The smartwatch market is crowded as ever. Even if you go sub-5000 INR, you have got some decent choices out there. And one brand that’s making a lot of noise in the budget smartwatch space is well, Noise. The company launched its ColorFit Pro 4 and ColorFit Pro 4 Max wristwatches in India this year. We have with us the former and upon wearing it day in and day out for a while now here's our experience of using it.
Noise ColorFit Pro 4 Design And Build
One of the exciting aspects of Noise ColorFit Pro 4 is its design and to some extent its build quality. From a distance, people could mistake it for an Apple Watch. Its squircle dial and digital crown may appear inspired by Apple’s design manual. But, when you come closer, you'll notice the central placement of its crown, the differences in its strap design, and the Noise branding, of course. In fact, many complimented me on its looks.
The case has got a nice sheen, even though it is made of plastic. But thanks to this polycarbonate build, the device weighs only 24.1 grams and should be light on your wrist. The detachable strap feels nice to touch, but it can get a bit itchy and leave marks after a long course of use. I could blame the humid weather of Delhi, but that discomfort is something I did face. Then again, you can easily unfasten the default 22mm strap and swap it with another one. And this buckle-type strap is, in my opinion, better than what expensive products like Apple Watch offers.
So, overall, I like the Noise ColorFit 4 Pro design even with its expected quirks.
Noise ColorFit Pro 4 Display And UI
Noise ColorFit Pro 4 has a 1.72-inch TFT screen with 356×400 resolution. The thing is decently legible indoors but under bright sunlight, your eyes will have to struggle a bit.
Now when it comes to navigating through the UI, you will realize this isn’t the smoothest screen experience. Still, it’s largely usable. You can swipe left or right across the various menus. Swipe up from the home screen to bring up the quick controls and swipe down from the home screen to show the notifications tray. Hold press on the main screen to switch between the watch faces.
Speaking of which, to decorate the screen, there are 150+ watch faces (some of which are downloadable from the cloud). The colourful choices add to the look of the watch. However, when you use a fair or light-coloured wallpaper, you’d notice the watch’s thick bezels. On the contrary, if you are like me who prefers dark watch faces, those borders won’t seem that limiting.
So, it has passable visuals and a rather straightforward user interface.
Noise ColorFit Pro 4 Performance
Starting with the pairing process, you just need to scan a QR code on the watch using the NoiseFit app on your smartphone. In a matter of moments, the watch will be paired with the phone.
Once it’s paired, you can use it to track up to 100 sports modes. The list only lacks swimming. We're not complaining as the watch is IP68 certified which essentially means it can deal with a bit of water but not the pressure involved in swimming.
If not for major sports activities, you can simply use it for step counting (without false counts), distance tracking (using phone GPS), walking, running, etc. It did those tasks rather well.
While you are on the move or still, there is Auto HR (heart rate) at work. But, I don’t recall a time when it alerted me. I had set the watch to intimate me if my heart beats above 130 BPM. But nada! It takes its sweet time to hit that mark even during intense activities and hardly ever alerted me even when the beats pass 130. That brings us to the general heart rate measurement, which I found to be somewhat spotty. When used alongside an Apple Watch Series 6, most of the time, this device lagged behind by a notable measure (from a difference of 5 BPM to 25 BPM). Then there are times, the watch would auto-pause the workout because of ghost touches. Also, the wrist twist to wake the screen doesn’t always work. These latter two issues bothered me during my workout sessions.
Further, you can also keep tabs on other health parameters like blood oxygen, sleep, and stress.
As for monitoring oxygen levels in the blood, the built-in SpO2 tracker was comparable to an actual pulse oximeter. Similarly, sleep tracking also gave almost proper readings the few times I wore it at night. You can also know your stress score and do breathing exercises to reduce that by following on-screen inhale-exhale instructions coupled with haptic feedback.
Coming to other features and functions, there is stuff that complements the smartphone like timely notification sync, alarm, music control, weather, stocks, and calling. The lattermost is especially interesting as ColorFit Pro 4 comes with Bluetooth calling. In theory, it lets you receive and make calls using the in-built speaker and mic setup. But, in my use, it was frequently getting disconnected and I would have to take the phone eventually. Maybe an issue with my unit. Can’t say! What I can is that the voice quality was decent.
So it covers most of the things you would want from a budget smartwatch, including the smartphone companion features. While using the thing to track the fitness metrics too, it could easily take care of a regular person’s needs. Only when it’s compared against the likes of an Apple Watch, you would realize the activity tracking needs some work.
Noise ColorFit Pro 4 Power
Finally, all those performances are rated to last up to 7 days. In my time with it, it lasted for 6 days. Mind you that’s with all sensors and features on constant testing. A normal user may get the full advertised battery life.
Granted there’s no app store or heavy graphic UI. Still, even close-to-a-week use makes the experience long-lasting.
When it comes to charging, the company’s claims held true in my testing. The bundled pogo-pin adapter topped it up in about 2 hours. Not bad.
What do I think of Noise ColorFit Pro 4?
The ColorFit Pro 4 has a lot of features and usually sought-after fitness sensors. I like that Noise has served us a buffet of varied options at ₹3,999 even if they aren’t all optimal in their operation. But it’s not like anybody buying this expects a professional-grade device. Also, unless you pit it against many expensive alternatives and focus on the minutiae, you would be fairly satisfied with the offering here. Not to forget, the data and stats from even those pricey wristwear aren’t always medically admissible.
Who Is Noise ColorFit Pro 4 For?
At ₹3,499, Noise ColorFit Pro 4 is for everyday folks who are looking for their first smartwatch and/or have a budget of less than ₹5000. If you’re not hard-bent on the accuracy, you can track the most common sports activities, and health metrics, know your progress and work to improve and achieve targets. If you are okay with the offering thus far, you would also find the accompanying smart or smartphone-related features as an added bonus.
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G. S. Vasan
Vasan is a word weaver and tech junkie who is currently geeking out as a news writer at Digit. View Full Profile
