Will.i.am's dial smartwatch offers free music… that you have to pay for

Will.i.am

Will.i.am, with his tech entrepreneur jazzy hat on, is back with a new wearable - but one that now comes with a confusing selling point.

Unveiled at MWC 2016, the dial has now been launched by Three UK - and apparently comes with 'free' access to 20 million songs and unlimited downloading on the go.

The thing that ruins the free element of the deal is the actual cost: two year deals at Three are either £49 upfront and £22 per month or £19 on day one with a £25 per month cost.

Dialing it in

It's currently unclear what songs will be available on the streaming service though and it may not necessarily include the popular tracks you want to hear.

The dial comes with a voice operated assistant called AneedA, which has the ability to learn your tastes and tailors its responses depending on how you speak to it.

The dial also features a 1.63-inch AMOLED display, 2MP selfie camera, 32GB of onboard storage, GPS and Wi-Fi connectivity.

So it's more than just a music streaming bracelet, with fitness tracking abilities built in, but still...would you pay that much to have a Spotify rival?

James Peckham

James is Managing Editor for Android Police. Previously, he was Senior Phones Editor for TechRadar, and he has covered smartphones and the mobile space for the best part of a decade bringing you news on all the big announcements from top manufacturers making mobile phones and other portable gadgets. James is often testing out and reviewing the latest and greatest mobile phones, smartwatches, tablets, virtual reality headsets, fitness trackers and more. He once fell over.