Sony SmartBand SWR10 review

As more device makers start exploring the wearables market, it has become critical for each one of them to bring in some differentiation. Smartwatches and fitness trackers are the hottest categories, but so far the mainstream brands, including the likes of Samsung and Sony, have not been able to hit it big.

Coming back to differentiation, Sony introduced its new SmartBand SWR10 as an accessory to log your life and not just your physical activity. The company is positioning it as an essential companion to your smartphone and even bundling it with its flagship phone. Is the SmartBand SWR10 just another fitness band or it offers something more to the users? We try to find out in our SmartBand SWR10 review.

Look and feel

Sony SmartBand SWR10 is a rather plain looking, discreet device especially with its default Black colour wrist bands. The SmartBand is made of two components — the wristband and the core. The core, which is a small pen drive like device that fits into the wristband, is the heart and soul of the SmartBand while the band is its face. Sony has bundled two rubbery looking bands of different sizes for different wrists. The core features a single button, micro-USB port and status lights.

At first glance, we were a little surprised that the band does not sport a display but the LED light substitutes it to an extent.

While the band is not uncomfortable to wear and feels light, we faced problems while trying to strap it on our wrist. It's not intrusive and once you get used to wearing it, you'll forget there's one on your wrist.

The SmartBand is IP58-certified waterproof, this means you can wear it even while taking a dip in the pool or a shower.

You'll need to take out the core out of the band each time you want to charge it but it's not a cumbersome process.

Setting up

You can set up the SmartBand via NFC with an NFC-enabled phone or via Bluetooth with other phones. The band is compatible with phones that run Android 4.4 KitKat and support Bluetooth Low Energy standard.

It took us some time to figure out the pairing process. We feel Sony should have included a detailed instructions booklet. Using the band with an NFC-enabled Sony Xperia Z Ultra was relatively simple as it comes preloaded with the Sony Smart Connect app. You can turn on the device by pressing the button on the band and tapping it with the phone. Following the pairing, you need to download the SmartBand app and the Lifelog app from the Play Store to use the phone.

Connecting an HTC Desire 816 was a little problematic as it did not support NFC and pairing was manual. We also experienced frequent disconnections. Sony says it was not able to test the band's compatibility with the HTC phone as it was released at a later date.

The SmartBand's settings can be controlled through the Smart Connect app via the SmartBand panel, while the actual activity tracking takes place inside the Lifelog app. There are permanent notifications in the Android notifications panel to let you know if the band is connected or not and whether the Lifelog app is tracking your activity.

Lifelog and usage

Lifelog is the visual interface that displays the final output after the band tracks your activities and also lets you set goals. You can login via Google accounts on other phones and Sony Entertainment Network account on Sony Xperia phones, which is a little irritating. It also suggests goals for activities based on your age, height and weight.

The app is capable of tracking physical activity as well as recording your phone usage pattern. It can act as a pedometer tracking steps, calculate total minutes of walking and running and calories burnt. There's a sleep tracker to check hours slept (complete with a split for deep sleep and light sleep). Other activities include calculating number of photos you've taken with your phone, time spent communicating (including social networks, email, calls) and time spent listening to music and watching videos, playing games, surfing the web and reading ebooks.

The activity tracker detects running and walking automatically without the need to tap a button on the band or the phone.

In addition to these, one can record a moment as a 'Life Bookmark' by pressing the button on the band twice. The app will record what you were doing at that time along with other things such as the weather conditions.

The app is a stat-lover's delight offering detailed daily, weekly, monthly and yearly statistics for each activity. It offers a beautiful timeline view of your day with an animated avatar. You can even replay your day's activity.

For outdoor walks and running, the app and band plot your track on a map in tandem with the phone's GPS, which we felt is an interesting feature.

Unlike the Samsung Gear devices, the SmartBand doesn't track hiking or cycling. In our tests, we found that the band was moderately accurate in tracking our steps and distance covered. It was also able to log our treadmill run, however, accuracy was mixed. At times it fell short of a few minutes.

The band tracks sleep in the night mode which can be manually (by pressing the button on the band) or automatically initiated at a given time. The Lifelog app displays hours of sleep, splitting them between light, heavy and awake. Since the measurement is based on the movement of your body, it's not very accurate and we observed that it registered some sleep time as awake and vice versa. It still gives you a rough idea.

The band was also able to detect the number of pictures taken with the phone. We're not sure if everyone will find it useful. Same is the case with tracking web, music and video use. You can set goals if you want to regulate them or just get some analytics of your daily activity.

