Chinese products are often regarded inferior in quality and specs. However, the past few years have totally changed the way we look at cheap Chinese products. Even start up companies have proved that they can manufacture items which are at par as compared to products from other international manufacturers that too at a very affordable cost.

No.1 G2 is one such product that managed to surprise by its built quality. The device retails for less than $70, yet sports premium design comparable to even those smartwatches which cost more than $350.

So, we decided to check out what makes those products so costly and a product like No.1 G2 so cheap. The best example in the price difference is the upcoming Apple Watch. This particular smartwatch will retail for more than $350, so we thought its best to compare these two to check out the similarities and differences! Moreover, given that owning / wearing a smartwatch is a growing trend, its always best to analyze your options.

No.1 G2 vs Apple Watch

DESIGN:

Like always, we start off with the design. Both the devices are well built and use premium materials in their workman ship and both are square shaped. The No.1 G2 sports a steel body with a strong metal texture giving it a rich look despite its cheap price while the Apple Watch has a traditional design. In fact, when we first saw the Apple Watch in pictures, we were disappointment. Apple products are usually known for the extremely well built design, but nothing about the Apple Watch looked unique. We expected a lot more.

Personally, we feel that the No.1 G2 looks a lot better in terms of design, but we leave that up to you. We know there are people who love Apple’s plain design and we respect that. So, its up to you to decide which one you like.

FUNCTIONALITY:

Apple watch comes with a digital crown for carrying out the various functions on the device. On the other hand, No.1 G2 comes with a traditional home button.

We have to agree that the digital crown is a very unique concept in the recently evolved smartwatch industry and for that the company gets special points in this category. The No.1 G2’s home button looks pretty good too, just a bit traditional. However, we feel that the placement of the home button is perfect for daily use. Its easy to operate and the phone starts up with just a touch of a button.

So, its really hard to say which one has the best button. On one hand, the digital crown looks cool, but then users will have a little bit of learning curve and will have to go out of the way to get used to it. The No.1 G2 probably is the easier one to use, although with a more traditional design.

Here, we may have to give Apple Watch some extra points, but still we don’t think that the crown is practical enough to charge almost 5-6 times more than the No.1 G2!

CONNECTIVITY:

This is the biggest drawback of the Apple Watch. Like all Apple devices, the Apple Watch will only work when you have an Apple device. Yes, the watch only works with iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 5C, iPhone 5S and iPhone 5. So, if you happen to use any other device, the watch is practically useless. Either you will have to change the watch or change your phone into an Apple device, which we feel is a big limitation on the device.

On the other hand, the No.1 G2 practically works with around 98% of smartphones available in the market as it connects to Android as well as iOS platforms. This makes the No.1 G2 available to a wider audience than the Apple Watch, which we feel is a requirement when we evaluate a product.

FEATURES:

When you are ready to pay $350 for a smartwatch, you expect a lot of new features and function to play with as compared to other cheap offerings. Unfortunately, like the design, the Apple Watch disappoints.

Almost all of the functions can be performed by the cheap No.1 G2. So, you can remotely control your camera, set alarm clock, check weather, use stopwatch, synchronize contacts, check call history and even receive calls on the device. There’s a pedometer, notifications alert via vibrations and more more fitness related functions, all available on both the devices.

The Apple Watch may have the edge when it comes to Apple Pay and customizability. However, Apple Pay is limited to US, which makes it useless in other countries and customizability has its own extra price! Moreover, the cheaper No.1 G2 even has some extra features like infrared remote control and smart home functions not available on the Apple Watch.

As you can see, when it comes to features, the Apple Watch isn’t what you would expect it to be. In fact, the No.1 G2 comes out as the winner here by having almost the same functions at a much cheaper price tag.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY:

Guess what, the Apple Watch is still not available to purchase. Yes, even if you are ready to shell out $350 of your hard earned cash, you won’t be able to buy it since Apple has not yet made it available. So, you can either wait for a few more months (March release expected) or just go out and buy the No.1 G2 which is currently available for sale at just $66.

