Too long, didn’t read version – I did a round up of military style smart watches under 100 dollars with at least a 4 plus star rating, and this one is the winner. Not only is it the cheapest, it has the best feature set (details below), and is the most comfortable, by a lot. Save some time and some cash, just get this one.
The band is comfortable and well designed, with notches designed to hold the little loops that hold the excess watch band in place. Works well, and requires less fidgeting. The waffle shape on the back seems to allow more airflow, because the band doesn’t make me sweaty like many rubber style bands do.
The menu is pretty intuitive for a budget smart watch, though it has a small learning curve. The watch more than makes up for it with one of my favorite features – if you have any questions you can go into part of the app, ask your questions, and get answers. I think it’s from an AI, but the videos are helpful, and it startles me that bigger companies like Samsung don’t have something like this. Want to get a smart watch for someone new to the space? This app has your back.
The alarm goes off for a decently long time, and unlike other budget smart watches, you can actually adjust alarm times in the watch, rather than needing to go through the app. I usually need to set a couple because it turns off sooner than I’d like, but I can say that about every smart watch I’ve tried, except an early Samsung model that died some time in 2020.
The notifications for apps is good, though I wish that there were more options than just “other” for some things. Mostly because I don’t need Google maps notifications. That said, it works with my med alarm app, and reliably lets me know about text messages and Facebook messenger messages, which is all more than I can say about my Samsung Galaxy watch 3, and other budget watches I’ve tried.
The screen is large, and can be quite bright. There’s a good selection of dials, and it’s one of the few budget smart watch options that will give me weather, a large print digital clock, the battery life, the day of the week, and the date all on the same face.
Many other budget smart watches don’t allow:
– changing the temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit
– changing from 24 hour time to 12 hour time
I’m not a fitness guy, so I can’t comment on those features, with the exception of. The watch will count my steps, but it will not nag me about them. It will not encourage me to set my goal of steps higher, it will not tell me how I’m doing at meeting my fitness goals. And that’s exactly how I want it to be. It’s not intrusive, and if I want to forget about the fitness modes, I can.
Oh, and the cherry on top – mine came with two screen protectors, one pre applied. When you do the watch face peel, be gentle, and you’ll keep it on. The screen protectors are not fancy, but like. It’s a 25 dollar watch, the very idea that it comes with anything like that blows my mind.