An Affordable Smartwatch That Lives Up To Expectations - The New Fitshot Crystal

Expected to register a CAGR of 23.91 per cent over the period of five years from 2022 to 2027, the India Smart Wearables market is on the rise. With factors such as changing lifestyles, a need for more energy-efficient products, rising incomes, and improved living standards, consumers are choosing to spend more of their hard-earned money on functional gadgets such as smart wearables. Additional elements such as technical developments and increased availability of low-cost, high-quality manufacturing practices, this market now has a vast scope for growth.

That being said, FitShot, the Delhi-based smartwatch brand has recently launched the all-new FitShot Crystal. The device comes equipped with many interesting features such as a 1.8-inch AMOLED screen, over a hundred sports modules, heart rate tracking, SpO2 monitoring, stress monitoring, and sleep monitoring. It goes without saying, that the Bluetooth calling feature along with the in-built speaker and microphone combination takes the proverbial cake. Let's get into the details of the smartwatch to get a better understanding of the device.

Specifications To Be Reckoned With 

The first thing that grabs your attention is the metallic body. Unlike the plethora of smartwatches available in the market, the Fitshot Crystal presents a smooth metallic finish with clean lines and edges. The watch offers an ultra-bright AMOLED display with 560 Nits of brightness. Telling time on a bright sunny day will not be an issue. The display also offers a 60 Hz refresh rate, putting it at par with top contenders in its field.

The 368 x 448 pixels resolution is quite refreshing as well. As expected from an AMOLED display, the colour saturation and detailing is spectacular. The touch screen is highly responsive as well with no lag whatsoever. To put this in perspective with the industry benchmark, the specs are quite neat. The top-dog in the segment, the Apple Watch 7 offers a 45mm (1.77-inch) display, a 396 x 484 pixels resolution, 1000 Nitts of brightness.

The square dial is assisted by a rotary knob on the top right side and a push button on the bottom right side. The timepiece comes with an in-built mic and a speaker combo and also supports voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant. Furthermore, the FitShot Crystal smartwatch offers more than 100 sports modes like skating, strength training, indoor and outdoor walking, running, boxing, jump rope, meditating, playing instruments, and gardening. It even has a mode for ‘cooking’.

We live in an era where tracking vital information pertaining to bodily functions has become imperative. The spread of Covid-19 only solidified this trend. We still haven’t forgotten the time when SpO2 trackers were selling for four grands a piece. The Fitshot Crystal has adhered to this trend as it offers various health tracking features like a built-in 24x7 heart rate sensor, SpO2 monitoring, sleep tracking, and of course the holiest of them all, the step-counter.

One of the key USPs of a smartwatch, something that its conventional counterparts lack, is the ability to change the watch display. The newly released smartwatch comes with more than a hundred watch faces. Talking of USPs, Bluetooth calling has become more in demand than ever. The smartwatch leaves no stone unturned with Bluetooth calling supported by Bluetooth 5.0. The wearable also carries additional smart functions such as alarm clock, remote camera shutter, stopwatch, timer, remote music player control, find phone, sedentary reminder, and weather forecast.

With a 330mAh battery, the watch can power through for up to 7 days. Last but definitely not least, the Fitshot Crystal comes with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, and a 365-day warranty.

Real-World Performance 

The watch is a delight to wear. The nicely sculpted zinc-alloy metallic case sits perfectly while the metal mesh bracelet comfortably wraps around the wrist. The buckle functions really well and locks the bracelet effortlessly. Features like Always-On-Display and Raise to Wake are big bonuses. Although the Always-On-display feature does accelerate battery drainage, it is a flaunt-worthy feature. The Always-On-Display and Raise-to-Wake features are highly practical as well. Pushing the unlock screen button to check the time can end up being frustrating very quickly.

Adding more fun to the mix, the Fitshot Crystal smartwatch allows users to change the watch face with a scroll of the rotary knob. The push button on the lower-right side is basically a shortcut key which I instantly set to ‘lock screen’. However, it can also be set to kick-start other features like Heart Rate, Phone, SpO2, Alarm, and launch games within the watch.

When it comes to tracking and monitoring movements and body functions such as steps and heart rate, the smartwatch does an exceptional job. All my movements on the treadmill, the elliptical machine, and the stair-master were accurate. It tracked all the movements with precision and finesse. Although there was a minor difference between the watch’s heart rate monitor and the treadmill’s in-built heart rate measuring device, the gap wasn’t alarming. 

After completing 13,000 steps and burning a thousand calories in the gymnasium when it was finally time to end the day, the alarm feature came in handy. The watch interface, which is user-friendly and intuitive, to say the least, helped me navigate through various options. Additionally, the watch interface uses modern-day smart gestures that add to its user-friendliness. For instance, the notification screen can be pulled up with an upward swipe, while the settings menu appears with a simple downward swipe. With a rightward swipe, users can also make use of the sidebar that appears on the left-hand side of the watch screen.

The most riveting feature I encountered in the smartwatch was the calling feature. The Fitshot Crystal offers a calling function allowing picking up or rejecting a call and a full-fledged number pad to dial in phone numbers and call people. The speaker and microphone get the job done without any lag or delay in reception. With the aforementioned features, making and receiving phone calls has reached the pinnacle of convenience. The fact that the Fitshot Crystal aces the calling feature so well can be attributed to its Go SoloSync chipset. The in-house developed and manufactured chipset from Fitshot does a tremendously good job in Bluetooth pairing and seamless calling.

Last but not least, the IP68-rated water and dust resistance is a boon for people who exercise and travel to work on a daily basis. The watch can handle sweat, water splashes and dust with ease.

Is It Worth Buying? 

The Fitshot Crystal offers many features that instantly make it worth the money. A 1.8-inch AMOLED display, 560 Nitts of brightness, a fully potent calling feature, an in-built speaker and microphone duo, and a sleek-looking body of work, along with a vast spectrum of functions make this smartwatch worth buying. What makes this watch even better is its affordability. Getting all of the above specs at a retail price of INR 6,999 (currently available at an introductory offer of INR 3,999) is, without a doubt, a good deal.