Emporio Armani Connected: the latest OS Wear device, same old hardware

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Armani has a reputation for being a high-end fashion brand, and nowadays that means that it has to make a Wear OS device. And indeed, Armani launches a new smartwatch on Google's mobile platform. It's a premium smartwatch with prices greater than or equal to $ 300, but it has all the hardware features needed to compete with the best of Wear OS right now. For all that it's worth.

The Emporio Armani Connected is not the first smartwatch under the name of Armani, but it is the most well-equipped. There is a 1.19 inch round OLED display, a metal case, a heart rate sensor and even an NFC function for Google Pay. It's common for smartwatches to skip things like NFC to save a few dollars. Physically, the Armani Connected looks like a pretty piece of hardware, but no one is going to confuse it with a "real" Armani watch.

The Google Wear operating system supports apps and faces on the Play Store, as well as the built-in Google Assistant. In most markets, Emporio Armani Connected will ship with the standard load of Google applications. However, in China, the Tic Health app from Mobvoi and Mobvoi Assistant will be used. Google does not operate in China, so Wear OS devices are really paralyzed in this market.

The new Armani watch is powered by the Snapdragon Wear 2100, like all Wear OS devices released in recent years. While Qualcomm is relentless in pushing for new, more efficient mobile chips on the market, it has completely ignored wearables. The Wear 2100 is a quad-core Cortex A7 chip, but it is terribly inefficient by today's standards. It uses a 28nm manufacturing process, which was old even when the chip was launched in 2016. Current mobile chips use the advanced 10nm technology.

Like many smartwatches of the Fashion Wear brand, the new Armani watches are actually produced under license by Fossil Group. With that in mind, it's not so strange these watches are internally very similar to all the other watches that are coming out right now. A large part of them are also manufactured by Fossil Group.

The new Emporio Armani Connected starts at $ 295 with rubber straps. Versions with fancy metal bands will cost you up to $ 395. Frankly, this seems like a lot for a smartwatch platform experiencing such serious growth pains. There are rumors of a new laptop chip coming this fall, so you might want to wait and see about it.