Michael Kors Access Sofie review

A real fashion statement

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Fitness

  • Not suited for exercise
  • No heart rate sensor
  • No GPS

The Michael Kors Access Sofie isn't a watch that's been designed for fitness. Just five minutes of wearing it will remind you of this. It's chunky, looks too smart to risk roughing up while running or at the gym, and just doesn't suit anything rugged. 

That's reflected in its features. There's no onboard GPS so you're unable to get an accurate reading of your routes without your phone on hand. There's also no heart rate monitor, so you won't be able to see how your heart is performing while exercising.

It's clear that the Michael Kors Access Sofie isn't for fitness addicts, but there are some lightweight features for the occasionally active user. 

Google Fit and Google Fit Workout are pre-installed, and reasonably useful. Google Fit shows how many steps you've taken each day, the distance traveled, and calories burned. While Google Fit Workout is perfect for tracking your reps on the rare times you might want to take this watch to the gym.

An IP67 water-resistant rating means you can be reassured that sweat or a brief rain shower isn't going to wreck your stylish watch, but you shouldn't take this swimming.

Battery life

  • Convenient magnetic charger
  • About a day's usage from battery
  • Solid if not exceptional battery life

Charging the Michael Kors Access Sofie is easy, which is handy because you'll be doing it a lot.

It comes with its own magnetic charging puck that you place underneath the watch body. Thanks to being magnetic, there's hardly ever any risk of it falling off and not charging correctly. It also means no unsightly ports to contend with.

The Michael Kors Access Sofie's 300mAh battery promises a battery life of about one day. In practice, this will vary massively depending on what you're doing with it.

On our first day of use, which involved plenty of setup and trying out many apps, it only actually lasted about 7-8 hours. However, on a regular day, where you're only using it occasionally, around a day sounds about right.

It's not quite a full 24 hours but the idea of charging it at the end of the day, on your bedroom nightstand, feels about right to us. This isn't a watch you'll want to wear overnight anyway, due to how chunky it feels.

Jennifer Allen

Jennifer is a roving tech freelancer with over 10 years experience. Having graduated from Swansea University with a degree in Media and Communication Studies, and later with a diploma from Staffordshire University with a post graduate diploma in Computer Games Design, she's written for a huge number of publications, including T3, FitandWell, Top Ten Reviews, Eurogamer, NME and many more. 


Her main areas of interest are all things B2B, smart technology, wearables, speakers, headphones, and anything gaming related, and you'll find her writing everything from product reviews to buying guides and hunting down the latest coupon codes to save you money. In her spare time, she enjoys the cinema, walking, and attempting to train her pet guinea pigs. She is yet to succeed.