Sony announced the SmartWatch 3 and SmartBand Talk at IFA
Sony has already spilled the beans about its upcoming SmartWatch 3 and SmartBand Talk, but it hasn’t given much detail about the new gadgets. IFA Berlin brought the occasion, though, and Sony has unveiled its two new wearables earlier today.
Sony’s SmartWatch 3 is the newest addition to Sony’s smartwatch portfolio and it will run Android Wear, as rumored before. The watch comes with a 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU which powers a 1.6 inch screen. Sony has let us know that the SmartWatch 3 has received IP68 certification, so it’s a water- and dust-proof device that can resist depths of 1.5 m in freshwater for about 30 mins. Supposedly. The SmartWatch 3 comes with 4 GB of internal storage, 512 MB memory, NFC and GPS. The gadget will be powered by a 420 mAH battery which can be charged over microUSB.
We’re a little disappointed that Sony has not implemented wireless charging into the SmartWatch 3, but it might do so in the future. Sony has advertised that the watch battery will last for up to 4 days when on stand-by and for up to 2 days when in use. Sony has also emphasized that SmartWatch 3 will come with the updated version of Android Wear, which allows users to leave their phones at home. GPS support will allow your wristwatch to perform and monitor the fitness tasks you couldn’t so far. Mapping will also be possible, according to Google, but only on devices that have built-in position tracking. Sony SmartWatch 3 might have such a thing. The SmartWatch 3 will set you back about €300, which is quite the price.
The SmartBand Talk on the other hand is a tad more exciting than the SmartWatch 3. We’ve speculated before that by adding Talk to the device name, Sony must have hinted at the gadget’s stand alone capabilities, namely placing calls and accessing 3G networks on its own.
That rumor has been confirmed during Sony’s show at IFA Berlin earlier today, where we learned that not only will the SmartBand Talk be available to place calls, it will also be fitted with an e-ink display, embedded microphone and speaker. The device is powered by an ARM Cortex-M4 32-bit processor with 2MB of flash memory and a 1.4-inch black and white display. Sony’s Core sensor is at work here as well with edge-mounted volume and menu buttons to round out the on-board controls. The SmartBand is also IP68 certified and it connects to Android 4.4 and higher via NFC or Bluetooth. Its battery advertises three days of full time use, which is even better than the SmartWatch 3. The SmartBand Talk will be available for purchase later this Fall with a €160 (around $210) price tag.
Categories: Tech
Tags: IFA Berlin, SmartBand Talk, sony, Sony Core, Sony SmartWatch 3