Noise ColorFit Ultra
One-minute review
The Noise ColorFit Ultra is the brand’s latest budget smartwatch priced under Rs 5,000 in India. Noise as a wearable brand has been extremely active lately and we have seen a bunch of new product launches in recent times in the true wireless earbuds and smartwatch segments.
The Noise ColorFit Ultra is an affordable smartwatch from the company that is set to take on the likes of Amazfit Bip U Pro, Redmi Watch, Realme Watch 2 Pro, and more. The ColorFit Ultra smartwatch brings features like a large 1.75-inch LCD display, a premium-looking design, and 60 sports modes to the table.
The battery life is also good here with the watch lasting easily for five days. However, the fitness and sports tracking aren’t accurate here and the same also applies to sleep data. For what it’s worth, you do get the ability to respond to messages 一 but, there’s a catch. Also, the watch misses out on built-in GPS.
While the watch is hard to recommend for people who are serious about fitness and sports tracking, the Noise ColorFit Ultra can be a good choice if you are a casual user who just wants to use it as a smartwatch.
Noise ColorFit Ultra price in India and availability
The Noise ColorFit Ultra is priced at Rs 4,999 and comes in gunmetal grey, cloud grey, and space blue colour options. The smartwatch will be sold on Amazon.in. During sale days on Amazon, the ColorFit Ultra will be available for Rs 4,499.
Design and display
The Noise ColorFit Ultra is a fresh face in the design and display department. While most smartwatches under Rs 5,000 come with all black and compact design, the ColorFit Ultra comes with a larger display and in a bunch of refreshing colour options. The Noise ColorFit Ultra is available in gunmetal grey, cloud grey, and space blue colours and with a 22mm interchangeable strap which can be swapped with first as well as third party straps.
The body is made up of aluminium alloy material which adds a premium touch to the wearable. It comes with a button on the side that can be used to perform multiple tasks like waking up the watch, opening the menu, and bringing up the power option.
The watch feels good in the hand and it is lightweight with just 47-gram weight. It also feels very comfortable to wear for a longer duration and the watch definitely catches other people’s eyes in the public eye, especially with the cloud grey variant which we are using for the review. It is also IP68 rated which means it can survive underwater as well.
The Noise ColorFit Ultra packs in one of the largest displays in the segment measuring 1.75-inches diagonally. It is an LCD screen with 320 x 385 pixels resolution. The screen is bright, responsive and also good enough for outdoor usage. You get five-level brightness adjustment and raise to wake options under settings 一 but, it misses out on the Always-on Display as the watch can stay up for a maximum of 30 seconds. While the touch response is good, the UI lacks animations and transition effects.
Overall, we did like the design and display on the Nose ColorFit Ultra 一 it looks good, feels good, is big, and gets bright enough to read outdoors too. If you are looking for a big-screen experience, this is certainly better than the Amazfit Bip U Pro and the Redmi Watch.
Fitness features
While most warbles in the segment are marketed as a smartwatch thanks to the looks and design, at its core most of them are fitness trackers. The wearable comes with 60 sports mode tracking, a heart rate sensor, and a SpO2 sensor to measure blood-oxygen levels.
Heart rate and SpO2 monitor
The watch comes with a heart rate monitor on the back which can record the vitals. The heart rate can be measured manually when you need it or can be set to auto mode in the companion application. You also get an option to set an alert if your vitals go beyond a certain limit 一 this is available only when the Auto HR option is turned on, which also consumes more battery. The reading seems to be fairly accurate during our testing period.
The SpO2 monitor measures blood-oxygen levels. Like most wearables, measuring it takes a bit more time and the watch will ask to tie the strap firmly to the wrist to obtain the best results. The feature did work 7/10 times, but we did notice a higher reader as compared to an actual oximeter. While it's good for casual use, we’d not recommend using SpO2 for medical purposes.
Sleep tracking
This is a feature that works well on most of the smart wearables regardless of the pricing, but we did have a bit of an issue with the ColorFit Ultra here. The watch did have proper wake-up and sleep time, but it did not record awake time in between the sleep cycle. Also, a couple of times, the sleep time was more than what we had in reality. The app provides nice data of sleep with deep sleep, light sleep, REM, and a pie chart to understand your sleep better.
