DZ09 Smart Watch

So I was searching for an affordable smart watch with the below criteria’s:

• China Made
• Affordable
• Programmable
• Experimental

After like 2 weeks of research and going through reviews I was left with 2 choices:

• DZ09
• DM98

DZ09

• Affordable
• Running on Nucleus RTOS
• Runs .vxp apps
• Able to run custom firmware supported by the device MTK Chip (There are different variation will elaborate later on)

DM98

• Not so Affordable (At the moment give it some time)
• Running Android 4.4
• Runs .apk apps
• Able to run custom ROM

Upon purchase, to my surprise all is well it was delivered in a nice package, everything is intact and functioning as expected, I tested:

• Memory card Support
• Sim Car Support
• Bluetooth connectivity
• Bluetooth communication
• Making call and receiving calls
• Taking pictures
• Playing audio
• Recording audio
• …

Required App to Sync with Android Phone:

• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.szfunyun.btnotification

I have to admit it was my first actual online purchase and shipping experience, reason is because I would always prefer to buy what am seeing or holding, I guess this doesn’t get old.

Hacking TIME

After a week or so of getting bored of it I wanted more out of it like installing Apps and custom ROMS:

• How about installing apps? I downloaded .vxp apps and try clicking to install… nothing happened!
• Ok so how about making a back up? I downloaded FlashTool v5.1516.00 and tried to make a read back file… no that didn’t work!

Ok something isn’t right?! So I went out and do some research on XDA was it helpful?! no no no well maybe just a bit, points out that there are multiple DZ09 this was expected, ok so lets get to the bottom line, what hardware is my DZ09 packing?!

Hardware Validation

I needed to know the chip in the DZ09 as all the forums was talking plus the seller was advertising MT6260.

Well that’s not right mine is MT6261, ok maybe it isn’t so bad after all.

Hey hey how about Memory how much do we have of that? all the forums was talking plus the seller oh the good old seller was advertising 64MB.

Well that’s not right mine is 4MB, ok maybe it is that bad after all. With that much memory you can’t do anything literally the device is at its max! and all the ROMS out there are not for 4MB!!!

It turns out there are actual clones/fake of clones! and not actual DZ09!

Everything looks good all in all but they are actually using old, outdated and unwanted chips from U8 (right device) smartwatches into DZ09 (left devices) smartwatches you get the look and feel but not the performance and specified specs, But hey you get what you pay for! 37RM including Shipping!

Making The Best Of What I Have

Now that I know what I am dealing with, lets get back to making a back up! do not follow the online tutorial if you are dealing with a piece of hardware like mine, set the read back file to 4MB:

• 0x00400000

Yes Successfully extracted the ROM (4,096KB) and successfully extracted the read back file and generated:

• config_mtk.cfg (3KB)
• EXT_BOOTLOADER (31KB)
• INT_BOOTLOADER (7KB)
• FILE_01_mtk (1,060KB)
• FILE_02_mtk (2,666KB)

Available Download:

• https://github.com/alkathirikhalid/dz09

With the backup at hand I was bold enough and I definitely bricked the device by using the wrong custom firmware which lead me to have a purple ugly screen that the icons seem out of place and of course I restored it back to life! Didn’t I just mention “With that much memory you can’t do anything literally the device is at its max! and all the ROMS out there are not for 4MB!!!”

Well I love the cheap phone watch I currently exclusively use it for:

• Telling time, who am I kidding of course its a watch!
• My third Alarm clock
• External Drive for files (32GB), I paired it with PC via Bluetooth Intend for End of day short notes as its much faster to transfer big files via cable than Bluetooth
• The battery can last me 2-3ish days as its minimum use to tell time only on lowest screen brightness and reduce screen time out

I will find other use for it soon…