Worn Out

Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

Remember when cellphones used to be big, giant bricks tethered to a suitcase? That’s where we are with smartwatches. They’re big giant bricks strapped to your wrist…and tethered to your smartphone over Bluetooth LE. And like those early cellphones, today’s smartwatches are also very limited in terms of functionality.

Google’s Android Wear platform is poised to change the latter, while hardware manufacturers like LG aim to improve on the former. The company’s new G Watch is the first of three Android Wear smartwatches—the other two being the Motorola Moto 360 and Samsung Gear Live. It comes with an always-on, 1.65-inch LCD display and a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor with 4 GB of memory. It’s kind of like a tiny little smartphone strapped to your wrist. Kind of.

In reality, the G Watch feels like the worst parts of your smartphone strapped to your wrist, plus Google Now and some third-party app integration.

On the hardware side, the G Watch comes with a 280 x 280 pixel resolution LCD display that’s bright and clear, although it’s basically unreadable in bright sunlight. A replaceable 22mm synthetic band straps that LCD watch face to your wrist. The band, inlaid with shallow diamond-shaped indentations on the inside, feels very thick. It never just blends seamlessly into your daily experience—you’re well aware there’s a watch there. The hefty watch face doesn’t help matters either. Its rectangular face measures approximately 38mm x 47mm x 10mm, and the bottom is completely flat, save for slightly rounded edges.

Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

I had difficulty getting the watch to fit just right: At one notch, it was slightly too tight, the bottom of the watch pressing unconformably against my wrist bone (my pediatrician once told a younger me that I have very “prominent bones”). Set at the next notch, making the band slightly looser, the watch face would bang into my hand as I swung my arms while walking. And it’s not like I walk with a ton of swagger or anything.

But the hardware is only half the story. While Android Wear has promise—the user interface is clean and intuitive, and there’s a clear, easy way for third party developers to get their apps onboard—it’s hardly a savior for our smartphone woes. In fact, the watch is mostly a hell of constant, vibrating notifications. You swipe one away, and a short time later it returns (“Come on, I’ve deleted this calendar notification twice already!”) or it’s replaced by another. You can cease the constant buzzing by going into the Android Wear app and selecting which ones you don’t want notifications from; you can also temporarily silence the watch. But in both cases, it silences indiscriminately. First thing I did after setting up the G Watch was to remove Gmail notifications, because despite the spam filters of both Conde Nast and Google, I still get roughly a hundred thousand spam emails a day. But now, while I don’t get notifications when Dr. Xander M. Fong requests I transfer funds to a Nigerian prince, I also don’t get notifications when my boss sends out a memo. So yeah, more granular notification controls are needed for the notification experience to be worthwhile.

Luckily there’s far more to the watch than just Gmail notifications. Android Wear’s third party app ecosystem promises to open up infinitely more use cases. After granting developers access to its API on the 7th, there are currently 33 Android Wear-optimized apps, including software from entities like Pinterest, Runtastic, Eat24, and BandsInTown. For now, many of these integrations are limited to passing along notifications from the smartphone to your wrist, so they’re only as useful as the notifications themselves. You can do things like get directions to a nearby location you’ve pinned on Pinterest, or get alerted and RSVP to a new upcoming concert on BandsInTown. More useful: Things like the ability to re-order food from the G Watch using Eat24’s Android Wear integrated app. I expect we’ll see more of this type of creative, useful functionality as Android Wear matures.

Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

One thing LG’s G Watch does do well is voice control. You don’t even have to hold the watch up to your face, a simple utterance of “OK Google” instantly brings up the voice command interface, letting you record a note, set an alarm, make a simple query, search directions on Google Maps, and more. When you get a text or Hangout, you can dictate and send a reply straight from the watch. It does a stellar job of interpreting what you say so long as you’re in a reasonably quiet location. In a noisy bar though, it took multiple tries to get “OK Google” to register.

The G Watch, like all Android Wear watches, is water and sweat resistant. But unlike a dedicated fitness wearable, it isn’t truly waterproof. It charges in a small cradle that the watch face magnetically snaps into. You can easily use 80 to 100 percent of its battery in a day, so you’ll want to keep this charging cradle at your office desk or by your bedside.

The goal of wearables, smartwatches in particular, is to free you from your smartphone dependence. “Look, now you don’t need to pull your phone out of your pocket to check what that notification was. A discreet glance at your wrist will let you know if it’s important or not!” False. When your wrist is vibrating constantly it’s both irritating and distracting for you and everyone else around you. And unlike a smartphone tucked away in a bag or pocket, you can’t ignore it.