Sony’s latest accessory for their smartphones has been doing the rounds abroad and finally, the company has decided to launch the SmartWatch in India. Sony India has confirmed this on their Facebook page that the SmartWatch will indeed launch by the end of June for an asking price of Rs. 6,299. What do you get for your money? Well, for starters you get a snazzy looking watch with a OLED colour display that comes with different colour straps, so you can match it to your personality. More importantly, it syncs with your Android phone and lets you read SMS, email, calendar reminders as well as social networking updates from Twitter and Facebook. You can even reject and mute calls and receive one through Bluetooth headset. The watch is compatible with other Android phones as well, so you don’t have to own a Sony branded phone to use it. The syncing is done over Bluetooth 3.0. Since the phone is also based on Android, it should be possible to port other apps as well to it other than the ones provided by Sony.
his is not the first time Sony has launched a watch accessory for their phones. If you recall, way back when the Sony Ericsson T610 was all the rage, the company had the MBW-100 Bluetooth watch, only that time it was a standard analog watch with a OLED display at the bottom. The SmartWatch already has competition from the Pebble e-paper watch , that garnered quite a bit of interest at Kickstarter. The Pebble e-paper watch became the most funded project in the history of Kickstarter, only six days after launching. A project by Pebble Technology, the watch boasts of an e-ink display and has support for apps that will sync with your iPhone or Android phone. The display on the watch measures 144 x 168, black and white e-ink display, has four buttons, Bluetooth 2.1, 3-axis accelerometer and little vibrating motor. Sony’s offering may be more expensive, but you’re also getting a lot more like an OLED display and a more visually pleasing interface. You also be able to download compatible apps from the Google Play store. The main unit weighs about 15g and you can choose different coloured wristbands that are interchangeable. We still don’t know it the watch is waterproof like a standard watch. The pricing doesn’t seem too bad, if you ask us and once it launches, the street price could be even lower.
Here's a little video tour of the SmartWatch from Sony:
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