<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238434" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/gbatemp_review_banner_mad-gaze-watch-png.238434/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">MAD Gaze is no stranger to innovative tech that aims to enhance the user experience with a futuristic touch. For instance, I recently reviewed their consumer-focused <a href="https://gbatemp.net/review/mad-gaze-glow-plus.1621/"><strong>MAD Gaze GLOW Plus&nbsp;Mixed Reality smart glasses</strong></a>. While it packs promising tech and offers some cool MR experiences, it&rsquo;s let down by a lack of software. The other product they launched this year, the MAD Gaze Watch, won&rsquo;t lack software as it runs on Android 7.1 and has the Google Play suite at its disposal. The futuristic aspect is that with some finger snaps and taps, the watch allows you to control your phone&rsquo;s app; without touching the device itself.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tjUlYSF65iA" width="640"></iframe></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">I&rsquo;ve strapped it to my wrist to see for myself if this is an experience-enhancing feature or simply a nice-to-have gimmick. I was surprised to learn more about the functioning of these gesture controls than I expected to from the outset. Let&rsquo;s see how; but first, some unboxing and specs details.</p>

<h3 class="blueHeader" style="text-align:justify">Unboxing, specs and initial impression</h3>

<p style="text-align:justify">Out of the box, you&rsquo;ll find the following items:</p>

<ul>
<li style="text-align:justify">MAD Gaze Watch smart watch x1</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Charging cable x1</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Data Transmission Cable x1</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Watch Band (Regular) x1</li>
</ul>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238436" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/mad-gaze-watch-boxart-jpg.238436/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">As for the hardware specifications, you&rsquo;ll find them below:</p>

<ul>
<li style="text-align:justify">Product Model: W100</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">CPU: Quad Core 1.25GHz</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Operating System: Android 7.1</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">RAM: 1GB</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Storage: 16GB</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Screen: 1.39 inch Capacitive Touch Screen, 260,000 Colors, 400x400 pixels Resolution</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Sensors: Accelerometer and Gyroscope, Heart Rate Monitor</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Battery Capacity: 620mAh</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Autonomy: 90 hours Standby Time; 48 hours Working time</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Wireless Connection: Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 2.4G</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">IP Rating: IP67 Water Resistant and Dust Proof</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">SIM Card: 4G Nano SIM</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Audio: Microphone, speaker</li>
<li style="text-align:justify">Vibration: Supported</li>
</ul>

<p style="text-align:justify">By the looks alone, the MAD Gaze Watch looks chunky. This isn&rsquo;t an uncommon aspect with full-Android smartwatches like the <a href="https://gbatemp.net/review/zeblaze-thor-5-pro.1217/"><strong>Zeblaze Thor 5 Pro</strong></a>&nbsp;and <strong><a href="https://gbatemp.net/review/kospet-prime.1280/">Kospet Prime</a></strong>. It&rsquo;s definitely going to look oversized to those with smaller wrists but it&rsquo;s comfortable to wear with the flexible silicone straps included. These are also easily replaceable so you can find one that suits your style.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238438" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/removeable-strap-jpg.238438/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Once strapped on my wrist, it felt lighter compared to the other Android smartwatches I tested. That&rsquo;s most likely due to the fact that the MAD Gaze Watch does not have a camera like the other Android watches do and it also packs a smaller, 620mAh battery (800mAh for the Zeblaze Thor 5 Pro and 1260mAh for the Kospet Prime). While the smaller battery capacity enables the watch to be charged relatively faster, it is a major downside in practice; but we&rsquo;ll get to that in a bit. And it still is heavier than a regular watch or a fitness tracker but you can get used to it over time.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">But the build quality is decent enough, with hard plastic at the bottom and top, while the middle portion is made of some sort of ceramic, or similar material.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238439" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/side-jpg.238439/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a class="LbTrigger" href="attachments/238440" target="_blank"><img alt="attachThumb238440" class="LbImage attachThumb bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/237/237828-0c6d90a55c0cc98147c80aa3ef09d71c.jpg" /></a>&nbsp;<a class="LbTrigger" href="attachments/238441" target="_blank"><img alt="attachThumb238441" class="LbImage attachThumb bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/237/237829-b6d0fc1409021bd2214ac16e0cbdb70a.jpg" /></a></p>

<h3 class="blueHeader" style="text-align:justify">The full Android experience on a watch</h3>

