Thank you @pablo11 for the guidance. While I did sign up over at XDA, just wanted to affirm that fullandroidwatch.org is so much more helpful!
I just received the LEM 16 today. It feels more polished than the Rogbid Air. It even allows a AT&T MVNO, Redpocket connection where my Rogbid Air had been blocked.
2 Likes
factory reset will erase all data and settings. If you donât reset it, it will remain in case of an OTA update. However, not resetting after an OTA can cause problems.
4 Likes
Never seen this issue.
I always set it to automatically reconnect and then set as unmetered connection.
If you have a certain router it may need wifi privacy settings changed to âdevice MACâ and not ârandomâ on the watch Wi-Fi connection settings.
2 Likes
No . There will be no data loss until you factory reset
4 Likes
Got the free BT watch today. Nice one, my husband was happy to have it on her wrist⌠Thanks to the Forum and Lemfo.
4 Likes
Great stuff 
1 Like
@pablo11, thank you for the Genymobile / scrcpy tip. MyPhoneExplorer is clunky compared to this. It is so nice that text copied on the desktop gets copied to the phone. Really helpful when setting up the phone with accounts that have passwords made with random ASCII characters.
It will be easy to use scrcpy on work computers since it is lightweight and does not require administrative privileges to run.
1 Like
@G1NT0N1C and @Dr_Andy_Vishnu, thank you for the clarification on waiting to reset the phone. Android 11 is indeed a lot more restrictive.
The watch has a very bad way of handling low battery. When the battery gets low enough for warnings, it prevents the display from sleeping, by issuing a battery notification every time the display switches off. This greatly accelerates power consumption, when almost no power is left, as we all know the display is one of the biggest power consumers.
Video of the battery notification loop
5 Likes
https://techshift.net/how-do-i-turn-off-battery-charging-notification/
Can you turn off Battery warning?
- Choose âNotificationsâ to reveal a list of all the different categories of notifications created by the System UI app.
- Find the checkbox next to âBatteryâ and simply tap it to disable notifications.
5 Likes
Thanks, good idea. I will try that outđ
2 Likes
Unfortunately I canât find which app has the battery notification, there is no System UI in the watch OS.
3 Likes
True . I looked also . Nothing on A11
6 Likes
@pablo11 it sounds like you are saying that Android 11 creates issues with non system apps writing to storage. Is this why it is difficult (or impossible) to restore configuration files or backups? I have had problems with aTimeLogger - Time Tracker, FreeOTP+ (2FA Authenticator), and a few others. Is it just me or is Android 11 making access more difficult? Also, is there a work around? Or do we wait for an OTA?
Thanks!
The LEM 16 as a phone replacement experience
Must haves in order to use as a phone replacement
- Reception A phone replacement must have good reception, which the LEM 16 has. There is no noticeable reception difference between the LEM 16 and Moto E. Phone calls, texts, and data work the same. No one complaints of patchy or dropped calls.
- Long phone calls For those who like to use a FAW as a phone replacement, the LEM 16 allows for long phone calls without overheating. The FAW LEM 5 up to the LEM X watches I had overheated on long calls and caused the device to shut down. Perhaps it is the new chips (like the ones in the Rogbid Air) that do not overheat. I use AT&T towers with RedPocket as my MVNO.
- Touchscreen the touchscreen is quite accurate when compared to the Rogbid Air. Typing texts messages is quite easy even with larger fingers on the watch touchscreen keyboard (for those of us who are used to watch phone keyboards).
Features that matter in FAW usage
- Screen size the 1.6 round screen is about the maximum size for a small wrist. Small enough not to be clunky yet large enough to use with a GPS app while driving.
- GPS the GPS takes a little time to connect. But that was true on the Moto E.
- Bluetooth The LEM 16 Bluetooth delivers better connectivity and volume through the Anker soundcore Frames than the Moto E did.
- Wi-Fi Wi-Fi delivers a solid 5GHz connection. (Blazingly fast with Syncthing)
- Battery life is also excellent, even with a VPN and Syncthing running in the background. Others will be able to fine tune their apps as others in this thread to achieve lengthy battery life.
- RAM the 6 GB of RAM allow more apps to be running concurrently. My Moto E with 2 GB RAM does not compare!
- ROM the 128 GB of ROM really works great with syncing files from the computer via Syncthing. Hundreds upon hundreds of files sync between the changes made on the computer and on the watch. The generous ROM ensures the storage warnings I used to get on the Moto E.
- Cameras The front camera is OK for video chatting. The side camera is decent for average pictures and are OK for apps like CamScanner and TextGrabber Scan OCR Translate. Using the prior two apps requires taking the watch off and getting used to positioning the watch side camera over the information to scan. It does take getting used to.
- âHotspotâ usage I donât use the hotspot over Wi-Fi. Perhaps other users can share their experience. PdaNet+ works great to tether a computer even with a VPN app. I was able to talk on the phone will using the PdaNet+ tethering tunneled through the IVPN service. The watch did not overheat like former FAWs.
- Speaker The speaker is loud and loud as speakerphone. Of course the sound quality does not have the HD sound of the Anker PowerConf S500 Speakerphone, which works great as a conference phone when paired with the watch.
Recommendations:
- The Anker soundcore Frames provide excellent noise reduction and audio as far as glasses go. Just a watch and eyeglasses on privacy mode and no one is the wiser when listening to podcasts or taking a phone call.
- Genymobile scrcpy is the best watch display and control via USB or over TCP/IP. It does not require any root access. MyPhoneExplorer had connectivity issues. With scrcpy any app can be used and controlled with the keyboard and mouse. I love the ability to copy and paste text between the computer and watch seamlessly! Even when the screen is in the âCircle Screenâ mode, the scrcpy does not crop the corners. The user gets to see the full 400 by 400 square. Since scrcpy is so lightweight, I can install it on a work computer and access my watch. Many thanks to @pablo11 for this productivity app recommendation!
- Floating Toucher works well and reduces the amount of swiping and/or button pressing when switching between apps or adjusting settings. You can find the app APK at TinyURL.com/AndroidWatches. Thank to SmartWatch Ticks!
In summary this is the best FAW as a phone replacement in my experience. Hope to hear others experience also. If you are in doubt about the FAW experience, this forum is the place to be!
7 Likes
The only thing I would like to add is:
Donât use the built in tethering app if you can avoid it, or the watch face âstoreâ
This is because they open up insecure connections to servers mirrored to the cloud from China.
There is no way to control or delete your personal data if you use the tethering app.
You have no way of knowing what the data is being used for either.
This app is far superior and is secure.
The developer is a member of this forum.
It does not have as many funky health app options, however you should take into consideration that only the heart rate monitoring is providing you with real data.
The other stuff is all software calculation and thatâs why there is always a âdisclaimerâ stating that this is not a medical device.
In my opinion the possible misuse of your data and insecure connection is enough reason for not using the built-in tethering app.
This is not the fault of the brands selling these products, it is all they have access to. If it is removed, customers complain. They canât win, no matter what they do.
The watch face âstoreâ is not as serious but still connects directly to an insecure source.
There is no need for it because as you can see from this site alone - there are thousands of watch faces available for free, which any user can download and install.
These are a couple of issues that we fix for the international FAW firmware. But currently it is not available for this model.
6 Likes
The Watch Droid Phone / Assistant provided dependable use with the FAW connected to my Moto E. So much can be configured. If you donât want to use your FAW only, this is the app that will keep your phone in your pocket. And itâs nice to hear that the app is secure and privacy friendly.
2 Likes