[Palm 247 has been made a review] Brando sells an MP4 Watch for US$98 (1GB version) and US$138 (2GB version) and your first thoughts are probably "how can a video playing watch this cheap be any good?" Well, those were my thoughts as well until I tried one and now my opinion has changed somewhat.
In the box you get the watch, a USB cable, a surprisingly good pair of earphones, Driver CD, AC Adaptor and a user manual. The earphones have a 2.5mm jack which is an added bonus if you are searching for a good pair for your Treo or other 2.5mm jacked device- they really do sound very good. The box itself is quite cheap looking but the watch has a sporty feel to it with a rubberised strap complemented with silver hodlings. Another surprise is that the watch does not feel too big when on your wrist and at only 52g will be no more noticeable than a normal watch.
Once you have charged the watch up the fun really starts- the screen quality is way beyond what I expected from a watch and is as clear as any PDA or Smart Phone I have seen to date. 128 x 128 pixels does not sound like much but if you look at the image on the right you can see a rather impressive menu screen.
Pre-loaded on to my watch was a video and MP3 of Crazy Frog (you have been warned
) and despite my loathing for the frog the sound and video quality are simply brilliant. They are not just brilliant because it is a watch- they are better than for example the quality of video on a Treo. I have no idea how they did it but I managed to watch two episodes of Without A Trace on this device and it felt no different to using my PDA.
Some of you will no doubt see this as a novelty item and I certainly did before I got it but I really do like it and can see it serving much use (if Brando hadn't kindly offered it as a prize in our Christmas Countdown so it's gone now...) The time and date display is also very sharp and it works like an old style LED watch in that you press a button to see the time- very retro which I am a fan of.
Would you believe that it is a voice recorder as well? This also worked well and with a record time of 8 hours you should be able to capture what you need whenever you need it. Formats catered for are MP1, MP2, MP3 and WMA for music and MP4 (NVX) for video. I found that charging it for about 1 hour would get me through the next day without issus- the battery is not great and if you play too much video you mayhave to re-charge but this watch is very small and I feel that they have done a good job with the battery in this product.
Conclusion
If you live in a country that does not use US$ you can get this watch for under £50 (due to the very poor US$ rate) and this is exceptional value. If this watch was $200 I would still say that it is good value for money, I genuinely would. A great product, with few faults at an outstanding price.
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