Hands-on review: Hot Watch Curve

Introduction and design

The smartwatch world is officially booming. In the last week alone LG announced its new round- faced LG G Watch R and Samsung introduced its curved-screened Samsung Gear S smartwatch. While there's certainly no lack of choices in the wearable world, many of these wrist worn devices are simply an extension of your smartphone. Any functionality beyond checking smartphone notifications is still lacking.

Now, startup PH Technical Labs (PHTL) wants to take smartwatches to the next level with the Hot Watch. While the Hot Watch will display smartphone notifications, like incoming calls, you will also be able to raise their hand to their ear and answer the phone.

This is thanks to the watche's unique built-in speaker and motion sensors, which recognize gesture-triggered commands. You can also send emails and text messages directly from the device.

I recently had the chance to check out the Hot Watch Curve model, one of four created for the 2014 launch. Ringing up a price tag of $249 (about £150, AU$268), the Curve is the most expensive Hot Watch, sporting an elegantly-curved silhouette that gives the watch a bit of futuristic flair.

Talk to the hand – literally

Aside from the slightly futuristic design and more premium build materials, every Hot Watch comes with the same features. you looking to spend a little less can pick up the all-plastic version for $189 (about £114, AU$203) that looks very similar to the Pebble Smartwatch – which also happens to be the Hot Watch's main competitor.

At first glance, the Hot Watch looks fairly pedestrian and won't cover your wrist like the massive Samsung Gear Live. Instead, PHTL's wearable sports a very similar 1.26-inch, always-on e-ink screen that's just a tad larger than the Pebble smartwatch's display.

The similarities stop as soon as you turn the watch over, revealing a small black growth poking out from the wristband. This small prong pointing towards your hand is the Hot Watch's speaker and microphone.

Both work in tandem to let you take calls when you raise the watch close to your ear and cup it with your hand. The Hot Watch essentially acts like a speaker phone that bounces sound waves off your hand to let you take a call as you normally do – except passers-by will think that you're talking into your hand to no one.

Well, at least that's how it's supposed to work. In practice, I found that the Hot Watch's speaker would cut in and out. Admittedly, I only had a few minutes of call time on a noisy Manhattan street to try out the feature, and it takes a bit of practice to figure out the optimal position.

However, the few times I did hear audio come out of the speaker, it was about as clear as using the speakerphone on a smartphone. Given more time, I could probably figure it out and hold and actual phone conversation.

Despite the protruding speaker coming out of the watch band and a flat wire running along the inside of the wristband – both of which PHTL claims it has worked on miniaturizing for a long time – the Hot Watch feels quite comfy. There's no risk of pointing your wrist down and bumping into the speaker. Even with the extra smartwatch parts onboard, the Hot Watch is so light that the weight felt barely discernable from the rest of my arm.

Interface, performance and early verdict

Similarly, the Hot Watch's interface is straightforward and intuitive enough for you to start poking around without reading the manual. The wearable's screen displays one of four panels at a time, which you can either swipe to navigate through or tap on any of the roman numerals adorning the watch's top bezel. The first two slide the display between an analog and digital watch face.

Meanwhile, pressing on the third roman numeral will pop up the watch's multiple preloaded applications. By swiping up and down, you can scroll through various tools such as a step counter, weather app, a Google stocks counter, as well as a combination of all three stacked on top of each other.

The fourth tab is home to other applications you will make and download in the future. This particular Hot Watch I previewed only came with a simple game of Tic-Tac-Toe installed, but you should have access to more apps with the final unit.

Aside from swiping side to side, you can also flick your finger across Hot Watch diagonally to access more features, like a music playback tool, talking to Siri though the watch or turning on the built-in flashlight – all of which work splendidly.

What's more, the wearable will also register shortcuts like a "D" to quickly access the watch's built-in dialer or "A" to jump into the apps menu. All the touchscreen shortcuts are very neat and useful. Plus the way they work seamlessly is a testament to the accuracy of the Hot Watch's touchscreen.

The only gripe I had with the UI layout is it seemed a little wasteful that two of the smartwatch's tabs were reserved for a digital and analog clock when one watch face would have sufficed. However, a PHTL representative explained more customizable panels are a new feature slated for a future Hot Watch update.

A bit too early for prime time

All together, using the Hot Watch is a snappy experience when swiping across its various apps. What's even more amazing is the depth of customization and amount of settings you can tweak from the watch itself. While I got a chance to try out the watch's accompanying iPhone app (available for Android phones too), there was really no need to. I could easily change the watch's power saver modes, customize my notifications settings and more, all from the watch's touchscreen.

Sadly, while the Hot Watch's touchscreen worked perfectly, its gesture based commands did not function as promised. Normally, checking your wrist for a call notification, and then shaking it at chest level, will simply end the call. However, the gesture never registered with the smartwatch when I tried it. The same thing happened when I tried to end the call by waving good bye.

The same PHTL rep attested that the gesture controls were working perfectly before our meeting. Supposedly, the Hot Watch Curve I wore for this hands on was final hardware shipped to Kickstarter backers, but it came running software that was a version behind. So, this could be just a glitch that will be smoothed over with an updated firmware.

As for battery life, the Hot Watch is rated to last for about 3 days with regular use and about a day if you're talking to it non-stop. You can also set the Hot Watch into a power saver mode that will extend operational time to 5 days, except at the cost of locking out features, like the pedometer.

Either way, that's still well short of the Pebble Smartwatch's week-long battery life. Luckily, the smartwatch will also purportedly recharge quickly in just 30 minutes.

Early verdict

The Hot Watch Curve is clearly a work in progress. The missing gesture controls and iffy call features are knocks against the device, but we can't fault it too harshly since it was running with software that's a version behind.

There is also a list of features on the way with future patches, including a more customizable interface. Plus, the PHTL rep also said the Hot Watch has just made it to certification with Apple, which will enable the watch to send emails and SMS messages from an iOS device (functionality that we're told already works with Android phones).

For now, it's too early to call the Hot Watch a failure, despite some disappointing first impressions. Still, if the Hot Watch works as promised, it could be one of the most capable smartwatches around.

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