A classy health watch in want of a aggressive price ticket – Firstpost

Professionals:
– Sturdy construct with 5ATM water resistance
– Trendy design (although Apple-esque)
– Giant, high-res AMOLED show
– Constructed-in GPS, Bluetooth calling
– Pretty dependable well being monitoring
– First rate battery backup
– Peppy and lag-free UI

Cons:
– Pedometer is sluggish, GPS is flaky
– Companion app wants enchancment, shows adverts
– Just one slot for watchface of your selection on the watch
– Pricing isn’t aggressive

Value: Rs 7,499
Ranking: 3.5/5

Noise is a well-liked identify within the finances health wearables class providing trendy but inexpensive watches to trace primary well being and health parameters. With their newest ColorFit Professional 6 Max, the corporate aspires to compete in a few weight lessons greater. Its function checklist does look spectacular, however India is a extremely aggressive market. Does it pack sufficient punch to command a premium over some glorious choices from the likes of Xiaomi, Huawei and Amazfit? Let’s discover out.  

Apple-inspired elegant design, sturdy and swim-proof construct, snug to put on

The Noise ColorFit Professional 6 Max design is closely impressed by the previous few generations of the Apple Watch sequence with an oblong dial and a round crown on the prime proper and a bodily button beneath it. The construct high quality is kind of good and so is the end. It additionally has a 5ATM water resistance score that makes it swim-proof. The show curves in the direction of the perimeters and blends into the stainless-steel body. The mixture of matte and shiny end lends the watch a number of magnificence and retains it largely smudge-free.  

You possibly can select between a steel, silicone and leather-based strap throughout buy (we obtained the latter). You don’t get spare straps within the bundle however you possibly can change them with any third social gathering 22 mm straps. The mechanism is pretty commonplace and easy. Although the precise weight hasn’t been specified, the watch doesn’t really feel heavy regardless of the steel development and is snug to put on for lengthy hours. The leather-based straps not solely look good however don’t trigger sweating or pores and skin irritation even after carrying the watch all day.  

Giant and sharp AMOLED show with only one slot for downloadable watchface

This Noise watch has a big and vigorous 1.96-inch AMOLED show with a decision of 410 x 502 pixels. It has thick bezels however one can masks them by utilizing a darkish watch face. The show is sharp sufficient to learn content material clearly on it and will get vivid sufficient to be completely legible below vivid daylight. You get a brightness slider, which at 50% stage is sweet sufficient when indoors and even outdoor put up sundown. You will want to manually push it greater below vivid daylight as there isn’t a auto brightness adjustment right here.

There is no such thing as a point out of any scratch resistant glass or oleophobic coating both within the spec-sheet, however the display screen remained scratch-free after a few weeks of use. Additionally, I didn’t should wipe it ceaselessly throughout testing because it doesn’t appeal to too many fingerprints or smudge marks. You possibly can flick your wrist to show the display screen on or press a bodily button to wake it; each work nicely. Protecting the display screen along with your palm turns it off. You possibly can flip off the flick gesture throughout your sleep hours or when in a darkish room like a theatre.  

The watch comes loaded with a handful of watch faces and also you get entry to a bigger assortment by means of the Noisefit companion app that it is advisable set up and sync this watch with earlier than utilizing it. The switch course of is kind of brisk, which is sweet to see. Nevertheless, you get only one slot on the watch to retailer a watchface of your selecting; the preloaded ones aren’t detachable. It’s also possible to use in-app AI to generate a customized background for a watchface by describing it in phrases; a enjoyable function to have.  

Full of life and lag-free watch UI however the companion app wants enchancment

As I simply talked about, it is advisable obtain the Noisefit app, join, and sync your machine with it over Bluetooth. It’s obtainable for Android and iOS each. The setup takes a couple of minutes however it’s typically clean. The app provides you entry to observe faces and additional breakdown of the well being metrics and exercise knowledge. You possibly can entry a few of it on the watch itself. For example, you possibly can view the small print of your exercises or breakup of sleep levels for the earlier evening on the watch display screen with out having to open the app.  

The person interface, or Nebula UI 2.0 – as the corporate likes to name it, is easy, lag-free and fairly peppy with good use of colored icons and widgets. You possibly can swipe up on the house display screen for fast settings, swipe down for notifications, swipe proper for fast entry to generally used capabilities and swipe left to flick thru numerous widgets like every day objectives progress, coronary heart charge, sleep or stress knowledge and extra.  

The crown enables you to entry totally different capabilities of this watch and in addition scroll by means of menus and watchfaces when rotated. It serves as a again button too when pressed. The opposite bodily button provides you instantaneous entry to totally different exercises. Whereas the UI is fairly good, the companion app wants enchancment. The Noisefit app isn’t complicated however can definitely be extra intuitive as I had to go searching for sure settings like objectives. Additionally, a extra detailed breakdown of exercises would have been nicer given the pricing of this watch.

It employs AI to offer you a report of your actions however it may be a success or a miss. One factor you don’t want in a health tracker is inconsistencies, and the builders have some work to do right here. I additionally discovered some lacking knowledge for sure days, particularly steps rely and sleep knowledge which in all probability didn’t get transferred from the watch on these days for some motive. We had seen such a problem even within the Noise ColorFit Professional 4 watch a few years again, and the corporate doesn’t appear to have mounted it but.

