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We’ve seen major manufacturers with proven track records introduce several Android Wear smart watches since the wearable platform was announced, but we have yet to hear anything from independent entities looking to do the same… until now, that is. The Com1 is an Android Wear smart watch made by a small team of folks who wanted to provide something a little different.
The smart watch admittedly isn’t that special up against its stiff competition. It looks decent, so there’s that, though its design really doesn’t jump out as something I absolutely need to own. Its specs also don’t really make me feel all tingly inside:
- 1GHz XBurst-based Ingenic JZ4775 processor
- 375MB of RAM
- 4GB of internal storage
- 1.6-inch 240 x 240 display
- WiFi (802.11 a/b/g/n at 2.4/5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR (BLE Compliant), FM Radio, NFC
- 3-axis gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer
- pressure, humidity and temperature sensors
- 400 mAH Battery (rated for 2 days)
- IP67 dust and waterproof
Considering some watches have Snapdragon 400 chipsets, 512MB of RAM and 320 x 320 resolution, we’d say this thing comes up a tad short on paper. One reason they hope you’ll forgive all of that is the price: $125 is the cheapest pledge that will get you one of these, which is much cheaper than the $200 minimum that you can buy a current Android Wear smart watch for.
Something else to consider before backing is that the company isn’t fairly well known. Their website is bare bones, and we can’t seem to find anything else that these guys have worked on. They are endorsed by The Crowdfund Network which has helped bring light to several successful IndieGoGo campaigns, but we’re not sure that alone is enough to award a stamp of approval. We’ve certainly taken time to reach out and find out more about the folks behind the campaign, and will look to share anything we learn for anyone interested.
If you’re daring enough to take the plunge anyway you should note a few things:
- The campaign is a flexible funding affair, meaning even if the project doesn’t reach its goal ($75,000) they will still get the funds.
- The company notes that you will no doubt get a Com1 smart watch even if they fail to reach their goal.
- Orders begin shipping in January after periods of tooling, production, and manufacturing (but never take those timelines for gospel)
There’s also incentive to help the campaign reach higher heights. $20,000 pledged adds a charging cradle, $80,000 implements wireless charging, and $150,000 brings NFC for tap-to-pay PoS terminals — only the Apple Watch is currently capable of that functionality, and it won’t be here until early next year. Let us know if you’ll be giving these guys a chance in the comments below!
Pressy has stopped me from crowd-funding… I would not drop a dollar on this even if I were rich.
My pressy works great. What kind of problems were you having with yours? As far as this project goes though, I won’t be funding it. There’s absolutely nothing special about this.
The delays… delays… delays… and I still can not use it to take a screen shot like it was advertised to be able to do. I have put it in a drawer and will probably never pull it out again. Wasted money really…
Oculus has stopped me from crowdfunding. The amount of selloutness after they had all that money to make it their OWN.
While I almost want to purchase just to support a startup, I’d really love to know what the screen is made of before doing so. I know how easily my old smartwatch scratched, so I couldn’t make a purchase without knowing it’s Gorilla Glass.
Clearly haven’t been burned yet I see.
I call BS on the December 2014 Estimated Delivery.
I really don’t see the point for this device. Unless it’s under $100. Nah, still don’t see the point.
Hmm. $125 for a complete unknown with subpar specs? No thanks, I’ll stick to someone with a trusted name. After all LG’s already dropped their price to $180…
I expect LG to drop prices further too.
Crowd funded hardware notoriously fails and this will be another one. poorly conceived and poorly designed. meh.
The Pebble didn’t. And it was the smartwatch that awoke the storm of smartwatches we are facing now. (excluding the SW1)
I didn’t say ALL did I? I can personally count over 60 percent failure rate of crowd funded projects that I personally put money into, so I’m not just barfing up something I read. And yes I also backed pebble. What have you backed?
Danger Will Robinson DANGER!
Got a massive specs drop overnight. Yeah, this one is done.Nice try.
and then Facebook will buy it and ruin every fundamental people crowd-funded it for.
Why would I expect a company I’ve never heard of to be able to line up all the details necessary to not only design, but to deal with manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, warranty issues, etc., etc., etc.
Samsung, LG, Moto, and others still haven’t gotten it right, and they’ve got a lot more resources to bring to bear.
Crowd funding has become the latest way to separate the naive from their money.
No thanks. If I’m waiting until December 2014 (or later because we all know this thing will be delayed) to get a smart watch, I want to be able to choose from something that is relevant at that time. This watch isn’t that relevant today, let alone 3-4 months from now.
Not only that, but I’m not going to spend that kind of money with a company with zero track record and a flexible funding goal (which means they keep all the money whether they met their goal and have a shot at production or not). Seems to me that it is simply a way for these guys to take a lot of money from people who should know better……
Did you see the update they made to the hardware?
1.6” AMOLED Display , 320 x 320 resolution, 16.7 Million Colors , LED back light, Brightness: 300 cd/m^2. and a heartrate monitor?
No I hadn’t. Thanks for posting. However the fact that they changed all the major hardware components just confirms the fact that this is totally vaporware at this point. I put the odds of success at about 500:1.
Hey Brian,
No we just listened to feedback, I can 100% confirm this is not vaporware, I am now working with the guys at com1, so feel free to ask me anything :)
Hey everyone! the guys over at com1 have gone and upgrade a good few of the components, fully upgraded display and a heart rate monitor was added last night! that 400mah battery is going to give the Moto360 a good run for its money!!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-com-1-android-wear-smart-watch/x/8657188#home