Back when I reviewed Sony’s Smartwatch 2, I was happy with the overall experience, and since then I’ve been personally using one for months. While Mobile World Congress was coming to a close, somebody spotted a new update running on watches on show from Sony, which features new watch faces and a whole host of new features. That was February, and since then Smartwatch 2 owners much like myself have been waiting (not so patiently) for the update to come from Sony, and today the update has finally gone live. The update is live in the Play Store as of writing, and the update is simple and easy to apply.
One of the headlining features here is the ability to create your own custom watch faces, by putting clocks and widgets together, you can now choose to have more than just the time and date on display. You can have it display a count of notifications, the last significant notification – such as an email – as well as the weather and the battery percentage left in the watch itself. It’s all put together using a simple and satisfying app on your smartphone. It’d have been nice to see some extra fonts or something like that, but it does make the whole process a little more “modern” and does allow for some customization. So too, does the ability to choose from a number of different wallpapers this time around, rather than having to look at the same black background perpetually.
Secondly, Sony has changed the way that apps work on the watch and how they’re managed. You can now manage all installed apps from the watch itself, and enable or disable them, as well as control how notifications are handled for that specific app. Choosing to take a look at advanced settings will open the app’s settings on your phone within the Smart Connect app. There’s also a built in calculator app now, which is quite handy and works very well with good touch response.
For me, my SmartWatch 2 now feels a lot snappier and transitions are smoother and apps load quicker with more immediacy to them. The “accessory version” you’re looking for is ‘1.0.B.4.152’ and if it hasn’t appeared on your phone just yet, try it from the web here. I’ve added some shots of the watch face editor in action below, and support for third party widgets is coming soon says Sony, but none of the apps I had installed worked just yet. If these latest features have made you think twice about getting a Sony SmartWatch 2, you can pick one up from Amazon for $140 or so.
