14 DAY TRIAL // When you think of a smartwatch, you naturally conjure up in your brain images of a device that’s to be paired to your smartphone or tablet, in order to be of any use to you.
But there has been talk about standalone smartwathces, which can apparently be used to place phone calls right from your wrist. Actually, Samsung was reported to be working on something of the sort, but so far we haven’t seen anything along these lines come out of the tech giant.
In the meantime, Timex has launched the new IronMan One GPS+ smartwatch – a health-centric timepiece which can fill the shoes of your smartphone (as spotted at The Verge).The device comes equipped with 3G radio inside plus a host of built-in communication tools and can handle basic messaging.
And if so far you have been exasperated by the huge price-tags smartwatches arrived with, wait until you hear how much the One GPS+ costs.
The intelligent timepiece can be yours for the price of $399.95 / €299, but with this kind of money you’d be able to purchase a laptop or even a pretty worthy tablet.
Aesthetically speaking, the One GPS+ is quite ugly. It’s big and chunky, but maybe the extended list of functionalities will make you forget about its unappealing face and its huge price tag.
Like in the vein of the Qualcomm Toq, the watch takes advantage of a Mirasol display and is quite rugged and water-resistant.
The watch will be sold under the AT&T umbrella, which will provide adopters with a year of free data plan, if you embark with the carrier on a contract (for the time being, we’re not told for how many years).
The GPS module allows users to activate the “Find Me” mode in case they get lost somewhere. There’s also the option of live-tracking your physical activities as you go for a run in the woods.
The watch is bundled with 4GB of internal storage and has Bluetooth radio, so it can double as a music player as well.
The company says that the watch is able to sustain 8 hours of use with its GPS module enabled and up to three days in regular mode.
As we have pointed out above, the IronMan has been designed to serve the needs of athletes, and with this purpose in mind, it can track speeds and distance and can upload all this info to devices connected to the Internet without needing a phone.
However, the One GPS+ does not transmit notifications from your smartphone, so if you’re looking for that, you’re going to be disappointed.
Certainly, Timex has a completely different vision of what smartwatches are supposed to be, and One GPS+ has been created to help athletes get the most out of their workout activities.
