The Smartwatch market is packed with brands from the likes of Apple, Samsung, Fitbit and more offering smartwatches that provide all sorts of features but what if you fall into that senior market what is available for you?
If you are in your later years of life and your eyes are starting the fail something like an Apple Watch just might feel too complicated to use. That is where brands like Doro & Emporia come into play they provide technology suitable for those in their later years who are still active but need a more simple set-up when it comes to wearables.
First Impressions
In this review, we are covering the Doro watch that currently costs £120. Doro has been developing a wide range of products designed for the senior market from their smartphones, home phones, and now tablets and smartwatch.
When you first get the Doro Watch out of the box it does not show any signs that it’s for the senior market. However, it’s only when you take a closer out of the 2 buttons on the side there is an emergency button but this can only work if paid with a Doro 8100 smartwatch or newer models. If your using the watch on an iPhone or Android device this button is basically redundant apart from a long press picked up the find my phone features.
If you are using a Doro device with the watch pressing the SOS button triggers an alarm via the response by the Doro app and selects pre-set contacts and makes an attempt to contact them. When your emergency contact answers the call for help the phone automatically enters hands-free mode.
Unboxing
Doro keeps things simple firstly the majority of the packaging of the Doro watch and accessories are in recyclable packaging. The Doro watch comes with an additional watch strap in this case it’s dark green. In addition to that you are also provided with a magnetic charging cradle with a USB-A port and last but not least a user guide that comes in 5 languages.
Design/Build
The Doro Watch keeps things simple when it comes to the design it measures 45 x 13mm (DxH) and is very lightweight coming in at only 45g. The watch uses TFT glass which is a chemically strengthened glass and uses a silicone strap with a metal tongue buckle.
The watch comes in a few different colour options:
- Black Body with Black or Dark Green Strap
- Pink body with white strap
The watch comes with a 1.28-inch touch display with a resolution of 240 x 240 pixels. The menu navigation can be selected by the upper right button on the side of the watch. Once pressed you simply swipe down to pick one of the following:
- Exercise recording- Walking, Running, Cycling & Fitness
- Activity stats- Number of Steps, KM, Kcal
- Heart Rate Monitor
- Sleep stats
- Blood Oxygen Monitor
- Find Phone
- Settings
You will notice Doro has kept things simple you can’t add any additional applications. All of the preloaded apps as mentioned above can be monitored via the companion app which not only is available on the Doro device but is also available on both iOS and Android devices.
Flip the watch over and you have the heart rate/oxygen saturation sensor in the centre and the magnetic charging connector at the base of the body of the watch.
Display/Watch Faces
The Doro watch display has been created with the senior user in mind with later text and icons all shown on a large 1.28-inch display showing notifications or icons one at a time on that bright and sharp display. Moving from checking the time to swiping to check your heart rate or find your phone setting was easy to do just be careful the touch screen can be a little too sensitive that my only negative.
Doro also allows you to change the watch face you can press down on the touch screen for a few seconds and that allows you to swipe through the pre-loaded faces or you can download a selection of new watch faces via the app just like if I was doing the same with my Apple watch.
Battery Life
The battery is a 300mAh Li-polymer battery with a 5v max charge that should provide you with 8 days of use as none of the apps on the watch takes too much battery life. When it’s time to charge place the watch in the charging cradle and that only takes 2 hours to fully charge.
Set-Up
Once you have given the watch a charge it will ask you to download the Doro Companion app you will then follow the simple steps to get set up. Firstly you will need to agree to the user agreement and privacy policy. Then you need to pair the watch with your smartphone when connected your phone will display a code as long as the same code is displayed on the watch press the green tick and you are paired.
You will then need to add some basic information about yourself such as Gender, date of Birth, height and weight this will help with the health and fitness app once you are recording how active you are.
The watch then asks you to set up a couple of targets such as step goals and weight goals. Then the app wants to know which notifications you want to receive such as calendar events, emails, texts and missed calls. It also notifies you of when you get a Facebook message or a LinkedIn message. However, although it will show you that you have a message you can’t seem to read what that message is, which is slightly annoying, I guess with the large text it might need, that could be why.
