Martian is a California-based startup that had a decent kickstarter campaign in 2012 with its first smartwatch, called the Martian Voice Command. In the process it captured the attention of the tech community. Following this, the startup went on to create another watch, the Martian Notifier, which it showcased at CES 2013. This Bluetooth-enabled wearable is now available in India exclusively through e-commerce retailer Flipkart. Unlike most smartwatches, the Martian Notifier is designed primarily to display smartphone notifications. Since the company doesn’t have any lofty ambitions, we’ll try to keep our expectations in check too.
Design and specifications
One thing’s for sure, the Martian Notifier looks like any cheap watch. It has a common round face with a stainless steel bezel and a mostly plastic body. In our time with the watch, we learnt that this plastic can easily attract scratches and nicks. Thankfully though, Martian uses an anti-scratch acrylic crystal on the face.
The silicone strap has a stainless steel clasp, which has a simple mechanism to remove it. The 22mm width of the strap is fairly standard, enabling the use of third-party replacements. We got the all-black version for review but it is also available with a white or red strap. Martian has its own line of colourful replacement straps but they aren’t currently available in India. We think the watch looks good on people with medium/large arms but awkward on those with thinner wrists.
Thanks to use of plastic and silicone, the watch only weighs 52g, making it comfortable for anyone to wear. The Notifier is water-resistant, meaning it can withstand a few splashes, but you cannot take it out for a swim.
The only element of the watch that reminds us that it is actually a smartwatch is the cutout for the OLED display (96×16 pixel graphic) that eats up the bottom of the analogue dial. There is also a small LED indicator which glows green when there is an incoming call and when the battery is fully charged, blue when there is an incoming notification, and red when the battery is low or is charging.
On the right of the watch is a regular crown ring which can be used to set the time, and next to it is the flap that covers the Micro-USB port. This port is very deep and as a result Martian bundles a modified Micro-USB cable with the watch. Even though the port is standard, you cannot use any ordinary Micro-USB cable. The USB connection is used to charge the watch and deliver firmware updates.
Martian claims that the built-in lithium polymer battery of the Notifier will last for five days’ worth of usage, and there is a separate battery for the analogue watch which has a life of two years.
On the left there are two metal buttons that Martian rather unhelpfully labels ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ – they don’t really mince words. The top button selects items in the menu, lets you scroll through notifications, and launches the voice command feature on both iOS and Android devices (but can only dismiss voice commands on iOS). The bottom button is used to power the watch on, access the status bar, scroll through the menu and go backwards through the notification history. Apart from this, the glass surface also acts as an input to dismiss incoming notifications and recall the last notification, which is available only for five minutes after it was first received.
Software and performance
The initial setup is easier on iOS than Android. Interestingly, Martian’s FAQ section claims that the Notifier doesn’t support Xiaomi’s Redmi phones at the moment. Martian’s own app is needed for syncing with the phone, changing the watch’s settings and choosing which supported apps actually send notifications to the phone. To connect to our iPhone 5c, all we had to do was switch on the watch and connect it to the phone using this app after entering a pass code. On an Android phone, we had to check the Android box inside the Setup menu of the watch and also turn on Accessibility through the phone’s Settings app.
Once the initial setup was done we selected the apps we intended to receive notifications from. After this, the notifications started flowing in without any hiccups. The Notifier, true to its name, was effective and relentless in sending all notifications to our wrists. We loved the simplicity of this so much that we decided to put the phone on silent and turn of the vibration as well.
These notifications are not actionable in the sense that you can’t respond or open an app. You will still have to use your phone for that but Martian didn’t claim that it could do these things in the first place so we aren’t complaining. Also true to its claims, each notification stays in Martian Notifier’s memory for five minutes and you can recall it in that time if you need to just by tapping on the glass.
The watch has two other tricks up its sleeve: it can function as the shutter button for your phone’s camera, and can also trigger voice commands on the phone (it doesn’t have a microphone, though). These functions also worked as advertised. Our only point of contention with the device was that scrolling through the menu can be tedious. Thankfully, all the settings are readily available in the app.
Verdict
If you can overlook the design quirks of the Martian Notifier and do not want all the features of a full-blown smartwatch, you’ll be happy with this product. It doesn’t promise much, but it delivers all that it does nearly flawlessly and seamlessly. It has a price tag of Rs. 8,495 on Flipkart at the time of writing this review.
This might seem like a lot when compared to the LG G Watch (first generation Android Wear smartwatch) that costs around Rs. 7,000. Whilethe G Watch may offer a ton of features with Android Wear, it has been reported that in its current state, Android Wear doesn’t actually give users a satisfactory smartwatch experience. Also, the battery life of the G Watch is its weak point, whereas the Notifier can easily last five days.
It finally boils down to two things. If you want a highly polished product with a slick interface on a big digital screen, then by all means pick up the LG G Watch or any other similar device you like. But if you want something simple that just displays notifications on your wrist, go for the Martian Notifier.
