Remember Jawbone? Following Pebble, this former high-end brand in smart wearables has also entered bankruptcy liquidation. Is smart bracelet already a dead end? If there is still demand, how to choose related products?
The mobile phone becomes a gravedigger
I think smart bracelets were market favorite at time, and many online brands became a battleground to wear them on wrist. However, to this day, all products focused on sports concepts, even if they have a stylish and cool design similar to Jawbone brand, cannot go to end of road.
The reason is simple.The "sports attributes" of bracelet coincides with functions of new generation smartphones, and it is no longer indispensable.
What is a “next generation smartphone”? It refers to concept of combining software and hardware: on hardware side, it is equipped with sensors such as acceleration and gyroscopes, and CPU integrates a co-processor that can process the information returned by various sensors in real time. time with extremely low power consumption. I don't feel much power consumption with intermittent step counting;
The functions and performance of coprocessor are also constantly improving, but power consumption is further reduced
As for system, it can accurately count steps based on data returned by sensor, and can be linked to countless apps, including WeChat.
You know, at time when smartbands first appeared, many smartphones (including sports apps at that time) were still counting steps using gravity sensors, and accuracy was simply monstrous. Many sports fans had to Buy a professional step counting smart bracelet.
Since a mobile phone already has attributes of a smart bracelet for processing sports information, why buy another thing with duplicate functions?
Perhaps some children's shoes will say that smart bracelet also has many functions, such as sleep reminder, mobile phone search or message reminder. However, this is not focus of users, you can ask your friends who still wears a bracelet in their sleep?
Health Opportunities
It can be said that sports step counting and various reminders are only most basic functions of smart bracelets, and coincidence with functions of a mobile phone is main factor in their completion. Fortunately, as consumers pay more and more attention to their health, smart bracelets have made a new breakthrough.
That's right, heart rate monitoring has been a breakthrough.
The best-selling smart bracelet on market today should be category with built-in PPG photoelectric sensor. The sensor at bottom of bracelet can monitor wearer's heart rate information at any time during exercise to make a more professional and accurate health guide.
PPG photoelectric sensor at bottom of bracelet
Maybe children's shoes will tell you that many mobile phones also support heart rate monitoring?
True, but very few products support this feature, including Samsung Galaxy S/Note series, Meizu PRO 6Plus, Gionee M6s Plus, ZUK Z2 Pro, etc. Unfortunately, with disappearance of ZUK brand smartphones with built-in photoelectric sensors PPG is getting smaller and smaller. For example, Meizu's latest PRO 7 reverses this design of its predecessors.
Given that mobile phones supporting heart rate monitoring are expensive (usually more than 2,000 yuan) and not easy to choose, a smart bracelet that includes this function, costing about 100 yuan, is naturally more attractive< /strong>. Therefore, if you are still planning to buy a smart bracelet now, integrating PPG photoelectric sensor will definitely be first factor in purchase, otherwise it can be perfectly replaced with a mobile phone when purchasing.
By way, smart bracelet can easily find more health functions based on heart rate monitoring.
We can take Midong Health bracelet as an example. It also introduces an ECG chip based on integration of PPG photoelectric sensor used in conventional bracelets, which further enhances level of heart monitoring and can be combined with a mobile application to generate ECG. .
Although we cannot expect results of its ECG chip test to reach level of professional medical equipment, it is sufficient for daily health monitoring, and can also be used as an early warning for treatment if abnormalities occur many times.
Travel Opportunities
Many smartphones boast built-in NFC. With it, you can directly charge bus card through APP, check bus/bank card balance, card swipe records and other information, relieving pain of queuing.
In addition, there are several mobile phones that pride themselves on integrating "full-featured NFC" that can open virtual bus cards (including credit cards), making travel easier.
Unfortunately,there are very few mobile phones that support NFC, and even fewer models support virtual bus cards, and it's hard for us to arbitrarily increase our budget for this feature. This time, a smart bracelet with a bus card function will come in handy.
In example of Honor Band 3 version with NFC, this product has added function of simulating a bus card based on heart rate monitoring, and supports online recharging by linking an application and quick reading in buses and subways with screen turned off (currently time system support Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Android, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an and other cities will open one by one), even if there is no power, you can insist on holding bracelet and riding a day. In addition, in supermarkets and stores that support consumption of bus cards, such wristbands can also be used for consumption.
If you care about your health, have a bad habit of often forgetting to take your bus card with you when you go out, and do not plan to switch to a mobile phone with full NFC support, then this smart bracelet with heart Speed monitoring and bus card support is definitely will help you. Of course , if you are not interested in heart rate monitoring function for health, it will be cheaper to directly choose a bracelet that only supports public transportation.
Payment options
To avoid problem of receiving counterfeit money and change, almost all merchants support Alipay form of payment. When online payment has become a habit for all people, any smart bracelet that can be linked to payment will surely bring us more convenience.
It should be noted that at present, only Xiaomi (including its environmental network enterprise Huami Technology) has entered into a relevant agreement with Alipay, and you can obtain related products and activate free payment in Alipay "Settings → Payment Settings → Smart Bracelet". Secret payment function.
In simple terms, once a user's Mi bracelet is paired with an Alipay customer's mobile phone, as long as user wears watch and mobile phone at same time when leaving home, they can eliminate need to enter a payment password. when paying with Alipay. The principle is that bracelet plays a role similar to U-screen during payment process, and is used to verify validity of bracelet through Bluetooth communication to identify user's identity, replacing role of fingerprint identification with bracelet.
What is power of smartwatches
Compared to smart bracelets, many users prefer shape of a smart watch, as it not only supports all functions of bracelet, but also displays more content on a larger screen. So, who suits us better between watches and bracelets?
Today, smart watches can be divided into two categories: one is Android Wear system pre-installed, and built-in Wi-Fi module can independently install APP on Internet. They are more expensive, and battery life is usually calculated in hours, so they are not suitable for ordinary users;
Another product uses a simplified system and only adds a screen to a smart bracelet. The battery life can be in weeks and price is more affordable.
In terms of features, the biggest improvement on smartwatches over wristbands is ability to pay offline. It can be linked to a product in Alipay "Settings→Payment Settings→Smart Watch".
In future, even if you forget to take your mobile phone to go out, you can make an Alipay payment by calling up a barcode on watch screen, without network support. In future, you won't need to carry your wallet or mobile phone with you when you go out for a run, you only need to wear a watch!
However, there is a big security risk when a smartwatch is linked to Alipay. Once a watch is lost, person who finds it can also use its payment function to make purchases. Form confirmation!
Therefore, first time after losing a smartwatch linked to Alipay, it is worth unbinding it through Alipay client of mobile phone so that quick payment function is disabled. The sports bracelet is connected to your mobile phone via Bluetooth, so even if you lose it, you don't have to worry about problem of fraud.
In short, heart rate monitoring, public transportation and payment functions make smart bracelet best partner of a smartphone and can complement each other in terms of functions. If you need to find a pair for your wrist, these three features are a plus.