Last but not least the phone may require a firmware upgrade which is very easy to do via the app simply press a button and wait about 60 seconds for the update to complete.
Doro Companion App
The Doro Companion app just like the Apple Watch app is the main interface where all the health and fitness monitoring can be seen. At the bottom of the app, you have 4 icons:
- Health
- Exercise
- Watch
- Me
The Health icon is basically just the home screen in this screen it shows you how your daily goals are progressing such as calories burnt, how many minutes of exercise and how many minutes of walking you have done it also shows you the distance as well. In addition to the main fitness stats, you have a sleep monitor plus a heart rate monitor and blood oxygen level.
Last but not least you have a series of medals for when you have hit certain milestones like 1st steps goal hit. Most smartwatch brands do the same thing which pleases me greatly when you have achieved and get a little medal as an award.
When you click on the exercise app it will allow you to monitor and record that particular exercise. What I did notice was the types of exercise recordings are somewhat limited to just walking, running and cycling I know these are the most popular options people do but I know a number of senior users who do other types of exercise like sailing, canoeing or just hitting the gym and you are unable to record any of the activities mentioned but I see why Doro has done this.
When you click on the watch icon that gives you information like battery life, allows you to select a watch face, and lets you select notifications you will view on the watch. You will also have a number of other notifications such as an alarm clock and health tracking.
Lastly, click on the ME icon for more in-depth settings and a health report.
Performance/ Health & Fitness tracking
When using the watch every day over the last week of testing I was able to see the results at any point by simply looking at the watch as the watch face I selected gave me the steps, Kcal & Km completed.
Going into the app you get more of a detailed view of each day, week, month and even yearly stats. The key things they monitor are:
- Activity
- Exercise
- Walking
You can click on any of the 3 to provide even more stats to give you a better understanding how what you are doing and how it works. You can then set targets and also view weekly trends and monitor what you can do to make changes and see quicker results.
Below are some stats I collected after using this watch every day for one week.
The watch also monitors sleep it will provide you with a guide of how long you had deep sleep, light sleep and periods you were awake. The app gives you a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly review of your sleep pattern.
The watch also monitors heart rate and SP02 (blood oxygen level) same as the fitness monitoring both provide daily, weekly, monthly and yearly results.
Verdict
The Doro watch focuses on ease of use and ease of control and in my view, they do a very good job on both points. This watch is designed for those 60+ and the use of the large 1.28-inch watch face allows the user with ageing eyesight so in theory, it could even suit a younger user if they had a need for it. The large icons and text is shown separately to help with that eyesight and keep things simple.
The Doro watch is ideal for helping the senior market to keep moving by having just the top button as the menu and then allowing you to just swipe adds to the ease of use. I was pleased with the level of monitoring but what I was disappointed with was the lack of exercise options having just running, walking and cycling felt a little limited I know the watch only has an IP68 rating maying you could increase that and then use the watch for swimming as well.
Doro also keeps to its routes as this is a watch for the older person and the 2nd button is a practical assistance button that when activated kicks in the “Response By Doro” service on your Doro phone. This sends a GPS position to your family or trusted friends to come to your assistance if you feel. Unfortunately, if you use an Apple or Android device that button becomes redundant.
Last but not least the app works really well it’s easy to use on a Doro device as well as an Apple or Android model. The app has that simplicity of use and allows you to set goals, and receive motivation from the medals you could win this is a fantastic smartwatch for the senior market without the device looking old.
So if the important factors in your buying decision are large icons, simple navigation, easy-to-see display, full control and monitoring and with that peace of mind factors it’s hard to find a reason to find fault with this watch. The Doro watch is ideal for keeping fit and healthy but at the same time keeping things simple if that is what you are looking for get this watch!
Product Rating
Design: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Display: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Battery Life: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Ease of Use/Setup: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Companion App: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Health & Fitness tracking: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Value for Money: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Overall ranking: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars – 4.8-star rating
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