Fitness bands are a dime and a dozen. With their growing popularity, the entire category has become commoditized to a degree. The Riversong Wave Fit is yet another fitness band that claims to have all the features you’d expect, accurate tracking and some smartwatch functionality at a price that shouldn’t pinch the pocket. Does it deliver on any or all of its promises? We find out in our review.
Features
- 24 Hr Heart Rate Monitor
- Sleep Tracking
- Pedometer
- 0.91″ OLED Display
- Call/SMS Notifications
Design
For a budget fitness tracker, the Riversong Wave Fit looks, well, predictable. There’s not too much potential for design differentiation for what is essentially a pedometer strapped to your wrist. But we feel that the company has made refinements at all the right places.
The Riversong Wave Fit is slimmer than many other competitors. The size is similar to the 1st generation Mi Band which lacked a display. The smooth, curved edges along the top and bottom impart it a sleek look that does not stand out. In our opinion, that’s far from a negative because it lets you carry off the fitness band with all sorts of attire. It is not possible to change the strap here so there’s no room for customisation.
The 0.91″ OLED panel is functional and when switched off, the screen completely fades away into the band and makes it look like an inky black slab. To hit the price point, some compromises have to be made and in the case of the Wave Fit, that is the lack of any touch capabilities. A single button below the screen functions as a capacitive button and lets you scroll through all the functions. The band does have lift to wake the screen but this worked rather intermittently.
Over at the back of the Wave Fit, you’ll spot the heart rate sensor as well as the pogo pin connectors. We are not fans of the supplied charger. Where most fitness bands provide a magnetic charger in the package, the Riversong Wave Fit charger requires you to snap it on to the band. On its own, there’s nothing particularly wrong about the approach other than the fact that it can require a couple of strong tugs to take it off charge. The charger itself looks fairly flimsy. Beyond that though, the Wave Fit is fairly well-built, very comfortable to wear and as good as, better than many of its competitors. The band is also IP67 rated so it should be able to survive a bit of rain or wearing it in the shower.
Functionality
Of course, the real test is in functionality and accuracy. Setting up the Wave Fit requires you to install the RS Band app on your phone. We were a bit miffed by the onboarding process because the app will not let you use the band without signing up for an account. It also requires a whole host of permissions. Coming to the band itself, the Wave Fit is a bit light on extended functionality but we’re willing to forgive that if it does the basics well. In our testing, we found the Wave Fit to be fairly accurate.
Our testing included walking a path of known distance to check the accuracy of the pedometer. We also compared it to our Fitbit to compare for accuracy. We found that the Wave Fit measured distances and steps to within 5% of our count. This degree of variance is common and acceptable for entry-level fitness bands. There are no dedicated fitness modes on the band so all you get is flat out distance, step data. The app is able to distinguish between walking and running data but we found that this could be a bit off at times. Once again, the Wave Fit is not alone in this behaviour. A dedicated mode for active fitness would be well appreciated. More so if it can keep the heart rate tracking on continuously for the duration.
Riversong claims that the Wave Fit is capable of 24 hour heart rate tracking. We observed this to be only partially true. The fitness band takes a reading every fifteen minutes that gets stored internally and logged to the app when there is a connection. Additionally, it is possible to trigger a manual read by tapping through the band. Sleep tracking too was quite accurate and while we have no way to test out the sleep cycle tracking, the time to sleep & wake was certainly spot on.
Additional functionality includes the ability to get a vibration notification on your wrist for phone calls and messages. You can also set an alarm. This works as expected and is standard functionality across fitness bands. Over our testing period, the Riversong Wave Fit regularly managed over 4 days of battery life which is not as good as the Mi Band which can easily manage well over double the battery life. We expect better for a device that is only a fitness tracker without much in the name of smart watch functionality.
Conclusion
Priced at Rs. 2,699, the Riversong Wave Fit is certainly not the perfect fitness band but it is well worth the price of admission. The band is built well with excellent comfort levels. The fitness tracking too is quite accurate. The band could do with some optimisation on the battery life front but overall, the Wave Fit is a worthy consideration for anyone looking to get their first fitness band.