T3 India

Wearables

Boat Launches Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation Earbuds

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Boat has announced the latest addition to its portfolio with TWS Hybrid ANC- Boat Airdopes 500ANC.

Celebrating the latest addition to its portfolio, Sameer Mehta,  Co-Founder, and Chief Product Officer, Imagine Marketing Limited, said, “In today’s fast-moving-digitally-entwined world where everybody is on the go, these TWS Airdopes 500 ANC bridge the gap between comfort and hustle by allowing users to easily access these airdopes on the go. Developed with superior technology and a classy finish, these earbuds highlight our commitment to serving all our Boatheads with the latest technology.”

According to reports, the Airdopes 500 ANC is built using high-end materials that offer a ‘premium feel’, crafted using ABS and is equipped with sweat-resistant and skin-friendly silicone. The earbuds feature up to 35dB Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation and a swipe gesture enables you to switch to Ambient Mode.

Adding to the Hybrid ANC tech, the earbuds have 8 mm drivers and also sport quad mics with ENx Technology that, reportedly, enhances the call quality by blocking out wind noise and other background distractions. It features Quick Response Touch Controls and is equipped with Insta Wake-N-Pair (IWP) Technology. It comes with Bluetooth v5.2 chip for connectivity, BEAST (Bionic Engine And Sonic Technology) decoder for ‘lag-free gaming’ and offers IPX4-Rated water and sweat-resistant casing.

The earbuds are reported to last up to 5.5 hours on a single charge (4.5 hours with ANC enabled) with an added 22.5 hours from the case. The Boat ASAP Charge boasts 60 minute running time with 5-minutes of charging in the case.

The Boat Airdopes 500 ANC is available for purchase in three assorted colour options viz. Elite Blue, Tranquil White and Rich Black at a price of INR 3999 on the brand’s official website.

Review: Sony WH-XB910N

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Price: ₹14,990

Recently, we reviewed Sony’s latest TWS earbuds, and here we are, with the latest of their over-the-ear headphones. If the WF-1000XM4 features a balanced sound profile, the WH-XB910N is specially made for bass lovers as Sony brands the XB series as Extra Bass.

The headphones are available in black and blue colours, and we received the blue version. The device has a nice matte finish on the exterior with a rougher pattern on the headband. The top of the band has a faux leather wrapping on the exterior along with a soft cushioning pad at the inner surface. The earpieces rotate about 120 degrees, flex about 30 degrees to adjust to the contours of your head and can be folded inward for storage. The headphones come in a sleek oval-shaped hard fabric case, which also includes a USB-C to USB-A cable and an aux cable. The overall finish feels premium, and the top of the pivot area has a glossy finish that enhances this feel. The Sony branding on both ends of the headband completes the styling. The left earpiece houses the physical controls and ports, which include the power button, noise cancellation/ambience button, 3.5mm aux jack and USB-C charging port. The right earpiece looks plain, but the broad flat surface hides a touch panel that can be used to pause or play music, control volume and switch the tracks. You can also make use of the Quick Attention mode by placing your hand over the right earcup, which pauses noise cancelling mode momentarily, allowing you to listen to ambient sound. At 252 g, the headphones are quite light. The soft earpads are comfortable and do not cause any discomfort or pain even with extended use.

The WH-X910N uses a 40 mm driver unit and features dual noise-cancelling with feedforward and feedback mics on each side. The noise cancellation is effective but not quite the best we have experienced in premium headphones. The device supports 360 Reality Audio for an immersive experience with a suitable audio input. The headphones offer 48 ohms impedance in wired connection with the unit turned on, and 16 ohms while it is turned off. This makes it compatible with most smartphones and other low-power devices, irrespective of the type of connection. The headphones are compatible with LDAC codec for high-res audio playback in Bluetooth mode. As mentioned earlier, this device is made for thumping bass, and it remains true to this assigned role. In fact, the device is a bass lover’s haven, bringing out those fine reverberations in percussion. The Headphones companion app offers adaptive sound control, switching the sound profile according to your location and status. It offers a number of equaliser presets such as Bright, Excited, Mellow, Relaxed, Vocal, Treble Boost, Bass Boost, and Speech, along with Manual and two Custom modes so that the sound is always within your control when you are on a call or listening to music. Though you can tweak the sound via custom modes to bring up the mids and highs for some balance, it still remains faithful to bass. If you are using an iPhone, you can tweak the sound even better from the EQ mode.

