Mehul Ruben DasMay 22, 2023 19:42:43 IST
The sides.
– Great show
– Bluetooth calling function works really well
– Fairly accurate SpO2 and heart rate sensors
– Lightweight and comfortable to wear
– Standard size straps
– Simple and easy to use interface for both watch and app
– Great battery life
Against.
– Colors may appear a little washed out
– Sleep tracking is very unreliable
– Sports tracking can be hit or miss
– Crown has very limited functionality
Rating: 3/5
Cost: 1299 rub
Budget smartwatches have actually gotten pretty good over the years, at least in terms of design, no matter how basic they are. However, most of them have one glaring problem: instead of acting as smartwatches, they act as fitness trackers. What’s more, most of them have some major issues with tracking your activity, which makes them woeful as fitness trackers.
Ambrane’s Wise Eon Max Smartwatch is, in this respect, a pretty decent wearable that does the things its makers advertise and ticks most of the boxes that first-time smartwatch buyers want from a device.
It has a pretty good screen, has amazing battery life, has a bunch of different workout modes, and does most of its tracking pretty well. However, it has to do with most of the issues with a budget smartwatch.
Design and build quality
The Wise Eon Max watch has a rectangular shape and a physical button on the right side. Despite the glossy finish, it doesn’t attract many fingerprints or smudges, and all its edges are smoothly curved. The build quality is also quite good. The watch has an IP68 rating, which means it can withstand dust and water, but we’re not confident enough to take it out for a swim. You can wear it while walking in the rain, but it is not recommended to wear it while diving in the pool.
The watch’s polycarbonate case makes it relatively light, weighing around 160 grams including straps. Its pre-fitted silicone straps are comfortable to wear all day and do not cause skin irritation. They have a standard locking mechanism and the Ambrane branding only appears on the strap. Since the tapes are of a standard width, they can be replaced with any third-party tapes of the same width.
The speakers for the Bluetooth calling function are on the left side and on the right side, you get the crown. Crown functions are limited. you can use it to wake up or sleep the watch. In certain scenarios, it doubles as a back button, and in some workouts, it can be used as a pause or reverse button. Turning the crown does nothing, which is a lost opportunity.
Specifications and display
The Ambrane Wise Eon Max smartwatch comes with a 2.01-inch sharp display and has a resolution of 240 x 283 pixels. Lucid Display is just Ambrance’s fancy way of marketing its LCD displays and isn’t groundbreakingly different. Having said that, the screen becomes quite bright and “clear” and does not cause visibility problems, even in direct and intense sunlight. Ambrane claims the Wise Eon Max has a peak brightness of 550 nits, and it looks like the number may be accurate.
The display itself looks pretty big. There are circles around the screen. The bezels around the top and side are quite thin and not really that bothersome. The chin, however, has a very thin bezel, which is always a hallmark of a budget smartwatch.
To Ambrane’s credit, the bezels we see on the watch and what we see on the box are somewhat similar, unlike other smartwatch brands.
While the company didn’t mention the presence of scratch-resistant glass or an oleophobic coating on the screen, we didn’t notice any scratches on the screen after three weeks of use.
The colors shown on the screen are good enough. the screen gets bright, but the colors don’t come out as bright and look a little washed out. The screen itself is sharp enough, something that most other smartwatch brands miss in this price point.
The main drawback of the display panel that Ambrane uses for this watch is its advertised 60Hz refresh rate. No matter how you set it up, it just doesn’t feel smooth. Scrolling through apps or between faces felt unsettling from day one. Also, keep in mind that you don’t get an always-on display. Having said that, the wake function works fine most of the time.
Sensors and tracking
Ambrane says the Wise Eon Max can track more than 100 different sports. However, in one way or another, all of these supported sports are some variation of walking, running, and cycling. The good thing is that it also supports several other sports like badminton and football etc. But were the readings correct?
Well, to be honest, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The Ambrane Wise Eon, like all other smartwatches at this price point, is fairly accurate in certain activities, but surprisingly woeful in others.
For example, his heart rate monitor and oximeter are quite accurate and were only one point off the trusty oximeter we’ve been using for years. However, it had some rather oddly inaccurate readings for sleep. In our testing, the smartwatch showed that we got less than 2 hours of sleep, despite sleeping 7 hours or more on two separate occasions. It also has a blood pressure monitoring feature, which again wasn’t very accurate, but gives you a rough idea of the range.
Furthermore, readings for a number of exercises can be hit or miss. It always underestimates distance traveled by a significant margin, and it either overestimates or underestimates reps and strides by a noticeable margin.
Also, for those wondering, the watch supports period tracking, though with what accuracy it’s hard to say.
Software and interface
The user interface of the watch is quite simple and easy to navigate. You can swipe down on the home screen to access settings, and swipe up to check notifications. When you swipe left, you can view various widgets such as step count, heart rate, sleep data, SpO2 level, and more. Swiping right on the home screen reveals shortcuts to some of the latest widgets and a few other features. Users can also add more widgets directly from the watch.
However, as we said, the user experience when browsing the watch is quite choppy, mostly probably because of the display.
You can choose a grid of small icons or a list format to display all watch features in the app drawer. Like other watches in this price range, you can’t install additional apps.
To synchronize the watch with the smartphone, it is necessary to download the Da Fit application. The setup process is smooth and easy, but the app itself is relatively simple. The app provides a summary of your daily activity, including step count and sleep data, as well as health metrics such as heart rate and blood oxygen levels. It keeps track of all your data well, but doesn’t give you in-depth analysis. The app also has a fairly intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface.
You can also add a variety of other clocks and design your own through the app.
using photos from your gallery.
You also get a few games to while away your time, which, on a watch this size, is actually pretty cool.
Bluetooth call
The Wise Eon Max has Bluetooth 5.0 for its calling capabilities, allowing you to make calls directly from the watch using its built-in microphone and speaker. The watch also includes a dialer so users can make calls directly from the watch. For this, users need to pair their watch with phones. As for call quality, it’s surprisingly loud and clear. The speakers on the watch are also quite loud.
Also, there are no issues with dropped calls or unreasonable delays when you make calls through the watch. If you are looking for a smart watch under Rs 2000 with the ability to make and receive calls, then Ambrane Wise Eon Max is a no-brainer.
battery life
Ambrane claims that the 280mAh battery you get with the Wise Eon Max will last you around 10 days. In our testing, we found it to be quite accurate. Even with extensive use and lots of calls through the smartwatch, we had to charge our smartwatch once a week.
Note that this was at a brightness level of 1, which to be fair is pretty bright. If you spend a lot of time outside, you will have to increase the brightness all the way. This will have a serious impact on battery life.
Verdict
Overall, the Ambrane Wise Eon Max is a pretty decent smartwatch for people looking for an inexpensive option that has many of the basic features like step counting, heart rate monitoring, and notification alerts. The reason we put the term smartwatch in inverted quotes, as previously stated, is because most smartwatches at this price point are actually glorified fitness trackers.
As for the Wise Eon Max, it performs and tracks well enough. While it does have a few issues, most of them can be overlooked considering what you’re paying for it. Plus, it offers excellent battery life, has a pretty big screen, and works really well with Bluetooth calls. If you’re looking for a budget smartwatch, especially for Bluetooth calling capabilities, and don’t want to spend too much on it, Ambrane’s Wise Eon Max makes a solid case for itself.