Don't look now, but Sony has quietly released a new smartwatch, and I'm almost surprised to report it's not a total disaster.
Compared with Samsung's just-released and almost universally criticized Galaxy Gear, Sony's SmartWatch 2 has much more modest ambitions. It doesn't overreach with a zillion half-baked features, and as a result it stands a fighting chance of restoring a semblance of credibility to the entire smartwatch category.
The SmartWatch 2 doesn't shoot photos or video. It doesn't respond to voice commands. And it doesn't have a microphone, so you can't use it for phone conversations that look something like this. But those are all features that often feel like beta experiments in the Galaxy Gear. The SmartWatch 2 honors simplicity over feature depth, and the result is a gadget that's only intermittently frustrating, not consistently frustrating like Samsung's take on the smartwatch concept.
Strap the SmartWatch 2 to your wrist. Use it to check notifications of who's emailing, texting, or calling you. It offers few thrills, but imposes a little less pain than its direct competition does. And maybe that's something of a moral victory in today's screwed-up smartwatch market.
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