Citizen - CZ Smart 45m Unisex Stainless Steel Sport Smartwatch with Silicone Strap - Silver

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• Rated 3 out of 5 stars

  Nice look, but not ready for prime time...

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 1000 Contributor

  I've owned several smartwatches over the past ten or twelve years and I've gotten used to them all working about the same way. The type of information they show, the stats they keep track of and for a lot of people, first and foremost, the time and the way it can be displayed with lots of different faces to suit your mood and keep the watch interesting. With a respected name like Citizen, I expected a smartwatch that not only looked great, but was also a solid performer with battery life, operating system and sensors that can read and display my stats. Maybe I expected too much with this smartwatch. On the positive side, the watch looks great. It has a stainless steel body with a striking black bezel. I expected the bezel to turn, but that's not the case. It's fixed position does not allow it to be used as a minute timer with an analog watch face. So really, the minute numbers are purely for decoration. The stem crown is knurled and has a large diameter, which lends itself to being twisted either forward or backward to use in the settings to scroll through the selections. It works quite well and is a nice alternative for the rotating bezel on a Galaxy watch. The crown can also be pushed in, getting you back to your watches main screen from anywhere in the app sub-menus. You can also set a double click for the crown to open up a favorite app. The upper and lower buttons have default functions, but can be changed to open whatever app you want them to. The rubber strap that comes standard is nice. A good quality strap that will hold up well for sweaty workouts and survive splashes from hand washings without any problem. I do appreciate the 22mm lug spacing which allows me to continue to use all my current after market watch bands. The strap that's included is also quick release making it very easy and fast to swap it out for a different type of strap. Citizen has put a lot of it's development of this watch into it's proprietary YouQ app features. This is a set of features that allows the watch to monitor all your stats and give you a way to “anticipate” alertness and fatigue patterns. There's a lot of reference to the YouQ features in all of the descriptive text about the watch, but I'm still trying to see a benefit for all of it. Maybe I haven't used it long enough to see the value of the information that it offers, but honestly, I lost a lot of interest just trying to figure it all out. Citizen really missed the boat by not including at the very least, a quick start guide that not only explained a lot of the default apps and settings but also promoted and explained the YouQ app that they obviously put in a lot of time to develop. Sadly, you're left on your own to discover how it all works or even what the benefits are. The basic included apps all seem to work reasonably well. The ones I use the most are the heart rate measuring app, the step counter, blood oxygen sensor, weather app, etc.. With that being said, I found the step counter rather inconsistent. I do a 30 minute elliptical run every day and keep my pace very regular. On other smartwatches I own, I get very consistent step counts for this workout. I've noticed with the CZ Smart, my step count varies quite a bit, sometimes by as much as a thousand steps or more. The CZ Smart also comes with a sleep monitor app to track your sleep habits. Personally, I don't wear a watch to bed so I can't comment on this feature. You also have the Google Play store or the Apple counterpart, to choose from a large selection of onboard app. You can of course, also answer phone calls with your watch or get notifications of texts and emails. You can connect your watch with any combination of Bluetooth, WiFi or NFC. It has Google Fit, Strava, Spotify, YouTube Music and Amazon Alexa by default, so it does come with a lot of the basics that people tend to use. There are two things about this smartwatch that are very frustrating however. The first is the selection of monumentally poor included watch faces. The amateurish design of all of them combined with the lack of setup options for them (found on most of the faces available on the Play store), horrible color choices and generally an overall lack of any realistic design graphics makes me think that this watch was made by anyone BUT a watch company. You will find no Citizen-like faces at all which is in and of itself unbelievable. In fact, if you like the face that's shown on the box, sorry, that one is not included. You would think that Citizen could have taken this opportunity to really make some signature faces to make their smartwatch stand out. The kind of faces that let you know that this is first and foremost a Citizen watch. This was a really bad misstep on this smartwatch. The second thing that for me is a total game changer is the fact that the battery life on this smartwatch is so horrible, I could never get even close to the 24 hour mark that they boast it will deliver. For me, I was lucky if I got 12 hours run time out of it. Of course the first thing I will be told is that it depends on the watch settings I'm using. Understandable, I have the Bluetooth on (NFC and WiFi off), I have the screen dimness up all the way so I can see what I need to see at a glance, I do not use the always on display and like that the watch is dark unless I turn my wrist to read it, and I have the time it stays on set to 15 seconds. On any other smartwatch I own, these settings get me anywhere from two to three days of use without charging. I shouldn't have to cripple the watch in order to get usable battery life. A 12 hour battery life, in my opinion is completely useless. So, if you plan on tracking your sleep habits, you'll need to charge it up before you go to bed, and then again in the morning before you go to work. On an average day, I put my watch on at around 5am, go to work, and by 3pm I'm down to 20% battery time left. This doesn't even include using any of the features that someone would buy a watch like this for. Heart rate, activity tracking, blood oxygen level to name a few. The touchscreen itself is quite nice. It has good color density and contrast. Using it however was a bit hit or miss depending on the face you're using. Not sure if this is screen anomaly or a firmware flaw. Sometimes the screen was very responsive and sometimes is was not. Overall, I found the operating system to be quirky. Sometimes working as expected, but sometimes becoming slow to respond. After about five days use, I put the watch back on it's charger (at around 3:00pm), but when I put it back on the next morning, it seemed to have done a factory reset on itself. I needed to set up a lot of the default settings all over again. I like the look of the CZ Smart. It has a striking appearance that's modern yet classy. Unfortunately, there are just too many downsides at this point, the most obvious and annoying one being the lack of battery life. Citizen is relatively new to the smartwatch arena and I'm hopeful they take feedback like mine to heart and develop a truly competitive smartwatch because I like the thinking behind the design and feature apps. But until the battery issues are fixed, they won't have serious shot at a fan base.

