The FOSS Android program for communicating with smart watches is Gadget Bridge which now has support for the Colmi P80 [1].
I first blogged about the Colmi P80 just over a month ago [2]. Now I have a couple of relatives using it happily on Android with the proprietary app. I couldn’t use it myself because I require more control over which apps have their notifications go to the watch than the Colmi app offers. Also I’m trying to move away from non-free software.
Yesterday the f-droid repository informed me that there was a new version of Gadget Bridge and the changelog indicated support for the Colmi P80 so I connected the P80 and disconnected the PineTime.
The first problem I noticed is that the vibrator on the P80 when on it’s maximum setting is much weaker than that on the PineTime, so weak that I often didn’t notice it. Maybe if I wore it for a few weeks I would teach myself to notice it but it should just be able to work with me on this. If it could be set to have multiple bursts of vibrating then that would work.
The next problem is that the P80 by default does not turn the screen on when there’s a notification and there seems to be no way to configure it to do so. I configured it to turn on when I raise my arm which can mostly work but that still relies on me noticing the vibration. Vibration and the screen light turning on would be harder to miss than vibration on it’s own.
I don’t recall seeing any review of smart watches ever that stated whether the screen would turn on when there’s a notification or whether the vibration was easy to notice.
One problem with both the PineTime (running InfiniTime) and the P80 is that when the screen is turned on (through gesture, pushing the button, or a notification in the case of the Pinetime) it is active for swiping to change the settings. I would like to have some other action required before settings can be changed so that if the screen turns on when I’m asleep my watch won’t brush against something and change it’s settings (which has happened).
It’s neat how Gadget Bridge supports talking to multiple smart watches at the same time. One useful feature for that would be to have different notification settings for each watch. I can imagine someone changing between a watch for jogging and a watch for work and wanting different settings.
Colmi P80 Problems
No authentication for Bluetooth connections.
Runs non-free software so no chance to fix things.
Battery life worse than PineTime (but not really bad).
Vibration weak.
Screen doesn’t turn on when notification is sent.
Conclusion
I’m using the PineTime as my daily driver again. While it works well enough for some people (even with the Colmi proprietary app) it doesn’t do what I want. It is however a good test device for FOSS work on the phone side, it has a decent feature set and is cheap.
Apart from lack of authentication and running non-free software the problems are mostly a matter of taste. Some people might think it’s great the way it works.
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