5 Reasons Why Smartwatches Are A Waste Of Time

1. Terrible Battery Life

One of the largest problem with wearable devices is battery life. Battery technology is simply not advanced enough to give products like smartwatches battery lives of more than 12 hours. This is largely due to the fact that the always-on screen and wireless communications of these devices are incredibly power hungry, while the small form factor of these watches leaves little space for large batteries.

Image: © 2014 Apple

2. Hard To Interact With

While smartphones have a large screen area which leads itself towards easy and streamlined touch controls, this isn’t the case for smartwatches. To address this, Android Wear has resorted to obtrusive voice controls, while Apple has ‘innovated’ the Digital Crown control knob, which seems both hard to use, and simply a reimagining of the iPod’s touch wheel.

Image: © 2014 LG

3. Too Bulky

Watches mean a lot of different things for different people. While for some, a watch is a huge contraption worn on the wrist providing a vast array of information, for many others it is a subtle piece of jewelry. Current smartwatches, including the Apple Watch, simply are too big, heavy, and bulky for them to be attractive to the vast majority of watch wearers.

Image: © 2014 Samsung

4. Little Cross Platform Support

Perhaps one of the strangest decisions by companies like Samsung and Apple on their smartwatches is the lack of cross-platform support. A Gear device will only work in tandem with a Samsung smartphone, while the Apple Watch is restricted to owners of the iPhone. This means that the smartwatch a user wants could be out of their reach due to the earlier purchase of an incompatible smartphone.

Image: © 2014 Apple

5. High Price

Smart watches are expensive, there is no denying it. But so are the traditional watches they are replacing right? While this is true, the operational life of a smartwatch is probably similar to that of a smartphone (around 2-3 years), while that of a traditional watch can extend into decades. This combined with the fact that traditional watches can appreciate in value, makes them a much better investment than smartwatches.

Image: © 2014 Apple