Sony releases photos & specs for its new Android smartwatch

http://youtu.be/DoUzM7WYlP0

More details on the smartwatch Sony was teasing last week have now been released, though it isn’t expected to be launched until September. No pricing is yet known.

As with the company’s previous watch, it’s designed to act as an accessory to an Android phone. Sony still isn’t telling us everything, but we do now have a name (the obvious if not overly imaginative Sony SmartWatch 2), photos and specs below the break … 

As you’d expect, it uses a Bluetooth connection to communicate with your phone, though Sony has also added NFC: you touch the watch to the phone to re-establish the Bluetooth connection if the two devices have been out of range. Since that’s something that would normally happen automatically when they come back within range, NFC is really little more than a gimmick if that’s all it does.

The watch is pretty slim, at just 9mm (0.35 inches), and is almost exactly 42mm (1.65 inches) square, weighing 122.5g (4.32 oz). It appears it will be available in black only. Aesthetically, it appears to be a significant improvement on its predecessor, being much slimmer, with a tiny bezel and a stainless steel wrist-strap in place of the old rubber one.

The screen is a 1.6-inch 220×176 transflective LCD, which we’re hoping is rather better quality than the OLED Sony used last time and which couldn’t really be viewed in sunlight. The screen incorporates touch-sensitive back, home and menu buttons.

The watch is compatible with all Android phones running Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) or better, and Sony is making impressive battery-time claims for the device, suggesting 3-4 days of normal use with the watch always on.

Supported apps at the time of launch include:

• App recommender
• Facebook
• Twitter
• SMS
• MMS
• Missed call notification
• Calendar notification
• Email
• Google+
• New events – aggregator
• Missed call
• RSS
• Gmail
• Viewfinder (remote camera shutter)
• Phonebook
• Music player
• Find phone
• Call log
• Weather
• Time, date

Sony says the watch is splashproof but not waterproof, though rather oddly points out that the strap is neither. The official product page for the watch can be found here.