14 DAY TRIAL // While the big boys of tech industry are rushing to produce wearable devices that will capture the attention of customers worldwide, Chinese companies aren't immune to the trend either.
Take this obscure little start-up called inWatch that has recently been showcasing two pretty great-looking smartwatch models.
While one of the most common complaints when it comes to wearables stems from the fact that the gadgets might need a little bit of polishing in the design department, the inWatch models don’t look too shabby.
The start-up has two smartwatch models available, the flagship inWatch One Z and the more wallet-friendly inWatch One C.
It appears that the two time-keeping wearables are following the current trend and can act as complete smartphone replacements. Last week, we told you that Black Eyed Peas’ member Will.i.am had introduced a smartwatch that aimed to eliminate the need of a smartphone altogether, as it let users place phone calls from their wrist.
Also a few days ago, it was discovered that Samsung might be also working towards this goal. According to reports coming from Asia, the Korean tech giant is already developing a third Gear 2 model, which will arrive 3G-enabled, so it will let users place phone calls too. The rumored device has been dubbed Gear Solo.
Going back to the inWatch models, the One C and One Z come equipped with mini SIM card slots, microphones and support for Bluetooth headsets.
The One Z adds a pretty bizarre concoction to the table, as it comes equipped with a so-called “bone conductor,” which is a conductor mounted on a strap that you wear on your head in order to listen to your phone calls. A little bit creepy.
Anyway, in case you’re curious about the specifications, the cheaper One C smartwatch comes with a 1.54-inch LTPS TFT LCD display with 240 x 240 pixel resolution and draws power from a MediaTek MTK6515 processor clocked at 1.06GHz combined with 512MB of RAM.
The flagship One Z has a 1.6-inch TFT LCD Sapphire Display with 240 x 240 screen resolution (lower than Samsung’s Gear 2 320 x 320) and is juiced up by a MediaTek MTK6572 processor (dual-core 1.2GHz) combined with 1GB of RAM and fitted with 8GB of internal storage.
One of the mysteries here is the operating system, but we can only assume that it’s a variant of Android. The One C is retailing for about $224 / €162, while the One Z sells for $228 / €165, so its price is quite similar to the Samsung Gear 2 model. It might be worthy to note that the Chinese models don’t have any customization options available.