Sony SmartWatch 3 makes its appearance in the Play Store as ‘Coming Soon’

A new Android Wear powered smartwatch has surfaced in the Play Store today. The Sony SmartWatch 3 is Sony’s take on the Android Wear sporting game.

The Sony SmartWatch 3 offers much of the same thing the others on the market do, but there are a few key differences. The SW3’s main display is removable and can be placed in a variety of colored bands that Sony sells. That does rule out the use of more traditional style watch bands that you might already own, but it does give it an additional option that a few of the others don’t. Sony has four color options on display on their site. It is unclear if you will be able to choose from just the black as the Play Store image shows, or if there will be other choices hen it becomes officially available. I am certain you can order it through Sony in any color you want.

Internally it carries the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 512MBs of RAM and 4GB on board storage. A slight differentiating addition is the battery size, coming in at 420 mAh vs the competitions highest device being the LG G Watch at 400 mAh. It also offers its own GPS chip that allows you to record your runs and adventures without being connected to a phone. I would imagine the bump in battery is to help offset the GPS battery use as well as give it a reported 2 day battery life. Although I have found conflicting information that states 1 day of active use and 4 days of standby with a 1 hour charge time. It will all depend on your use of course.

As you can above, the SW3 offers a small flap on the rear, which is where you will charge the watch via a micro USB cord. Even though Sony went a little more sporty with this one, it doesn’t look all that terrible. I am really liking the look of the clasp.

A previously released video of the device from Sony also shows off some other cool features. Like long pressing on the screen to “wake it up” and placing your hand over the display to “put it to sleep.” I do not have any of the Android Wear watches, so if that is a common feature, excuse me. Either way, check out the video to see a bit more about this device.

There is a curious little addition in the connectivity section about the watch as well. It says Bluetooth 4.1, which is great, but also that the watch is Wi-Fi ready. At this point I am going to assume that it will connect to open WI-Fi networks as you pass by to sync up your GPS and activity logs with the LifeLogging software that Sony provides. That is strictly theoretical until I can find out more in regards to the Wi-Fi aspect.

Anyone considering this one when it finally goes live for the $250 price tag?

Feel free to poke about the Sony SmartWatch 3 on the Play Store and on Sony’s own site.