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Phosphor touch time review

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cobra007

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Phosphor touch time review

Post16 Feb 2014, 03:10

Hi all watch lovers!

After waiting for just over one year, I finally received the Phosphor Touch Time watch.

Waiting for so long did put high expectations on the final result and I have to say I am a little disappointed with this watch.

I actually bought this watch as a gift for my wife but it turned out to be too big for her to wear, so that was the first disappointment. A bit surprising if you know that the Mi Esposita nixie watch fits her wrist perfectly.... If I had paid more attention to the size, I could have know this in advance of course, so that was my own mistake.

The contrast of the display was so high in the sample pictures (on kick starter) that I initially though it was an e-paper/e-ink display. Not so, it's an LCD, apparently very low power but does not come close to the contrast of e-ink. I would say, any ordinary LCD has similar contrast.

There quite a few watch faces to select from but I also cannot find one that I really like. I'd like to see the time, day of the week and calendar day. There's only one face that supports this, which is a rather ordinary face with digital numbers. But even then, the "Sunday February 16" font is so small that without a magnifier, you can't even see if it is the 16th or 18th.

The watch has nice features but you either need small fingers or use a pen tip to operate it. This also counts for setting the time and alarm. My fingers aren't very big, but I have problems setting the time, alarm and use the calculator.

The duration of the alarm can be set to 15 sec, 30 sec, 60 sec which is nice but if you don't disable the alarm within this time frame, the alarm will sound like every 5 minutes or so and that will go on and on and on, very annoying! I sometimes just want an alarm for 15 seconds or so to remind me it's 7:30am without me having to push a button to disable it.

The touch screen is quite responsive, perhaps not as good as some phones but maybe that is because of my finger size, not sure.

The watch looks and feels nice on my wrist (7.2"). Overall not a bad watch but my expectations were probably too high, I would rate it a 7 out of 10.

Michel

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cobra007

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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post16 Feb 2014, 03:41

I just realize, the face that would have been very nice is the one on the right hand side in this pic. It clearly shows the time and easy to read day of the week and calendar date. However, this face is NOT in the watch and neither is the one on the left hand side !!! !@@! Looks like they had problems programming that..... :secret:

Interestingly, on their website it clearly mentions designed to perfectly fit for men and women..... Not really so then.... And it actually doesn't mention all the sizes, just that it's 34mm wide and 10.7mm thick. It doesn't tell you the length at all and in fact, the thickness is 13.5mm where the battery sits. The length is about 45mm but due to the shape of the strap, it should be considered 50mm if you want to figure out if it fits your wrist.

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cobra007

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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post16 Feb 2014, 07:25

OK, and now it did a hard reset while trying to set a reminder..... Looks like not all bugs have been fixed yet. Well, back to setting the time again, not real fun so far! :scratch:
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Kasper

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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post16 Feb 2014, 12:37

Wow, thats a real bummer...i had my hopes high for this one.
13 mm thick, high def lcd instead of e-inkt...we are not there yet.
Its like you said..the 2 niciest watchfaces are absent...that a big dealbreaker aswell.

excellent review..thx Michel.
I'll have to wait for yet a better one.

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cobra007

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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post16 Feb 2014, 13:32

Indeed a bummer Kasper!

I don't like to wear watches that do not easily show the day of the week and calendar date, that is one of the main reasons I re-designed my nixie watch :-) . I use that very often, and the font Phosphor choose to display this information is just a joke. Such a large display available, and then choosing the smallest font.....

I really wonder why they left out the 2 most interesting watches faces, you would think it's not that much of an issue to program it, it's the same letters and numbers but displayed in different sizes and positions, how difficult can that be?

The moon phase is a nice feature though, I like that one :-D

Decided to send them an email and ask for a refund. Not sure if I will ever get a reply (perhaps not) but we'll see.

Michel
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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post16 Feb 2014, 13:53

I had not checked out the battery yet but apparently this is a CR2450 600mAh (!!!!). That is an enormous battery for an LCD watch. They state the battery lasts for up to 1 year, so you may assume it is most likely less than that. A quick calculation tells me that the watch would then consume a continuous 60uA battery current! My nixie watch approximately 2.5uA and most LCD watches even less than that. Jee, 60uA what did they do???

