If you hate missing phone calls, this could be just what you need
Sometimes, I really miss my old Nokia phones. Unlike the fancy smartphones I have today, when they vibrated or rang, you were sure to feel or hear them. These days, missed calls and messages are a near certainty if I’m out and about, because when my phone (a Samsung S5) is in my pocket, its weedy speaker and vibration function simply don’t do enough to get my attention.
When smartwatches came along, the answer looked like it might have arrived. But having given it some thought, I realised that they were too expensive, especially considering all I want is something that will vibrate on my wrist.
And that’s where the TokyoFlash Kisai Link range comes in. The version I reviewed was the Link Midnight, which comes with a black, real leather strap. However, it’s just one of many different designs, with others versions coming with beads or friendship braceletstyle designs.
What they all have in common, though, is that they include a small Bluetooth module (around 2 x 4cm), which sits against the wrist and vibrates when you receive a phone call, SMS or email. It also seems to work with other apps too - vibrating in response to Skype calls and messages, for example.
Of course, there’s a chance you might miss the vibration on your wrist, so the TokyoFlash also put notification LEDs on one side of the Link to show you if you have a missed call, message or email. These will continue to flash until you take out your phone and look at what they are.
The combination of the LEDs and the vibration work effectively, and the process of pairing the Link with necessary Kisai Bridge app is straightforward. This app, oddly enough, doesn’t look nearly as good as TokyoFlash’s actual products, but it does its job well, allowing you to enable or disable features of the Link. Among these are the proximity alert, which causes the Link to vibrate if you stray too far from your phone, plus you can toggle features like the LEDs, the vibration and which type of alerts you’ll be notified of.
Another handy feature is the phone finder. By pressing and holding the function button (which is also used for pairing the Link with the app) for five seconds, you can make your phone vibrate and emit a ringtone. Sadly, it can’t make your phone ring or vibrate if those functions are turned off, but it’s a useful extra nonetheless.
What’s more of a problem is that none of this will work if you don’t own an iPhone (I had to borrow one for testing), because the Kisai Bridge app is iOS only at the moment. This is massively disappointing, because the Kisai Link is a great product and deserves a much bigger audience. Still, it wouldn’t take much for TokyoFlash to put together an Android app, so hopefully that’s something we can look forward to in future.
The other thing that needs to be addressed here is the price. Although you can get a $4 (£2.58) discount by Liking the Kisai Link on Facebook, the shipping costs £12.92 (unless you spend over £77.75, in which case it’s free), making the Link at least £61.39, which is far from cheap. However, if you want a simple but effective and undoubtedly stylish notification system for your wrist but you don’t want to go as far as to buy a smartwatch, then it has everything you need – as long as you’re lucky enough to own the right kind of phone to use it with. Anthony Enticknap
A simple but effective way to stop missing calls.