- The LightInk watch offers 400 days of battery life
- It does this by removing features and using an E Ink screen
- It also adds solar charging so you can stay topped up on the go
From the Apple Watch Ultra 3 to the Google Pixel Watch 4, customers looking to grace their wrist with one of the best smartwatches tend to look for wearables that offer excellent battery life — after all, there’s no point in using a device if you spend more time charging it than using it. If battery life is a priority for you, you might want to check out the LightInk watch.
That’s because with 400 days of juice on a single charge, it blows past the competition in terms of battery life. How does it achieve that number? Well, this is no ordinary watch – it’s powered by solar energy to stay constantly topped up, meaning you can start charging it even when you’re miles from the nearest outlet. As long as the sun shines down on you, LightInk’s battery will be charged.
But you get 400 days of battery life even before solar charging is taken into account, claims the project’s creator. How? Well, one way is to cut the feature list down completely. As the name suggests, the LightInk uses an E Ink display instead of an AMOLED display, unlike some competing smartwatches. The E Ink technology is incredibly efficient on the battery and helps you get even more life out of this product.
And because it’s an open source project, there’s no fee to get one. You just need a 3D printer and a few off-the-shelf components to make it yours.
Extreme battery saving
Of course, LightInk isn’t all sunshine and roses – there are a few downsides to it. Its E Ink display may give it excellent battery life, but it comes at the expense of visual fidelity. LightInk’s display is monochrome and low-resolution, so don’t expect any eye-catching graphics here. It doesn’t even show seconds.
And if you’re a fitness nut or believer in the ‘quantified self’, you’ll want to look elsewhere. You won’t get any of the health and fitness sensors and metrics you’ll find in most smartwatches—LightInk can tell the time, occasionally connect to Wi-Fi and GPS, and that’s about it.
You also can’t just go out and buy LightInk at your local mall. As we mentioned before, you’ll need a 3D printer on hand to make many of the necessary components yourself, then assemble and solder them into a finished product. You should also be comfortable building your own firmware based on the resources available on LightInk’s GitHub page.
Still, the LightInk doesn’t make any claims to be a high-end flagship device – it’s a deliberately basic product, as that’s what allows it to put all its energy into maximizing battery life.
It’s definitely not for everyone, but if your priority is to stay away from your charger for as long as possible, this might be just what you’ve been looking for.
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