Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45 review

A premium watch that comes with a premium price

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Specs and performance 

  • Runs on an Intel Atom Z34XX chipset and 512MB of RAM
  • Includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC connectivity

Inside the Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45 there's an Intel Atom Z34XX chipset that will keep the smartwatch chugging along. There’s no way of benchmarking smartwatch chips at the moment, but we found it capable enough to run all of the apps we wanted and give notifications quickly.

We did find it sometimes slowed down when notifying us though, so you may find one of the more popular smartwatches will be a little slicker for your use. Paired with 512MB of RAM, the Tag Heuer is capable of handling simple games and running apps such as Uber.

There’s also 4GB of storage on the watch, which is around the industry standard at the moment and should be enough room for the apps and software you want.

There’s also NFC on the Connected Modular 45, which will allow you to use Android Pay for payments directly from your wrist. We found it easy enough to setup and it’s just a simple tap on the payment reader for you to make your payment.

You may want to be careful not to put the watch too close to the reader though, as it may scratch the screen. There’s also GPS tracking here and Wi-Fi if you want to use the watch without your phone.

We found both of these worked well. Wi-Fi may be useful for some people, especially if you don’t want to carry your phone around your home and you decide to setup the Connected Modular 45 on your home internet network.

Fitness

  • No heart rate tracker and can be a little large for fitness fans
  • Includes Google Fit apps plus extra fitness apps on the Google Play Store

There are a variety of extra exercise apps you can download for your Tag Heuer Connected 45, but it comes with Google Fit Workout installed on your wrist to help you get off the sofa and start a workout.

Your options here include walking, running, cycling, treadmill running, stationary biking, stair climbing machine and other workouts.

It also includes a variety of challenges for squats, sit-ups and press ups. For each challenge you’ll get to choose a difficulty level and then it’ll provide you with an example diagram of what you should be doing and then the watch will count your reps.

It’s not the most innovative workout app on the planet, but it will provide you with a few extra ideas of how you can workout in brief little sessions to try and up your fitness levels.

That said, the Tag Heuer is not a comfortable device to wear while working out. Its larger design doesn’t feel light enough to wear when running as it can sit heavy on your wrist and you won’t be as comfortable as when you’re wearing the Samsung Gear S3 or a Huawei Watch 2 for working out.

If you do want to take your Tag Heuer out running, there’s GPS here to track where you’re going.

The company hasn’t included a heart rate monitor on the watch though and considering a lot of other Android Wear alternatives include this it’s a big missing feature Tag should have bundled in.

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.