Emporio Armani Opens The Door To Luxury Smartwatches

The dynamic styling of Emporio Armani meets technology with a new collection of touchscreen smartwatches. This watch features the brand’ s most coveted designs with the added benefits of today’s wearable technology. The Emporio Armani Connected touchscreen smartwatch is compatible with both iOS® and Android™ phones, and are powered by Android Wear™ 2.0, Google’s smartwatch platform, and the Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ 2100 smartwatch platform. Stay in the know with messages and notifications delivered directly to your watch and stay in style with a customizable watch face and interchangeable straps that can be changed to match your look. Connect to your favorite apps to track activity and access your music library. This black IP touchscreen smartwatch features a black dial with full display and is complemented by an easily interchangeable brushed-and-polished black IP bracelet.

The Great

• Sophisticated style
• Crown controls Android Wear
• Straps easily swapped to change the look
• Comfortable, and beautifully presented

The Not

• Light on tech features

   

• No Android Pay

The Conclusion

Smartwatches need to look good, and as luxury brands enter the market, we find they end up producing some of the best-looking wearables. One of the latest is the Emporio Armani Connected, Armani’s first Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch. It’s unquestionably attractive, with a name that oozes class, style, and sophistication but barley a smartwatch.

Emporio Armani isn’t completely fresh to the world of smartwatches, after releasing a collection of hybrids last year. But with the Emporio Armani Connected and its full touchscreen face, this represents the Italian fashion house’s first dip into the world of Android Wear.Just as you would expect, entry doesn’t come cheap, either.

Its Fancy

Let’s be honest, if you’re looking to pick up this watch, you’re almost definitely more focused on the design than its connected features. And in our opinion, this is one of the sleekest options to consider.

Like the rest of this year’s Fossil Group watches, there’s no flat tyre here, just a full AMOLED touchscreen offering a display which is up there with the best — and certainly an improvement on the Fossil smartwatches we saw in 2016. Interestingly, though, Armani has chosen not to release the actual specs regarding its screen.

There’s been no skimping on build quality, either. While this admittedly feels like a more premium smartwatch thanks to our review model being the stainless steel band, the 46mm face doesn’t feel bulky or cumbersome when on the wrist. If you want a lighter variant or simply a different colour metal, 11 options are out there in total, giving you a strong pack to choose from.

Smart Functions

Emporio Armani and Fossil have shied away from releasing all the tech spec but we found the Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 processor to provide a lightning  experience around the Connected. Delay when opening apps is minimal and menus almost never suffer from lag.

Fitness enthusiasts will be disappointed, though, if they’re looking to branch out to a more stylish all-in-one, with no support for heart rate tracking, no GPS sensor and zero opportunity for swimming due to the IP67 water rating. When we have taken the Connected out on a token run, the metal band was (obviously) seriously uncomfortable in comparison to the Fitbit Ionic and Apple Watch, so those who are looking to take the device out with their smartphone should at least invest in one of the more sporty bands to switch out.

What was a nice touch, though, was the ability to control our music while on the go – whether playing through Apple Music on an iPhone or Spotify on an Android device.

The Final Thought

Luxury smart watched are coming, this is just the start. The price tags will climb to close to the cost of a 3/2 split level home in rural Tennessee soon enough. This is a nice mid step between a nice looking watch and a smartwatch but it is neither great at either.