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English => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: Redaktion on November 24, 2025, 13:22:32

Title: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: Redaktion on November 24, 2025, 13:22:32
My old Amazfit Bip didn't exactly die, but over the years it started looking pretty rough. So I went looking for a simple smartwatch with minimal features at a similar price — turns out that hardly exists anymore. Most smartwatches are stuffed with functions I don't need. That not only costs more money than I'm willing to spend but usually eats into the battery life I actually care about.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Big-brand-smartwatches-are-overpriced-bloated-and-invasive.1169542.0.html
Title: Re: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: Jose on November 24, 2025, 14:09:17
User of amazfit neo +1
Title: Re: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: Leag on November 24, 2025, 15:01:36
Largely agreeing with the take, which is a gap I feel like the CMF Watch 3 Pro is trying to fill.
Title: Re: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: Rasec on November 24, 2025, 16:00:53
50€ for a device with a color screen and decent battery? Maybe ten years ago...
Title: Re: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: C on November 24, 2025, 16:58:42
The key words are vibration alarm. Feature that exists only on large watches smart or not. I successfully used a smartwatch to diagnose an issue while training, but otherwise I only need the vibration.
Title: Re: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: JLThom on November 24, 2025, 17:41:37
totally agree. have always questioned why smartwatches can cost as much or more then a smartphone. insanity. figured Samsung or Motorola wld have realized that there's still a larger market for sub-$150 smartwatches and offered some inexpensive devices. but nobody has come (back) to that. guess still too many consumers buying the silly expensive stuff.
Title: Re: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: Amine Bouhafs (Holland) on November 24, 2025, 19:00:13
FINALLY!!!
I never posted anything on nbc untill now (because I really want things to change hoping watchmaker devs are "watching" this).
Never mind about thinking "YOU" are the odd one because I thought that "I" was that one (untill I read your comment that is}.
I have an Apple Watch Series SE (LTE) and the things I use are,

1. phone calls and texts
2. agenda, calender, e-mail and alarms
3. payments

That's it!
And none of the other bulls... for the same reasons you mentioned.
These are my two cents.
Title: Re: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: Salim Tyabji on November 24, 2025, 20:22:03
At a €50 piece point it'll be tough. At roughly 3x that the new Pebble should get you pretty close if you really needed a smart watch.

But honestly,if you need a watch with alarms and good design/solid build quality/long battery you can't do better than the Casio F91W (or one of its ilk)!
Title: Re: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: Bittle on November 25, 2025, 07:54:03
Nice find! That mounting piece looks like it's doing solid work to keep things tight and aligned. I'd check durability and whether it adds any flex under load though, sometimes these things that look simple end up being the weak point.
Title: Re: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: tedted on November 25, 2025, 11:47:05
overpriced is an understatement, ridiculously priced more like

and lets face it, most of the claims they make are hyperbole, they might track heatrate, sleep, etc, but with little accuracy, they just don't tell you that
Title: Re: Big-brand smartwatches are overpriced, bloated, and invasive
Post by: GeorgeS on November 26, 2025, 19:25:40
Sure many/most are vastly over priced.

While the China markets DO HAVE many many < $100 (often <$50!!) the issues here are that they may/not actually have some of the features that they claim.

Those AMOLED displays really really EAT battery life. Personally I found a Garmin with a MIP display and multiweek battery life very usable.