New photos of the Kingwear KW88 smartwatch have surfaced, and they look pretty slick.
This watch runs a full blown but customized version of Android 5.1 Lollipop. It uses the low powered Mediatek MTK6580 processor and has 512MB of RAM to run it. There is 4GB of storage as well. Finally, there is also GSM/WCDMA connectivity so that you can connect to your network carrier and receive/make calls and texts! However, how will the software be implemented? Performing tasks on a 1.4” screen has got to be difficult; hopefully Kingwear is able to solve that issue.
This watch is quite stylish, and it is obviously styled after diving watches.
The watch itself comes in a black cardboard box with gold lettering on top. I usually do not care what material is used in the packaging of a device, but after reviewing the UMi Super, I was extremely impressed by the metal box that the UMi came in, and it’s soured my unboxing experience just a little for pretty much everything else.
Those of you who are not watch aficionados might not know what a diving watch looks like or functions like, but they are quite large (to be able to resist the water pressure at deeper depths) and have a rotating bezel with minute markings on said bezel. You’re probably wondering what that rotating bezel is there for, and that is a timer. It can be set to let the wearer know when he or she will run out of oxygen, that’s why you see those markings and minute all the way to 60. This rotating bezel has spread to non diving watches as fashion, so when you see someone with a watch that has a rotating bezel, it might not be a diving watch. This Kingwear KW88 is a prime example, as it is not waterproof. However, it does look quite good. This watch is huge though, as most smartwatches have to be. Not only is it running a low powered companion processor for something like Android Wear or the Apple watch ecosystem, it’s running a full fledged Mediatek processor with enough RAM to run a proper Android operating system.
The KingWear KW88 watch itself measures in at 4.7cm in diameter and 1.4cm thick. To put that into perspective, the smaller version of the Apple Watch measures 3.8cm by 3.3cm and is 1.05cm thick. The LG G Watch Urbane measures 4.5cm by 5.2cm and is 1cm thick. The smaller Apple Watch is definitely a lot smaller than the Kingwear and the LG G Watch Urbane is larger but thinner. Something this large would look comical on me, but if you are a bigger guy, then this watch could be a perfect companion to your wrist. If you compare this watch to the Apple Watch or LG G Watch Urbane, which both run companion operating systems such as Android Wear, you’re definitely getting more “bang” for your buck regarding specifications. However, specifications aren’t everything, and the user experience is something to consider as well. Kingwear’s implementation of the full Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system will be a huge deciding factor whether or not you should get this device. But you’ll have to wait for a review of the Kingwear to surface first.