each other. Navigation and selection of these apps become very difficult in such circumstances.
Also, there are several people who like big & bulky screens, however, there are not so many good smartwatches with this characteristic.
2. The Battery Life Is Not Always Reliable
When you invest a good amount in a smartwatch to enjoy a lot of features and apps of that particular smartwatch, you will always expect to have a good battery life to use the smartwatch for a longer duration. However, with several smartwatches, even the premium, and expensive ones, you may not get the best battery life.
The battery life of smartwatches on average works for only 2-3 days. When you use so many features at one go, the battery life will surely go down below the average battery life.
This is extremely frustrating when you want to use your smartwatch at night for sleep tracking and you don’t have enough battery life for the remaining day.
There are always some limiting factors when battery life is to be considered. Heart patients looking for heart-rate stats may have to charge their watch on a regular basis which may not be worth it.
3.Need For A Smartphone
Many times, you have to rely on your smartphone to use your smartwatch fully. Smartphone syncing may be considered as a boon at one point in time but it is also a curse sometimes.
You need to have your smartphone nearby for GPS syncing and to enjoy several other smart notification features. For people who are ok to use their smartphones every time, they may not find the smartwatch’s features worth it.
If someday you forgot your smartphone at home, your smartwatch may lose almost half of its features and the remaining will be time and some other basic features.
Thus, even if the smartwatch syncs perfectly with the smartphones, they can never replace smartphones at least for a decade. Therefore, smartwatches are only reliable when your smartphone is nearby.
4. Price
If you want to buy a smartwatch, your pockets should definitely be full. That’s the only thing you need the most.
The smartwatch with average features & design can also be priced at more than $100. These smartwatches may be affordable for you, but you will never get premium features. With affordable prices, there will always be something missing from your smartwatch.
Because of the budget issue, you may have to stick to your smartphone to enjoy high-end features and designs. If you want a smartwatch which will be extremely useful for you, consider having a budget of nearly $200.
Meanwhile, If you ever plan to buy a smartwatch for calling purposes, you may also have to pay for monthly subscriptions too.
5. Inaccurate Data
While several smartwatches come with built-in fitness trackers and sensors, the stats from various smartwatches, even the premium ones, are not always accurate.
With so many information and data to fill up the stats of different categories like heart-rate monitoring, sleep analysis tracker as well as swim tracker, the stats can really get inaccurate because of the cheap sensors. Even the premium and expensive smartwatches give wrong stats many times.
Fitness freaks, who rely so much on the daily stats, can come across some big-time difficulties if the stats are not 100% accurate.
6. Limited Storage
Even though smartwatches offer a lot of things, there is always some kind of limitations to it.
Whereat one side you can enjoy several premium music platforms and download your favorite music instantly, you always have to look up to the storage space before downloading anything.
Where you only get a limited storage space, that also gets filled up with some necessary updates. Many times, you want to have access to third-party apps, but you can’t download and use those apps at the same time due to limited storage.
You always have to segregate the best ones and in many cases and you may also have to dumb your favorite apps to retain some necessary features because of the limited storage space.
This storage limitation may stop various people to buy a smartwatch.
7. Gets Outdated Easily
Smartwatches are costly. If you want to enjoy the premium features, you will definitely buy the most recent smartwatch in the market. But with the digital world evolving day by day, the chances of your smartwatch going out of date in just a few weeks is very high.
Now imagine you save for 6 months or even more and then invest almost every penny from your savings to buy a premium smartwatch which is recently launched. Exactly after two months, a new model of the same smartwatch series is released and you are left with the old version whose price has also gone down to the bottom.
These constant upgrades leave many people heart-broken.
8. Not A Necessary Gadget For Many
Now, this is a huge concern. It is a fact that smartwatches are not considered necessary for every customer of the digital world.
With smartphones with high-end designs and amazing features available at the same price as a smartwatch or sometimes even cheaper, smartwatches don’t even match with the quality of a smartphone.
Talking about the Fitness features of the smartwatches, there are several fitness bands available in the market at a cheaper price and reliable stats. So If you are buying a smartwatch only for fitness features, these bands can be a better option.
Yes, smartwatches do make our life a bit easy but for people who don’t have enough money in their pockets, It is definitely not a necessary gadget to have on your wrist.
Take A Decision Based On Your Need
Even though smartwatches do offer some amazing quality features, it may not be able to completely replace smartphones for a very long time.
With battery life not as long as it should be in accordance with the set of features available, smartwatches may not even provide you with the complete set of features that you need on your wrists.
Though some smartwatches can be a great fit due to their reliable fitness features and statistics, some of the smartwatches may not give accurate results. So, is buying a smartwatch worth it?
We may never answer this question for you as the answer lies in the requirements of a particular person. In the article mentioned above, we discussed in detail some advantages and disadvantages of having a smartwatch. With some advantages may make you buy one for yourself, some of the disadvantages may reverse your decision.
However, at the end of the day, your decision solely depends on your requirements and also on your savings. Give it a thought and decide for yourself.
