🆕 blog! “Why don't smart watches use USB-C to recharge?”
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. And…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/why-dont-smart-watches-use-usb-c-to-recharge/
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#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 £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?
@Edent
> Not sure how many days battery life you get on an Apple watch [...]
Advertised run time is: 0.75 days.
@dat just tried. It was discovered and connects - but doesn't do anything.
Do you know how I get started with it?
I'm just using it with different brand devices that are now officially supported. IDK about yours. Would have been nice though.
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CC: @dat@social.g33ky.de
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 😃
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 😃
Holy shit! It worked 😁
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!
@Edent
Thank you very much, I hope you are happy now. I've ordered the P80 smartwatch and also the P81 (no USB-C, but only 11€ 🤯, and slightly larger 300mAh battery). Will report if it works with #GadgetBride equally well.
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-£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 😃
Ended up writing 2,400 words on this watch 🫢
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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/