When you are paying as much as $350, you expect beautiful design and features, which unfortunately you don’t get on the new Apple Watch. So, for us, its easy to pick out a winner in this battle – the No.1 G2, but like our title says, we leave it up to you to decide which ones the best.

The post No.1 G2 vs Apple Watch: Pick out the winner! appeared first on Gizmochina.

We recently reviewed the UWatch U8 Pro smartwatch which is one of the cheapest smartwatches currently available in the market. However, if you are looking for something more fancy, you might want to take a look at the all new No.1 G2.

No.1 has a lot of smartphones under its belt, most of which are clones of famous flagships. But given the recent surge in the demand for smartwatches, this Chinese manufacturer decided to try out its luck in the smartwatch category. Like its recent smartphone releases, this one too is a clone of a famous flagship smartwatch, the Samsung Gear watch. So, you get the same looks and design as the Gear smartwatch, which on the other hand makes it look a lot more posh and premium than other offerings in this range.

We have a lot to say about this new smartwatch, so, without wasting any more of your time, lets take a look at the No.1 G2 smartwatch review.

No.1 G2 UNBOXING

Even though you can purchase the No.1 G2 for less than $100, the overall package looked quite premium and well built. The smartwatch came in a white box with all the features listed on top of the box with colorful icons. As you can see in the pictures below, the box looked quite sturdy. So unlike many other Chinese companies, its good to see that the company has taken special care of the package.

The watch itself was placed in a white pillow like cushion to prevent any scratches while transportation. Given that its a smartwatch, you don’t get many things inside the box. Inside it, we got the 350 mAh battery which came separate from the watch. It had some charge when we installed and tried to power on the device but you’ll have to charge it for a few hours before you go ahead and test it.  There’s also a microUSB cable inside for charging and transferring data to and from the device.

DESIGN

Given that No.1 has taken inspiration from the Galaxy Gear smartwatch for this particular device, you know exactly how it looks and feels. Because, despite its low price tag the company has made sure that the watch is made from quality materials. The construction is sturdy and solid, thereby matching its premium looks.

As you can see in the pictures, the face is made out of metal, while the rubber bands are made of good quality rubber. And if you ever feel that you need to change these bands, you can do that too with ease. The highlight of the G2’s built is the onboard sapphire glass. Yes, the same tough Sapphire glass display that is reportedly better than the current Gorilla Glass generations.

And for those longing for a different look, the G2 is available in three different colors namely silver, gold and grey. All of them looks good but we have a feeling many would go for the gold finish.

HARDWARE

Here are some key specifications about the device.

The No.1 G2 smartwatch is powered by a MT2502A processor with 128M + 32M memory configuration. It has a 1.54-inch TFT screen with a resolution of 240 x 240. While this isn’t the biggest smartwatch displays that we have seen recently, it is still big enough to allow easy touch inputs and on screen notifications. Like mentioned above, the front is protected by Sapphire Glass, so you don’t have to worry about scratches on the display.

The overall dimensions of the device comes out to 36.9 x 58.4 x 10 mm which is quite decent for a smartwatch. There is a 350 mAh battery inside, which is once again standard when you compare with other competitors like LG G Watch or Moto 360. You can charge it via the provided MicroUSB port on the watch.

There is an inbuilt speaker, microphone, antenna and a vibration motor to support the various functions on the device. No.1 has also incorporated a number of sensors like Heart Rate monitor and pedometer which sets it apart from other cheap offerings in the market. However, they don’t usually work that great, but more on that later. The watch is IP67 compliant which means its water proof. So, dipping it in water for a few minutes or even wearing it in rain won’t any harm to the watch.

PERFORMANCE

Usually, setting up a Bluetooth enabled device is pretty tiresome. Either the phone doesn’t recognize the new device or the phone just doesn’t connect at all. But with the No.1 G2 smartwatch, things were pretty smooth. The company has provided a QR code which when you scan it on your phone, will take you to the Mediatek Smart Device app. After downloading and installing the app, you can access various features directly from this app. For example, you can install apps on your smartwatch from this companion app. To load them, you’ll see an install button inside, which will instantly download and install them on to your smartwatch. Pretty neat right? Further, you can install new watch faces, check and install software and much more from this companion app.

