Honestly, it’s baffling how good some of the stuff you can get off of AliExpress is, especially when taking the low price into account.
My ~$100 N100 server is a testament to that. Just need to score some additional storage for it
I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C
Submitted 22 hours ago by edent@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/i-bought-a-16-smartwatch-just-because-it-used-usb-c/
Comments
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 11 hours ago
FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 hours ago
I wouldn’t say aliexpress stuff is good, but rather that amazon stooped down to aliexpress-levels of quality, to which we got ourselves used to.
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 hours ago
It’s more that AliExpress is all over the place, which is probably because manufacturing in China is itself all over the place (small and pretty much amateur-hour cottage factories doing plastic molded stuff or pretty simple electronics right next to much bigger professional companies designing their own smartphones and computers) plus there is very little in the way of established brands and without a brand to defend, manufacturers don’t really care if customers get a bad impression of whatever product name they’re using today for their, at best, badly made stuff.
It also doesn’t help that in a lot of domains competition in China is mainly on price: the manufacturers might even know how to do a good product, but they have to use inferior parts and cut corners on their designs to stay competitive on price.
Also the fraud prevention in AliExpress is pretty much non-existent and anti-fraud there is entirelly reactive, so in product listings fradulent claims that are hard for customers to validate just stay there forever (for example, almost all powerbank storage claims or solar power bank supply claims are complete total bollocks, insanelly so at times - I’ve seen listings for small powerbanks claiming more power storage than actual EV cars have).
So for some things you can get really decent stuff at a good price - best place to buy switches or push-buttons for Electronics and as the above poster mentioned mini-PCs, to which I will also add Single Board Computers - whilst in other areas it’s a bit of a crap shoot if you’ll get something decently made or not - for example clothing - and in yet others the scams are more than the honest listings - such as external digital storage, solar power or power storage.
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 8 hours ago
You’d be surprised, actually. You have to be careful, yes - the default option is that you get crap - but all of the high-quality cycling gear/running gear/variety consumer electronics I’ve scored is a testament to the possibility of getting great stuff.
sbv@sh.itjust.works 22 hours ago
Pretty wild that the author didn’t set up app notifications. Getting specific notifications from specific people on my wrist is a big part of the reason I use a smartwatch. But to each their own.
It’d be pretty cool to get a significant use case of my pricey pricey Garmin for ~CAD$40.
edent@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
I’m the author. I’ve now set up notifications on the advice of just about everyone. It’s pretty cool!
sbv@sh.itjust.works 21 hours ago
Nice!
I enjoyed reading your blog. It’s been a while since I looked at an honest to goodness enthusiast blog. Thanks for writing it!
DrDystopia@lemy.lol 19 hours ago
What do you mean, specific notifications? Like an allowlist or something? Where, in android, the companion app or GB?
I’m genuinely confused.
edent@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Yeah. GadgetBridge allows me to set up an allow-list / block-list for notifications. So I can get SMS on my wrist but ignore social media pings.
DrDystopia@lemy.lol 22 hours ago
I was able to pair it with GadgetBridge by pretending it was a Colmi V79. Most of the functionality worked - I was able to see heart rate, steps, change some settings etc. I’ve requested GadgetBridge support which should make it possible to get notifications etc.
Proper GB support and this is seriously attractive.
edent@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Happy to say the latest nightly does support notifications. My wrist is buzzing with action!
DrDystopia@lemy.lol 19 hours ago
Oh, your user name. Now I get it.
Does this mean it’s basically fully supported with the core features, including hands-free? Thanks for being the type of person that adds device requests to the repo, I only browse for devices already fully supported. 😔
Is there a dedicated profile in GB or are you still spoofing the 79?
And for the most important question of then all - Does 2048 come with the standard 4x4 grid only or is there optional sizes for those long, chill games of
cookie clickermath swiper?
tomkatt@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Should I Buy One?
That’s up to you, champ. I’m not your real dad and I’m not trying to take his place. But I’m here for you if you need me.
Love it. 🤣🤣🤣
AJ1@lemmy.ca 21 hours ago
dude this thing has a flashlight? you son of a bitch, I’m in
Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
On a side note I wish hybrid smartwatches were still a thing. Most of the product lines are discontinued, but I liked the idea of it.
wintermute@discuss.tchncs.de 8 hours ago
I really really like my Garmin Instinct 2. It a kind of hybrid but between old digital clock and smartwatch, instead of analog.
It has strong Casio Pro Trek vibes. One color, no touch LCD screen. Solar charging, more than 3 weeks battery life, GPS, all health sensors and smart stuff.pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
Garmin makes excellent watches
jodanlime@midwest.social 10 hours ago
I feel like withings cornered the market on hybrids. They are a little pricey but they are built very well.
john_lemmy@slrpnk.net 5 hours ago
Neat! I was looking for one of these things for health monitoring, but there’s so many that I have no idea where to even start.
Sxan@piefed.zip 22 hours ago
Get a BangleJS2 and you won't need to charge it on a bus.
2 weeks between charges. GadgetBridge is the mobile app. It's more expensive, true: £76. The battery is replaceable, though, so you might have to buy fewer.
