Noise, an India-based consumer electronics company, recently launched its latest NoiseFit Evolve smartwatch. The new series includes the NoiseFit Evolve and the NoiseFit Evolve Sport. These smartwatches enter the highly competitive space of smartwatches, and fitness bands to compete with the likes of Huawei Amazfit, Xiaomi, Lenovo and more. The company has priced the smartwatch at Rs 5,499 for the regular NoiseFit Evolve.
The product is available in three different color variants. These include Slate Black, Dusk Blue, and Blush Pink. Interested buyers can head to Gonoise.com to make the purchase. We got the Dusk Blue variant for review and I have been testing it for sometime now. Is the NoiseFit Evolve worth your money? How does it stand when compared with other smartwatches in the Indian market? Has Noise added enough in the product to make it stand out in the crowd? Let’s find out in our NoiseFit Evolve review.
Design and Usability
The first thing that you will notice when you take out NoiseFit Evolve out-of-the-box is the design. It features a design familiar to any traditional watch with a circular anodized aluminum frame with 40mm dial and plastic straps. Noise has not gone all out to introduce any outrageous design element. Instead, it has gone the safe route of conformity to focus on the features. Taking a closer look, the smartwatch also features an AMOLED display with slightly larger bezels.
Watch: NoiseFit Evolve Smartwatch Unboxing
Moving back to the design, the main smartwatch module amounts to 25 grams without the straps. The smartwatch also features an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. It can withstand submersion to up to a maximum depth of 1.5m for up to 30 minutes. Noise is careful to claim that it “is not afraid of a little rain or sweat”. It also advises users to avoid using the smartwatch in the sauna, hot water bath or ocean water. One can also not use the smartwatch while swimming as IP68 is just splash resistant.
The device comes with an accelerometer and a bottom-facing heart rate sensor for measurement. Noise has also added Bluetooth v5.0 for improved connectivity with the smartphone. Buyers can also use the smartwatch without the smartphone at all times. All the data will be stored on the device, ready for sync. The module just comes with a single button on the right side that acts as a home button. Users can also use it as a toggle to turn on or off the display. Noise has gone for straps made with Thermoplastic Polyurethane, a skin-friendly material. Users can also manually remove the straps to put their own.
Display of NoiseFit Evolve
Moving to the display, NoiseFit Evolve features a 1.2-inch AMOLED display with 390×390 pixels. The color panel boasts a pixel density of 459ppi. Talking about general usability, the display is ample bright even under direct sunlight while offering decent viewing angles. Similar to most display panels, the brightness levels on the panel take a hit when viewed from an extreme angle. It uses the accelerometer to automatically turn on the display when the user lifts their hand to check the smartwatch. This makes up for the lack of always-on display on the NoiseFit Evolve.
The display also offers five levels of brightness depending on the need of the user. Anyone who wants to conserve the battery can operate this at the minimum brightness level. In terms of customization of the display watch face, we only get to choose from the built-in five options. There is no way to load your own watch face or download more. Overall, the display offers good black levels and colors to not distract the user. The entire UI comes with a black background making it ideal for maximum battery conversation and eye care at the night.
Software
Talking about the software, there are two aspects to it. The first one is the watch software that you see on the smartwatch and the second is the companion app. The watch works on touch-based gestures and pressing the physical button turns on the display. The first screen that users are greeted with is the watch face in the form of a traditional watch. Swiping from the right to left brings you to an overview of the fitness data as part of the “Today” view. It includes steps, heart rate, and sleep data along with the compass calibration screen.
Top to bottom swipe brings the quick settings panel. The quick settings panel includes a number of controls including DND, Find Phone, Lock Screen, brightness levels, and battery status. It also includes a shortcut to “Settings”, and a pairing symbol to indicate if the smartwatch is paired. Bottom to top swipe gives access to all the notifications and right to left gives access to all the built-in apps. These apps include Today, Sortsmode, Heart rate, Sleep, Notification, Camera control, Alarm, Compass, Music, Find Phone, Stopwatch, and Settings. All these features work as intended. More on tracking in the next section.
Smartphone app
On the smartphone side of things, the company uses its app called “NoiseFit Peak” for data sync, management, and more. As soon as you open the app, you are greeted with a “Home” screen that provides data on the location weather, and tracking data on Sports, Heart rate, and Sleep. The bottom of the screen includes four different tabs including Home, Data, Device, and My profile. Data has all the tracked data depending on the type of activity and Device shows all settings for NoiseFit Evolve. Device tab allows users to have finer control on the wearable along with options for the Firmware update, Factory resent, and “Unbind”.
Users can also customize the Notification settings on this tab to turn on notifications for select apps. The app only contains 12 apps in the list of notifications. However, users can go to the “Other apps” section to turn on notifications for more apps on the device. All the apps are disabled by default and users need to select the apps of their choice to enable notification mirroring on the NoiseFit Evolve. The notifications only showcase the title in some cases instead of the content.
My profile section allows users to access customer support, how-to videos, and FAQs. It also comes with a “Warranty registration” section. It is worth noting that buyers need to create a profile to access and manage most sections on this page. The software had a lot of issues at the beginning regarding Syncing. However, the company seems to have fixed them after multiple app updates.
Tracking on NoiseFit Evolve
NoiseFit Evolve features support to track 9 activities in the tracking section. These include Walking, Indoor walk, Outdoor run, Indoor cycling, Indoor run, Cycling, Hiking, Yoga, and Free training. All these options are present in the “Sportsmode” on the watch. The watch records the time, and calories. Users can also select a target time, mileage, or calories beyond the no target option. Given that the wearable does not come with a GPS, it uses the GPS of the smartphone to tracking walking, cycling, hiking, or free training. Otherwise, it only uses the built-in pedometer for a somewhat inaccurate reading.
Noise has also added a “Records” section that features “Day”, “Week” and “Month” view. Users can access this data both on the app as well as the smartwatch. Noise also notes that the watch will only record activities that include more than 200 steps or last more than 5 minutes. It also tracks sleep and heart rate data both of which seem fairly accurate. Focusing on heart rate tracking, the NoiseFit Evolve uses LED lights to use optical measurements to measure the heart rate.
The technology is similar to what almost all fitness bands and inexpensive smartwatches use to measure the heart rate. All the tracking data is fine to provide a rough estimate but people who want more accurate readings for health or training purposes should invest in dedicated, medically approved measurement devices.
Battery backup of NoiseFit Evolve
NoiseFit Evolve includes a somewhat unique slot-in lock charger where one needs to place the device inside the case. The charger comes with USB Type-A on the other end so buyers can use any regular USB charger. They can also hook the device in the USB port of their PC or laptop for charging. It takes about two hours on an average to charge the smartwatch from 0 to 100 percent. Beyond this, the 180mAh battery lasts for about 11-12 days on a single charge on no notification sync or continuous heart rate tracking. Notification sync pushes it down to about 6-7 days.
Should you buy the NoiseFit Evolve?
So should you buy the NoiseFit Evolve? Well, the company has done a decent job of crafting a fine smartwatch. I am not directly comparing it with any fitness band but it isn’t much smart in this smartwatch. The customization and other things are fairly limited as compared to a proper smartwatch from Fossil, Skagen, Xiaomi, or even Apple. Sure, the pricing on those smartwatches is astronomical in comparison to this.
However, most fitness bands and rival budget smartwatches offer a similar or much better value proposition. If you are a Noise fan and want another Noise product then go ahead but if you are just looking around. I would suggest you check out the Amazfit BIP Lite or even Xiaomi Mi Band 4.