Having said that, the band doesn't always accurately track time spent listening to music if you're using third-party apps like Spotify instead of the music player.

With moderate to high usage, the SmartBand lasted us almost four days and charging was pretty swift with the device gaining a full charge in an hour.

Notifications and Control

The SmartBand also offers some additional functionality. It can alert you of calls, messages and of notifications from other apps by vibrating. Of course you won't know what the notification is for until you check your phone. You can also set the phone to vibrate with the phone alarm.

The other function that the SmartBand can perform is of a controller. You can set the app that you wish to control through the settings and use the band's sole button as a remote control. You can control Music (one tap for playing or pausing; two for next track; three for previous track) or for invoking the camera shutter.

Verdict

At a price of Rs 5,990, the Sony SmartBand SWR10 is an interesting accessory for your smartphone if you like to casually track and analyse your daily activity (both physical and digital) and regulate them. However, the smartband is a jack of all trades and master of none. It tries to do a lot but doesn't do justice to a single feature. As an activity tracker it's not very accurate. Notifications would have been much better if it sported a display.

Having said that, it's not intrusive and with some improvements can be turned into a perfect wearable smartphone accessory.

BlackBerry Z3 review

BlackBerry had been going through a rough patch since the time its BlackBerry 10-based premium devices did not find as many takers as the company had anticipated. It wanted to position the platform as a premium one relegating the legacy OS 7 devices to the economy segment. 

However, it had to change its strategy after inventory pile-ups and had to come up with a budget device after giving premium ones major price cuts. Z3 is the first BlackBerry 10 budget device, and has been manufactured by Foxconn. Though the beleagured company has cut corners on the hardware front, Z3 offers full BlackBerry 10 experience. 

But can Z3 be the ailing tech giant's saviour? We try to find out in our review.

                

Build & Design 

BlackBerry Z3 looks like a chunky rectangular glass slab with sharp corners and a rather conservative, utilitarian design. It is primarily made of plastic, but we don't have any qualms with the construction and the average build quality. There's no doubt that the phone feels solid and durable but at 164gram, it is quite heavy. 

The front of the device is dominated by its 5-inch display with the BlackBerry logo placed at the bottom, and the earpiece grill on the top. Unlike other BlackBerry 10 phones, the Power, Mute and Volume rocker keys are placed on the left side.

                    

The Power key is a bit cumbersome to reach, but the buttons offer decent tactile feedback. The microUSB port is located at the bottom edge, a first for a BlackBerry 10 device. The left edge houses a flap that hides the micro-sim and microSD card slots. The back features a textured plastic panel that enhances the grip of the phone. It features a 5MP camera, BlackBery logo and a speaker grill. 

Overall, BlackBerry Z3 feels durable even though the company has not used premium materials. 

Display

BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5-inch LCD display (540x960p). As per the company, the phone uses resolution upscaling to prevent pixellation and apps run on the same 720p resolution as that of BlackBerry Z30. However, text and graphics aren't as crisp and good looking as they appear on the BlackBerry Z10 and Z30. We even noticed some pixilation.

                           

The display doesn't look as bright as the high-end BlackBerry 10 devices and this hampers sunlight legibility too. Viewing angles looked good. Overall, we feel that the phone should have come with a 720p display, especially at its current price point. 

Camera

BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5MP rear camera with auto-focus and LED flash, and a 1.1MP front-facing camera. It comes with the Time Shift camera feature to select the best photo amongst a series of group photo captures, and additional filters. Other than that, the app lacks granular controls for settings.

                            

We found that pictures taken in daylight turned out to be above average but the ones shot in less light were quite grainy. The front camera too doesn't take good quality images, but will be handy for a quick selfie or video chat. 

The phone's rear camera is capable of capturing 1080p HD video recording while the front-facing camera can shoot 720p video. Videos captured with the rear camera were decent.

                            

Overall, the camera is not the strongest point of the device, a common issue with all BlackBberry devices. 

Software

BlackBerry Z3 runs BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1, the latest iteration of the OS. The OS features the Priority Hub that highlights important interactions in one place, additional toggles and settings, and the ability to install Android apps, out of the box. 

Yes, you can download APK (Android app installation) files from the web or install a third party Android app store such as Amazon Appstore or 1Mobile Market to install Android apps. 

The operating system relies on swipe gestures and doesn't come with online or hardware keys for navigation. You minimise or exit apps by swiping up from the bottom and access additional settings by swiping down from top. Similarly unlocking the screen is through a swipe up gesture. The phone offers a tutorial app in addition to making users aware of these gestures at the time of setting up the phone. 

