Smart watches?

[Doug Garson]

I purchased a smartwatch. I have enough Scotch blood in me to want to go cheap if possible and still meet most if not all my needs. This watch was about 1/3 cost of a Galaxy 5 or Galaxy 6. My wife has a Samsung Galaxy 5 smartwatch which has all the features I'd like including fall detection. I was hesitant to pay that kind of money for a smartwatch. When you consider the kind of home maintenance and woodworking, I do, coupled with my balance issues due to my Meniere's disease, I was hesitant to pay several hundreds of dollars for a smartwatch. I almost always have some little nick or cut on my arms from my intermittent staggering in the shop while puttering or woodworking. On days when my Meniere's is flaring, my hearing with my CI is terrible and I can't walk a straight line. I once made a comment on another, now defunct, woodworking site that I hoped the neighbors didn't think I was drunk when I walked to the mailbox to get the mail and paper. A couple days later, Fedex delivered a box containing a t-shirt that says "I'm not drunk. I'm a cyborg!".

The new watch I dearly wanted to "like" though it didn't have fall detection. I measured and tracked blood oxygen levels, pulse, steps, and one thing I really appreciated, it has replaceable glass shields that cover the screen. l really appreciated that feature! But, my wife has COPD and we have a really good pulse oximeter. The smartwatch's blood oxygen levels was off considerably when compared to our pulse oximeter. My wife's pulmonologist monitors my wife's O2 levels via the graphs from her watch presented on her cell to make suggest about the O2 levels on her oxygen concentrator that she uses at night while sleeping.

And then the biggie! On good days when my Meniere's isn't flaring, using Bluetooth, I can connect to my cellphone and have reasonably good phone conversations. Once I paired the smartwatch with the cell phone, it wouldn't allow me to connect with the sound processor for my cochlear implant or it's cohort hearing aid in my other ear. The only way to get my CI to connect was to remove the smartwatch from the available pairing list. If you think autocorrect is a pain, wait until your wife calls on your cell phone and you can't answer without jumping through a couple minutes of hoops.

I have a sister with a doctorate in nursing, a retired nurse practitioner. She has a cardiac pacemaker. Using her Galaxy smartwatch and cell phone, her doctor is able to monitor her heart.

According to what I read in the User's manual for a Galaxy 6, I should be able to pickup an incoming call via the watch and have the audio sent to via Bluetooth to headphones (or CI soundprocessor and hearing aid in my case). I will miss the replaceable glass shields but gain connectivity and fall detection. Worth the hundreds of dollars.

So Ken, which one did you buy?

Question for those of you who have smartwatches, what's your experience wit battery life and charging routine?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

The new watch I just ordered an hour ago is a Samsung Galaxy 6 Classic.

I wrestled with the idea of a new Galaxy 5 Pro which is advertised to have a longer battery life. The deciding factor for me was a couple of sites that had tested both and found the G6 had more accurate health data, blood oxygen, cardiac etc., than the G5. My wife has learned to deal with the battery life by charging it every 2 days. I will deal with it too. In the chase for information on the G6, I read that it was able to pick up a phone call on the G6 but Bluetooth audio to wireless headset or in my case, my Ci functions like a wireless headset so it should work for me.


The cheaper one that I wanted so badly to like was an AmazTim smart watch but the fact once I had it paired with my cell, I could unpair but as long as it was on the list of available pairings, it would auto insert itself whenever I tried to select my CI. I literally had to delete the watch from the available pairings list to stop it. While autocorrect can be pain in the butt, "autoinsert" is much worse! In my mid-70's the only reason I am getting a smart watch is to monitor my health, O2 levels, cardiac and sleep patterns. Having the fall detection which the AmazTim didn't have, is important too, as my wife travels out of town a lot more than I do.

[John M Wilson]

Question for those of you who have smartwatches, what's your experience wit battery life and charging routine?

I have a Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic -- I got the bigger one with the rotatable bezel and the slightly bigger battery.

I guess my watch would last about 2 days or so without charging, but I usually charge it every morning while I drink my coffee, check my emails, & read about woodworking on the 'Creek.

I do charge it also when I take it off to shower, but that brief time isn't quite enough to return to full charge.

My daughters tease me because I like to keep my electronics charged between 75-100%. They say they spend most of their time between 25 - 75%, and claim that it's healthier for the batteries. I'm too much of an old curmudgeon to worry whether I will outlast a watch, and figure that in the event of a power outage, I will be rewarded for my aged wisdom!

[Alan Rutherford]

What's the learning curve like for a good Android smart watch? I'm primarily interested in fall detection, location tracking, and making and receiving calls. My wife is no dummy and was once an IBM Systems Engineer but her Google Pixel 6 cell phone is a challenge for her for anything beyond calls and texts. It's also heavy enough that she doesn't like to carry it. I'm seeing reasons why we might want a smart watch but a safety device that you can't figure out is arguably worse than none at all.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Alan, my wife isn't a techie and I was one, of sorts. I can usually figure it out for her. We just set up her fall detection early last week. Today there are so many videos that all you have to do is search on the internet either at the manufacturer's website or on YouTube or just do a general search for help on anything including fall detection setup on a smart watch. It's pretty easy to find some reliable information. Yes there is a lot of misinformation out there but it only takes a little more research.

[Alan Rutherford]

Thanks, Ken. I was/am also a techie and I'm not concerned about getting it set up. I don't want her to be accidentally screwing it up, or not be able to make or answer a call when it's important.

[John M Wilson]

What's the learning curve like for a good Android smart watch?

As a former electronic troubleshooter in a car factory, and a life-long PC nerd, my daughters always laugh at my clumsiness with smartphones & phone apps. I guess I just don't think the same way that the developers do, and it takes a long time for me to figure out the difference between swiping, tapping, double-tapping, etc.

Than being said, I found the set up of the watch relatively similar to the phone app -- if I could master the phone app (for health monitors, texting, etc.) then the watch app was a useful adjunct, rather than a brand new learning curve. I'm probably not using 100% of its capabilities, but it does what I need it to.

One thing to definitely note: Most watches come in two varieties, even though the brand/model is the same. There are those who must be within Bluetooth distance of your phone to take & receive calls/texts, and those that have their own phone capabilities built-in, and don't need your primary phone anywhere near to do phone-network related stuff.

Mine is the Bluetooth type; I think the designation for the more standalone type is LTE, but some of the other folks participating in this thread have far more info on this than I do.

[Jim Becker]

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Mine is the Bluetooth type; I think the designation for the more standalone type is LTE, but some of the other folks participating in this thread have far more info on this than I do.

I detailed this earlier in the thread, but that is generally correct. The first version is dependent upon your physical mobile phone to "do the deed" relative to phone calls; the latter version has a cellular radio within it that has it's own cellular credentials with your carrier of choice to support calls. With Apple, someone calling would still call only your mobile phone's number and both your phone, wherever it might be, and your watch would ring. For outgoing calls, only the phone's number would show for CID. I suspect that the Android version would work the same because it makes the most sense. The cost to register the watch with the carrier is much less than a normal "line" of service in most cases.