It has been almost a year since Chaudhary Group (CG) launched its first smartphone. Now, last week the company surprisingly launched the CG iWear smartwatch. This came as a shock because a smartwatch is a big thing and it means a commitment to gadgets from the company. CG iWear smartwatch is one of the first gear or smartwatches from a Nepalese smartphone brand. CG iWear price in Nepal is Rs 4,444 and it is a very affordable watch. The watch also supports pairing with both Android and iOS devices. It also comes with a 12 months warranty. The iWear is available for purchase in all CG retail outlets as of now.
The first thing about the electronics and gadget industry is that it is quite capital intensive. It requires large and expensive equipment, a sophisticated supply chain, large marketing, innovative R&D, and lots of technicians. That is why there are no Nepali electronic manufacturing companies till now. There are only assemblers who import parts and join here. In the case of CG, they manufacture a lot of things including FMCG products but for smartphones, they also import from partner OEMs.
Also Read: CG Mobiles Price in Nepal
Even though CG buys from an OEM, they have a smartphone brand because except for Colors Mobiles there is no other Nepali mobile brand. However, CG is now one step ahead of Colors because they have stepped into the smartwatch market as well. Smartwatches are a bit advanced market because only technology enthusiasts or fitness freaks buy these. This time, we have also got our hands on the new CG iWear so here are the details and impressions.
CG iWear Build and Specifications
The smartwatch from CG has a square metallic body that houses a 1.44” square-shaped LCD screen. The screen comes with a resolution of 128×128. This is a 1:1 aspect ratio display rather than the circular or somewhat elliptical shape that we have seen in many other smartwatches on market.
On the hardware side, CG iWear has Bluetooth 4.0 for connectivity and also has a 350 mAh battery. The battery capacity is 350 mAh which is small in power compared to an AA-size battery. However, that’s not apples to apple comparison but we just wanted to compare so that you can have a general idea. The watch also supports charging using a micro USB cable. It doesn’t have wireless charging because what more can you expect with a sub 5K ($50) smartwatch. Wired charging is surely sufficient at this price.
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Software and UI
The software on CG iWear smartwatch looks like a hybrid of Apple’s Watch OS and Android wear. Its icons and looks are quite raw and not polished. The UI is a bit laggy but gets the work done. iWear does support notifications for common messaging and social apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Email, etc. Therefore we can get necessary pieces of information from the connected smartphone in our pocket.
The software of CG iWear is bundled with some useful apps such as a fitness tracker for keeping track of health vitals with hardware like a pedometer and sleep monitor. These days sleep monitors are also available in many smartphone apps but that’s not useful because we should avoid sleeping with phones. Also, many people won’t be using a watch while sleeping. So there isn’t a huge function of it but besides that, there is a huge scope of pedometers for runners, joggers, and health-conscious people.
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Conclusion
In our usage, we found that the watch has some problems. For example, it tends to get disconnected from the mobile phone after some interval of time. This could be fixed with future software updates but for now, it is what it is. The company doesn’t claim the device to be waterproof but they said it can be submerged. So you need to be careful but it looks like it may be splash-proof. It could certainly handle a few drops but be very careful. Still don’t take risks because there is no IP rating.
CG iWear is a very peculiar name. One can tell by the name of the device itself, that it matches Apple products. Apple usually has “i” in their products such as iPhone, iPad, iMessage, etc. CG shouldn’t have done this because original names get more attraction due to uniqueness.
Whatever the name is, CG actually did try very hard to meet the demands of the Nepalese market with their new iWear smartwatch. However, they lacked a bit in polishing. From our point of view, the gadget could have been a bit better.
Actually, we understand the issue and that issue is price. CG is offering iWear at a very competitive price and at this price almost no company offers a smartwatch. It is because it’s very hard to sell a well-optimized smartwatch with powerful hardware and smooth software at a lower price. So CG has brought what they could and we appreciate it. The price point of the watch is good but people expect more nowadays. CG is a powerful company, so we believe it will improve this lineup soon in the future.
