Calling Dick Tracy: Fingers On With Kempler & Strauss’ WatchPhone

Sure, most of the phones here at CTIA look like, well, phones. But not all. The WatchPhone, a $199 unlocked device by Kempler & Strauss, is what it sounds like: a fully-functioning wrist phone. It has a SIM card slot, so it’ll work on AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks, and also boasts an MP3 player along with a microSD card slot and stereo Bluetooth, so users have the option of streaming music and calls. Too bad it’s so cumbersome to use.

I’ll get to ease of use in a minute, but first let’s talk about design. In a word, it’s utilitarian. It’s hardly as sleek as that piano black LG watchphone we saw back at CES. Kempler & Strauss’ version has a thick gray band, which feels plasticky, and a large, round face. Unless you tap the screen, at which point the menus will appear, you’ll see a black background with white analog numbers. Nothing wrong with black and matte gray; just not what you’d imagine Dick Tracy wearing around his wrist if you happened to bump into him at a trade show.

The UI, colorful and grid-like, is easy to understand. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to see– or touch. The screen, which measures 1.5 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 320 x 210, is so small that even selecting menu options is tough. The screen is resistive in a classically frustrating way; expect to poke the screen with lots of concentration to get it register commands. The problem is, it’s easiest to apply that kind of concerted pressure with the pad of your finger, but chances are, your finger is too big for this screen (even mine were).

My fingernail was small enough to use as a makeshift stylus, but the screen doesn’t respond as well to fingernails as it does fingertips. Lastly, with a screen this small, it wouldn’t be smart to make the resolution higher, but when it’s so low the interface, while colorful, appears dull compared to the sharp displays you’ll see on traditional phones.

The UI doesn’t always help matters, either. The grid, showing off features like making a phone call or accessing music, is easy enough to follow. But let’s say you start dialing a phone number and decide, midway through, that you’d rather do something else. You can’t just press a back button to return to the home screen. You have to delete every digit you’ve entered, one by one, using an onscreen “Clear” key. It gets old, fast.

The WatchPhone gets big points for innovation and risk-taking, combining MP3 playback with an already-eye-catching wrist watch form factor. I can’t think of anything nearly this experimental that I’ve seen at the show. But when it comes to practicality, I’ll stick with a good old-fashioned smart phone for now.