Matrix PowerWatch 2 hands-on review

If you had been unfortunate sufficient to personal the unique PowerWatch, you’ll discover instantly that the second iteration has been slimmed down significantly. It now measures 42mm vast, down from 50mm, with an identical rugged look.

This time, nonetheless, it’s of a wholly black metallic casing alongside texture-patterned buttons and a pink trim.

The PowerWatch 2 does seem just a little cumbersome and cumbersome at first, however when you place it in your wrist it doesn’t look that unhealthy in any respect.

Its rubber strap feels comfy and whereas we’re undecided of its precise weight, it feels very gentle contemplating its chunky construct.

Overall, it seems a bit on a budget facet for a watch that prices £500, however we had been testing the most cost effective version. For £100 additional you may go for the Premium version, which touts a sapphire show, whereas an additional £200 will get you the Luxe model, which has the sapphire show and a “shark fin” Milanese strap, principally which means it’s made from a easy chrome steel mesh.

While these extras do not come low-cost, we are able to think about they add some severe high quality to the general really feel of the watch.

For its show, the PowerWatch 2 has a full-colour 1.2in LCD display with an unknown pixel decision. Bad information in the event you prefer to tip-tap your means by your smartwatch choices, because the PowerWatch 2 just isn’t touchscreen enabled.

Instead, the watch is managed through bodily buttons, which might be higher for the system’s audience of adventurers and outdoorsy/sporty varieties. The excellent news although is that the show is notably sharper than on the primary version PowerWatch, making it attraction far more high-end.

However, to cut back the necessity for plenty of battery energy, the PowerWatch 2 depends on mirrored daylight as an alternative of a super-bright backlit display. All-in-all it does the job, with information displayed clearly and neatly, however there’s a lot going directly and since it’s just a little darkish (there was no backlight on our review system) you do end up squinting at it to search out the small print you need, so it doesn’t appear straightforward for customers to know at a look.

Although possibly we simply must get used to it. Nevertheless, we’re promised there might be a backlight on the ultimate system that can fireplace up on the flick of the wrist, it simply wasn’t current on our early hands-on mannequin.

The major draw of the PowerWatch 2 is that it by no means wants charging as a result of it in some way utilises the warmth out of your physique and turns it into energy.

This works through the Matrix chip within the beneath of the watch, which sits in opposition to your pores and skin. The Matrix consultant instructed us that it’s in a position to generate extra energy in chilly environments, as the ability is created from a temperature distinction between your physique and the surface air, versus simply literal physique warmth.

There solely must be one diploma separating exterior physique temperature from the outside for the watch to maintain going, however the larger the distinction in temperatures, the extra power is created and the longer the battery will final (with all of the power-hungry settings like GPS switched on it’ll solely final so lengthy earlier than you want to flip them off and it will possibly cost out of your physique warmth once more).

We tried on the watch, and whereas there’s nothing on the display to inform you that it’s charging, disappointingly. However, it will possibly observe the power you produce and present this with an influence meter within the app. Take the watch off and it’ll save your information in reminiscence because it sleeps. Feature sensible, the PowerWatch 2 has all the usual settigns you’d discover in a Polar or Garmin, for example, other than a serious lack within the sorts of exercises you may observe.

So far it has Running, biking and swimming (it’s waterproof for as much as 200m), though Matrix stated extra might be added at a later date. We had been unable to check how the Power Watch 2 performs in a exercise, which isn’t nice because it’s what it’s all about. But you should definitely test again quickly for a full review of the way it fares throughout train. We’ll be eager to see how the self-charge works underwater, too.