Bong XX Smart Watch Review

Meizu recently announced its latest flagship smartphone, the MX5 in Beijing, China, where we were present at the event for live coverage. Apart from announcing its latest hit smartphone, which we have been using for the past week now, it was also the right time for company to unveil its new smartwatch, Bong XX, which is in collaboration with Bong brand. It was last year only that company announced a compatible watch with MX4, called InWatch Pi Edition. It was a 65$; that was also in collaboration with InWatch brand.

Note: You may think that what a smartwatch review is doing on a PhoneRadar. For that, we justify the posting a smartwatch review because it needs a smartphone by its side to operate. And without that it can’t operate on standalone.

Now moving forward with a review of the Bong XX, we first like to talk about the Design aspects of this wearable.

Look and Feel (Design and Display)

The lightweight design of Bong X/XX band allows users to feel less burden on their wrist when they have stripped the band. With a hint of the square and circular design, the dial has been made removable so that you can strap it to other straps available with the company in different colors. Specifically design by keeping in mind that users should wear this all day and night, the manufacturer of these bands, the Ginshell, have restricted the wearable’s weight to just 15 grams.

Even though, the company has tried to make it look and feel good, we eventually felt that its dial is too small and wouldn’t look good on thinner wrists. Also, the quality of strap has seemed to be compromised if we compare it to other fitness bands in the market. Like Fitbit, NikeFuel, Jawbone UP24, Microsoft Band, etc. But the company claims that there elastic thermoplastic body straps are made out of good quality products.

Though, these are not the exact competition of the band, as most of these are priced above than $50. But the Bong X/XX range from $22 to 36, which shouldn’t necessarily mean that the band must be premium.

While that simple design would spark the attraction of many smart bands consumers whereas the LED display would make them stick to this band as it offers quite the handful of functions together. It would display the stats for your resting, walking, warming up, running, fast activities, as well as various other activities like swimming, etc.

Talking about the technical of the display, the Bong XX packs LED display with 126 Matrix while it’s sibling, the Bong X Sports 12 Matrix LED. Both the models have multi-coated Corning Glass finish on the display, which would allow it to have a resistance to scratches. The display is touch sensitive, and it sure would take some fingerprints, but nothing that can’t be easily cleaned off. Meaning, it would not hold the smudges for longer if you wipe them off.

Functionality (App and Features)

The Bong XX has a dedicated application, which is compatible with iOS and Android. The device can track 11 types of activities and rest states; resting, walking, running, warming-up, fast walking, sports activity, swimming, sleeping, normal activity, being in traffic, and cycling. All the stats related to these activities are analyzed and interpreted on the app, making users aware of their health in real time. Moreover, it can also show time like an average smartwatch, as well as alert you about the incoming calls and battery status.

The watch works on seven interactive ways (sliders and buttons) to interact with it directly, thereby minimizing the need to pull out the smartphone out of your pocket all the time. And while if you’re wondering does it can automatically detect my sleep? Well, the answer for that is yes, it can automatically detect if you’re in sleep or not, which eventually allow it to analyze the patterns in your sleep behavior. This functionality is only available on Mi Band other than Bong XX smartwatch, allowing it to have at least advantage over most of the smart fitness watches in the market.

The standalone app of Bong XX offers quite the features while many of those features not available even on costly app and bands offering from the like of Fitbit, Microsoft Band, Jawbone UP 24, etc. So, this is truly a great app service you get here with Bong.

Though, the biggest issue users out of china or people who can’t understand Chinese wouldn’t get this buy, as there is no English language app available. Moreover, the Android app for Bong XX Watch is not available on the Google Play Store.

Battery

This smart watch houses a 3.7 V, 60mAh capacity battery, which according to claims from the company can give up to 25 days of battery life in one full charge. We liked the charging cradle it comes with, which gives you the premium feeling, as well as is very tiny to carry out while you’re traveling. Moreover, the LED display on the watch allows the less consumption of power, thereby extending the standby time of the smartwatch.

Verdict

The answer comes to how easy and comfortable the band is to wear over the day. Other few points that a smartwatch with fitness-focused features should have is the battery life, and a feature rich app that makes sense out if all that RAW data about your activities. So, if we do a fact check, all these things are present on the Bong XX, and that’s as far as any smart band would go. Moreover, it comes under an affordable pricing. What more can you ask?

Xiaomi Mi Band and Bong XX Smart Watch

Note: We haven’t been able to test the dedicated app offered by Bong, because of it is available in Chinese language only. We would be trying the app later if possible until then we do not include our experience of the same in this review. As well as since there is no app for English we were not able to offer any stats for the battery either, but rest can be assured that the battery of this device seems like quite a good when compared with other major players in market. The Xiaomi Mi Band would be the only fitness tracker that is equipped to compete with Bong XX smartwatch.