I just have to address the elephant in the room: smartwatches are expensive. Their price is the main reason most people are hesitant about buying them, which is fair. If you’ll be spending hundreds of dollars on an electronic device, you need to know what it’ll add to your life—if any at all!
So, throughout this article, I’ll walk you through the advantages and disadvantages of smartwatches so you can decide for yourself if you need one or not. In other words, here’s the answer to your question: are smartwatches worth it?
Advantages of Smartwatches
To make an informed decision, you need to know everything smartwatches have to offer. Here are the most prominent features you’ll likely find in a smartwatch.
Health and Fitness Tracking
The most important use of a smartwatch is for health and fitness tracking. While, yes, it mostly depends on each watch, most of them offer features like heart rate monitoring and calculating how much you’re walking or running. You can use that to see how many calories you’re burning and how active you really are.
Besides, if you’re a professional athlete or swimmer, most smartwatches are waterproof, which is a bonus! What’s more, they can track your sleep and tell how much REM sleep you’re getting, so you can always be one step ahead of your schedule and determine how many hours of sleep you need each night.
They Might Save Your Life
Speaking of tracking your heart rate, some smartwatches can measure your blood pressure without being too bulky. As long as you have an idea of your average BPM, you can easily check if you’re feeling unwell.
Also, most smartwatches can determine if you’re involved in an incident or if you’ve fallen. They then contact a trusted contact you have or even call emergency services, which could save your life.
GPS Tracking
To be fair, a navigation feature is a lifesaver in itself. If you always find yourself in unfamiliar places and get lost often, you could really benefit from a smartwatch’s navigation services.
GPS, in general, is incredibly useful for anyone. It’s so stress-relieving, knowing that you can always find your way home with a few buttons if you don’t have your phone on you at all times.
Convenience
If your smartwatch can display notifications and calls, that’s incredibly convenient for multitaskers or those always on the go. If you don’t like moving around with your phone in your hand, you can just look at your wrist and see what notifications you have and if they’re urgent.
Moreover, some watches allow you to answer a call, meaning you don’t have to touch your phone. Lastly, if you’re a person who frequently loses their phone, you can use your smartwatch to make it ring or even locate it, which helps most people.
Entertainment
Bored on public transportation and have nothing to do? Why not listen to your favorite artist or play a podcast on your way? And why not do that using your brand-new smartwatch?
Yes, smartwatches can control your music, scroll through pictures, or even watch videos! It’s like you have the whole world on your wrists.
Disadvantages of Smartwatches
It’s not all pink and roses in the world of electronics, especially smartwatches. Here’s everything on the other side of the coin you need to be aware of before deciding whether they’re worth the investment.
Price
It’s no secret that smartwatches are expensive. To be fair, watches, in general, are expensive. Unless the smartwatch offers something your phone can’t, like heart rate tracking, it might not be worth the investment.
Battery Life
Having a smartwatch means there’s another device you need to worry about charging. While most smartwatches can last for days on end, that may not be enough for some people.
It falls back on how much you’re using the watch at the end of the day. For example, if you’ll display notifications, watch videos, and track your runs, the watch won’t last half as long as you’d want it to.
Connectivity
In a world dominated by Bluetooth, you’d think it’s 100% reliable. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Bluetooth fails every now and then, and it also drains your phone’s battery rather quickly if you keep your watch connected 24/7.
Besides, most smartwatches use a dedicated application to get the full potential of its features. However, some of these applications are just unreliable or just straight-up unavailable for your phone, which is a massive let-down.
Durability & Longevity
When compared to a regular watch, smartwatches fall behind when it comes to longevity. Just like any regular electronic device, they’ll just fall dead in a matter of years. On the other hand, regular watches can last for over 10 years without even needing maintenance.
Besides hardware failures, smartwatches run on a watch-specific OS, meaning software failures are also possible. One day, your watch might just have a software issue and breakdown.
Moreover, for durability, smartwatches have a similar screen as your phone. Phones aren’t the most reliable, so it’s not really fair to expect your watch to withstand a 5-feet fall, for example.
So, It’s Just a Smaller Phone?
No, not even a smaller phone. Smartwatches are a lot less capable than a smartphone. In fact, most watches need a phone to function correctly.
At the end of the day, smartwatches are all unique. Make sure you double-check each one’s capabilities and what it can and can’t do before making your final purchase, or you may just end up with a watch that doesn’t match your needs.
Are Smartwatches Worth It: The Final Verdict
By this point, you know that the question “are smartwatches worth it” is pretty vague. There are a lot of aspects that need to be covered before answering.
If you’re an athlete, a multitasker, or you just want every device in your life to be smart, by all means, go for it if you can afford one. They’re incredible at tracking overall health and fitness, and they can contact emergency services if you’re in danger, which could save your life.
Besides, if you want maximum convenience at all times, a smartwatch will make your life much easier. You can just check notifications, answer calls, and control music from this small device without needing to even touch your phone.