<p style="text-align:justify">Rather than run on Wear OS or a proprietary OS, the MAD Gaze Watch runs on full Android 7.1. It&rsquo;s a similar experience you would have on a phone or tablet running on the OS but on a 1.39 inch round screen. The basic UI and UX are optimized to work on that rounded screen such as swiping up to open the built-in fitness tracking, swiping right to access notifications and swiping down to access settings shortcuts or play music. The menu is also optimized where apps can be accessed by swiping left and scrolling down in an arc style, somewhat akin to the Wear OS menu. There are also two physical buttons; with the top one used to turn the screen on/off and the lower one acting as a back button.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238444" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/apps-menu-jpg.238444/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">In its main functionality, it&rsquo;s very much the same as you would get from other Android-based smartwatches like the <a href="https://gbatemp.net/review/zeblaze-thor-5-pro.1217/"><strong>Zeblaze Thor 5 Pro</strong></a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://gbatemp.net/review/kospet-prime.1280/"><strong>Kospet Prime</strong></a>; even the fitness tracking menu and features are the same. I would encourage you to read my review on those where I talk about the Android watch experience at length. In short, while you can pair it with your phone and receive notifications from it, the MAD Gaze Watch can work independently and load most of the apps you have on your phone itself. Typing isn&rsquo;t so bad as you would think on this tiny screen but most apps aren&rsquo;t optimized to fit on the rounded screen. Thankfully, there&rsquo;s the option to switch to a squared screen (accessed by long-pressing the top button) to better interact with those apps.&nbsp;I was particularly impressed by the quality of the built-in speaker. Whether it&rsquo;s for listening to music or picking up calls, the audio output is quite clear.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238445" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/speaker-jpg.238445/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Even if you can run some emulators and games on this smartwatch, it&rsquo;s not designed for that. Most will rotate, meaning you can&rsquo;t view them properly on your wrist, so you&rsquo;ll have to place them on a flat surface and you might as well play that game on your phone instead. But that&rsquo;s not what this device was designed for anyway.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238446" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/pac-man-jpg.238446/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">As mentioned before, a major gripe with this smartwatch is its battery life. With moderate use from web-browsing to using messaging apps, you&rsquo;ll barely have a full day of use. If you plug in a SIM to use as a phone substitute, you&rsquo;ll get even worse performance, with the device lasting half a day or less. Of course, how long the MAD Gaze Watch lasts will vary depending on usage but with a battery capacity of 620mAh, don&rsquo;t expect much. Rather, expect to charge it often and bring a power bank with you. This weak battery life defeats its main purpose as a watch as with the battery depleting quickly, you won&rsquo;t even be able to perform the most basic function: telling time.&nbsp; To maximise its use, it&rsquo;s best to diminish use of power-hungry apps as well as WiFi connectivity.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">That said, apps and the Android OS in general run fluidly on this wrist-worn device. But don&rsquo;t expect to use it as fluidly as you would use your Android-based phone or tablet.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238452" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/phone-jpg.238452/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a class="LbTrigger" href="attachments/238451" target="_blank"><img alt="attachThumb238451" class="LbImage attachThumb bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/237/237839-05b5ece2dcab9549c22dfc9901207e80.jpg" /></a>&nbsp;<a class="LbTrigger" href="attachments/238450" target="_blank"><img alt="attachThumb238450" class="LbImage attachThumb bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/237/237838-a12a3fd8419d853690f9f9d15ff08908.jpg" /></a>&nbsp;<a class="LbTrigger" href="attachments/238449" target="_blank"><img alt="attachThumb238449" class="LbImage attachThumb bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/237/237837-2c000896b0ab128edfd6895db5f98d72.jpg" /></a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">However, if you want to sideload apps, better stick to downloading via WiFi or Bluetooth transfer. The included data cable plugs into the SIM card slot and is extremely difficult to remove. My index finger&rsquo;s nail nearly snapped out of the nail bed when I attempted to remove it. That was the first and last time I ever used that cable which really should come with a health hazard warning. A micro-USB concealed in the same location would do the trick and it could also double as a charger since the charging cable isn&rsquo;t a universal one either.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238448" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/data-cable-jpg.238448/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<h3 class="blueHeader" style="text-align:justify">The world&rsquo;s first gesture-controlled watch</h3>

