Specs and Features

The X1 smartwatch has a minimalistic, square design. Since we are talking about a $60 device, you don’t exactly get premium materials all around. The bezel is zinc alloy, but the back of the watch is plastic and does not feel too great. Still, at this price point it could be much worse.

The watch is 11.5mm thick and weighs 40g. Not spectacularly thin, but no smartwatch is. The case houses a 1.54-inch 240x240 TFT display and a 280mAh battery.

X1 Heart Rate Smartwatch Specs:

• Processor: MediaTek Aster MT2502A
• Screen: 1.54-inch TFT 240x240
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0
• Sensors: heart rate sensor, pedometer, microphone
• Dimensions: 46x38x9-11.5mm
• Weight: 40g
• Materials: zinc alloy steel, plastic, leather band
• Battery: 280mAh (120hr standby)

Obviously, there are no benchmarks we can run on this device, so we can move on to the features. The watch comes with heart rate sensor, which is supposed to be one of its selling points. There’s no ambient light sensor though. We’ve seen some MediaTek watches with barometers and thermometers, which sound like a nice touch for avid outdoorsmen, but this unit stops at the heart rate sensor and pedometer.

Remember the feature phone analogy? Here it comes again. Since you can’t install additional apps on the watch, you have to rely on the apps you get out of the box. Considering this is a very inexpensive device this is understandable, and on the fact of it, you do get a lot. The watch can be used to remotely control your smartphone camera, find your phone, display caller ID and other notifications, access the dialer and remote sync the contacts. In addition, there’s a pedometer, calories counter, calculator, audio player, heart rate monitor and sleep monitor. It’s obvious that some of these functions are quite gimmicky (calculator, dialer and so on). However, core functions work rather well, so you get all relevant notifications and so on.

What irks us is the fact that it could have been a lot better. For example, we could not get it to stay connected to our phone (Galaxy S5) when we switched off media audio in Bluetooth settings, so we could not use it as a remote for our audio player.

This is a big deal, since it’s a vital feature for any smartwatch. If you activate call audio and media audio, you can use the watch as a Bluetooth speaker and mic, but audio quality is not good. The speaker is underpowered, so the sound is distorted. It can be used in a pinch, but it’s no replacement for a Bluetooth headset or speaker. For example, you won’t hear much if you answer a call while driving.

The pedometer works well, and you can also measure the distance covered in your walk/jog, and count burned calories. The heart rate monitor is not very reliable. Sometimes it would be spot on, but in some situations it registers a very low pulse. For what it’s worth, much more expensive smartwatches don’t tend to have bulletproof heart rate sensors, either.