Once, you are connected, you get access to a number of nifty features on the watch. The highlight is probably its ability to take phone calls. The integrated microphone and the speaker does well in maintaining the call quality. So, even if the phone is somewhere else, you can take calls and talk to the person on the other end. However, remember that the watch does not feature a SIM card slot and a Bluetooth connection to a cellular active smartphone is necessary to make and receive calls.

Another important feature of the device is its inbuilt 2MP camera. The sensor managed to surprise us all in terms of clarity and color reproduction, but still it can never replace your traditional camera or even a smartphone camera. So, its just good enough for a few shots in day light every once in a while. But more on that later.

The overall UI is good and responsive, however its not completely based on Android. The inbuilt heart rate monitor gives mixed results. Sometimes, the sensor works pretty well and the results are accurate, but sometimes, it may not function properly so you cannot rely totally on the phone’s heart rate monitor. The pedometer worked fine, so no problems there. It calculated the calories burnt as well as displayed the workout information pretty accurately. Moreover, it can count the number of steps taken as well as your speed.

The No.1 G2 can display text messages from your phone to its screen and you can then choose from a number of templates for reply. Even whatsapp messages are supported but you may face some problems with the app’s graphics. But overall, you can use the smartwatch for your basic networking needs too.

As for music, you can’t download anything on the watch. But it has a dedicated music player which can stream music directly from your smartphone to your smartwatch. You can then listen to music on the built-in speakers but if you are a headphones fan, you’ll be better off playing music on your smartphone itself, as the watch doesn’t feature a headphone jack.

There are a lot of other special functions as well, for example, there’s a remote camera app which makes your smartwatch act as a remote viewfinder for your phone’s camera. So, you can click pictures remotely from this watch. Moreover, if you go beyond a certain distance, around 10 meters, the watch will automatically start beeping alerting you that your connected smartphone is more than 10 meters away. A great feature especially if you are the kind of person who tends to forget smartphones at different places.There’s a voice recorder app too which records voice through its inbuilt microphone.

Like most other smartwatches out there, you can even track your sleeping patterns which will help you analyze ways in which you can increase the quality of your sleep time. There’s an infrared port as well which can control a number of appliances at your home.

On average, you get about a day’s usage on the device with a Bluetooth connection. This includes regular notifications and other usage throughout the day. And when you are not connected to a phone via Bluetooth, this increases up to two to three days. So, the battery life is at par with other smartwatches that we have seen lately.

The No.1 G2 features a special power saving function as well which turns the display into grey scale when there is limited charge on the device. Moreover, with the provided MicroUSB charging port, you can charge the device using the same charger as your smartphone.

CAMERA

Readers are always interested in the camera quality of any device and even though this is a smartwatch, we feel there are people who will be curious about its low res 2MP camera. Like we mentioned above, this 2MP camera sensor managed to impress us, especially in day light photos.

It may not be as good or clear as regular smartphone cameras, but still its good enough for clicking casual shots or even spy shots of your friends and family. The color reproduction is pretty good as well exposure. You get some noise in the images, but given the low res sensor, you can’t expect much.

Anyways, we have added a few samples down below from this 2MP camera for your reference.

VERDICT

As you can see, the No.1 G2 turns out to be a great smartwatch. In fact at this price, we can’t really find any other smartwatch which looks as premium and well built as the No.1 G2 and comes with such useful features as well. The sleep tracker, heart rate sensor, infrared port, camera as well as the calling function makes this particular device a true smartwatch worthy of appreciation.

At present, Everbuying.net is selling No.1 G2 for $77 which is a great price for a device with such features. But with a coupon from discountion.com, you can get it for just $70.98. Hence, it is a must have for those looking for their first good smartwatch!

Check out the coupon below.

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