And lastly, the app shows adverts (principally different Noise merchandise), one thing I don’t respect in health apps. Past that, issues are typically clean. All of the well being playing cards are neatly listed one beneath the opposite on the house display screen that offers you a good overview of issues. They show your coronary heart charge, stress and blood oxygen ranges, sleep knowledge, every day progress, exercise particulars and extra. We hope Noise fixes the above points in a future software program replace.    

Dependable well being monitoring, however steps and distance monitoring is erratic with out GPS 

The Noise ColorFit Professional 6 Max has sensors to watch numerous well being parameters like coronary heart charge, blood oxygen, stress ranges and sleep, and a few of them around the clock. The velocity of SpO2 measurements is fairly brisk. In the event you put on the watch proper and preserve your hand regular, you get a near-accurate rating in about 20 seconds. The SpO2 studying is mostly some extent beneath a medical oximeter, which is par for the course. In reality, the overall well being monitoring right here is kind of dependable for the phase.

The watch measures your coronary heart charge and stress ranges all day with out draining the battery a lot, which is commendable. Sleep monitoring works nicely too. The general sleep period from the time I fell asleep until I used to be up appeared right. It tracks the quantum of sunshine sleep, deep sleep, REM durations and awake time. This watch claims to trace 100 totally different exercise modes that embody your standard indoor and out of doors strolling, operating, biking, swimming, weight coaching and their variations together with yoga and in style sports activities like badminton.  

It additionally has a built-in GPS module to trace your out of doors actions, nevertheless it’s a bit flaky. It takes a few minute or two to get a GPS lock, and put up that it complains a few poor connection each couple of minutes even when in open areas. By the way, the space monitoring with GPS is kind of correct; I’m wondering why it retains complaining. Sadly, issues are usually not the identical with GPS off. The reported distance is at the very least 20 to 25 per cent decrease and the pedometer under-reports the steps rely.  

The pedometer is relatively late to leap into motion even if you find yourself shifting round. I can perceive if it doesn’t consider a number of steps in case you transfer out of your lounge to the bed room, however at occasions it doesn’t hassle reporting lots of of them. For example, once I water my crops, most good health trackers report near 500 steps, however the Noise ColorFit Professional 6 Max thought I used to be stationary in the course of the 15-minute exercise. The problem might stem from the truth that this watch lacks an accelerometer to detect the motion precisely.  

Conversely, the watch provides to the steps rely considerably even whereas doing pretty static power coaching within the health club after selecting a Weight Coaching exercise mode on the watch.

Transferring on, the fundamental breakdown of your exercise like coronary heart charge variations and energy burned is offered on the watch itself together with the restoration time. Menstrual monitoring can be obtainable and so are sedentary reminders to maneuver round if you find yourself stationary for too lengthy. The watch is 5ATM water-resistant and may be worn for a swim with no fear.

Sure, there’s Bluetooth calling too and a few extra

The Noise ColorFit Professional 6 Max helps Bluetooth calling perform, whereby you may make and obtain calls from the watch itself so long as it’s synced with a smartphone with an energetic connection. The built-in speaker and mic do a good job when indoors, however the speaker isn’t loud sufficient. I’d counsel sticking to the telephone or bluetooth earphones for vital calls. This watch enables you to dial a preset SOS quantity with out having to achieve for the telephone; a helpful function to have.

It’s also possible to select to obtain notifications and messages from numerous apps put in in your telephone on the watch display screen. You possibly can learn the messages however can not reply from the watch. As well as, there are a bunch of utility apps preloaded on the watch like a calculator, stopwatch, music participant, digital camera management, climate updates and a few extra.

Acceptable battery backup if you don’t have interaction is an excessive amount of calling from the watch

The Noise ColorFit Professional 6 Max supplies an honest battery backup below regular load so long as you don’t activate the All the time-on Show (AOD) function or take pleasure in extreme calling. The corporate claims a battery life of seven days on a single cost below typical utilization situation, and it delivers on the promise. The battery life can differ relying in your utilization sample and the options you activate.  

Throughout our check run simulating a real-world utilization situation with steady coronary heart charge and stress monitoring turned on, two hours of complete GPS utilization, stay monitoring of three hour-long indoor exercises, two SpO2 readings every day, sleep monitoring for 4 nights and below 10 minutes of every day calling, the watch’s battery lasted a full week, which isn’t unhealthy in any respect. The watch takes nicely below the talked about two hours to cost absolutely with the bundled magnetic pin charger.  

Value, verdict and alternate options

The Noise ColorFit Professional 6 Max is priced at Rs 7,499 in India with a one yr guarantee and an additional 500 in case you select the steel strap. Usually, it wouldn’t have been a foul price ticket for a metal-clad trendy and swim-proof health watch with a big and sharp AMOLED show, built-in GPS, dependable well being monitoring, Bluetooth calling and good battery backup, however in all probability a yr in the past. Issues modified drastically in 2024 with the arrival of some critical competitors, and a few for even lower than half that worth.

Two choices that come to thoughts immediately are the Honor Alternative Watch and Redmi Watch 5 Lite, each providing a really comparable function set and for lower than Rs 4,000. Their health monitoring, battery backup and companion apps are higher too. And in case you want to spend nearer to Rs 7,500, you possibly can even rating the Amazfit Lively with a lot better monitoring of the lot and a superior companion app.

Given the competitors, it’s onerous to advocate paying a premium for this Noise watch except you want its design, and sure, it does look extra premium than the opposite three. However even then, I’d advocate it provided that you notice it nearer to Rs 5,000. The ColorFit Professional 6 Max certainly has potential however Noise must squash the bugs to understand it.