Sports mode
The Noise ColorFit Ultra brings about 60 sports modes and all of them are categorized into - running, cycling, indoor, outdoor, snow, ball games, dance sports, combat, and other sports. Some of the notable ones include yoga, rowing, ballet, cricket, basketball, fencing, badminton, and Zumba. GPS is missing here which we think is a big miss given the competition is catching up and we have other options in the segment with built-in GPS. The watch can be synced with Google Fit.
While we could not try all the sports modes, we did try out a few such as walking, running, cricket. You will have to select the mode manually as there is no automatic detection. While in the running/walking mode, the watch records duration, average pace, calories, heart rate, steps, speed, and heart rate zone. All the data mentioned above are neatly presented on the mobile application.
While the watch records everything and shows on the app neatly, we found the step count to be incorrect on multiple occasions 一 it was too less or way more than what was in reality. The same applies to the calories burnt as well. In our manual 100 steps count, the watch only manages to add 49 steps which is less than 50% accurate. For cricket, the watch measures duration, calories, and average heart rate along with the heart rate zone.
Apart from the aforementioned res, the watch comes with stress monitoring which takes time but gives the score out of 100 and then, there is also a breathing exercise to relax if you are stressed out.
Overall, we were not impressed by the sports tracking as the counting was not accurate. Also, the fact that this misses out on built-in GPS might be a deal-breaker for fitness enthusiasts. If you are serious about fitness and sports tracking, we’d suggest you stay away from the Ultra.
Smart features
The stand out feature when it comes to smart features is the ability to respond to messages from the watch 一 but this isn’t the Wear OS way. You can add up to five replies in the app and you will get those five options for any messages you get一 but that’s applicable for only SMS apps. While this isn’t convenient all the time, it is still a decent workaround for a budget smartwatch. Apart from that, you get notified for calls, messages, and notifications from other apps you’ve chosen.
Weather updates, music control, stopwatch, alarms, and world clock features are present and work as intended. Reminders can be set via the mobile app and you also get a flashlight feature where the screen turns white. Lastly, there is a new stock market update that isn’t available right now but will be enabled via future OTA updates.
Software and app experience
Most of the interaction on the watch happens with touch or swipe actions and the UI is fast and responsive 一 but, as said earlier it lacks transitions or animations. Swiping down from the home screen brings a notifications tray that can keep up to 10 notifications while swiping from down will bring quick toggles like battery, vibration, airplane mode, DND, lock, and settings. Clicking on the side navigation button will open up the menu.
Since it’s a budget watch, you don’t get built-in storage or the ability to install third-party apps.
The Noise ColorFit Ultra harnesses Bluetooth 5.2 and is compatible with both Android and iOS devices. The NoiseFit companion app offers more in-depth information about health, fitness, and gives more customization options.
The app screen consists of Summary, Shop, Activity, Watchface, Settings. The Summary screen shows all the data related to fitness and health, Activity screen shows all the previous activities, Watch Faces, as the name suggests offers a collection of watch faces for the wearable 一 the collection of watch faces are nice and colourful, we liked the collection. The settings page shows the phone’s battery, personal profile, and click on the watch icon will bring up the watch customization page. You get options like hand wash, reminders, quick replies, world clock and more.
The app is neatly designed and easy to navigate across and we did not have any syncing issues as well, which is great.
Battery life
The company claims the watch to last up to nine days between charge cycles. However, in real-life testing with notifications from Slack, LinkedIn, phone app and heart rate set up manual, the watch lasted us only for five days 一 while this isn’t bad for a budget smartwatch. But, do keep in mind that the more notifications you get and the more features you use on the wearable does impact the battery life.
Charging happens via the proprietary magnetic cable which takes about 1 hour and 50 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%. The magnetic pin on the cable isn’t strong and we suggest you keep it on a flat surface for charging.
Should I buy the Noise ColorFit Ultra
While the Noise ColorFit Ultra offers 60 sports modes, the tracking isn’t accurate and it also misses out on the GPS which is why we wouldn’t recommend this for fitness freaks. But, for everyone else, the Noise ColorFit Ultra brings a good looking smartwatch with a bright colourful display, good battery life, feature-filled companion app, good display, and an IP68 rating. The smart features are also acceptable for the price tag.
If you are looking for some other options, the Amazfit Bip U Pro, Redmi Watch, Realme Watch 2 Pro are worth checking out.
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First reviewed: August 2021
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