GT08: Apple Watches for the Poor

In the wake of widespread sales of the Apple Watch, the Chinese "Uncles Liao" could not stand aside and not try to do something of their own. The range of "smartwatches" on various online stores varies from an "absolute clone", which they will try to sell in an alley at half price from the real Watch Sport, to an "original design" that remotely resembles the progenitor and is passed off as its development.

What fell into my hands is closer to the center of this spectrum. The watch is clearly similar to Apple (both in appearance and menu), but does not contain the logos of the gnawed apple, has a slightly different layout of controls, and is sold in the store under its own name (GT08 / EG08). I was terribly interested to see what you can make for $68 $55 dollars, and whether it can look decent (i.e. so that you are not ashamed to put it on your hand and leave the house). Spoiler: you can call them without a phone!

But first things first.

Declared characteristics
… declared by the seller. The manufacturer could not be found.
Wireless: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC (the first blatant lie of the seller)
Interface: English, Chinese, Russian, German etc.(the second and last blatant lie of the seller)
Screen:240x240 TFT
CPU: MTK6260A
Memory: 128+64 MB, +MicroSD (up to 16 GB)
Battery: Li-po 350mAh (Lasts 2-3 days)
Color: Black
Features: Sleep Tracking, Camera, Pedometer, Phone Calls, Contact Sync, Answer Call, Find Phone, Phonebook, Music Player, Calorie Counter, Call Notification;
Body: stainless steel, NO moisture protection;
Strap: Rubber
Weight: 62g
Package dimensions: 10.5 x 10.5 x 9 cm
Package Weight: 235g
Price: $67 (with coupons, sometimes $54; about 1/6 the price of a real Apple Watch)
Compatibility: Android + Bluetooth 3.0. There is no iOS support. The manufacturer warns of possible incompatibility with custom firmware such as MIUI.


Unboxing and appearance

The watch comes in a square box consisting of two halves in the shape of prisms.


Inside, on a soft substrate, there is (suddenly) a clock:


The package is simple: a watch, a flat MicroUSB cable, a 350mAh battery, instructions in English and Chinese and a film (!) on the glass of the watch (I don't think anyone will use it):


There are no complaints about the appearance of the watch, it looks decent. Nothing creaks or backlash, no plastic burrs. Honest glass on top, honest aluminum on the sides.


At the back there is honest plastic:


Above the 240x240 pixel TFT touch screen, you can see the eye of the front camera:


On the right side there is a single physical button in the form of a wheel (the rotation is purely decorative, the lists cannot be scrolled):


On the left side, masquerading as a button, there is a plug for the MicroUSB connector: it is needed to charge the battery and connect to a computer (mass storage device). On the same edge, you can see the holes of the speaker (bottom) and microphone (top):


The plug sits tightly, but it will definitely not save you from getting wet:


As well as the back plastic cover: it fits tightly, but the gap under the nail (for removing the cover) is quite large, and water will seep there without any problems. However, no one promised moisture protection:


Here, under the lid, you can see the inscription "3D SOUND" in the best traditions of Chinese technology. Under the battery, there are slots for a SIM card and MicroSD. Yes, yes, this watch can be used as a full-fledged phone, media player, dictaphone... like in spy movies. More on this later.


Functions of the watch itself
I ran through the menu items in this video. The text continues:


Dial: There are three kinds of dial. You can't add new ones.


Camera: Can take pictures with a resolution of up to 640x480 and 320x240 video. No useful use can be found for it, it is an exceptional pampering.
But an application that allows you to broadcast the image from the smartphone camera to the watch camera and take pictures with it can be useful. To do this, you must have the BTNotification app installed on your smartphone, which I will talk about below.



Example video from the watch camera:


Photo example:


Calls: You can use your watch to make and receive calls through your watch's SIM card, or use your watch as a Bluetooth headset for your smartphone.

The number can be dialed in numbers, or select a contact from the installed SIM card, or view the address book of the smartphone (if connected via Bluetooth).

At the same time, you can both make / accept a call and talk by the clock. Yes, right through the watch: either over the speakerphone or by putting it to your ear. It's uncomfortable and looks strange, but it's possible. I suspect that elementary and middle school students will be delighted with such a "spying" function :-) A notification about an incoming call can be either a vibration or a melody (preset, or an audio file to your taste).

Note: the first idiotic act of the developers is that by default, when an incoming call comes in, the sound goes to the clock. Yes, exactly. You received a vibration notification on your wrist, took out your phone, pressed the "Answer" button, put the phone to your ear, and... hear the voice of the interlocutor on your wrist. However, this is solved by disabling "Voice Transmission" for the watch in the Bluetooth settings on the smartphone.

