Josh Hendrickson
Late last year, Wyze announced a $20 SP02 tracking smartwatch. That’s an incredibly low price for any smartwatch. Over on its site, you can choose two different size options—44 and 47mm. You’d think it’s the same watch either way, but it turns out they’re very different. And we don’t know why.
Update:5/10: Recently, we noticed that Wyze completely revamped the Watch page, and it no longer mentions the 44 mm option at all. We reached out to Wyze for clarity, and the company confirmed it will soon have separate Wyze Watch pages to better highlight the differences between the two options. In a statement, a company spokesperson had this to say:
To better highlight the variations in each model, we’re working on development of separate pages and will refer to these devices separately. Wyze Watch 47mm is available now and Wyze Watch 44mm will be available at a later date with a new, separated page. We love maintaining an active dialogue with our community and we heard them loud and clear on this one.
Considering the distinct differences in the watches, creating separate pages to clearly define the differences is a good step towards transparency. Hopefully, the final result will do a better job of informing users of their choices.
4/28: A Wyze Spokesperson gave us this statement:
Yes, the watch models vary slightly. We are experimenting with different types of experiences and gathering valuable feedback from our community.
To be frank, we’re surprised by this reasoning and find it appalling. Wyze is admitting to selling the two vastly (not slightly) different smartwatches as an A/B test on consumers. And it’s doing so without full transparency.
Loyal customers are buying the watches assuming that the only real choice to make is the best fitting size, when in fact, which size you get can lead to a superior or inferior experience. If Wyze treated the two watches as totally different options with full pictures showing those differences and then stated that whichever watch sold better would inform the future, that would be an acceptably transparent A/B test. But it didn’t. So it’s not.
4/24: In our initial report, we stated that the Wyze Watch 47mm straps are not removable based on information we were provided. However, another owner reached out to show us they can be removed. We’ve updated that text to note that information. We regret the error.
The original report is left intact below
Usually, when a company offers a smartwatch in multiple sizes, that’s the beginning and end of the difference. Multiple sizes make sense because not everyone has the same wrist size. But you can typically expect the same basic hardware and software when the two sizes go for the same price.
But the Wyze watch is different. Go to the Wyze Watch site and look through the pictures and pricing, and you’ll find two sizes at the same price. Look through the photos, and at first glance, they’ll look the same. But check again more closely, and you’ll notice the first hints that the screens have very different bezel sizes.
Since then, we noticed some early reports on the Wyze Facebook group that the two watches were vastly different beyond the displays. (They even have dramatically different boxes.) We have a 44mm variant on hand to review, but thanks to Twitter user Clifton Thomas, we got a very good view of the differences in the watches.
The App launcher; Left: Watch 44, Right: Watch 47
The Wyze Watch 47mm uses a display that reaches nearly to the edges with nice rounded corners. But the 44mm variant doesn’t; it has pretty large boxy bezels. The physical differences don’t stop there. Although Wyze’s FAQ doesn’t specify a difference, you can remove the 44mm watch straps, but not the 47’s straps. Update: While we were initially told the 47mm watch doesn’t have removable straps, another user reached out with photos to show it does. We regret the error.
The Activity Screen; Left: Watch 44, Right: Watch 47
The software is very different as well. Each watch has access to a different set of watch faces, and you’ll find some offered for one and not the other and visa versa. At first, the 44mm had access to more watch face choices than the 47, but a recent update added more options to the latter. Confusingly, the 44mm variant can store six total watch faces for easy customization, but the 47mm variant can only hold three.
The Heart Rate Screen; Left: Watch 44, Right: Watch 47
But it’s not just watch faces that stand out as different. The actual icons for all the watch apps follow different designs, and the amount of information displayed at any one time varies wildly. The smaller 44mm watch shows steps, calorie, heart, and sleep on one screen, while the larger 47mm only shows calories and steps—less information and in a different order.
A Text Notification; Left: Watch 44, Right: Watch 47
Notifications look totally different, and the quick settings menu uses different icons and follows a different order. The list goes on and on, and it’s hard to find anything the two watches share in design or styling. To be clear, both smartwatches connect to the same Wyze app, and that experience is the same. But the watches themselves are vastly different.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense that ordering a different size smartwatch would get you a vastly different experience. And not just in hardware, but in the software as well. It’s not helpful that Wyze’s site isn’t upfront about those differences. Some of the stock photos obscure the differences in bezel photos, while others show it but you have to squint to notice. The site doesn’t make any direct mention of software differences. It’s very confusing.
We’ve asked Wyze why the watches look and feel so different, from hardware to software, but haven’t heard back yet. When we do hear more, we’ll update this post with that information. And stay tuned for our review of the Wyze Watch 44 variant.
