Never Charge Again?
Probably the best feature of Matrix's PowerWatch 2 is that it uses your body heat to charge itself so you never have to use a charger.
If the most important thing to you in a fitness watch is the battery life, this one might be the perfect.
Not only does the PowerWatch use body heat, it also uses solar energy so it never needs charging as long as you keep wearing it and spend a lot of time outdoors doing so.
However, this is not entirely true, especially with the GPS turned on. It even comes with a Micro USB-charging dongle.
GPS takes a lot of power to function and if it is turned on, the PowerWatch can only sustain its energy for up to 10 hours of continuous GPS usage.
The reason it uses that much power compared to some fitness watches is because the GPS is always on when in use. With the GPS always on it provides a more accurate location tracking compared to other GPS watches that use ping time to save battery.
Not a full-featured Smartwatch
As a smart watch, the functions of the PowerWatch 2 are pretty limited.
It doesn't take calls, no touchscreen, no contactless payment option, and notifications aren't great.
You'd expect much more from a smart watch that cost as much as the Apple Watch.
Possibly due to its obsession with power saving, the screen on the PowerWatch 2 is barely visible. Instead of relying on a super bright backlight, it instead makes do with reflected sunlight.
Also, the PowerWatch does not run neither watchOS nor Wear OS, therefore the choice of apps may be lacking.
Is it a good Fitness Watch?
Because there's no touchscreen, the PowerWatch relies on buttons, which is a good thing in the outdoor environment where touchscreens are barely usable.
The PowerWatch 2 has the standard functions of fitness watches like GPS, heart monitor, specific activity tracking, calorie burn, pace tracking, and step-counting.
However, the activity settings you can choose from are rather limited. It includes Indoor Run, Outdoor Run, Indoor Walk, Outdoor Walk, and Outdoor Cycle, which allow you to easily track your distance, pace, calories burned, and heart rate.
The watch is waterproof to 200m but you can't choose to track your swim.
As for sleep tracking, the PowerWatch does its job well enough and you probably don't need to worry about running out of juice mid-sleep but make sure GPS is turned off just in case.
Pros
- Great battery life
Cons
- Expensive
- Claims it doesn't need charging but it does
- Not good as a smart watch
- Limited activity options
- No watchOS or Wear OS
Conclusion:
The PowerWatch 2 cost as much as an Apple Watch Series 5, but it is inferior in every way except for battery life. You're better off getting Fitbit, Garmin , or an Apple Watch.
The watch itself looks pretty good though. They could've done better with everything else.
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