{"id":302437,"date":"2025-11-23T21:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T21:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/302437\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T21:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T21:06:15","slug":"the-big-smartwatch-upgrade-i-didnt-know-i-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/302437\/","title":{"rendered":"The big smartwatch upgrade I didn’t know I needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have had a hot and cold relationship with smartwatches, but I recently took a chance on an LTE smartwatch for the first time\u2014and I had no idea how big a difference this one change would make. With how freeing the experience has been, I feel like I’m living in the future.<\/p>\n

Setting my watch free from my phone<\/p>\n

A smartwatch is many different things to many different people. For most of us, they\u2019re fitness devices. They track steps, monitor workouts, and can alert others to a fall. But for us tech nerds, they also offer the promise of wrist computing. A smartwatch, after all, is a tiny computer on your wrist.<\/p>\n

\"Visible
\n Credit:\u00a0Bertel King \/ How-To Geek<\/p>\n

With Wi-Fi only smartwatches, that vision is only partially realized. Most smartwatches are tethered to a smartphone and serve primarily as a way of receiving notifications. When our watch gets out of range of the phone, a large amount of the features stop working. This makes smartwatches feel like phone accessories. But once you add LTE, that range limitation goes away.<\/p>\n

Now I can leave my phone and remain connected<\/p>\n

With a cellular smartwatch, I can now head outside to do yard work without having to keep my phone in my pocket. As someone who exclusively uses my phone naked<\/a> and also uses my phone as my PC<\/a>, I\u2019d prefer not to have it at risk of slipping out while I\u2019m splitting wood or spreading mulch. I can now leave it indoors and still know when family is trying to reach me.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the only scenario where being able to leave my phone behind comes in handy. I have a regular meditation practice, and when I\u2019m sitting with others, a cellular smartwatch allows me to check for messages from home far more discretely than being the guy who, even in a space like this, still can\u2019t fully take a break from his phone (Hey, I have two young kids at home and aging in-laws. It is what it is).<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t ridden my ebike since moving to my current home, but that is another area where I would have really appreciated having a cellular watch in the past. I could go out for a bike ride without having to worry about bringing a separate way to safely transport my phone.<\/p>\n

My watch is more than just an accessory<\/p>\n

Now that I can receive calls and messages regardless of where I leave my phone, my smartwatch feels more like an equal citizen. Since it’s able to place calls just like a phone, it\u2019s no longer merely a companion device. Rather, it\u2019s simply an alternative form-factor.<\/p>\n

\"The
\n Credit:\u00a0Bertel King \/ How-To Geek<\/p>\n

I still do far more computing on my phone. Being a book-style foldable, it has a much larger screen and processing power to spare. But there are tasks that just make sense on a watch, like setting timers. I use the built-in breathing exercises and turn to my watch to check the weather far sooner than I pull out my phone. It\u2019s the primary way I talk to Bixby<\/a> to control smart home devices, and there\u2019s a SmartThings app I can access to quickly turn off those 50 smart lights I bought at once<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My phone doesn\u2019t need to be nearby for any of this, and my watch is no more dependent on Wi-Fi than my phone is. Both devices just work how I want them to, wherever I am (unless that last bar of signal disappears).<\/p>\n

My phone number apps are synced with my phone<\/p>\n

My smartwatch may now be able to function independently of my phone, but the two remain intertwined. Phone calls and text messages go to both devices. I can also still receive any phone app notification on my watch. Likewise, my alarms and calendars are still synced between the two, and my health information can be accessed on either one.<\/p>\n

A cellular smartwatch doesn\u2019t lose any of the functionality of a Wi-Fi watch. If you want your watch to primarily serve as a notification machine, it\u2019s no less able to be that even if you add LTE. If anything, it\u2019s now better able to do the same job.<\/p>\n

\"A
\n Credit:\u00a0Bertel King \/ How-To Geek<\/p>\n

Like a married couple, my watch and phone are equals that function differently and are stronger in different areas, but neither is merely the companion. With a smartwatch able to serve as a minimalist phone<\/a>, the line is increasingly blurred between what even qualifies as a phone or, for that matter, what we consider a PC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A cellular smartwatch does come with some downsides. Powering that cellular radio means dealing with shorter battery life, and having a second connected device means paying more for phone service. But I\u2019ve come to find that those costs are worth it, especially now that more prepaid carriers are offering smartwatch service, where I can connect my phone and my watch for less than the cost of a single postpaid plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have had a hot and cold relationship with smartwatches, but I recently took a chance on an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[49,48,195,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-302437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-gadgets","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}