<p style="text-align:justify">What might entice users more into purchasing this device is its gesture control feature. I was myself quite excited to try it as it reminded me of Project Soli from Google some 5 years ago. The latter uses radar technology to detect fine hand movements to control devices and the concept was also demonstrated on how it might work on a smartwatch and it looked pretty neat as you can see in the video below:</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0QNiZfSsPc0" width="640"></iframe></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Eventually, the Soli chip ended up getting <strong><a href="https://atap.google.com/soli/#:~:text=The%20Soli%20sensor%20is%20located,calls%2C%20without%20touching%20your%20phone">integrated in the Pixel 4</a></strong>&nbsp;but not in a smartwatch. As such, the MAD Gaze Watch is the closest consumer product we have that can deliver an experience as depicted in the video above; although it uses bone conduction rather than radar technology.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">To start, you&rsquo;ll need to install the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.madgaze.watch.connector&amp;hl=en_US"><strong>MG Watch companion app</strong></a>&nbsp;on your phone and pair it with the watch. After calibrating the gestures, you will be able to control your phone apps, play/pause music and videos and adjust volume with hand gestures. You can even use a gesture to open a specific app.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/i8N5TVDdygE" width="640"></iframe></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">From my experience, I found these controls to feel cool when they work and particularly frustrating when they don&rsquo;t. They operate best with slower movements and there&rsquo;s often a delay in seeing the response from the phone. Sometimes they simply don&rsquo;t work and require the wearer to repeat the action several times. In addition, you&rsquo;ll have to get adjusted as to which movement does what because you aren&rsquo;t used to such controls and unfortunately, they aren&rsquo;t as intuitive as with Project Soli. In this way, the MAD Gaze Watch is secretly a test of patience and might not be the best fit in our hectic world, especially when we are used to snappy touchscreen controls rather than laggy finger snapping gesture controls. Hopefully, this will be improved in future updates.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238455" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/app-calibration-2-jpg.238455/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a class="LbTrigger" href="attachments/238454" target="_blank"><img alt="attachThumb238454" class="LbImage attachThumb bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/237/237842-622a3881042d1d0cd26f1f4dd811477b.jpg" /></a>&nbsp;<a class="LbTrigger" href="attachments/238456" target="_blank"><img alt="attachThumb238456" class="LbImage attachThumb bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/237/237844-bb45b807b4681ac2638f1debe7b7c334.jpg" /></a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">What might go unnoticed to most is that in order to perform those gesture controls in the vicinity of the watch and see the corresponding action on the phone, the MG Watch app will require Accessibility access. Upon closer inspection, this will give the app the ability to observe personal data that you type, including passwords and credit card numbers.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238453" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/accessibility-access-jpg.238453/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">I&rsquo;m not particularly paranoid about allowing Accessibility access within reasonable limits nor do I think that MAD Gaze is a malicious company. But giving access to such sensitive information to a third party app isn&rsquo;t what I would recommend. The app itself might be vulnerable to hacks and what not and it&rsquo;s better to be on the safe side rather than risk personal data for what&rsquo;s essentially cool party tricks. MAD Gaze could also find a way for its app to work without requiring such access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">And really, you won&rsquo;t miss much if you don&rsquo;t buy in those gesture controls. For the first week or so, they seemed cool and did for some nice showing off but I found myself reverting to using the good ol&rsquo; touchscreen.</p>

<h3 class="blueHeader" style="text-align:justify">Closing remarks</h3>

<p style="text-align:justify">As the first smartwatch from the company, the MAD Gaze Watch isn&rsquo;t all that bad. It packs interesting tech and the fact that it runs on full-blown Android opens it up to more possibilities. But its weak battery capacity and dubious accessibility access needs don&rsquo;t really put it in a favorable light. Moreover, its standout gesture control experience is outlived rather fast.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">You can still use it for fitness tracking and mirroring your phone&rsquo;s notifications and for these purposes, this smartwatch fares well. But for the current price of $290, you can find cheaper, more fitness-focused devices with better battery life.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Nevertheless, the hardware is solid and the tech is innovative and promising, just like with MAD Gaze&rsquo;s other products. I look forward to what they come up with next and hopefully they&rsquo;ll address the issues pointed out in this review by then.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="attachFull238457" class="attachFull bbCodeImage" src="https://gbatemp.net/attachments/mad-gaze-on-watch-jpg.238457/?temp_hash=761ee356da0e9f73a18acb9b46d85be0" /></p>