Puma Smartwatch evaluation: This Wear OS watch is way from purrfect

Posted On Jan 11, 2020 By admin With Comments Off

This is the sporty smartwatch people “re looking for” … being held by by low-pitched reminiscence and Wear OS shortcomings.

Fossil’s biggest accomplishment in smartwatches is being able to bring together an incredibly diverse regulate of well-known brands under a common stage. It’s unlikely that Puma would be able( or ready) to make a competent smartwatch on its own, so this partnership with Fossil is a ended win-win like every other brand partner. Puma gets to leverage its well-known brand and intend capabilities, and cause Fossil handle the internals and capabilities.

The result is a Wear OS watch that feels incredibly familiar, sharing its programme with several other smartwatches, but one with a unique vogue that separates it from the rest of the fashion-focused market.

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At a glimpse

Puma Smartwatch

Bottom line: The Puma Smartwatch has the ogles and symbol to pick up sales from those who want to keep things sporty and rehearsal without encumbered by a fragile, or big, smartwatch. It’s light and easy to wear every day, the spectacle gets the job done, and GPS and heart rate tracking are also good. But Wear OS still has flaws and a feeble app ecosystem, 512 MB of RAM just isn’t enough to properly run this software, and battery life maxes out at one day.

The Good

Wear OS is slick and simple Lightweight and sturdy bag Good GPS and heart rate tracking Nice-looking spectacle

The Bad

Cheap-feeling plastic develop Slow-paced and incoherent act 1-day battery life at best Low-quality third-party apps No sleep moving

$275 at Amazon

Puma Smartwatch What I like

Not everyone wants a “fashion” smartwatch that’s focused on being stylish or flashy with polished metal and stylish accouterments. There’s a huge market for jaunty watches that applied capacity over form, or generally fit an active life aesthetic; and the Puma Smartwatch is here for those working buyers.

Not everyone wants a “fashion” smartwatch — some want something jaunty and robust.

Whether you pick the dayglow yellow version like I have here, or the more slight shade options, the Puma Smartwatch feels right at home when you’re out for a roll, in the gym or wearing informal invests on the weekend. It’s a simple design with a round and smooth phone surrounded by an angular form with cutouts for a cool two-tone seem. The hardware is matched well by Puma’s distinct watch faces — even though it is only has four, and you’ll have to go to the Play Store if you demand any sort of variety.

Some will see this design as a downside considering you can’t genuinely incorporate the Puma Smartwatch into more formal or dressy regalium, but you know that going in. If you need a smartwatch that can better foot the line between casual and formal, there are plenty of other options.

The Puma Smartwatch is light-colored and small-minded enough to handle any activity.

The active sort goes beyond just gazes. The chiefly plastic specimen( Puma says there’s aluminum in here, but I sure can’t tell) is sturdy and ready to take its fair share of abuse, and it’s instead freeing to have a “basic” casing that you aren’t worried about stopping pristine. The Puma Smartwatch will wear its debate scars as well as your running shoes.

It’s likewise practical for that sort of use: this watch is incredibly light and easy to wear without any trepidation. The nice-looking 1.19 -inch display fits into a casing that’s 44 mm across and 11 mm dense, and at time 28 grams is incredibly light. The crown is smartly protected so it isn’t likely to snag on cloak. The strap doesn’t look particularly high quality, but it extremely is comfortable and super-light, and never rubbed my wrist or snagged arm whisker even during workouts.

GPS and heart rate tracking were both accurate, which I vastly appreciate find in a general-purpose smartwatch. Google Fit has also improved quite a bit over the last couple of years. And you can of course install third-party apps like Strava — though the Strava app is incredibly basic, merely patronage outdoor leading and biking.

Puma Smartwatch What I don’t like

Sure it’s supposed to be illuminate, but this thing precisely feels downright cheap and plasticky.