Usernamealreadyinuse@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
I just looked that up, that is insane. As described “Spartan” but really cool
Sxan@piefed.zip 18 hours ago
It's certainly not flashy! It isn't a dress watch; it looks cheaper þan an Apple watch, so it doesn't look like much.
You can get it pre-assembled or as a kit, and þis means þe battery is replaceable, which is a huge plus for me. A owned a series of Pebbles, and battery degradation was þe main reason I replaced þem.
Also, it's an e-ink display, which is fantastic for þe job, but not nearly as pretty or bright colors as an LCD.
If you want looks, þe Garmin is probably better.
Telodzrum@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
2 weeks between charge
Most Garmin watches do this and they offer a modern featureset.
Sxan@piefed.zip 18 hours ago
With an always-on watchface þat's readable in daylight?
What features do Garmins have þat Bangles don't? GPS chip? Bangle's got that. WiFi? Bangle's got that. Accelerometer, barometer, vibration? Bangle's got those.
What "modern features" do þe Garmins have?
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 hours ago
Loved the article.
One pet peeve of mine: PD plugs are too powerful to charge puny devices. Not the first time I’ve run into this problem.
So sad that we’ve finally gotten a good standard (USB c) but there are still things that look like they should fit together and work, but don’t.
wintermute@discuss.tchncs.de 7 hours ago
The thing is that USB type C is only about the physical plug/socket, and the USB standard and version that uses it is a separate thing.
I’m this case it’s probably a PD only charger and the device only supports plain old 5v 500mA USB powerpupbiru@aussie.zone 14 hours ago
too powerful? what do you mean? USB PD by default supplies 5v the same as USB A and increments from there
5v is pretty low - 3v is pretty common logic voltage, but i doubt anyone would use voltage that low for battery charging?
do you mean you don’t like to “waste” a perfectly good powerful USB C port? you can get some pretty low watt USB C plugs, but honestly i much prefer to just have a brick with 7 big ports
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 11 hours ago
The person you replied to is referencing findings made by the author, in the article.
The author tried plugging a PD charger into the watch to charge it, and it wouldn’t work. It’s probably not PD as a specification couldn’t work, but that the watch failed to negotiate with the charger.
Whatever the reason, the findings were that trying to charge this cheap little watch with your PD laptop charger does not work.
rhythmisaprancer@piefed.social 14 hours ago
Does the PD standard not regulate? I've used a PD power cord from a laptop to charge a mobile phone, but that isn't exactly a small device. And maybe I shouldn't have done that...
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
You can certainly charge a phone with a PD laptop charger. PD does negotiate, so it will only give the device what the device indicates it can support.
I use my laptop charger with my android phone frequently if I’m out and about.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I had no idea USB C charging was such a rarity for smart watches
rhythmisaprancer@piefed.social 14 hours ago
I'm curious about the reliability of this port on a sweaty wrist exposed to dust and general labor environments. My phones, even back to the proprietary plug days, have had the charge port covered and my wrist watch would get wrecked.
edent@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
It has a small rubber lug - which has worked so far at keeping out the grime. But I don’t have a manual labour job.
paraphrand@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Heh, of course it has a knock-off UI too.
I hope they post an update after 6 months.
MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 hours ago
For what it’s worth there are smartwatches with good battery life too, my Garmin Venu 2 lasts at least a week with sleep tracking, workout tracking, and some GPS use through the week.
waz@feddit.uk 21 hours ago
A phone for the price of a couple of pints? £16? Two pints? Very London of him to assume that’s the price of a couple of pints. Actually unreadable.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 hours ago
How much are pints actually?
waz@feddit.uk 10 hours ago
Not in London; about a fiver. Depends on the establishment and the drink itself, ranges from £3-4 ish to £6. The usual cooking lager to Guinness range.
waterSticksToMyBalls@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Is it esp32 based?
llii@discuss.tchncs.de 9 hours ago
baconmonsta@piefed.social 20 hours ago
This article was right up my alley. I've been considering buying a cheapo smartwatch. I suppose this one couldn't be used as a mp3 player for jogging though.
edent@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
It doesn’t have storage or a headphone port. But it will stream music over Bluetooth. So if you want to annoy everyone you job with, you can listen to its tinny speaker :-)
rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio 18 hours ago
I really like the Interactive Relationship Graph on your site. Reminds me of when I used to work with graph databases and could visualize all the information in the database as a handy graph of nodes and relationships.
edent@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Thank you 😄
I wrote about it at shkspr.mobi/…/graphing-the-connections-between-my…
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
All I want is a smartwatch which will let me own all my personal health data, I don’t want to get locked in to some monthly subscription just to access my own health metrics
edent@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Get something which works with GadgetBridge. You’ll be in complete control.
ace_garp@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
The FOSS app GadgetBridge, has a number of supported smartwatches.
Supported watches can sync your health, activity, GPS, heart, O2, sleep data to GadgetBridge locally on your phone, instead of sending it online to who knows where.
May need to use the watches app to set it up, but then all happens locally.
rmuk@feddit.uk 9 hours ago
I have a rule: I never preorder anything. I broke that rule recently. www.repebble.com
ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
Their website has a question at the bottom “Are you still interested in Pebble?” And if you click yes, it’ll show you their new models, but there’s also a button for No, which takes you to Google’s latest smart watch.