π blog! βWhy don't smart watches use USB-C to recharge?β
It looks like the new Google's Pixel 4 watch comes with yet another incompatible change in charging technology. This is a ridiculous situation.
The original Pixel Watch used one type of wireless charging. Then the Pixel Watch 2 & 3 removed wireless charging and swapped to a different charging mechanism. Andβ¦
π Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/why-dont-smart-watches-use-usb-c-to-recharge/
βΈ»
#gadget #usb-c #watch
Got a USB-C powered smartwatch for £16 and it is⦠good actually?
Heart-rate and SpO2 are broadly accurate. Can make & receive phone calls via Bluetooth. Step counter is adequate. Even has a couple of games - and a wooden fish (which I don't understand).
Full review coming later. Happy to answer any questions about it.
Has a large gallery of watch faces - decided this spoke to my mood best.
The sleep tracking on this Β£16 smart watch works. The UI isn't the easiest thing to understand - either on device or in-app - but broadly matches how I felt.
Obviously the UI is poor compared to a watch costing 20x as much - but I think this is pretty impressive.
Here's a rough and ready video review.
https://tube.tchncs.de/w/vYTnG6eKghnicdNj5nkhVx
Full blog post later this week.
Not sure how many days battery life you get on an Apple watch, but this el-cheapo unit is still at 75% after a day-and-a-half of use.
That's not bad!
Obviously, it isn't doing half the stuff of a more expensive device. But it is counting my steps, tracking my heart-rate, taking calls, and showing the time.
I'm curious - what's your favourite smartwatch function?
Today's task - try to connect this to #GadgetBridge.
It is a Colmi rebranded MoYoung so I think it should work, but I need to figure out how.
If you've added a new device to @gadgetbridge before, give me a shout π
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The journey of a thousand miles starts with opening an issue.
https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/issues/5193
If you've ever set up a new device on #GadgetBridge - I'll take any and all advice π
Holy shit! It worked π
I used #GadgetBridge nightly, I turned on the debug stuff, and added the unsupported P80 as the V89.
And it looks like most of the stuff works. I can track battery, change watch face, measure heart rate, see steps etc!
Oh, and even if you can't do deep coding - you can always improve the documentation.
https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/pulls/5192
Open source is about helping others in *any* way that you can.
Nice! Even without modification, #GadgetBridge can read this sub-Β£20 smartwatch's data.
Gets sleep, steps, and heart rate without issue. Seems pretty accurate - picked up my exercising just now.
Few missing bits like notifications (which I'll try to diagnose today) and some of the more esoteric settings.
Video: https://tube.tchncs.de/w/vYTnG6eKghnicdNj5nkhVx
Link to buy: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_oCwt0hW
Full review tomorrow π
Ended up writing 2,400 words on this watch π«’
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Here's the full blog post about this ridiculously cheap smartwatch.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/i-bought-a-16-smartwatch-just-because-it-used-usb-c/
@Edent same. I've contributed lots of grammar and spelling corrections over the years. Just little bits of wikignoming on other people's projects.
I'm trying not to be a quantified self-indulgent twat who is driven solely by gamification.
But my watch has just given me gold stars in steps *and* sleep!
An update on this ultra-cheap USB-C SmartWatch.
I've been wearing it for about 10 days and it still has 20% battery left π€©
I'm using it for exercise, step counting, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and some notifications. I'm not using it for calls (although it supports that) and it doesn't have GPS.
The charging graph on #GadgetBridge is a bit wonky - assumes it is on 100% once charging starts. But other than that, pretty accurate!
