Discreet styling, tracks more than standard health and fitness, dust and waterproof, lightweight
Tracking not always accurate, not always clear what the data's for
Sony already has some form in the wearables arena -- it was one of the first on the scene with the SmartWatch -- but now it's looking to up its game with the svelte, sleek and really rather clever SmartBand. It tracks all sorts of data, but what are you meant to do with it?
It's oft been said that the key to making successful wearable technology will be in creating devices that people actually want to wear. They need to look and feel good, as well as act smart. And Sony's made a firm step in that direction with the SmartBand, which comes in a range of different hues, and to an extent follows the trend for wristbands to denote your favourite charity or other allegiances.
Form factor
It's a discreet band made from durable-looking rubbery silicone, smooth on the inside, with a textured feel on the outside. The Smart bit comes in the form of the Core, which slips into a recess within the Band (rather like the Fitbit Flex). This Core includes a
'Life BookMark' button (more on that later), three teensy LED lights and a microUSB charge/sync port but that's all. There are no other control buttons and no screen.
Sony is hoping you'll buy several different coloured wristbands and swap the core unit and fastening button between them, depending on your wardrobe and your mood. Usefully, it's waterproof, up to a point. It has the IP58 rating, which means it will resist dust and survive up to a metre deep in water for up to a half an hour.
Operation
The top of the Core is touch-sensitive and you can assign different functions, such as 'find my phone' (so your phone rings), turning off the alarm or skipping tracks when you're playing music on your phone. It also vibrates if you move out of Bluetooth range of the phone it's connected to -- handy for reminding you where you left it).
To set it up, you'll need to install two apps on your Android smartphone. It will need to be running Android 4.4 KitKat and needs Bluetooth 4 Low Energy -- so it'll need to be a very recent phone or one that's had a recent software update.
Apps
Download the SWR10 Smart Connect app and the Lifelog app and you're good to go. It has NFC so tapping it against Sony's Xperia M2 for instance, took us straight to Smart Connect on Google Play.
The Lifelog app is where Sony hopes to be different. After putting in some basic info (weight, height, age, gender) you're ready to start logging your life. What that means is that it will record walking steps and running, as well as track your sleep and the number of calories you're burning. So far so standard. But it will also track other areas, marked as Communication, Camera, Music, Movie/TV, Games, Books and Browsing.
Communication tells you how much time you've spent on social networks, Camera logs your photos and displays them, etc. The idea is that over time it builds up a picture of your lifestyle.
Reliability didn't seem to be its strong point though, often recording wildly inaccurate sessions -- an hour of music listening might show up as just a couple of minutes, and sometimes it would claim I was running when really I was only walking -- not very fast either.
When you double press the Life Bookmark button, the theory is that you get a snapshot of your life at that moment. So it records your position (so long as GPS is on on your phone), whatever activity you've logged yourself in as doing, and the weather. You can then add some notes to this data about what you were doing.
Clever? Yes. Useful? Well... And of course, it's not just you that collects the data, Sony does too.
Conclusion
The Sony SmartBand feels a little bit like a technology in search of a solution. It tries to log just about everything, but there are more detailed devices for health and fitness (the main uses for wearables so far) which rather leaves you wondering why else you would need to record all this data. It works as a kind of live blogging diary, and can help you remember where you were and what you were doing, as well as what you were thinking at any given moment but that doesn't seem quite enough to justify the price.
Wrist straps supplied: 2 (large and small)
Software required: Android 4.4 or later, Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, Lifelog app, Smart Connect app
NFC: Yes
Water and dustproof: Yes, IP58
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
