Timex is best known for its wrist watches and the American clock maker is now set to foray in smart wearable space. The company recently launched in India its smart fitness band with a colour display, optical heart rate sensor, and a promised battery life of up to five days. How good is the Timex Fitness Band and does it justify Rs 4,495 price tag? Lets find out:

Design and build

Made of alloy, the Timex fitness band comes with stainless-steel mesh bands (available in two colours variants black and rose gold). Additionally, there is an option to pick the silicone strap but it is sold as additional accessory. The Timex Fitness band is touted to be a unisex smart band and that is true for every other smart band available in market. Its rose gold stainless-steel mesh band, however, looks attractive and adds to its unisex profile.

The Timex fitness band sports a 0.96-inch coloured full-touch display of 160 x 80 pixels resolution. The display is small, but the colours add some zing to it. The displays brightness is good but not enough to stay legible in bright outdoor conditions. This is something that hampers most of the budget fitness trackers utility, and the Timex Fitness Band should have done better considering it does not come for cheap. Nevertheless, the screen supports gesture navigations Horizontal swipe shows step count, heart rate monitor, calories and distance; and vertical swipe shows notifications, messages, e-mails, etc.

At the bottom sits the optical heart rate sensor and charging points. The charging adaptor has pins that needs to be aligned with the charging points at the bottom of the watch. This process is a bit time consuming and could have been made simpler.

Features and performance

The Timex Fitness Band supports activity tracking, music control, heart rate monitoring, notifications alert and music control features. It is a basic health and fitness tracker with feature-rich utility. However, it is not accurate in measuring health and fitness data. For example, just like most of the fitness bands, it also exaggerates the steps count.

The heart rate measurement is good but not on point. It is a mixed bag of hits and misses, therefore, unreliable. The fitness tracker is IP68 rated for water and dust resistance, making it resilient to everyday abuses. It has pre-set training modes for running, cycling, football, badminton, etc.

The Timex Fitness Band is supported by the Timex iConnct 3 smartphone app, which shows data in graphic format for easy understanding. The app has a basic interface, which is easy to use.

As for the on-battery time, Timex claims a five-day battery life and the band lives up to the claim but when used in basic mode. In standard mode with vibration on and day-long notifications, the battery drains in about 2-3 days. You will have to charge the smart band more frequently if you use it often to measure fitness metrics.

Verdict

Priced at Rs 4,495, the Timex Fitness Band is expensive, but its intriguing design and stainless-steel mesh straps compensates for its steep price. It is a basic health and fitness tracker with nothing extraordinary that you do not get in other bands from brands like Realme, Xiaomi, Honor, etc. Therefore, consider this one if you need a smart health and fitness band with good looks.

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First Published: Thu, December 03 2020. 14:12 IST

Originally posted here:
Timex fitness band review: Expensive but a better-looking fitness tracker - Business Standard