SONY SMARTBAND SWR10 - HONEST REVIEW

If you're looking for a fitness tracker, and Sony is getting into it with their own fitness tracker which I first saw quite interesting. But let's take a closer look Sony Smartband SWR10 and find out what it is all about.

The Sony Smartband is the company's first product to be powered by the new core fitness tracker. In terms of design, the band is comprised by two parts. There is the actual band it self made out of a textured silicone and Sony includes a small and large one in the box.

They're both adjustable by two prong metal fastener so it's made virtually any wrist size. The metal fastener feels a little bit clumsy when I first try it, I would have liked it better if magnet or clasp instead to make it easier to put on. But once it's on your wrist, it is very secure.

The is the second part come in, what Sony called 'the Core'. So it's basically the hard of the bandit is essentially a plastic white rectangle  with micro USBon one-end for charging, a power button the other side with three LED indicators, and a Sony logo on the bottom.The Core slips into the underside of the band and looks like a normal band, nobody would probably think of it if they saw you wear it.

sony smartband - core

By the fault, it only comes in black but Sony is selling color band separately if you want to switch thing up a bit if black is a little too boring for you. It's also extremely light weight and very comfortable to wear, after awhile I pretty much forgot I was even wearing it. If you want to wear it in the shower, you can do that because it is rated IP 58, make it both dust and water resistant.

REQUIREMENT
 
In order to first star using this smartband, you will have to pair it with your smartphone via NFC or bluetooth. The requirement is you have a phone running Android 4.4 Kit Kat. The process takes about 5 minutes but it require you to download 3 separate apps:

1- Sony Smartband App
2- Sony Connect
3- Lifelog

I would have been nice to see Sony combine them all to a single app, but once you have it all set up, it will automatically start tracking your smartband. Since the band doesn't have a screen, pretty much all of the smartband settings have to be done on your smartphone. 

CONTROLLING 

Within the smart band apps, you adjust a few different settings like auto-night mode, which will automatically put the phone into the night mode at the time you specify. You can select virtually any apps to have notifications sent direct to the band, but the only thing the band does is vibrate letting you know that you have a new notifications but still, you have t pull out your phone to find out what it is.   There's a few other apps that you can control from the smartband like you music player, camera

smartband apps

What makes Sony Smartband is different from other tracker is that it's tracke more than just your fitness activities. On top of walking, running, and how many calories you've burnt, it also tracking your social interaction, music, movies, games, reading, and browsing the web.


BATTERY LIFE

When it come to the battery life, it's got to a tiny 35 mAh inside and Sony promises 5 days out of it and that is exactly what I got. Five days is pretty much for wearable device like this and it doesn't take long to charge either. It was about 30 minutes to an hour of charging.


previous entry: Filmed Shark Attack with GoPro, Fake?


-  SONY SMARTBAND SWR10 REVIEW