Hi new Need Help with 1st smart watch purchase

Hi Everyone,
I’m new here from Ohio. My job has a no cell phone policy for our hourly workers. As a boss I was allowed to have my cell phone in our facility. Well it looks like they are going to do away with bosses having their cell phones too. So I want to be prepared with a smart watch, which is allowed. I’ve done a lot of research but I cant 100% find all the features I want in one watch.
Here is what I want

  • Square face
    -Compatable with my Samsung Note 9 AT&T 4g &5g LTE phone
  • I dont want a seperate phone # for the watch. I want to send and receive messages and calls from same phone number as my cellphone without a seperate phone plan
    -mic
    -external speaker
  • Full web browser
    -Facebook Instagram snapchat apps and notifications
  • I want to leave my phone in the car connected to wifi network and then connect the watch to the same wifi network inside the building to be able to receive and send calls and messages that my phone is getting

Here are the only 3 decent options I Have found

-Samsung Gear S. Worried it may be too old and slow and not work with my newer phone. Plus no full web browser or apps without rooting. If I root I worry I wont be able to sync it with the phone. Because stock this seems like the best option to be able to sync to my phone if its compatible with my newer Samsung phone.
Is it possible to still get full web browser and real other android apps on this phone and still have it sync perfectly to a Note 9 Samsung phone???

-Lemfo LEM 10. Love this phone. Almost everything I am looking for.
However, will I be able to Leave my phone in the car connected to my works Wifi network. Then connect the watch to same wifi network inside the building and still be able to get/ receive phone calls on this watch???

  • X11 Square Curved Android 5.1
    Worried about the same issues as above but with lesser hardware and lower specs. Especially if I download facebook snapchat and Instagram on it.
    Will I be able to Leave my phone in the car connected to my works Wifi network. Then connect the watch to same wifi network inside the building and still be able to get/ receive phone calls on this watch???
    Also, it’s only 3g. Would my AT&T 4g 5g LTE sim card even work in a 3g phone worse case scenario???

ANY SUGGESTIONS or advice on these phones or another option that may fit my needs better would be greatly appreciated!!! I’m totally new to this and want to learn more and make an informed purchase without wasting money.
THANKS!!!

I’m sure others will chime in here but thought I would try and help. I have a Lem 10 and agree it is a great watch. However Android watches, in general, including the Lem10 connect to your phone via Bluetooth (BT) only. The older watches would allow what is referred to as BT calling. (Where your watch could make calls through your phone via BT using the same number.) The newer watches running Android 7.0↑ do not allow BT calling. A possible option would be to use call forwarding to transfer the call from your phone to the watch which would not be dependent on being them being in close proximity.
Others here may have additional suggestions so be patient.

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Thanks so much Jonathan!
Yeah that bluetooth thing is a major issue.
So the phone and watch cant sync without bluetooth even if they are on the same wifi network???
Yeah I was seeing that about Andoid 7.0 watches.

What about the X11 Android 5.1
Since its older Android will it Bluetooth sync on same wifi network??? I know that they are saying not all android 5.1 watches support bluetooth syncing or calling too.

If I use call or text forwarding I would only be able to receive from that number but not call or message out from that number, right?

Not familiar with X11. With BT calling the watch receives a call, the same as the phone and you can answer or make a call, via the phone, directly from the watch. But the connection is made via BT and not wi-fi. It is a separate app on the watch and does not work all that well in my opinion. A lot of connection issues.
There are older watches such as the KW18 where the BT calling feature was incorporated into the watch firmware and worked as part of the watch. But again it requires a BT connection to work. Plus they did not run Android OS and were very limited for other uses.
In my limited experience with call forwarding it notifies the caller that the call is being transferred. The call is transferred to the other phone number and then completed from that device. It is set up on the phone the call is to be transferred from.
If you have put a sim card in your watch you can then call the number back, from the watch, if you failed to access the initial call. You could also give potential important callers your watch number and tell them to call you at that number, if your phone goes to voicemail.

