Review: i'm Watch

SPONSORED POST 

If you're of my generation, you probably remember Inspector Gadget. More importantly, though, do you remember Penny's wristwatch? You know, the one that let her make calls and shoot laser beams and was kind of a rip off of Dick Tracy's? Well, it's finally here. OK, maybe not the laser beams, but the i'm Watch does pretty much anything else you can imagine.

Launched at CES last month by Italian brand i'm, the latest version of the i'm Watch connects via bluetooth to your iPhone or Android smartphone to let you answer calls, listen to music and view text messages, photos, calendar appointments and emails from a curved, HD touchscreen on your wrist.

The watch even has its own app store, i'm Market, where users can choose from hundreds of music, lifestyle and office apps including  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And the i'm Cloud platform means that all of these apps can be managed directly from your smartphone.

I had a fairly easy time setting up my i'm Watch, which was a gift from i'm for purposes of this review. As a Mac user, though, I noticed that I was unable to launch the instructions directly from my computer once I connected the watch to my laptop with the included USB cable. Not the end of the world - I simply navigated to the manual from the i'm website, selected my country, set the date and time, and registered my watch online.

Then it was time to calibrate! Don't ask me what this means or what actually happened here, but in some sort of i'm Watch mating dance, I was instructed to roll the watch around my coffee table, rotate it in every conceivable direction three times and spread my feathers while hopping on one foot. Whatever I did seemed to work: I have since connected my watch to my iPhone seamlessly via bluetooth and have had no issues answering calls, reading emails and receiving texts. Easy peasy!

As a fashion accessory, there's nothing terribly sleek about the i'm Watch. The band is thick and the face is clunky, but it fits right in with the arm candy trend that just will not die. It comes in a veritable rainbow of candy colors starting at $349, as well as in silver and various shades of gold. (If you're willing to drop a cool $19,990, you can even purchase a diamond-encrusted white gold version.)

Anyone in the market for the i'm Watch should remember that it needs to be within range of your smartphone to work via bluetooth. So, if you're looking to minimize what you carry on your morning run, this isn't your solution. But it is ideal for answering calls while you drive since it allows you to leave your phone in your pocket, purse or glove compartment. It's also perfect for those people who never seem to hear their phones ringing from deep within a handbag (ahem... Mom!).

For more information on the i'm Watch and to view the collections, visit the i'm website at imsmart.com/en.

*This is a sponsored post. However, all opinions expressed here are my own. Read about my policies regarding sponsorship here.