8 Tips to Choose an Excellent Smartwatch

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A smartwatch can help you stay connected and multitask so you never miss a beat. Whether you’d rather keep your phone stashed away or you always find yourself missing important calls, smartwatches sync with your smartphone so you can manage your digital life conveniently and discreetly. Many even double as activity trackers, helping you monitor your health. Use this guide to help you choose the best smartwatch for your needs.

What Can a Smartwatch Do?

• Smartwatches do much more than just keep time. They act as a companion to your smartphone by delivering alerts, notifications, apps and more right to your wrist. They can even double as activity trackers. In order to have full functionality, nearly all smartwatches must connect via Bluetooth and be within wireless range of an Android or iOS smartphone or tablet. However, a few connected smartwatches actually have 3G/LTE capabilities and can operate without a connection to another device.
  As smartphones have become essential to staying connected and organized, smartwatches are truly designed for the world we live in today. Have you ever missed a call or text because you didn't hear your phone? Or been somewhere it wasn’t suitable to check your e-mail or social media? There are countless situations that call for hands-free, discreet access to your smartphone, and smartwatches provide that — subtly, conveniently and without the disruption that a phone can cause.

Smartwatch Operating Systems

Smartwatches require pairing to a smartphone for notification functionality. It’s important to understand that not all smartwatches will work with all smartphones.

Most smartwatches are compatible with an Android or iOS device, or, in some instances, both. Some have their own operating systems and will only work with specific devices of the same brand. Others might be compatible with a select variety of operating systems. Since smartwatches are devised to accompany your smartphone, you’ll want to be sure it’s compatible with your phone's existing operating system.

When choosing a smartwatch operating system, there are a few things to consider beyond basic compatibility. For the most part, Android Wear and Watch OS are more similar than not. Watch OS has a reputation for being quick, clean and consistent. Only apps that go through Apple's strict approval process get released. Android Wear uses an open-source model, creating many customization options.

Tizen is a newer operating system used by Samsung and is similar to Android Wear. It too is an open-source platform for smartwatches, smartphones, tablets and more. Tizen has its own applications and allows for a user experience that you can take from device to device.

The Microsoft Band 2 uses the Windows 10 operating system to deliver notifications, e-mail preview and calendar notifications. The Band will work with iOS, Android and Windows phone. When paired with Windows phone 8.1, Microsoft Band 2 also supports Cortana personal digital assistant functionality.