Emporio Armani Men's Touchscreen Connected Smartwatch

Product Information

The AMOLED screen isn’t too small: It’s bright, clear, and the always-on display — where a simple watch face is displayed to save battery — is legible even in sunlight. This isn’t a fitness watch, despite some of the features, and won’t be anyone’s first choice to wear at the gym, but leaving the heart rate sensor running is a good way to judge overall fitness, even if you’re going about your daily business. We're sure these kinds of gripes won't bother every user, because you can get by with Wear OS – and there are still nice integrations with Google Pay, notifications and customizable watch faces.

All this leads to the overriding feeling that, you know, maybe we don't need a separate app for Assistant, Wear OS and Fit. Emporio Armani Connected syncs your hybrid smartwatch and phone so you can customize filtered notifications, monitor daily activity, control your phone’s music and more. The Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 uses similar hardware to the Fossil Gen 5, which is a very good thing indeed. That means the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset, 8GB of storage, and 1GB of RAM. It reminded me how easy to forget not all smartwatches have a good design. The AX’s subtlety is great — it looks like a watch, and it has a well-fitting metal band, plus it comes in a beautiful muted, metallic blue color. It doesn’t scream Armani, or even high fashion, at you. This restrained design is to be applauded, but here it comes dangerously close to being faceless. Just another smartwatch, and not one our heart tells us to buy. You only know it’s an AX watch from the tiny logo located on the crown, and on one of the strap links. The Armani Exchange smartwatch collection is filled with great promise for the future. Armani Exchange – men silver-toned and navy blue Dexler AXT2000 is one of the best luxury models you have ever seen. Armani Exchange smartwatchThe strap is link based, which means you'll need a good watch repair shop if you want to take out links to get the smartwatch to fit the size of your wrist. This is a common thing with fashion-focused smartwatches, though, as their makers want them to be seen as watches first and smart second - things like straps are treated as they would be on traditional watches. If the design is somewhat ordinary, then the technology inside will give you deja-vu. The aging Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor is inside with 4GB of internal storage space, while the 1.2-inch OLED screen has a 390 x 390 pixel resolution. Notifications are still a lengthy list without much categorization, but it’s better than it used to be in Android Wear 1.0. The Google Play Store is accessible in version 2.0, and there’s a reasonable amount of apps available for your smartwatch. It’s easy to use on the watch so it you are looking for an app, it’s not a nightmare, but it’s still just a long list of mediocre apps to scroll through. Android Wear (and wearables in general) work best with notifications, calendar access, navigation, and increasingly, music. Load music onto the watch, connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones, and you’ve got a convenient music player that’s ideal for workouts. The Google Play Music app is well designed, with large, easy-to-tap buttons. You need a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus, or a Samsung Galaxy S21. These all have the latest One UI 3.1 software onboard, while the cameras and processor are competent and powerful enough to operate Single Take 2.0. While it’s likely version 2.0 will make it to other older Samsung phones in the future, not every feature will be included, as some are only made possible by the superior A.I. and other technology inside the S21 phones.

Thankfully, the heart rate sensor on the underside of the watch was more reliable in testing. The above example is fairly indicative of what we found in three test runs against the Fitbit Versa 2.

Expensively stylish

We've tested two units that had the same fault, and other publications have also spotted the same issue so we've raised it with Fossil and will update this review if we hear further. For now, don't buy this watch expecting the built-in GPS to work away from your phone. Battery life It has GPS, a heart rate sensor, NFC for Google Pay, and the latest version of Wear OS. That’s identical to all other Fossil-produced fashion smartwatches available now, and it’s difficult to recommend one over the better equipped Fossil Sport. The vibration alert is like the design, very subtle, and the screen even at maximum brightness is difficult to see in bright daylight conditions. Andy Boxall/Digital Trends Wear OS connects to both iOS and Android phones with the corresponding app. I used the watch connected to a Huawei Mate 20 Proand a P30 Pro. Connect to an iPhone, and there are fewer features available. I recommend not buying one if you use an iPhone, as the Apple Watchprovides a vastly superior experience.

Google Fit, for example, is relatively okay to use, echoing the simplicity of the Google Home app, but, still, the emphasis on Move Minutes and Heart Points makes the whole experience feel like a sub-par imitation of Apple's rings. Just make sure to experiment with different Armani faces, as some can take a couple of seconds to load up from the dimmed, always-on mode to the full screen, while others react instantly. The Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 isn't the first Wear OS watch to have this issue recently, but it is an expensive one to have such a critical fitness related flaw. However, it's possible this is just a bug, as the watch supposedly has GPS built in. Armani does not install any superfluous apps, adding only a Saved Looks app to store modified watch faces. While we don’t want pointless extra apps, something to distinguish the AX Connected from the other fashion smartwatches out there would be nice. It all feels a little half-hearted, like Armani Exchange couldn’t be bothered to personalize the watch. Andy Boxall/Digital TrendsThe Emporio Armani Connected hybrid smartwatch combines the dynamic styling of Emporio Armani and the benefits of today’s wearable technology. Wirelessly syncing to your mobile device, this timepiece is always accurate, automatically converting time zone as you travel.

While last year's model slightly over-reported average heart rate, this time around it was always within 1-2 bpm, or, as above, right in line with the Versa. For reference, that's just slightly cheaper than the latest Apple Watch, and around more expensive than the Apple Watch Series 3. And Emporio Armani is also out-pricing the excellent Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 and the Fossil Gen 5. Just like anything with the name Armani attached to it, wearing the Emporio Armani Connected smartwatch is about the way it makes you feel, and not what it actually does. Having a “bare essentials” feature list means the tech-smarts don’t overshadow the sophisticated style. It is a round shape watch made from stainless steel and the features offered in this luxurious watch are great. It can be used to control music as it has a customizable watch face. The only downside? The Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 doesn't feel like a unisex watch. On a female wrist, it feels too big and bulky, no matter which strap you choose. Specs and featuresWe were hoping for a better performance than with the Emporio Armani Connected 2018, which refused to work, but, exhaustingly, the same issue occurred here. As for the display, the Armani Exchange Connected uses a circular 1.2-inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 380 x 390 and a pixel density of 328 pixels per inch. The screen is visible in most circumstances when its brightness level is left to automatic, but sometimes we struggled to read it in bright sunlight. ArmaniMatteo ART5028’s multi-colored dial smartwatch is one of the most excellently designed smartwatches for men in our 5 Best Armani Smartwatch in the 2021 series. Emporio Armani Matteo Smartwatch