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Compatibility and apps
- Will work with most modern smartphones
- Offers every app available on Android Wear 2.0
If you’ve got a modern smartphone, it’s likely the Connected Modular 45 will pair with your device.
All Android devices running Android 4.3 software and above will be compatible with the watch, which means pretty much every major smartphone of the last few years.
If you’re on iOS, you’ll be able to use it on devices running iOS 9 software and above. That’s the iPhone 5 or later. To be able to connect your devices, you’ll need to download Android Wear to your phone and go through the manual connection process in there.
The Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45 is running Android Wear 2.0 software, which is the latest version of the operating system, so it supports most apps you’d expect it to.
The likes of Uber, Runtastic and Strava all have apps specifically designed for Android Wear 2.0, and there are a few added benefits to the latest version of Android Wear, such as easier to navigate software.
On the watch itself there's a piece of software called Tag Heuer Studio. Here you’re able to create your own watch faces. You get a choice of watch dials, the metal, the luminescence and the highlights on the watch face, with thousands of combinations possible.
This offers an extra level of customization you don't get on all wearables. There’s also a mobile app that will allow you to add photos to the backgrounds of your watch faces, but the software doesn’t allow you to easily customize the interactive elements of the watch face.
It would be great for example if you could pull in your step count easily and include that. You can see your step count on one of the pre-made watch faces, but it’s not very attractive and it’s not something you can add into another watch face.
Battery life
- Should last you a full day, but not much longer with normal usage
- Easy to recharge with a small charging pad
We found the Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45 to have quite disappointing battery life.
Ideally we like to see a smartwatch last for two days from a single charge, but when we were regularly using this we found it wouldn’t even last one whole day.
There’s a 410mAh battery inside, which is a little above the battery capacity we usually see in these devices, yet quite often we got to the evening and found the watch to be entering battery saver mode, as it was down to 15% already.
If you’re happy to recharge your watch each evening and you don’t think you’ll be constantly using apps on your wrist, the battery life of the Tag Heuer should suit you.
But when the LG Watch Style and LG Watch Sport both last for over a day, it’s a shame the battery on this watch won’t last the same amount of time.
It's also a shame the company hasn’t included a low battery mode where it will just tell the time instead of offering all the Android Wear features.
