Umidigi Uwatch 3S Smartwatch Review

Furthermore, the menu will also offer a Compass (that you need to calibrate before using), a Message section (you will need to set which type of notifications will appear and, unfortunately, it’s not going to display images, gifs or videos), the Weather (has a cute animation), as well as the Shutter and the Player. These two options need an active pairing to a smartphone to work. The last three icons are for starting the Stopwatch, to Find your phone (it will enable a loud sound on your phone to help you quickly find it in case it got lost) and the Other section.

Here, you get to change the watch faces – there are only two presets and a Customized one (don’t worry, there are far more in the mobile app); you can also Mute the smartwatch (it doesn’t really have a speaker, so it’s ‘muting’ the vibration), adjust the Brightness, Reset the device, shut it down or read some status info about it. That’s all for the built-in software which honestly is more than I expected from a device in this price range, but you can also pair the Uwatch to a smartphone. To do so, download the Da Fit app and yes, it’s compatible with both Android OS and iOS, but I only had a Pixel 2 XL available, so I could test it with Android.

After installing the app, I first needed to create a profile and then I could immediately add the Uwatch 3S which should start populating the various sections with data (Steps, Sleep, Heart Rate, Blood Oxygen, Outdoor Running and more, if you decide to go to Training). That was the Homepage, so we went to the smartwatch options (the second icon from the bottom) where I could add far more watch faces, but for some reasons, if I changed the watch face from the smartwatch software, I had to go to the app on the phone to re-download it.

Besides the Watch Faces, I could also set which Notifications will appear on the Uwatch 3S, set Alarms, access the Shutter, upgrade the firmware of the device as well as Other options. These include setting Reminders to Move, enabling Continuous Heart rate Detection (you can enable the possibility to receive a warning you when the heart rate reached a dangerous level), setting the Blood Oxygen Monitoring, adjusting the Weather options and enabling Physiological cycle reminders (quite useful for women). The last section of the app is My Profile, where I was able to set Goals, checking the Background Operation Protection Guide and more.

The Battery Life

This section would usually also include the Call Quality, but the Umidigi Uwatch 3S does not have a microphone or a speaker and you can’t answer nor make a call. It’s true that you can enable the notification to see when a call arrives, but you can’t do anything even though there are two icons that suggest that you may be able to both answer and block a call (it may be a function implemented in the future). That being said, let’s talk about the battery life, one of the highlighted features of this device. And for good reason considering that Umidigi has equipped the Uwatch 3S with a 280mAh battery which, apparently should last for up to 15 days while the heart rate monitor is set to always on, with some notifications during the day, a few minutes of active screen and exercising for 3 times a week for 30 minutes.

In basic watch mode (with every function turned off, including the pairing to a smartphone), the smartwatch should go for about 45 days. The Pebble smartwatches were the only ones to offer a similar battery life performance, while also having some smart functions enabled, so was Umidigi able to deliver on its promises? In the short period of time that I tested the smartwatch (of about a week), it definitely did.
I have enabled the continuous Heart Rate monitoring, some notifications and would check the time more than 30 times a day and the battery would lose between 10 to 15 percent after 24 hours, so, depending on the use type, it could very well go beyond 7 days and up to about 10-11 days (which is a bit short the promised 15 days, but still very impressive). I will continue to test the smartwatch over the coming months and will update the article in case the battery life shows immediate signs of deterioration. The charging time from 0 to 100% shouldn’t take more than two hours and a half which is acceptable for this type of device.

Conclusion

I realize that I have compared the Umidigi Uwatch 3S to the TicWatch Pro 2020 throughout the article and this does show that the manufacturer has gotten a lot of things right while the device has an almost ridiculous price tag. I am not a fan of the display, but it does work as intended, the software even though a lot simpler than on other more expensive smartwatches, it functions properly and there was no lag or crashes and I would have liked some physical buttons, but the tilt to wake was very accurate (there are also a huge amount of watch faces to choose from). Furthermore, the Heart Rate sensor was in line with other more expensive devices, the Sp02 also seems to work properly and the overall design was simple, yet elegant enough for a more formal attire. So, if you’re on a tight budget, but still want a decent smartwatch with a long battery life, then I don’t think you’ll find something better than the Umidigi Uwatch 3S.

Pages: 1 2