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  This review is from Citizen - CZ Smart 45mm Unisex Stainless Steel Sport Smartwatch with Silicone Strap - Silver

  Posted 2 years ago by enem156

• Rated 3 out of 5 stars

  Niche Smart Watch that struggles to compete

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  I love watches and since the inception of "smart" watches I have been intrigued with how technology and design has evolved. I am well rooted in the Apple ecosystem and have been rocking my trusty 3rd generation iwatch for quite some time now! Don't fix what's not broken, I guess. Citizen has a reputation so I took a chance on a smart watch not designed to be indestructible. See my comparisons to the Garmin Fenix. Initial unboxing seems like build construction is top notch with quality materials and decent screen quality and brightness. It's neat to see how much science goes into the way companies box items for consumers. I had really high hopes for this watch once I was able to touch and feel it. But, a serious swing and miss! I am not sure if I am an outlier but I just can't get behind a circle smart watch face. Apple has the advantage with being able to "fit" content on a screen with their boxy face design over the circle shape. I do like the band and the watch doesn't feel bulky when it actually is when you consider dimensions. When I wear my Garmin Fenix, I was never expecting the screen to wow me, rather be functional and visible in all conditions on land or water so I never really was critical of the circle face design. The Citizen is designed to be more a dress watch based on some of the features, so the screen needs to be a standout performer. One major call out and deal breaker for me and my lifestyle is the fact it lacks higher levels of water resistance. All other major brands have figured out how to make this happen, Citizen seriously limited the applications by going to market with this rating. From my Apple watch to the nearly indestructible Garmin Fenix watch I use for outdoor activities, I find myself second guessing whether or no to wear the Citizen with the concern I do something active and accidentally let life do permanent damage to the watch. I would be cautious to wear this in any setting other than office/special occasions. Another cause for concern was after spending the long weekend outside camping, I could NOT get anywhere near the 24+ rated battery life, At best after troubleshooting all the settings, got a record of about 19 hours, which for those comparing to other brands, Garmin Fenix watches last for days with all services! It does charge quickly but found myself having to use a portable battery pack throughout the day to make it last! To maximize the battery life you get zero "smart" benefits which defeats the purpose and price. The main selling feature is the technology behind the scenes CZ Smart YouQ that Citizen partnered with NASA and AI models to maximize your daily potential. Not quite sure I feel this is a big enough value compared to some of the technology you can deploy via apps on other brands. The integration of apps on the iwatch is lightyears ahead of the Citizens. This watch has 7 sensors so you would expect it to be robust but remember this watches' limitations when using it as an activity tracker or adventure watch. Summary: Solid watch overall from build construction and screen qualify but limitations like short battery life and lack of water resistance will really challenge your decision to utilize this watch to its fullest potential as a activity tracker and a go to watch for someone who loves the outdoors. Personally, they have to see what makes other brands successful and integrate those featured into generation 3 to keep this product line relevant. They have the software tech built out, now they need the hardware to support it. Gen 3 needs to be ruggedized for sure, improved battery life and water proof.

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  This review is from Citizen - CZ Smart 45mm Unisex Stainless Steel Sport Smartwatch with Silicone Strap - Silver

  Posted 2 years ago by ZachC

• Rated 3 out of 5 stars

  Beautiful watch with a very short battery life

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  The Citizen CZ Smart Touchscreen watch is a beautiful watch. It has great styling and I really like the band. It's tough and will last a long time, from the looks of it. The screen is nice and bright and it is controlled by the touchscreen and three buttons. Using the touch screen, you can swipe up to see notifications, swipe down for quick settings, swipe left to go back, and when looking at tiles swiping left and right take you to the previous or next tile. The top button shows a list of recent apps. Double pressing the top button takes you to the last app that you used. Pressing the crown, or center button, displays the face or list of apps, depending on what was showing at the time. Rotating the crown lets you scroll through the list of apps, or you can do that by sliding your finger up or down on the screen. You are able to assign a function to a long press of the top button, a double press of the crown, and a short press of the bottom button. The watch is running Google Wear OS. This means that you have access to Google Play and a growing list of Google Wear compatible applications. They have everything available from a calculator to Google Maps to games and much more. While the Citizen watch faces are pretty lame, you can download lots of watch faces from the Play Store or use Facer for Google Wear OS and have a huge selection of faces. I’m sure you will be able to find something to your liking. The app that Citizen is proud of is CZ Smart YouQ which uses technolo9gy from IBM Watson, and NASA Ames Research Center. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it to work, so can’t comment on what it does or how well it does it. Now the downsides, and they are significant. The biggest issue is battery life. During a period of 4 hours, as I was testing things for this review, the battery went from 100% to 0%. There is nothing that a watch should be doing that would completely drain the battery in 4 hours. With as quickly as the battery drains on a daily basis, there is no way to use it for sleep tracking because it doesn’t have enough battery life. It is however nice to know that you can fully charge the battery in 40 minutes. Next, the watch is not waterproof, so don’t expect to use the cardio tracking while swimming. My understanding is that it is also not dustproof. You won’t want to wear it while doing dirty work. While the watch can take and make phone calls, if it is connected to your phone, you won’t be able to take calls on your earbuds or handsfree in your car if you have the watch configured to be able to answer calls. I love that the watch has sensors to adjust the watch for ambient light, it can monitor heart rate, oxygen levels, cardio fitness, steps, and sleep, but with such a short battery life, you will have to charge it several times a day, which is really inconvenient. As much as there is to like about this watch, I can’t recommend it. There are much better watches available in this price range.

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  This review is from Citizen - CZ Smart 45mm Unisex Stainless Steel Sport Smartwatch with Silicone Strap - Silver

  Posted 2 years ago by SciFiFan