Ownership Experiences- 2018 TAG Heuer Connected Modular 41

Wanted to start this thread for those of us with the slightly smaller version that has the upgraded tech.

Got mine a couple of weeks ago and here are some of my observations:

- Much more responsive than either my Casio WSD-F20 or my first gen Huauei.
- The Huauei has a brighter screen
- The look and feel of the Tag is FAR superior (better be for the price)
- Battery life (after a hard reset once I upgraded to wear OS) is okay.
-- I get a full day charge with the following - GPS on, NFC on, Wifi on, messages fairly constant through the day, always on display, and all motion features turned off.
- Found something interesting when looking at the storage list from the Wear OS interface on the phone.
-- Does anyone else have TicWatch apps loaded on their tag watch that show up when looking at the storage but not when viewing the apps from the play store?
-- Did Tag have the TicWatch folks make the electronics? If so, that means that our $1K+ watch has <$100 internals. If that is the case we are paying quite the premium for the case and strap.

Here is my new Tag and a screenshot of the TicWatch apps that seem to be preloaded on the Tag watch (edited to only show those apps)

Battery life is "ok" here as well. My 41 goes about 16 hours before engaging low power mode. I have motion and always on display options checked though. The Oreo update added about an hour to this mainly because it sets ambient brightness to a lower level. The brightness of the display is affected by the thick sapphire crystal which is highly reflective. I don't think that TicWatch designed the internals since Tag watches are the only WearOS watches that use Intel processors tmk, I wonder if Tag used TicWatch developers to write some of the fitness based interface code?

I thought about that, but not sure what unique "fitness based interface" they would make over and above the standard interface provided by Wear OS. Maybe for that custom fitness watch face? I wonder if others with this watch have these apps in their storage as well.

On another note, I notice that when I take my watch off the charger in the morning, the "android system" is <10% but by the end of the day it is at >50% Seems like an unnamed app is leaking.

Do you boot your watch every day? If not then you may be just seeing daily temp memory/swap usage that GC recovers at night when nothing is running.

I normally do not reboot my watch and general garbage collection certainly explains that it starts at 2% in the morning, I am just trying to figure out which app that is not announcing itself is refusing to shut down. Something is running and, by the end of the day, is taking upwards of 50% of the processor as reported by the battery stats (I am assuming that is what the % refers to).

What I am unsure of is if it is one of the apps I installed or a preloaded one. I am comparing this to my first gen Huawei that had the same apps loaded as the 41 and did not exhibit this same behavior. While the battery, display, and processor are very different, they are both running the same version of WearOs. Besides, I am still kinda irked by the Tic Watch apps pre loaded on the watch.

Regarding the brightness, you are most likely right about the thickness of the crystal and it being reflective as a reason for the brightness seeming lower than my old watch. While the Huawei had a sapphire crystal as well, I am sure it was much thinner than the one on the 41. One nit, is that the crystal on the 41 is not flush with the bezel and has a small gap between the screen and the bezel. This makes the interaction with apps that have touch points at the edge problematic. There is an app I have always loved called Wear TIp Calculator by Aeus Tech that has issues on the 41 due to the gap between the screen and the bezel. Most likely they used a standard crystal they have for their mechanical watches. I expect that will change over time as they improve their smart watches.

On another note, I noticed that even when I turn off auto brightness (setting it to 5), the level of brightness in dim mode adjusts depending on the external lighting. This means the auto brightness sensor is working even when you "think" you turned it off.

Something else I noticed about the extra thick and reflective crystal. It is harder for the Starbucks barista to scan my watch and it often fails compared to my other smart watches. Sadly, the coffee time app is one of the best reasons to own a smart watch 😀

trying the auto brightness trick now!

Well, the screens sure get whacked out when these watches get wet! Touchlock beforehand helps but if you disable it before the watch is dry, you'll never get it set again....

Really? What happens when it whacks out?

imagine constantly touching the screen in random places

I see what you mean. Interesting, my Casio smart watch does not react the same way when it gets wet. Clearly Tag has some learning to do regarding smart watches

Got my charging stand. Tag missed out on not providing something like this for us

Whose making that? Also wondering if you are having any problems with the charging face not coming up when connected. Mine is completely random but most of the time, my watchmaker face remains up when charging.

http://www.artifexdesign3d.com/stor..._Cradle_WILL_ONLY_fit_41mm_Tag_Connected.html

The charging face is totally random but it seems to charge regardless.

Ordered one. Thx.

This is what I use. Bought from amazon. All metal

Forgot to add the link

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B013FI3PEG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Very nice. To bad they don't ship to the US

If anyone is interested I am selling 3D printed adapters so the Tag charging puck will fit in any Apple Watch stand. £15 including postage within the UK, £15 plus the cost of postage overseas. PM me if interested?

My watch is currently getting another Android system update! This from the previous version which was the initial 8.0.0 Oreo release. Wear OS on the watch and on my iPhone were updated last week as well.

Edit: looks like it was a security patch.