Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Matrix PowerWatch 2 Review: You Are The Battery”.
( upbeat music, ), Seven days., That’s how long ago I first strapped on the “ Matrix, PowerWatch 2”, And today the power meter still reads 100 %. How Well because at it turns out, I am a battery., And you know what You are: too. ( upbeat, music, ), Okay, to phrase it more accurately. Humans aren’t necessarily batteries., At least not until the machines take over., But we are great sources of heat.
And within the difference between our hot bodies and the cooler outside air is the potential to generate power.. Maybe you remember a review. I ran last year featuring a personal cooling bracelet called the “ Ember Wave” That device used battery power to essentially turn itself into an ice cube on your wrist.
By harnessing something called the Peltier effect.. Well, watch what happens when YouTube Channel LudicScience takes a similar Peltier unit and puts his hand on it. The difference between his warm skin and the ambient temperature generates electric current., That’s called the Seebeck effect. And it’s how the PowerWatch 2 recharges its own battery., See the Aluminum back plate of the watch is the hot side and the cold side is the metal bezel and the rest of the casing., The greater the temperature difference between your skin and the outside air.
The more current the watch can put back into itself. Watch. The charging meter on the perimeter of this watch face peter off from max to zero when I take it off and put it on the cool surface of my dining room table.. But maybe you already see the problem. In the summer, sometimes there’s not much difference between your body temperature and the surrounding air. And above 90 degrees fahrenheit about 32 degrees celsius. The thermo-electric generator doesn’t produce enough current to charge the battery at all.. Well, that’s where the PowerWatch 2 takes a page out of Len’s book., This bezel beneath the sapphire cover glass, it’s actually an annular solar cell and it’s much more efficient than the thermo-electric generator at putting power back into the battery..
During my time with the watch here. In June. Far and away the most power generated on a given day has been from solar.. Now I imagine if it were the dead of February. These figures could well be reversed., But the bottom line is until I started filming with it and leaving the watch off. My wrist a lot, I never saw a power level below 100 % And it’s been seven days since I first put it on.. This watch literally comes with a charger, and it’s FAQ’s says you probably never have to use it. In an era where Apple adds sleep tracking to the Apple Watch, but hastily adds that you’ll have to charge it the morning after this is incredible., And it’s why I’ve Wanted to cover the PowerWatch 2 for months., Even though it was first announced a long time. Ago., Of course, something that lasts forever is only good if you enjoy it., Like my marriage. Folks, and here’s where the PowerWatch 2 still needs a lot of work., While it delivers on the fundamentals of a timepiece, with the watch face visible in all conditions. Backlight step-tracking And all that it’s a pretty weak, smart watch., It has the trappings of one. It’ll, connect to your phone via Blutooth and buzz your wrist for notifications..
You can use GPS to track workouts and it’s got a heart rate sensor that can feed data to Google Fit or Strava to help you with your health yes. For a grown-at-home smartwatch platform. It’S got surprisingly robust, functionality., But just like in that other Matrix. There are glitches. About once a day I’ll realize “ Hey. I haven’t gotten a wrist buzz in a while.” Turns out.
I was still getting emails and texts, but my watch had just lost the Bluetooth connection to my phone.. No notification, no alert, no buzz. Just drops offline and never reconnects.. I had to go to the Matrix discord channel to learn that I had to toggle Bluetooth and restart the watch to fix that bug..
I assume that this is what Matrix is referring to in it’s FAQ when it says you should sync regularly in order to avoid slow, syncing., ( soft music, ) Other bugs are easier to live with., Just by virtue of the fact that Matrix knows about them and Says it’s actively working on them. The lack of milliseconds on the stopwatch, the occasional nonsense notifications with corrupted unicode, the lack of customizable watch face. Take your pick. They’re all over the discord..
You know the company is on top of it’s communication.. It hosts “. Ask Me Anything” sessions once every month or once every couple months. And it keeps people informed about forthcoming features and software updates.. It would all be so much easier to live with if the watch had just come out., But these are the kind of bugs you expect from an early BETA product, not one first announced in January 2019., Of course, Matrix didn’t get into this business to make the World’S next great smartwatch., It’s business is thermo-electric power generation.. This is a convenient platform to demo that., Honestly, even with all the bugs I almost wan na keep wearing it just cause. It’S so incredible not to worry about charging my smartwatch.. This is the kind of technological achievement that can even make you forgive a watch that, on your wrist, is the size of a water main pipe flange, but at a price that starts at $ 499 and goes all the way up to $ 699 for the top Shelf Luxe trim here well as fun as it can be to beta test space-age technology.
I typically prefer not to pay for the privilege. Now, that’s unless, of course, you’re talking about folding phones.. We all draw our own lines at different places. Check out.
My recurring series called “ Into the Fold”, where I explore that delightfully strange world of folding screens. And if you decide you do want to join the small but vibrant community of PowerWatch 2 owners I’ll drop a link to purchase below.. As always Mr. Mobile works.
For you, and not the manufacturers, folks. Matrix was given no copy approval or editorial input into this review. Video. They’re, seeing it for the first time right along side. You., Please subscribe to theMrMobile on YouTube. If that’s the kind of video you’d like to see more of. Till next time, thanks for watching and if you can’t stay home, then stay safe and keep wearing those masks. While you stay mobile, my friends .