Info on Urbane 2d Edition - iOS v Android

blaster88

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Jun 28, 2011
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Hi - have had my watch for 4 days, here is some info about it that I haven't been able to find elsewhere, at least not clearly. Probably would have been helpful if I could have found this prior to getting the watch.

I am an AT&T customer and have an iPhone 5s, my wife has a Galaxy S5 Edge. I have paired the watch to both to see the differences.

First, Numbersync - you can parse this info out of the AT&T website, but it really isn't clear until you try to do it. Numbersync only works for devices that can do HD Voice on AT&T, And the only devices that can do HD Voice are the iPhone 6 line, and the iPhone SE (which as near as I can tell only AT&T has, its basically an iPhone 6 in an iPhone 5 package). The lesson: If you want to use Numbersync, you need to be on an iPhone 6, and that means you will be using your Urbane with iOS. [This is incorrect, see below]

What I read about use with iOS before I got the watch was that Android Wear with iOS was somewhat limited in comparison with Android, which makes sense, Android on Android v Android on iOS. It is surprising that it works at all, right? What I had read was that the limitations were that you would get notifications, but that you couldn't respond. Which seems like a reasonable difference, given Android apps v iOS apps. But that significantly understates the differences. There are many options in settings etc. that are simply not available on iOS. For example, on the Android Wear main screen for iOS there are 3 apps available. in Android, you can scroll down a whole page and then there is a "MORE" button. So there is a ton of functionality that is available in Android that isn't in the iOS version. And in the menus on Android Wear, there is an entry for "Take screenshot of wearable" that isn't there on iOS - however, this may be theoretical, I clicked on that menu item and I don't know if it took a screenshot because it did not give me any feedback that it did, and I couldn't find an image on the phone. On the watch, when paired with iOS, you have only the option of turning notification sounds on or off - with Android, you can notify sound on "important" notifications, All, or none. (not sure how you designate important I didn't dig that deep). With iOS, you pair with bluetooth only, so that part about leaving your phone behind isn't so - if you get out of range of your bluetooth phone, the watch is not connected anymore. Period. With Android theoretically it pairs over LTE. I can't confirm that because in my neighborhood we have poor AT&T signal. I have a Microcell in my house for that, but if I walk away I don't have any LTE signal (my phone will have 1 or 2 bars in my neighborhood but watch gets no signal) so I don't know if it actually connects over that. It told me it was disconnected, plain and simple. Paired with iOS you cannot send a text standalone from the watch, but you can receive texts. You CAN make and receive calls. With Android, you can send and receive texts standalone, and from the paired phone. To send a text you have to do speech to text. I did not try email reply from the watch but I think it works the same way as texting.

There are settings for WiFi and Bluetooth on the watch available with Android but not with iOS. I did not try connecting with WiFi - but I did look at the config, you choose the network, then it sends you to the phone to enter the WiFi password. I paired a Bluetooth headset with the watch and was able to use it for ALL watch audio. I had read elsewhere that you could only use Bluetooth headsets to listen to music, not with calls. Maybe they've updated AW since then or it might be a difference in pairing - you can pair the watch as a headset to the phone, I think that would prevent you from using a different headset to be audio for the watch.

Why would you want to pair Bluetooth to it anyway? Well, let's say you were going to go for a walk or run with the watch away from your phone and wanted to listen to music - if you pair to iOS, you can't do that. It has to play over the watch speaker. And I am not entirely sure you could listen to music stored on the watch without the phone anyway since there isn't actually a media player on the watch. [While writing this I am back to paired with iPhone - I opened Google Play Music and opened a channel and played it, then paused it. After a bit a card popped up on the watch with a play button - when I pressed it the music started playing on the phone not the watch.] Also, the speaker phone on the watch is very usable in a quiet environment. But any background noise whatsoever, forget about it. They can hear you on the other end, but you won't be able to hear them. So it isn't that useful as a handsfree device. So you COULD, on Android, pair it with Bluetooth, and use that handsfree that way, but if you have to have your phone around anyway then it isn't more useful than just pairing the Bluetooth to the phone.... But, if the connect to the phone does work over LTE, and you wanted to go running with just your watch on, and you can listen to music without the phone around, it would make sense to pair to a Bluetooth headset and then you could also take and make calls while you are out.

Also, pairing and unpairing the watch is a destructive process - if you change what phone you are connected to, it does a factory reset on the watch, and deletes all your data.

Overall I think there is more evolution to come, and I expect it will. Android Wear will continue to improve and perhaps even get more functionality paired to iOS, though I suspect Apple will protect its territory on that. I don't know how firmware will get updated on the watch itself, I would guess AW will handle that. I would say that if you are using it on iOS then you don't have much more than a notifier and a separate phone that is only useful in quiet situations with the Urbane LTE. There is a LOT more utility paired with Android, it was almost - almost - enough to make me think about switching phone OSes - I might when upgrade time comes around, but then maybe Apple will allow more functionality for AW.

Random observation: I was able to see the Urbane (non LTE) and Huaweii watches (both the SS and Rose Gold) in person at Best Buy. All of the articles that say that Huaweii looks like a real luxury watch in comparison to others are wrong, in my opinion. The stainless steel one is just a plain stainless steel case - looks pretty much like a Moto - it does NOT look like a luxury watch. The Rose Gold has a design on the bezel, I will call it crenellated. Gold is not my style so perhaps it is bias, but the Rose Gold looks like cheap plating on the watch. The Urbane looks like a more stylish watch. YMMV.
 
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One other difference - - navigation not available at all when paired with iOS - is available on Android.
 
1. HD Voice are available to most Android phones released by AT&T in past two years or so. Not just limited to iPhones.
2. You can't download apps when paired to iOS devices for obvious reasons. So you are limited to what is already on the watch.
3. Unpair a watch factory resets the data is a privacy measure (these watches contains sensitive personal data, contacts, text, email and calendar events). So, almost all smart watches do this reset to get rid of all user data before you can pair it to a new host.
 
Interesting on the HD Voice - on the ATT website on HD Voice it has a block about "HD Capable Devices" and only shows the iPhones. But there is also a link to HD Voice devices that goes to the store, and it lists a number of Android devices. So I stand corrected on that.