Michel
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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post16 Feb 2014, 15:30

Thnaks for the review. I was thinking of getting that watch but will pass, now.
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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post16 Feb 2014, 17:22

Thanks for the review and the photos of the real watch, can you provide a photo of the moon phase feature? It's a shame about the two types of displays shown in the ads, those faces are identical to the old 70's flip clock time and date displays seen at banks and such.

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It got buried somewhere on these forums, but awhile back I questioned Phosphor about their display in the touch time and found out it was a new type of memory LCD

Also, guys the Phosphor Touch does NOT use an E-ink screen, it's a new memory LCD screen which has much higher contrast than a standard LCD, in order to compete better with E-ink technology. The new LCD screen has the advantage of having a higher refresh rate, but also saves on power more like an E-ink display. My information on this is from an E-mail correspondance with the sales representative Donald from sales@phosphorwatches.com

I just wanted to put that there to make sure you guys are sure you know what your getting before your make a purchase. For more info on these new memory LCD displays check out the video below that explains almost everything you wanted to know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAoC818M ... A&index=42

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T5NiPsG ... A&index=41


Thanks for the review Cobra, sorry you didn't enjoy it as you had anticipated, and I'm surpised you felt the display wasn't really any improvement over a standard LCD. I never had the chance to see these new memory LCD's in person, so good to see some real feedback on these, it helps others make a more informed decision with their purchases.
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cobra007

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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post17 Feb 2014, 00:45

The new memory LCD is a bit brighter than ordinary LCDs but I wouldn't compare it to e-ink. I just felt disappointed about the LCD as the pictures on the Phosphor website are so black/white that it gives the impression it is just as white as e-ink. The real advantage of these displays (apart from being low power) is that the refresh rate is much higher than e-ink displays. That's why incorporating a stopwatch function on this watch is not a problem.

As a comparison, I got the touch time watch and a very cheap LCD clock radio next to each other. Judge for yourself, is the display really so much brighter?
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When kept at an angle, the difference becomes very clear. However, a good quality LCD can also be read from this kind of angle.
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The lunar phase was a bit misjudged by me. We were close to full moon and I had the impression that with this high resolution display the moon phase was updated on a daily bases. This appeared to be a optical illusion, as now (one day after full moon) it becomes obvious the first quarter is missing.... It would have been nice if it was a bit more accurate (like 15 phases instead of the current 8 phases).
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With such a high resolution display, they could have done so much more, just look at the Seiko e-ink watches. The seiko is also solar powered while the Phosphor touch time is so power hungry that even my relatively large solar panels on the nixie watch would NOT be able to keep the battery of the TT remain charged! That is a real waste of energy, not that a new battery is expensive but still....

Cheers,
Michel
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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post17 Feb 2014, 05:38

Thanks for the photos Mike, man the side by side with a cheap LCD really puts that screen contrast into perspective. Looks like the new LCD has a good off axis viewing angle at least. I was also hoping the moon phase would be higher resolution as you had hoped for.

I definitely like the nixie next to it better. :mega:
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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post17 Feb 2014, 14:19

Maybe all we need is an SDK for this watch? Unfortunately no way to input any changes?
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cobra007

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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post17 Feb 2014, 22:44

ronaldheld wrote:Maybe all we need is an SDK for this watch? Unfortunately no way to input any changes?


An SDK would be great!

I got a reply from phosphor, they say the two watch faces were left out because they run out of memory after adding a count down timer and world time feature...... They will take those pics of their website rather than solve the problem..... That means you're stuck with a high res screen that can only display the time. How ridiculous is that?

Anyway, they offered money back, so I will accept their offer :-D

Funny thing is, if I criticize their watch on their facebook page or as a reply in their youtube video, they delete my messages!! Obviously, they cannot bare to be criticized, not very professional!

Michel
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Re: Phosphor touch time review

Post21 Feb 2014, 21:27

Well, at least you got to get your money back, which is a good thing.

Its not uncommon that young small company doesn't like negative publicity and would actively moderate the platform they have control over. Not the way to keep old customers, but as least they don't want to drive away potential customer I guess. I don't agree with that practice, but I don't own a small company that fell short of delivering promises either :p

I still wish them the best and hopefully they will be able to delivery better future products.

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