I appreciate how light-headed the Puma Smartwatch is, but the other side of that copper is the fact that it merely feels cheap on the wrist. I switched to the Puma Smartwatch after various weeks wearing the similarly-priced Galaxy Watch Active 2, and the quality and believed it was dramatically different. It’s amazing what better textiles can bring to the table. Again you know what you’re getting into with a “sport” watch, but I was hoping for a bit of a better balance of quality for $275.

That’s genuinely the only complaint that can be had in terms of hardware; the rest of the shortcomings are all in software.

Wear OS is a set of great thoughts with very weak execution.

I actually really like Wear OS from a design and purity view. It’s slick and easy to steer, and the integration with Android for notifications and Google’s apps is seamless. The employ of a rotate crown is an excellent interaction paradigm. But it has so many issues: the software is oddly precarious, battery life maxes out at a day( though there’s no sleep tracking regardles ), and there are weird blind spots like Do Not Disturb not syncing with your telephone that just move the whole experience feel unfinished and incomplete. My watch also had a very odd habit of arbitrarily completely freezing, leaving the always-on display fasten at a specific time with the only recourse being a long-press of the crown for various seconds to reboot it.

Every Wear OS watch should have at least 1GB of RAM — the Puma Smartwatch is a perfect example of why.

I know this isn’t something that Puma( or Fossil) actually has any control over considering Wear OS is controlled by Google, but it’s still the experience you have to deal with no matter where you place the blame. And it’s too the common athletic field for all Wear OS watches — if you don’t like the application, you can’t skip the Puma Smartwatch and pick up a Fossil Gen 5 and expect anything dramatically different.

But the few exceptions in that discussion is the Puma Smartwatch’s specs. There’s a reason why Fossil now throws 1GB of RAM in most of its latest-generation watches. Wear OS really needs that gig, and all it takes is using the Puma Smartwatch to remind you why. The Puma Smartwatch randomly drags along at some of the basic tasks, like opening apps or leaving between the central boundary committees, and it genuinely detracts from the overall event — in comparison with other Wear OS watches, but the hurry of Samsung’s wearables in particular.

Puma Smartwatch Should you buy it?

In general, it’d be pretty easy to recommend the Puma Smartwatch. It’s a suitable play watch that goes all-in on active styling. It’s ignited enough to wear for any sort of activity, and robust enough to hold up to rough treatment. It’s not styled for everyone( or every sort of attire ), and its plastic feels fantastically cheap, but it offers just what this kind of buyer wants.

out of 5

This is the sporty smartwatch we want to see, but it’s held back by a pair big shortcomings.

The Puma Smartwatch is just regrettably let down by got a couple of bad decisions in its hardware, and by range Wear OS software that immediately articulates it at a drawback. I really can’t recommend a Wear OS watch that only has 512 MB of RAM, when there are so many other options based on the Fossil Gen 5 programme with 1GB that have dramatically better software rendition. The Puma Smartwatch as a whole is really impaired by the effectiveness and efficiency. And Wear OS a entire still feels unfinished, with poor battery life, peculiar instability and lackluster third-party apps.

If you’re willing to stick with Wear OS, you can find a Fossil Sport for about $150, saving you money for the same general know-how and stylish pattern. But if you can expend $275 on a Puma, I’d recommend a Fossil Gen 5 for $295 instead.

Unless you’re specially drawn to Wear OS, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 is a better sports-focused smartwatch for the money. It feels better on the wrist, and has a nice neutral design that can easily be dressed up or down. It has the specs necessary to run its software smoothly all the time, and battery life that can go two full periods with sleep tracking in between. It seems a bit generic, and doesn’t have Wear O’Ss simplicity, but it otherwise outstrips out the Puma Smartwatch in all respects.

Sporty

Puma Smartwatch

A nice sporty watch that would really is conducive to better specs.

The Puma Smartwatch is a nice athletics watch that violates the trend towards “fashion” Wear OS watches. But it certainly needs more recollection to play properly, and its plastic form is also of the view downright inexpensive for the money.

$275 at Amazon