SMS: As with calls, you can receive/send messages via the SIM card in the watch or via Bluetooth via phone. For typing messages, there are keyboards in English and Chinese (both a full-fledged QWERTY, which is very difficult to get into with your fingers, and the good old digital T9). There is no Russian input, but Cyrillic is displayed without any problems.

Music: you can control the phone's standard player, or play music directly on the watch (streaming from the phone via Bluetooth), or listen to what is recorded on the memory card in the watch (the watch can easily see the 16 Gigabyte card).

Calendar: just a calendar. You can add a reminder about an event. But in the absence of synchronization, creating events on such a small screen is not much fun. However, it is worth admitting that the screen resolution is easily enough to display only a month.

Alarm clock: alarm clock. It can ring and vibrate. It is unlikely that anyone will seriously sleep in these hours, but they are good for reminding you of something during the day.

Pedometer: counts steps. It starts manually, can work in the background. Compared to Xiaomi MiBand, it counts about 15% fewer steps. It is difficult to say which of them lies more than :) Theoretically, it is possible to synchronize with only one fitness application, more on it below:

"Apps": the big minus of this watch is a few semblances of "apps" such as QQ and WeChat (Chinese messengers), which can try to turn on only if you have a SIM card (none of them could be launched successfully), a browser (with a Google Chrome icon), which also works only on the GPRS of the internal SIM card, as well as the Chinese fitness app "FunDo". The latter caused just pain, because the design is purely knee-Chinese, and it never worked normally (force close every 5 minutes). It would be better if all this simply did not happen.

Lingering reminder: A feature that should remind you to get up and stretch. Cannot work at the same time as the step counter.

Calculator: you can quickly calculate something. It works flawlessly.

In addition, there are a couple of labels in the watch that are completely incomprehensible to me: "Radio" and "Sputnik". The first asks you to "connect headphones" for playback, which is difficult to do in the absence of a jack for them. Secondly, if there is no connection with a smartphone, it is easy to install the BTNotifier application, and if you have this application, it displays the only inscription "Clear" and the "Exit" button. Its purpose remains a mystery to me.

Battery: Holds a charge for two to three days of normal use. At least in some ways the fake bypassed the original! :D

Smartphone app
BTNotifications (link to *.apk) is the most problematic part of the device. The Chinese application responsible for redirecting calls / access to SMS / camera and other things is poorly done. Maybe it's my Android 5.0, but the app is very unstable and often crashes.


Basic functions (such as receiving or sending calls, smartphone phonebook, etc.) are available without the application, but it is necessary to send SMS, for example, or to remotely control the camera.

Yes, with this application it is possible to receive any notifications on the watch, up to pulling out the stylus in the Galaxy Note, not to mention WhatsApp, Vkontakte, etc... You can individually allow or disable notifications from each of the phone applications, including system applications.

Findings
As I said in the first part of the review, the impression of the watch is ambivalent. On the one hand, this is a great (for this price category) iron performance: nothing creaks or dangles, no cracks. The body is real, not painted metal; The screen, although it has mediocre viewing angles and resolution, is covered with glass and accurately responds to touch (you can even type on a QWERTY keyboard!). It looks a lot better than most of the "pieces of electronics" you wear on your wrist and are called "watches" (just look at what is sold on AliExpress for "smart watch" and you'll know what I mean).





But the software execution leaves much to be desired. It would seem, is it really impossible to allocate an extra two or three thousand green pieces of paper during production so that the programmer works more diligently? But this could have made a much more functional product.

At this stage, it is a stylish accessory for those who are not embarrassed by the Chinese origin and obvious hints of its "inspirer". The basic functions - call notifications, SMS - the application at least fulfills. Of course, it is not worth comparing with the various Moto360 and magnificent LG watches here, if only because of the fundamentally different price category.

Personally, at first, the device seemed to me complete nonsense, but on the second day of wearing it, I realized that not everything is so bad, and, perhaps, I will not part with them yet. In the end, they can be given to a younger brother, who will be delighted with such a spy device.

And below is a survey on your attitude to wearable crafts from the Celestial Empire.



What do you think of such "inspired devices"?

Negative: do something of your own!

Neutral: it doesn't matter.

Neutral as long as they don't try to pass off the fake as the original

Positive: more fakes, good and different!

473 people voted. 47 people abstained. Only registered users can participate in the survey. Please come in.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/249798/