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I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C

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Re: I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C

#31

Post by fnands »

ofrzeta wrote: post #11

I have an Amazfit smartwatch that gets charged by a simple USB cable with two pins that magnetically attaches to the back of the watch. When I was on vacation and forgot that cable I was able to make my own by cutting a USB cable and attaching the wires to the contacts of the watch with tape. That simplicity is hard to beat. And this watch is water resistant.

I had an Amazfit too a while back. Decent watch for the price, but battery life absolutely tanked after a year of use. Went from lasting days to lasting hours after one year.

Re: I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C

#32

Post by ofrzeta »

fnands wrote: post #31
ofrzeta wrote: post #11

I have an Amazfit smartwatch that gets charged by a simple USB cable with two pins that magnetically attaches to the back of the watch. When I was on vacation and forgot that cable I was able to make my own by cutting a USB cable and attaching the wires to the contacts of the watch with tape. That simplicity is hard to beat. And this watch is water resistant.

I had an Amazfit too a while back. Decent watch for the price, but battery life absolutely tanked after a year of use. Went from lasting days to lasting hours after one year.

That's strange. I have mine for several years now (I think three) and it still goes at least a week without charging. I can't imagine having to charge my watch ever day.

Re: I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C

#33

Post by TapamN »

wslh wrote: post #7

It's always good to remember that battery life in sports watches (aren't they smart?) can last a whole week, and some models even have complementary solar charging.

Just a week? I have a USB smartwatch with a 1 year battery life, the Timex Data Link USB.

Re: I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C

#34

Post by jonathanlydall »

Even includes a screen protector on a GBP16 item!

Not sure what it’s like in other countries, but here in South Africa you struggle to find a smart phone cover for much less than that.

If you’re at the shops of the local scumbag company with a monopoly on legally distributing Apple products, they don’t offer a cover for less than USD25.

Apple Watch covers cost a bit less at only like USD15.

For screen protectors typical prices are around USD10, but you can point out the lunacy of what they’re charging for a single sheet of plastic and you can get that down to 7.5.

It’s super annoying how much we get ripped off here, having covers and protectors is basically essential and all the sellers here seem to have a secret pact to not charge anything less than completely outrageous prices.

Re: I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C

#37

Post by KORraN »

incone123 wrote: post #25

I have a Garmin with a monochrome LCD face. Ok, it can't compete on price but battery life is a couple of weeks (and can top up with solar) so the proprietary cable is not a big problem.

I was also a happy Garmin Instinct Solar user. It is until after two years it started to turn off whenever it vibrates. I disabled vibrations, but it's reduced to an expensive step counter now.

Re: I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C

#38

Post by vanderZwan »

cattown wrote: post #10

Wow! “built in torch” immediately puts this one ahead of all other competition I’ve seen so far. Not even kidding.

I think they "just" meant "set OLED screen to full brightness white", which is the kind of app my cheap Amazfit has too. And I can say from experience that that is still really useful, because OLED screens are pretty darn bright.

In the case of Amazfit (which I presume is similar here) you can set it up to turn on when long-pressing the dial, it can switch between white and red light by turning the dial, and it takes a few seconds to reach full brightness instead of just switching on. Meaning you have a chance to change it to red without waking everyone up in the middle of a camping trip.

Re: I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C

#40

Post by sschueller »

KerrickStaley wrote: post #8
ackfoobar wrote: post #5

> The watch is simply missing the two 5.1k resistors connecting the CC1 and CC2 pins of the USB-C connector to ground that are required to indicate to whatever is plugged in that it wants 5v power. This is so annoying. Back when USB-C was less prevalent, I bought a pair of wireless earbuds over another for the same reason as the title - because it used USB-C. But then I cannot charge it with my macbook, unless I add…

This problem seems prevalent on cheaper devices. When I buy a device and discover it has this problem I always return it. I've seen it on the Hypervolt Go 2 (which I returned and replaced with a Theragun Mini) and on the Hitachi Magic Wand Micro (which I replaced with a Dame Dip). Like the post mentions, I think this happens because the devices are missing two resistors that are needed to indicate, when connected via…

This happens because these devices had USB microB before and the manufacturer just replaced the port without reading the spec.

Even some mainstream products have this issue. I have an automatic door opener from a large company and the battery pack has the same issue. It is shipped with a special cable you have to use as no other USB-C cable works.

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