Michael Kors Access Grayson review

The most stylish Wear OS watch?

Reviews
By Jon Mundy
published

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Compatibility

  • Compatible with Android 4.3 and above
  • Also compatible with iOS 9 and above, but limited

The Michael Kors Access Grayson is compatible with phones running Android 4.3, which should mean pretty much every Android phone in regular use today.

Being a Wear OS watch, it also works with iPhones running iOS 9 or above - so again, that should be the vast majority of iPhones in use today. However, the iOS compatibility is decidedly more limited than with Android.

You won’t be responding to WhatsApp messages from within notifications here, while app support is very spotty indeed. That the watch won’t play nicely with iMessages, in particular, is a major drawback.

There appeared to have been some reported connectivity issues with Android Wear 2.0 and the first few iterations of iOS 11, but that just drives home the simple point in all this - iOS users are much better served by an Apple Watch, while Android users are much better served by a Wear OS watch.

That hasn’t changed with the Michael Kors Access Grayson - as handsome as it might look alongside your forthcoming iPhone X.

Battery life

  • Up to two-day battery life, but realistically a day with ample head-room
  • Charger snaps firmly to the watch

Unless you’re one of those habitual watch-fiddlers (you know who you are), you should find yourself able to stretch to the best part of two full days of use with the Michael Kors Access Grayson before you need to charge.

More practically speaking, you’ll simply get to bed time each day without worrying about the Grayson running out of juice, which means you’ll stop monitoring battery life altogether.

Until battery technology improves significantly, that’s the best we can hope for with current smartwatches.

The watch’s 370mAh battery might not be the biggest available - especially given the watch’s overall size - but it comfortably does the job.

That’s doubtless thanks to the provision of the energy-efficient Snapdragon Wear 2100 CPU, as well as the benefits of AMOLED display technology.

Michael Kors bundles in a compact puck-like charger that snaps to the rear of the Access Grayson with reassuring magnetic vigor. All in all, keeping the Access Grayson charged is a pretty pain-free experience.

Jon Mundy