BlackBerry Z3's big screen complements the software and makes the experience fluid. Having said that, it does have a learning curve, especially if you're used to Android, Windows Phone or iOS devices that come with dedicated Home buttons.

                                 

The UI is essentially divided into the hub, active pane and app panel. The hub stores all sorts of messages and notifications; the active pane shows the last accessed apps (4 in number) in widgetized format, offering glanceable information; and the app list features icons for all installed apps. 

We like the interface, especially the hub which makes managing multiple email and messaging accounts very easy. You can add all your social networking accounts including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare to the hub. 

Interestingly, there is no dedicated app for email. There's an app shortcut for Text messages that takes you to the hub. BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp can run as stand-alone apps and even through the hub. 

The BlackBerry 10 keyboard is one of the best soft keyboards we've used. It is a predictive keyboard that adapts to the user's typing style and offers intuitive suggestions as you type. 

You can choose between 'In-letter' and 'In-Column' styles to get predictions on letters or on a column above the keyboard. It works well for Hinglish (Hindi in roman script) and Hindi. In fact it's very handy for Hindi as it saves you from searching for matras and halants. 

Android apps, barring the ones that rely on Google services or Amazon services, run fine albeit with some lag. These run inside an app player that features a back button. You can hide the UI elements of the player, but then you may face difficulty in navigating through some apps. 

Android apps that make use of the phone's hardware or accessories (Bluetooth headset, Camera) also don't function as smoothly as they would on an Android phone. 

To be honest, BlackBerry Z3 is no substitute for an Android phone. As a BlackBerry user, you just don't miss out on your favourite apps (Instagram, Zite, Flipboard and the likes), but the experience is not as good. 

Z3 will receive the BlackBerry 10.3 OS update in September-October following which Blackberry will start bundling Amazon Appstore to download Android apps. 

Hardware & performance

BlackBerry Z3 is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8230) dual-core processor and 1.5GB RAM. We did not face any issues while navigating through the home screens between the hub, active pane and app panel, and launching and switching between apps. 

However, the active pane only supports 4 apps. This means users can only run 4 apps at a time in the background. BlackBerry Z10 and Z30 phones support 8 open apps. Perhaps, this reduction is to prevent the phone from slowing down. 

We downloaded the Amazon Appstore and a couple of Android apps through it. Since the apps are running over a special runtime, performance is not at par with native BlackBerry 10 apps. Android apps, including Instagram, Shazam and TuneIn Radio take time to load and switching between them is also not very smooth. 

The smartphone comes with 8GB storage and a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 32GB. It has a 2500mAh battery, which the company claims offers up to 15.5 hours talk time and up to 16.2 days of standby time. In our use, the phone lasted us a full day (12-14 hours) with medium to high usage. You'll be able to get more out of the battery if your usage is on the lower side. 

We were able to play most video (including full-HD ones) and audio files on the phone without any hiccups. The phone offers good call quality and signal reception. It was also able to lock to GPS without any hiccups. 

The external speaker on the phone offers loud stereo sound output and the sound quality was good. Z3 comes with a decent set of earphones (non in-ear). 

Of course, the sound gets muffled when the phone lies on its back, which is a problem with all such designs that place speakers at the back. 

It also offers FM radio without recording capability. The FM radio feature is hidden in the Music app though. 

Gaming

We were able to play casual Android games like Subway Surfers and Temple Run 2 with some stutter. We did not face any issues while playing casual games like Angry Birds Go! downloaded from BlackBerry World. However, graphics-heavy games like Asphalt 8 (also downloaded from BlackBerry World) did not run smoothly and we noticed frame drops and stutter, hampering the experience. The phone is clearly not designed for mobile gamers. 

Verdict

At an asking price of Rs 15,990, we feel the BlackBerry Z3 is a competent device if you're a messaging junkie. It offers the best messaging experience with instant access to the messaging hub, the BlackBerry Messenger and a great touch keyboard. 

The app deficit problem has also been addressed to some extent with out-of-the-box Android app compatibility. But its similarly priced (just Rs 1,000 more) elder sibling, Z10, is a better BlackBerry device with its 720p display and faster processor.

                             

We strongly feel BlackBerry should reduce the price of the phone at least by Rs 3,000 if it wants to sell this phone like hot cakes and regain some mind share. 

We'd not recommend you the Z3 if you majorly use your phone for viewing multimedia content or playing graphics-rich games. You'd be better off with a Moto G or a Xolo Q1100 which cost less and offer good performance.

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