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The most popular use for any smartwatch hands-down is the ability to track fitness statistics. This week at CES 2019, the Matrix PowerWatch 2 has gone official with a clever solution for battery life, as well as integration with Google Fit.
A huge issue with most smartwatches though and some fitness trackers is battery life, or at the very least remembering to charge the thing. The Matrix PowerWatch 2, though, completely lacks that problem because it draws its power from the user’s body heat. Watches with this feature are nothing new, but this is one of the only smartwatches to offer it. It also gathers extra power with a solar cell for increased power output.
The watch features a color LCD display along with common fitness features such as GPS, heart-rate monitoring, sensors for tracking steps, sleep, and much more. It’s not a small watch by any means with a thick, 46mm casing. It dwarfs the Fossil Sport that sat on my wrist at CES, but it weighs practically nothing. I picked up a dummy unit at the show before being given a real unit and the weight difference was negligible at best. The company says this is largely thanks to the airplane-grade aluminum used to build it.
For me, the most interesting bit about this watch is that it integrates with Google Fit. The company says this wasn’t possible on the original since Google Fit is too power hungry, but thanks to the solar feature and some work in the software, the Matrix PowerWatch 2 can use it. In its current state, the feature only works one-way with the watch feeding data into Google Fit, but I’m told that future updates will enable Fit data to be shown on the watch.
Watch Body Heat (2010) Online - Stream Body Heat (2010) for Free - Free Movies Online - Watch Movies Body Heat (2010) Online for Free - Watch Movies Online! Similar Movies. Before the Fall (2016) Woman in the Moon (1929) Voyeurs Deviant Sins (2009) Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (1999). Watch Body Heat Online Full Free. Body heat full movie with English subtitle. Stars: Manuel Ferrara, Bridgette B, Jesse Jane, Evan Stone, Celine Tran, Kayden Kross, Riley Steele, Raven Alexis. Jan 06, 2019 The process takes heat from your wrist and expels it from the other side of the watch. Above: Matrix Industries’ PowerWatch 2 uses both solar power and body heat to charge itself.
The Matrix PowerWatch 2 will retail for a hefty $499 when it launches soon, but those interested can join the already 500% surpassed Indiegogo campaign. There, you can score a unit for as little as $199.
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One of the most interesting gadgets I’ve tested in the past few years was the Matrix PowerWatch: a fitness-tracking timepiece powered only by the wearer’s body heat. The battery-free technology was neat, but the watch’s limited functionality wasn’t. Matrix Industries’ new PowerWatch X promises to be a more useful and capable wearable, but even with infinite battery life, it still falls short of being a useful smartwatch.
WHAT IS IT?
A smartwatch powered by your body heat that never needs charging.
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As long as you wear it, it will always have power.
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Admittedly, gadget makers have played fast and loose with the term ‘smartwatch’. It’s used to describe everything from full-blown touchscreen wearables, to analog timepieces that simply track your steps. A smartwatch should undoubtedly do more than just tell time, but if I’m spending hundreds of dollars on a device that’s supposed to out-perform a basic Timex, I’m looking for a wearable that saves me from having to pull out my smartphone every few minutes, and that’s where the PowerWatch X disappoints.
If you’re unfamiliar with the PowerWatch X’s most notable and innovative feature, I go into more details about its ability to harvest your body heat in my review of the original PowerWatch. In short, the watch takes advantage of the thermoelectric effect where differing temperatures can be used to generate a current. In this case, the back of the PowerWatch X, which is always touching your skin, stays warmer than the watch’s face, which is exposed to the air so it remains cooler.
It works as promised, and the technology behind the PowerWatch provides a tantalizing peek at a future where charging cables might go extinct. But right now the technology is still in its infancy, and comes with quite a few compromises that make it a hard sell.
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Like the original PowerWatch, the PowerWatch X employs a basic Sharp monochrome LCD memory display that minimizes power consumption, but at the cost of reduced visibility. In a dark room it can be hard to read, and the included backlight is so dim that it really only improves the viewing situation when you’re trying to look at the watch in complete darkness.
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The PowerWatch X doesn’t feel any larger or heavier than the original model—if anything the rubber strap makes it feel a touch lighter on the wrist. But it’s definitely larger than most smartwatches, thanks to design elements like camouflaged heatsinks that improve its heat-dissipating and power-generating capabilities. It can still easily pass for a beefy outdoors or fitness watch, however, if you’re into that look.
A Bluetooth connection to a free smartphone app is included, allowing the PowerWatch X to sync fitness-tracking stats like how many steps you’ve taken and how far you’ve walked. The creators of the PowerWatch also claim it does a particularly good job at estimating how many calories—a measure of heat—you burn, using measurements of your own fluctuating body temperature. But fitness buffs will be disappointed at the lack of a built-in heart rate monitor, as the back of the watch is instead dedicated to harvesting your body heat.
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So what differentiates the original PowerWatch from the new PowerWatch X, and justifies an $80 price increase? Notifications... at least very basic ones. The X will alert you to incoming text messages, emails, and phone calls using vibrations and a truncated animated message on screen, and it will indicate missed notifications using a small icon that appears below the tim—but that’s it. You can’t see a list of received notifications, you can’t see more information about an incoming message, and if you miss a notification, there’s no way to tell who it was from without pulling out your smartphone and checking.
There’s no touchscreen, but with two physical buttons and a crown dial that serves as a scroll wheel, a list of notifications could be easily navigated. So why is a seemingly crucial feature like that missing? Power consumption. While the PowerWatch X can generate power using your body heat, it’s a very limited harvest, so the engineers behind the wearable have had to make sure the included functionality doesn’t quickly drain what juice is available.
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Sizing up the PowerWatch X against a wearable like the Apple Watch—arguably the most feature-packed smartwatch on the market—isn’t a fair comparison. But the PowerWatch X’s execution of its smartwatch features is disappointingly limited, even compared to what many basic fitness trackers offer in terms of notification functionality.
The promise of never having to charge a smartwatch is a tantalizing one, but the limitations of the PowerWatch X’s smart capabilities are far more frustrating than having to plug your wearable in to charge a few times a week. At $80 cheaper, the original PowerWatch is still the better way to go if you’re curious about trying out this innovative technology.
README
- Never having to charge a wearable that harvests power from your body heat still feels like magic.
- The PowerWatch X’s new notification features are frustratingly limited.
- At$280 it’s $80 more expensive than the original PowerWatch, but doesn’t add enough to justify the price difference.
- The low-power LCD display can be hard to see in the dark, and the watch’s backlight is almost uselessly dim.
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