Tiger Rome: Why I let a smartwatch get on my nerves
12.10.2017
Translation: machine translated
Although there are admittedly beautiful smartwatches on the market, it has never occurred to me to buy one. But now my last smartwatch-free hour has come: I'm strapping the Tiger Rome onto my wrist.
I'm seeing smart watches glittering on more and more wrists. Increasingly on women too. But I still don't want one. It's enough for me to see my messages on my mobile. Talking on the phone with a smartwatch doesn't occur to me. In my opinion, it just looks stupid. I mean, imagine someone talking to their wrist: are you from the secret service or just a bit confused?
Now I'm also walking around with a smartwatch. And I can tell you right now: I still don't like smartwatches even after testing them.
My test model is called Tiger Rome. My enthusiasm is limited when Senior Editor Dominik Bärlocher, who also took the pictures for the article, stands at my desk with the box. He wouldn't be Dominik if he didn't say a few more words. But this time he just says: "I'm not saying anything about the watch."
Challenge accepted. We can all google it.
What kind of watch is that?
Before I dive into the internet, I think about it myself. I recognise the name Tiger and the logo from somewhere. A few hours later, it occurs to me: the devices from the Falk navigation brand are called Tiger Geo and the logo looks very similar. Admittedly, that's not something that the average user knows, but we at digitec already know who our favourite people are.
I later learn from the product manager that the Tiger smartwatch is manufactured by DASQ Electronics GmbH. DASQ Electronics is a subsidiary of United Navigation GmbH, which also owns the Falk brand.
So Dominik has given me an outdoor watch? I think that would be great.
But the watch doesn't look so great. I think the watch looks like a man's watch. A brief discussion among the editorial team reveals that men think the watch looks like a women's watch and women think the watch looks like a men's watch.
What is certain, however, is that the watch looks like a men's watch.
What is certain, however, is that the watch looks large and rather clunky and it is unfortunately not an outdoor watch, as a glance at the watch's functions shows.
A problem before the watch is even on the wrist
The watch has a silver-coloured metal strap. It is far too big for my wrist. I know from other watches that the clasp is relatively easy to adjust, but it has a small part at the bottom of the clasp. Not so with the Tiger Rome. The clasp doesn't budge. Am I too stupid?
A quick glance at the instruction manual (yes, there are people who read instruction manuals) reveals the worst: the watch needs to be adjusted by a watchmaker.
Luckily, we have a former watchmaker in the office. I bring him the watch and he laughs at me. He can easily lift the clasp with a bag knife and then adjust it.
The next problem
Well, the watch is on my wrist. The strap doesn't feel particularly good. It is also not replaceable.
The watch has to be connected to the smartphone via Bluetooth. Great, another thing that drains the already weak and constantly empty battery of my iPhone.
Incidentally, the operating system is not from Android but Tiger's own system. The software is obviously made for a square display. Unfortunately, the smartwatch's display is round. The problem manifests itself when tapping on the icons. Too bad nobody thought of that.
Once connected, the watch rings. It's a loud and annoying ringtone like the ones you hear on old phones. A glance at my mobile shows that no one is calling me. I look back at the smartwatch, which shows: Bluetooth connection lost. Oh well, the mobile is right next to the watch, but it can happen.
"Livia, your watch is calling again"
The watch keeps ringing. Even if I've set it to silent. I give up for the moment and use the watch without a connection to my smartphone for the time being. It's just too annoying for my colleagues in the office. For me too.
At the weekend, I go hiking with a colleague. We're going up Mount Pilatus. The watch comes with me. I want to test the watch properly and switch the Bluetooth connection back on. What happens is obvious: the watch keeps ringing. Especially on the train, there seems to be no connection at all. As we are not alone on the train, my colleague is soon a little annoyed. Together we try to switch off the ringing. We only succeed with the app (here in the App Store or in the Google Play Store), which you can download to your mobile to analyse the data.
The watch has an anti-lost function, which means that an alarm is triggered as soon as the mobile moves too far away from the watch. The radius can even be set. Only when we deactivate this function completely does the smartwatch finally give up. I think that's a shame, as I once had my mobile stolen and would have liked to use the Anti Lost function.
The pedometer doesn't run by itself
We start walking. It's steeply uphill. I wonder how many steps I have already taken. The watch shows zero steps. Great. The step counter function has to be started manually. You have to come up with that first.
When we finally arrive at the summit of Mount Pilatus four hours later, I wonder what my heart rate is. The watch gives me different values for each measurement, then levels out on the third and fourth attempt.
The thing with the battery
According to the manufacturer, the battery should last three days. How anyone came up with this figure is beyond me. If I use the watch with a Bluetooth connection, I have to charge it every day. Without it, it lasts just under two days.
The watch has a function called Smart Activate. It ensures that the display switches on when there is movement. I deactivated the function straight away. It uses battery power as if it were a nuisance and when I wore the watch at night, the display constantly dazzled me.
What else annoys me
The watch has a sleep monitor. Sounds great for the first time. But it's not. The only thing the monitor does is stop the time when you press start and stop. And then always tells you that you slept well. I forgot to press Stop once. The watch told me that I had slept well for 17 hours, even though I was awake and going about my daily routine normally. Sleep monitor? I call that a stopwatch.
The watch is relatively easy to use and the menu structure is logical. What is very annoying, however, is that tapping once is usually useless. The display only reacts with pressure. I don't have fat fingers, but as often as I landed on the wrong menu item, you'd think I had huge sausage fingers.
The watch comes with an app. It supplements the watch with a few functions, but does nothing more than graphically display the data that the watch collects. The watch calculates calorie consumption. However, it only uses the steps as the basis for the calculation. The smartwatch doesn't care that I cycle to the office every day.
The speaker of the watch
If the watch is connected to the smartphone, I can accept a phone call with the watch and then make a call with the watch. I did this once to test it out. It worked well. But I wouldn't dream of making serious calls with the watch. I always have to have my mobile with me anyway. Maybe if I can't find the mobile in my handbag when someone calls me. No, probably not even then. I don't want to talk to my wrist and have the person calling me on speakerphone. Just don't.
When I want to listen to music on my mobile in the office, the watch just played my music clattering and loud without being asked. This probably happened because I had previously connected Bluetooth headphones to my mobile. I still thought it was an unnecessary action by the watch.
The few good things about the watch
I want to be fair with the watch. It has a few things that I liked:
- Wireless charging
- Charging time only about 35 minutes
- Alarm clock with pleasant ringtones
- All messages from the mobile are reliably displayed on the watch
If the manufacturer were to improve a few points such as the pedometer, sleep monitor, Bluetooth connection, operation and calorie calculation, the watch would be much better. It is therefore a software-related problem. The hardware of the watch is fine. After my two-week test, the watch only has a small scratch on the screen. I'm glad it didn't break any more, as the watch is so big, I often bumped into things. The case is sturdy enough.
My conclusion
I would not buy this watch
The initial ringing of the watch was so annoying. The battery consumption as soon as the watch is connected to the mobile was annoying. The fiddly display was also disappointing.
Although the watch is in the affordable price segment, the functions are clearly not enough for me.
I can expect a smartwatch to be smart. Unfortunately, this watch is not.
Testing devices and gadgets is my thing. Some experiments lead to interesting insights, others to demolished phones. I’m hooked on series and can’t imagine life without Netflix. In summer, you’ll find me soaking up the sun by the lake or at a music festival.