I’ll respond with what I do because it’s similar; but I don’t think anyone will like or adopt my solution as lt breaks with the usual way of thinking that the only thing you can wear on your wrist has to be a watch.

I use two phones, both respond to the same number on the cellular network, currently T-Mobile 4G Digits (1 number/many devices). The 2 phone’s can be classified as Wearable phone and Carryable phone.

WEARABLE phone - Several years back, I participated in the T-Mobile Digits beta testing program. AT&T has a similar program. These programs allow use of your single phone number for several devices. My wearable device at that time was the Samsung Gear S and my carryable device was a Samsung Note 4. I wanted a wearable phone as I don’t like carry a phone around to always get dropped or lost, never any good pocket to put it in, lots of work outdoors. The Gear S had good points, and bad points, but it let me get an idea of what I really wanted. I drew up a concept sketch based on the Gear S.

My current wearable phone is the TICWRIS MAX. For my eyes, I need a large device. Yes, I get a lot of “that’s a large watch” comments when in reality it is really a small phone. When someone calls or text my single number it rings or vibrates. Bluetooth sync or use is only for ear buds, etc.

CARRYABLE phone - By carryable, I mean only carry out to the car or to a different location within the house. Once in the car, it stays in the car. My current carryable phone is a Samsung Tab S6, international model. Once again I need a larger device. The Tab S6 is 10.1" screen When someone calls or texts my single phone number it rings or alerts. I don’t have a landline any more.

Good points. I have a similar situation. My AT&T tablet and phone share the same number and work independently of each other as a phone. Its called Number Sync. These are the devices they identify as compatible + apple watches.

None of them interest me as I prefer the Android watches.

Jonathan,
yes, I’m with you on the full android devices. I forgot that the Samsung wearables are a different OS. Is that still true?

At one time Samsung had a group looking into medical devices using the Gear S body and a band with many different sensors in it. For some reason they dropped that and went to a round format. IMHO big mistake.

Also IMHO, the LEM T/TICWRIS MAX is a good electrical design, but poor mechanical design.

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Yes it lists as Tizen OS.

The first “gear s” with the curved screen had a special feature:
You could run a modified Android 5.1.1 on it instead of Tizen.
In this way, this watch became one of the first full-android watches. I modified over 200 of these watches at the time and had a lot of fun with these watches, which I loved very much. I’m still crying after the curved display concept. I never understood why this design was dropped.

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I had one of these . I wish i knew you then :wink:

Am I the only one who thought the gear s looked bad :laughing: but I have to admit, it looks better than the lem t

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I personally loved the Gear S and the curved screen and as I have stated before I feel that dropping it was a mistake.

Why continue to make flat round watches when the technology is available to do curved wrist fitting rectangular ones. We no longer stamp round watch gears out of thin flat sheet metal.

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Yes :sweat_smile::sweat_smile::sweat_smile::sweat_smile::+1:

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Any info about this program for AT&T???.. that would probably solve all my issues it seems

Thanks again Jonathan. Too bad I couldn’t put 5.1 on a lem 10

Yes it’s the best looking option in my opinion.
Are you still modding them?
I would be interested in getting one if so.

If I could run full android and still keep the blue tooth phone calling that would be ideal.
It wouldn’t have a camera or the other bells and whistles. But I could do without those I guess

No. It became too difficult to get good copies. In addition, the hardware (0.5GB / 4GB) is no longer up to date. But if you find a good copy, I can provide you with the software.

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I think I found a guy on ebay selling factory refurbished AT&T Ones.
Yes please that would be great!

If I cant figure out how to get the LEM 10 to work with my current phone.

How slow would the phone be if I just put a good web browser Facebook snapchat and Instagram on it?

Where do yo came from? AT&T won’t work. You need an european version!

The Samsung gear s from AT&T has a locked bootloader.