Several smartwatch makers keep launching new smartwatch models with support for calling over Bluetooth in the sub Rs. 5000 price range. PLAY, an Indian start-up popular for its accessories, launched the PLAYFIT Dial with this popular feature last month. I have been using the smartwatch for over a week now. Let us check out the review to find out what it has to offer.
Box Contents
- PLAYFIT DIAL in Black with Gold colour
- Magnetic charging cable
- User manual
Design and Build
The watch has a metal casing in gold that offers a premium look and comes with a has toughened glass. The smartwatch has IP67 ratings for dust and water resistance. There is Accelerometer, 24h Heart Rate and SpO2 monitoring. It uses Bluetooth 5.0 to connect to Android and iOS devices.
It weighs about 50 grams with the strap. The watch comes with a 20mm interchangeable strap that has a silicone finish. This is a single button on the right side that lets you go to the home screen.
On the back, you can see the rate sensor that uses glowing green LED light when you are using it to measure the heart rate, but it uses the same sensor for blood oxygen monitoring unlike other smartwatches that use a red LED. You can see the speaker on the right side and the microphone is present on the left corner.
Display
Coming to the display, the watch has a 1.75-inch (240×280 pixels) 210 PPI LCD glass colour touch screen. The company says it has scratch resistant glass. The pixel density of the screen is less compared to some watch models, so you can see the pixels when you look closely. You can set it to turn on the screen when you lift your hand, and the screen turns off in a few seconds to save power, but there is no option to extend the screen timeout limit. The touch screen is smooth to use, but the brightness is less even when you set it to full, so the sunlight legibility is less.
Swiping from the top shows the quick settings panel that has several options such as DND, ‘Theater mode’ that turns off vibration and turns the brightness down, Torch option, option to switch from list to grid view, weather, settings and a brightness adjustment slide that lets you adjust it from level 1 till 5. It also shows the date, day, Bluetooth connectivity status and the battery. There is no auto brightness adjustment since it lacks an ambient light sensor. During night, level 2 is good, and level 5 is needed for daytime or outdoors.
There is also an easy notification shade option when you swipe from the bottom. You can’t clear individual notification, and the only way is to clear all. You can read the notifications, but can’t reply to them.
Swiping from the left shows all the features that includes steps, sleep, heart rate, sports mode, calling, brightness, SpO2, Weather, notifications, camera control, music control, breathing, stopwatch, alarm, timer, flashlight, watch faces and settings.
Bluetooth Calling
The main highlight of the smartwatch is the built-in calling feature, since it has a microphone and a speaker. You need to connect the watch as a Bluetooth headset before making calls. It shows call log, and there is even a dial pad, in addition to contacts option, but you can only store 8 contacts in the watch. Calling experience is good when you use it indoors, and the microphone is able to pick up the voice well, and speaker output is also loud, thanks to EBEL speakers, but it could have been a bit louder outdoors.
Software / App
It runs proprietary software compatible with both Android and iOS (8.0+) running Android (4.4+). Pairing the device with your mobile phone is pretty much easy where you need to install “Playfit” app from Google Play Store or App Store. It also asks you to register an account, and you will also have to fill your physical details, such as height, weight, gender and birth year.
It has separate sections. The first one shows activity details, sleep and heart rate and heart rate tracking with data that is shown on the second section that also offers data for 7 days, 15 days and 30 days.
The settings option lets you set notification alerts, music control, find your watch and set favourite contact to call. You can add up to 8 favourite contacts that are pushed to the phone, so that you can make a call directly from the watch when it is connected to the phone, but you can only select one number from the contact.
Others option has a lot of options include on screen time limit (5, 10 or 10 sec), camera control and time format. Alert settings have call alert and alarm. The account settings let you manage your profile, check for update, set target, track weight, change password on log out. Even though the watch faces that are present in the watch are limited, there are several cloud watch faces in the app, but most faces look kiddish.
Fitness and sleep tracking
The watch has 11 workout modes that includes Walking, Running, Cycling, Skipping, Badminton, Basketball, Football, Yoga, Hiking, Tennis, Baseball and Golf. Steps and workout tracking is decent. When you launch the running mode from the watch directly, it doesn’t get the GPS data from the app, instead it uses the steps to track, so the data is not 100% correct compared to other smartwatches which use dedicated GPS, but it is still decent. Sleep tracking is decent, but it only shows deep sleep, light sleep and awake data, and doesn’t show REM sleep data.
Heart rate and SpO2 monitoring
The smartwatch uses LED lights and photo-diodes to illuminate the blood vessel for a while and monitors the heart rate via the change of green light absorbed. Heart rate data is fine when compared to other models, but the SpO2 or blood oxygen data always shows 96 or 97 when the other smartwatches and Oximeter shows 98. There is no SpO2 option in the app, and it is present only in the watch.
Battery life
It has a 210mAh battery, and the company promises up to 5 days of battery life with calling and up to 30 days standby time. With mixed use of calling enabled for a few days, I got about 7 days of battery life, which is good. This might vary depending on frequent use of the display with increased brightness, use of the heart rate monitor, frequent use of calling feature and all the notifications turned on. It takes about 2 to 2 and half hours to charge the watch fully.
Conclusion
The PLAYFIT DIAL is just a decent smartwatch with calling capabilities over Bluetooth, priced under Rs. 5000. The calling capabilities and the build quality for the watch is good, but the company could work on improving the app, and adding more watch faces and use GPS from the phone during outdoor activities. The smartwatch is available from worldofplay website and Amazon.in for Rs. 3999.