Qualcomm has finally announced the release date for the Toq smartwatch. It’s December 2. Meaning all those who’ve been dying to lay hands on it can do so soon enough as long as they’ve got $349.99 to spare. It’s quite unusual to see a company that’s mainly known for manufacturing chipsets introducing such a gadget.
But the smartwatch race is on and better break into the circle while you can, right? The main selling point setting the Toq apart from competitors is its Mirasol display technology.
Basically, the Toq is designed for all day use with its special low-power screen or rather in Qualcomm’s words ‘multiple days of battery life.’ The panel uses a mix of reflected light and color interference to play out graphics. The company even claims that the display will be viewable in bright sunlight.
The gadget can be hooked up with Android or AllJoyn (open source, universal software framework project) devices. The Toq’s specs cover a 1.5-inch 288 x 192p display, Express Logic’s ThreadX OS and a 200MHz ARM Cortex M3 chip. There was a time when a watch was not just a fashionable accessory, but a necessity. Then phones took over and what was the use of troubling with a wearable that only told time?
Now the wristwatch of yore is being reinvented. It can not only tell time, but connect with your handset so you don’t have to keep pulling out the latter to check for messages, social feeds, calls and so on. Will it come into fashion again or is Google Glass, which doesn’t ask you to even move your arm and look at your wrist for updates, the smart accessory of the future?
Only time will tell, we guess.