The growth trajectory of the Indian wearable market continues to soar, thanks to the cheaper offering from companies like Realme, Xiaomi, Noise, and Boat, the latest brand to join the bandwagon. In a launching spree, Boat launched its third budget smartwatch ‘ Boat Flash ‘ in the Indian market with a 45mm round dial wheel, 1.3 inch LCD display, metal build, blood oxygen levels tracker, and more at just Rs. 2,999. Is Boat Watch Flash worth its asking price? How much of a smartwatch experience does it deliver? Let’s find it out!
Boat Flash Specs:
- Display: 1.3 inch Touchscreen LCD screen.
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, Compatible with Android and iOS.
- Sensors: Optical heart rate sensor, SpO2 sensor, 3-axis accelerometer.
- Sports Modes: Outdoor Run, Walk, Cycle, Football, Basketball, Badminton, Yoga, etc.
- Fitness Features: Real-time heart rate monitor, Blood Oxygen level (SpO2) monitor, Sleep Tracking, Sports Tracking, Step Counter, Meditation.
- Other features: Idle Alert, Drink Reminder, Smart Notifications, Phone Finder, Weather Forecast, Music and Camera Control.
- Rating: IP68 rating.
- Straps: Detachable silicon straps.
- Battery: 200 mAH.
- Weight: 52g.
Box contents
- Flash Watch
- Wrist strap in Black colour
- Megantic Charging cable
- Quick start guide
- Warranty Card
Design & Build
Following to new trend, the Boat Flash opts for a traditional circular dial rather than a squarish module. It has a 45mm round dial with minimum bezels around the display. It weighs just 52 grams with the band, making it one of the lightweight smartwatches in the price range.
The Boat Flash also uses more premium materials. It has a metallic made frame casing with a single button on the right edge. The button can be used to wake/sleep the screen and is used as a back button when using the Smartwatch. The feedback from the button is on point.
Coming to the detachable strap, the quality of the strap is good, and I didn’t face any trouble or itching problems during usage. If you are a full-day computer desk user like me, then you will definitely happy with the comfort offered by this watch. I bought the Black Strap variant for the review, but if you don’t like the black colour then you also have red and blue colour options.
On the back, you can see the heart rate sensor that has a glowing green LED lights when you are using it to measure heart rate. You can also see the charging pins on the back. The sensor area is coated with plastic and it easily gets scratches, so be careful while using.
The Boat Flash Watch has IP68 water resistance, and can withstand dust, dirt and sand, and are resistant to submersion up to a maximum depth of 1.5m underwater for up to thirty minutes, and can be used in the shower, however, the Boat says that it should not be used in sauna, hot water bath and ocean water as the moisture and salty water can damage the band. The Boat also says that you should not wear it when swimming.
Display
Coming to the display, It has a 1.3-inch colour LCD touch screen display with a hidden resolution. In my point of view, the display quality is decent and justify the price tag. Yes, the display is decently bright and offer good viewing angles. But it a little bit struggle under bright sunlight, which is acceptable at this price point.
The company doesn’t say if the watch comes with a scratch-resistant glass or not. It doesn’t have an always-on display, but you can set it to turn on when you lift your hand, and the screen turns off after a few seconds to save power. You can adjust the brightness when you swipe from the top, and you get 5 settings to choose from. You can also change the display on timing with 3 different settings.
Now comes to the watch faces. It has 5 inbuilt watch faces that can be directly accessed from the watch. The good thing is that you will get many more cloud base watch faces options in the Boat Wearable App, and another best thing is you can even create your own customized watch faces which suit your style. Currently, you have only 20 to 25 different watch faces option on the app, but the company says that it will push an update soon to add more cloud watch faces.
UI & Features
Coming to the user interface of the watch. I really like the overall clean and modern looking user interface of this Boat watch. The navigation work very smoothly without any lag. The navigation is pretty straight forward: Swipe right to show all the notifications, including detail message and app notification.
Swipe down to find the quick option for brightness control, sleep mode, on-screen flash, along with battery info.
Swipe up to show various health and fitness screens (Heart Rate, SpO2, Meditation, Sleep data, and one-day activity data), weather, music control also present there. I like to add that the music control option does not work, I hope the company will fix this soon as possible.
While swiping from right to left, we get the main menu on the watch screen with 10 different sport modes (Walking, Running, Cycling, Climbing, Yoga, Basketball, Football, Badminton, Skipping, and Swimming), meditation option, find my phone, alarm, stopwatch, spo2 monitoring, and some other options. You can also attend to the incoming calls via the watch.
Performance
Talking about the performance, the Flash Watch works just fine when it comes to tracking sleep, Spo2, and heart rate tracking. The data is quite similar to other fitness band and smartwatches in the same price range. But the steps tracking is not up to the mark, it doesn’t seem accurate. It requires some accuracy adjustment on the software side. It also lacks GPS support, but it can latch on to the GPS in seconds once you link with the smartphone for your runs.
The Boat Flash can measure the blood oxygen levels or the saturation of oxygen in your blood through the SpO2 sensor. Well, talking about the accuracy, it’s a whole different point.
It also has a special meditation feature, which is pretty useful in the lockdown period. Yes, you will also get water consumption and sedentary reminder options with this smartwatch.
App
To use this Watch, it is important to connect with the Boat Wearable app. Setting up the watch is simple and straightforward. The best part is that the App UI is very clean and userfriendly.
The app’s home screen consists of information about your daily activity, sleep tracking, and heart rate info. In the setting menu, you have a range of options including Watch Faces, Call reminders, Alarm, Notifications, Get up reminder, Water reminder, and more. Overall, the app is very decent on the UI side, but still, there are many fitness-related features are missing. And I also faced many data synchronize related bugs during testing.
Battery
The Boat Flash is powered by a 200 mAh battery. As per the company claims, it offers 7 days of battery life with a heart rate monitor on, 9 days with a heart rate monitor off. In my brief usage (around 1-2 days), the charge dropped from 100% to 80% with a heart rate monitor on. Undoubtedly, the battery life is really good on this Boat Smartwatch.
For your ease, Boat added a simple yet unique charging system. You need to put or stick the charging port on the watch’s backside, and it will automatically adjust its charging points on the back surface. Gone are the days when you need to put the band out from the strap to charge. The Watch Flash gets charged in just 2 hours, and you can use your power bank, mobile charger, or laptop to charge the watch.
Conclusion
Overall, if you are not concerned about the accuracy (the error margin is acceptable though) Boat Flash Watch is a very good option at this price point. Feature-wise, this Boat Smartwatch brings a lot to the table including stylish design, solid build, big display, IP68 certification, SpO2 monitor, camera/music control, and better battery life. On the other side, you will face some issues in connectivity and data synchronized. The boat really needs to fix their App and improve the step counting accuracy with a software update.
If you are looking out for a fitness tracker with a smartwatch experience, Boat Flash at Rs. 2,499 is a good deal. But above this price tag, just ignore it! At Rs.1,000 to Rs. 2,000 extra, we have the Realme Watch S, Amazfit Verge, and Bip S with better accuracy, built-in GPS, and other impressive features. In the case of just fitness tracking, we have options including Mi Band 5 and Honor Band 5. For more info please check the full review on our Youtube channel Geekman.
Also Read:
- Best Smartwatch Under 5000 Rs
- Realme Watch S review
- Best Fitness Band Under 2000 Rs
- Boat Rockerz 255 Pro Plus Review
