Com1 is the first Android Wear smart watch to be crowdfunded, and it needs your dollars
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!