Ambrane Wise Eon Max Smartwatch Review: A decent enough smartwatch considering the price – Technology News, Firstpost

Mehul Reuben DasMay 22, 2023 7:42:43 PM IST

Benefits:
– Big screen
– Bluetooth call function works great
– Fairly accurate SpO2 and heart rate sensors
– Lightweight and comfortable to wear
– Standard size straps
– Simple and easy to use user interface for watch and app
– Great battery life

The inconvenients:
– Colors may look a bit washed out
– Sleep tracking is very unreliable
– Sports tracking can be a hit or a miss
– The crown has very limited functionality

Rating: 3/5
Price: 1,299 rupees

Budget smartwatches have actually gotten pretty good over the years, at least in terms of design, as basic as they are. However, most of them have one glaring problem – instead of working like smartwatches, they work like fitness trackers. Plus, most of them have major issues with tracking your activities, which makes them woeful as fitness trackers.

Ambranes Wise Eon Max Smartwatch, in this regard, is a pretty decent wearable that does most of the things its makers claim and ticks most of the boxes that new smartwatch buyers expect from their device.

It has a pretty good screen, amazing battery life, a bunch of different workout modes, and does most of its tracking pretty well. However, it suffers from most of the issues that plague a budget smartwatch.

Design and build quality
The Wise Eon Max watch has a rectangular shape and a physical button located on its right side. Despite its glossy finish, it doesn’t attract many fingerprints or smudges, and all of its edges are slightly 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 swimming. You can wear it while walking in the rain, but it is not recommended to wear it while diving in a swimming pool.

The polycarbonate shell of the watch makes it relatively light, weighing around 160 grams with straps. Its pre-installed silicone straps are comfortable to wear all day and won’t cause skin irritation. They have a standard locking mechanism and the Ambrane branding only appears on the strap. As the straps are a standard width, they can be replaced with third-party straps of the same width.

The Bluetooth call feature speakers are on the left side, while on the right side you get the crown. The functions of the crown are limited – you can use it to wake up the watch or put it to sleep. It also doubles as a back button in some scenarios, and in some workouts it can be used to act as a pause or lap button. Rotating the crown does nothing, which is a wasted opportunity.

Specifications and display
The Ambrane Wise Eon Max smartwatch comes with a 2.01-inch Lucid Display and has a resolution of 240 x 283 pixels. Lucid Display is just a fancy way for Ambrance to market its LCD screens and it’s not something groundbreaking. That said, the screen does get quite bright and lucid, and there are no issues with visibility, even in strong direct sunlight. Ambrane claims the Wise Eon Max has a peak brightness of 550 nits and it appears the number is accurate.

The screen itself seems quite large. There are some bezels around the screen. The bezels around the top and side are quite thin and actually not that awkward. The Chin, however, has a very thin bezel, which is always a telltale sign of a budget smartwatch.

To Ambranes’ credit, the bezels we see on the watch and what we see on the box are somewhat similar, unlike most other smartwatch brands.

Although the company didn’t mention the presence of scratch-resistant glass or oleophobic coating on the screen, we didn’t observe any scratches on the screen after using it for three weeks.

The colors displayed on the screen are quite good – the screen does get bright, but the colors don’t get as vivid and look a bit washed out. The display itself is sharp enough, which most other smartwatch brands at this price lack.

One of the main drawbacks 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 was nervous from day one. Also, keep in mind that you don’t get an always-on display. That said, the alarm clock function works well most of the time.

Sensors and Tracking
Ambrane says the Wise Eon Max can track over 100 different sports. However, in one way or another, all of these supported sports are variations of walking, running, and cycling. The good thing is that it supports few other sports as well, like badminton and football etc. But were the readings accurate?

Well, it’s a bit of a mixed bag if we were being honest. The Ambrane Wise Eon, like all other smartwatches at this price point, is pretty accurate in some activities, but surprisingly woeful in some.

For example, its heart rate monitor and oximeter are quite accurate and were only one point off of a trusted oximeter we’ve been using for years now. However, there were some oddly inaccurate readings for sleep. In our tests, the smartwatch showed that we slept less than 2 hours, despite getting 7 hours or more, on two occasions. It also has a blood pressure monitoring feature, which again wasn’t very accurate, but gives you a rough idea of ​​the range.

Additionally, readings for a number of exercises can be pass or fail. It always underestimates distance traveled by a significant margin, and it overestimates or underestimates reps and steps by a noticeable margin.

Also, for those interested, the watch supports menstrual tracking, but how accurately it would be hard to say.

Software and user interface
The user interface of the watch is quite simple and easy to navigate. To access settings, you can swipe down on the home screen, and to check notifications, swipe up. When you swipe left, you can view various widgets such as step count, heart rate, sleep data, SpO2 level, etc. Swiping right on the home screen brings up shortcuts to some of the newer widgets and a few other functions. Users can also add more widgets directly from the watch.

However, as we said, the user experience when navigating the watch is quite jittery, mainly perhaps because of the display.

You have the choice of selecting a small icon grid or a list format to display all watch functions in the app drawer. As with other watches in this price range, you cannot install additional apps.

To synchronize the watch with your smartphone, you must download the Da Fit app. The installation process is simple and smooth, but the app itself is relatively straightforward. 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 level. It tracks all your data well but does not give you in-depth analysis. The app also has a fairly intuitive and easy to navigate interface.

You can also add a ton of other watch faces through the app and design your own,
using photos from your gallery.

You also get a few games to pass your time, which on a watch of this size is actually pretty cool.

Bluetooth call
The Wise Eon Max features 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 allowing users to make calls directly from the watch. Users will need to pair their watch to their phone for this. As for call quality, it’s surprisingly clear and crisp. The watch speakers also get quite loud.

Also, there are no issues with dropped calls or undue delays when taking calls using the watch. If you’re looking for a smartwatch under Rs 2000 with the ability to make and take calls, then going for the 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 heavy use and many calls taken with the smartwatch, we only had to charge our smartwatch once a week.

Note that this was with the brightness level set to 1, which, to be fair, is quite bright. If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you’ll need to crank the brightness all the way up. 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 a cheap option that has most of the basic features like step counting, heart rate monitoring and notification alerts. The reason we’ve put the term smartwatch in inverted quotes, as noted earlier, is that most smartwatches at this price point are actually glorified fitness trackers.

As for the Wise Eon Max, it runs and tracks just enough. Although it has a few issues, most of them can be overlooked considering what you’re paying for it. On top of that, it offers great battery life, has a fairly large screen, and performs great in Bluetooth calls. If you’re looking for a budget smartwatch, especially for its Bluetooth calling features, and don’t want to spend a lot of money, Ambranes Wise Eon Max presents a strong case for itself.