The latest smartwatch from Burg wants to be all things to all people. It will connect to phones running Android or iOS, plus it comes with a SIM card so it can be used to make and receive calls independently, effectively replacing your phone entirely. We’ve seen this ability before, on the Samsung Gear S and the Neptune Pine for example, but at $200, the Burg 12 is cheaper than both of them.
For the money you get an almost standard looking watch, complete with an interchangeable strap, which comes in a choice of either black or purple. Although the Burg 12’s splash and dust resistant case is circular, the screen itself is square. It’s a color 1.5-inch touchscreen with a 240 x 240 pixel resolution. The operating system is unknown, but likely proprietary. Burg says the battery will last for three days before it needs recharging, and offer about three hours of continuous talk time.
It’ll take any GSM SIM card, and comes with a prepaid card already inside, complete with $25 of call and text credit. In addition to making and receiving calls using the built-in speaker and microphone, you can also send SMS and MMS messages. If you can bring yourself to type something out on the tiny screen. There’s even a small camera on the watch face, although the megapixel count is unknown.
The Burg 12 has a MicroSD card slot and comes with a 4GB card already inside, ready for use with the standard music player, but can take one up to 16GB in size. Connected to a smartphone, the Burg 12 should act as a regular smartwatch, but it apparently uses Bluetooth 3.0 to sync with your device, making it less energy efficient than most of its Android Wear competitors. However, because it can be used on its own, not everyone will want to connect it to their smartphone.
If a $200 watch-phone sounds good to you, then you’ll find the Burg 12 on sale at Walmart very soon.
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