Acer’s new smartwatch may be a Leap in the wrong direction

I don’t think people would disagree with me when I say that the wearable market isn’t in the best shape. Just look at Pebble. Or Fitbit. Even Moto‘s ditched the smart wearable market because the demand just isn’t there.

The only people still making smartwatches are Huawei, Samsung and Apple, the latter two of which leverage their existing ecosystem. Fitbit’s still got their strong community, but even then, the company is in dire straits.

Then we’ve got Acer, who, out of all the things I thought they would launch, launched a wearable. It’s called the Leap Ware and when I saw it, the biggest question that popped up in my head was: Why?

Acer is positioning the Leap Ware as an “elegant approach to fitness” and to their credit, the watch does look pretty nice — especially next to some of the more unsightly fitness trackers out there. It takes a more standard watch look and that’s something I can appreciate.

However, wearing it, I get the same feeling I do when I put on one of my plastic Fitbits — it doesn’t feel as premium as it looks. But then again that’s not really an issue because this watch is set to retail at USD139 (around RM600) meaning it’s cheaper than the even the more entry level Fitbit Alta HR.

As far as features go, the Leap Ware will be running on Acer’s own wearable OS and be powered by a MediaTek MT2523 chipset. It’s also got an MT2511 bio-sensing chip so it’ll be able to track fitness and health metrics like fatigue/stress levels, stamina, and heart rate. Its 1.1-inch colour touchscreen is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass SR+.

Navigating through the menus isn’t what I’d call a smooth experience. Swiping sensitivity was quite iffy and the overall transitions felt really choppy. Also, the display was really dim for a wearable and I couldn’t find any settings to turn the brightness up.

Further, the watch has a few confusing navigation cues. For example, the two shiny chrome bits on either side of the 42mm case…are not buttons. Pressing them doesn’t do anything. There’s also a flashlight so you can pretend to be Buzz Lightyear. And….a snapshot feature? Not super sure what that does, but from my testing, it didn’t seem to do much.

That said, it does have some nice features that make it a pretty decent wearable. It’s IPX7 water resistant (that’s like the iPhone 7) so you can wear it in the shower, plus it’s got easily removable 20mm standard bands and the device is compatible with Android (Lollipop+) and iOS (iOS8+) platforms. It’ll also last between 3-5 days per charge.

I don’t know that the wearable market is really something Acer should be focusing on right now because from what we can see, it isn’t really picking on. High price tags, lack of meaningful features and limited usability means that wearables tend to stay only on the wrists of enthusiasts.

What do you guys think of the Leap Ware? Let me know in the comments below.