Sony SmartBand Talk Philippines Price Php 8,990 : Quick Demo and Hands-On

Last October 14, 2014 at the Century City Mall in Makati City, Sony Philippines introduced its newest set of incredible smartphones for this market including Sony Xperia Z3, Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, and the hybrid Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact.

The Japanese company likewise took the opportunity to announce the availability of two cool wearables, the Sony SmartWatch 3 and this, the Sony Smartband Talk.

According to Sony, "The SmartBand Talk is a powerful lifelogging wearable, with intuitive features. It features a curved 1.4-inch e-Paper display that is highly visible and clear, giving you always-on updates of your Lifelog activities, notifications and to tell the time at a glance. A built-in microphone and speaker, combined with a short call function, lets you talk into it and hear your caller."

They added,"You can also assign your own sounds to life bookmarks and use your voice to carry out specific smartphone operations (SmartBand Talk Voice Control will be available at launch, initially supporting Japanese, UK and US English, French, German, Italian and Spanish). New built-in accelerometer and altimeter sensor technology provide an accurate overview of your daily physical activity."

I own the first generation SmartBand and I'd say the refresh is just about as big as the previous release. Nonetheless, the SmartBand Talk represents a solid upgrade if only because it now has an actual display allowing it to have a number of additional functionality like showing the time as well as flashing notifications, among others.

Design-wise, SmartBand Talk SWR30 features intuitive controls and tap input allowing you to toggle between various functions and viewing modes. Users can wear it 24/7 and simply change the wrist strap to suit their taste, mood, or style. And they don’t have to worry if it rains as SmartBand Talk is IP58 certified waterproof.

The SmartBand Talk comes with a microphone and loudspeaker giving you voice call capabilities. When a call comes in, for instance, the fitness band vibrates so you won't miss it. You can even use this wearable to initiate a call when paired with a smartphone.

"Create a memorable Life bookmark with audio recording for your Lifelog, or make a voice memo for yourself on the move. SmartBand Talk SWR30 also supports voice commands for handsfree convenience in six languages," shares Sony.

The Lifelog App - that's available for download from the Google Play Store and works with SmartBand Talk - gathers as much information as it can about you; Your movements, your communications and your entertainment. Hence, you can also use it can play back any day of your life as it happened. 'You can even see how you moved, what pictures you took and how you have communicated with your world.'

SmartBand Talk SWR30 vibrates when messages or notifications from various applications like your social networking accounts come in. You can open the notification on the SmartBand Talk itself and see the note's origin and subject.

E-Ink (akin to ePaper) is a low-power display that lets you see clearly what is onscreen and allows the Smartband Talk to have a laudable 7-day uptime. This 1.4-inch screen is curved for easy viewing.

Kindly watch the Youtube video above for a quick hands-on and demo of the key features of Sony SmartBand Talk. I recorded this interview at the exhibit area of Sony Philippines' "Something Great is Coming To Town" event last week. (Thanks, Jimson!)

The stylish and unique Sony SmartBand Talk will only available in Black upon launch in the Philippines come mid-November -- with further colors arriving later in the year. As for its price, this lifelog-centric smartwatch will retail locally for only Php 8,990.