Hi all! This is my first post so let me know if I made a silly mistake. Essentially, I’m going to be giving my experience and opinions on the Kronos Blade Genesis smartwatch. Hope someone finds this useful.
Before I begin, thank you to Jason and the rest of the team for the continued innovation and growth of the full android smartwatches devices and community. You all put in so much effort and I’ve read through countless posts just to see you answer numerous questions, so truly, thanks to you all, there is a wonderful community here.
I ordered the Genesis on February 29th and received it May 26th. I sympathize with the frustration of “why don’t I have my tracking number yet?!?! what does customs status update mean?!? why isn’t my watch here yet?!” etc. But, with patience and with time, it arrived.
The box looks SO COOL. I love the watch straps sooo much!! I use the black fancy straps when Im going somewhere nice, but most of the time Im using the straps that come in all the pictures (the one with lots of little holes). Very breathable material, which is valuable for me since the summers here are VERY hot!! I also like that there are more holes on this strap, it helped me find a good fit, whereas on previous watches I couldn’t get it to sit just right.
Before I move on to the watch itself, I want to explain my reasons for buying this watch.
- The price seemed like a total bargain with the extra straps, already screen protector, and the earbuds AND the dock. I was in need of new earbuds
- Its a 32 GB watch
- The app displays in bubbles! I really wanted this feature haha
- The front facing camera was not incredibly important for me, but the face unlock feature with password (in the stock launcher) is really important for me. It bugged me and still does that most of the watches don’t come with a password on the stock launcher?
- Larger battery
- Really I bought this watch for the dock. I use my watch pretty heavily so the dock was key for me.
- Build quality. The “raise to screen” thing for me had never worked on previous watches and sometimes touch wouldn’t register on the corners of the screen? This watch does not have these problems
- Google Assistant
Have I had problems with the sim card/sweat issue?
Ladies and gents, I have ran with this, I’ve been out in over 100 degree heat while having bluetooth on (don’t recommend by the way), and this watch has given me no problems with sweat in the sim card slot. I do not put tape on it. Yes, mine came with the thin gasket. My heart rate monitor still works and is accurate (just went to the doctors, so I checked it haha)
Have I had problems with Bluetooth and the earbuds?
Occasionally the earbuds will not work with the watch, however I think this is the earbuds and not the watch. My watch bluetooths to literally everything else wonderfully.
Have I had problems with charging/watch being dead/not charging?
This did happen to me twice. The watch just seemed dead out of no where (one time this happened in the heat, another time I don’t recall how/why/where). I tried charging it but nothing for days. What ended up working both times was plugging it in overnight with an old iPad charger box (10W, output 5.1 V and 2.1 A). Previously I had it charging through a usb hub or through power banks, but when I had it with this charger box straight on the wall (with the original cable, not the dock) and left it for a few hours, it worked. I never had to use the refrigerator trick.
Opinion on the Earbuds
They’re HUGE. My ears are probably on the smaller side, but even then these earbuds are big. The quality is fine, nothing special. I really like the touch feature instead of a button. I can’t run with these earbuds though, as they will fall out 50% of the time at least once on a 30 minute run. The charger is great though.
Overall on the watch
11/10 on this watch. From the camera placement to the watch straps, the dock and the bubble apps, the google assistant and the price tag, I’ve never been happier with a watch. I do get bugs and problems every now and then, but I’ve found this watch to have much more functionality than the previous ones I’ve owned.
What I’d improve upon
The “temperature is too high” deal shows up pretty often. It always shows up when I have everything on (gps, bluetooth, cellular data, screen to raise, listening to music). So definitely temperature is sensitive on this one, which Mr. Ticks realized this in one of his videos where he took the temperature of every watch, with the Genesis being on the higher end. The only thing that frustrates me is that everytime the temperature deal shows up, it resets a lot of things, specifically it rejects any app I’ve turned on in “accessibility” (for example, floating toucher)
Some more info about my previous experiences with smartwatches generally
My first one was a Thor 4 Pro. The nonremovable straps completely broke off, along with the built in wifi bands, rendering the watch useless to me. This all happened within less than 2 months of light usage. Next, I got Kingwear KC05, which appears to be a Kospet Hope to me. It was nice, but the camera was basically useless, the strap never felt right, I quickly used all 16 GBs of storage, and the battery life was subpar.
I’ve heavily used all the available supported launchers, such as Liner Launcher and the Universal Launcher. I eventually found problems with both of them and moved on to android launchers, such as Nova, Smart, Evie, and a few more. I think I’ll move back to Smart launcher eventually, but I’m currently on the stock launcher.
Let me know if y’all have questions or opinions on anything I’ve said, or if I missed something! Thanks for reading!
(side note: this should also be in General and Device Reviews & News)
(edit: format and charging problems)