The XB910N can be paired with two devices over Bluetooth, and the headphone intelligently switches between the two inputs. However, when paired to a laptop and a smartphone, the 910N would pause music played on the laptop when there is an audio notification on the phone and would not resume playback automatically. The headphones are stated to provide up to 30 hours of battery life, and we found this to be quite close. Of course, this depends on the volume of playback and ANC. You can top up the battery quickly for 10 minutes for up to 4.5 hours of extra playback with an optional AC adapter.

The device offers voice control with Google Assistant and Alexa.

RATING

WE’RE IMPRESSED Multi-device connection, high-res audio support, comfortable fit, good battery life, companion app

WE’D IMPROVE Some sound leakage observed, playback doesn’t restart after phone notification

THE LAST WORD These headphones offer good comfort and convenience. True bass enthusiasts will appreciate its sound profile.

Review: Ambrane FitShot Zest

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Price: ₹2,999

Smart wearables are flooding the market, especially entry-level models at the lower end of the price band. Ambrane’s FitShot Zest smartwatch joins the melee with a few advanced features.

The FitShot Zest is available in black, blue and pink colours and has a rectangular design similar to Apple watch. The watch has a predictable Chinese origin but is well made, unlike many products in this price band. A metal frame and a neat-looking sensor unit underside instil confidence. The device uses a 22 mm silicon strap, which also feels of good quality. The FitShot Zest carries an IP67 ingress protection rating and hence it is water and dust resistant. The watch uses a 1.7-inch display, which appeared sharp and bright with legible font and design elements. The watch can be paired with an Android phone using the FitShot Wear companion app. You get some neat watch faces to choose from. The control wheel has the single function of switching between the installed watch faces. On the flip side, the slightest brush of your hands can change your chosen watch face.

The watch includes advanced features Bluetooth calling, health monitoring and voice assistant compatible with Google Assistant and Siri. Apart from the regular health tracking features like SpO2, blood pressure, stress, sleep and heart rate, it also includes menstrual cycle tracking. It also tracks sports such as Running, Walking, Climbing, Treadmill, Cycling, Spinning, Yoga, Basketball, Football, and Basketball. Activity tracking records include steps, kilometres and calories burnt. Many of these may not be accurate but are close enough for all practical purposes. There are of course the regular features like stopwatch, alarm and others. You can also play and pause music or operate the camera on the smartphone with the watch. The watch provides up to seven days of battery life.

RATING

WE’RE IMPRESSED Good value for money, neat design, good features for the price

WE’D IMPROVE Accuracy of sensor

THE LAST WORD An entry-level smartwatch that exceeds expectations

Ambrane Debuts FitShot series with Zest Smartwatch

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Ambrane has announced the FitShot series smartwatches in India and launched the first model Zest featuring voice assistant in addition to calling, menstrual cycle tracking and real-time health tracking. The device is available on Flipkart and comes with 365 days of warranty.

Priced at ₹4999, the Smartwatch is available in three colour options — Black, Blue, and Pink. “We are a customer-focused firm that focuses on products that sync with the needs of today’s generation. We are thrilled to debut the FitShot series, with each watch featuring its own distinct set of features tailored to individual needs. The newest FitShot Zest is everything this generation would desire in a smartwatch,” says Sachin Railhan, Director, Ambrane India.

FitShot Zest comes with a 1.7″ lucid display and stylish design. The device supports 24*7 real-time Health Tracking which includes – SpO2, Blood Pressure, Sleep, Heart rate monitoring and many more. Steps tracker, calories burned and activity history are also included. The Smartwatch comes with a unique menstrual cycle tracking that easily records and tracks the female cycles. It has a water resistance rating of IP67, making it resistant to dust and water.

The watch lets the users to choose the watch face from 60+ cloud-based watch faces and use their own customised watch faces. The Smartwatch is voice assistance enabled and comes equipped with the Bluetooth calling feature that allows the users to stay connected anytime, anywhere. Users can control music playback and camera functions on a paired smartphone directly from the wearable. The device also supports 10 sports modes.

Once fully charged, the Smartwatch can last up to 7 days of use. The device can manage music, calls and more through the several smart notifications on the screen.

Review: Just Corseca Ray K’anabis Smartwatch

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Price: ₹8,599

India being a price-conscious market, it is no surprise that low-priced smart gadgets manage to get quite popular with e-retailers. Just Corseca’s Ray K’anabis is a great-looking smartwatch among these.

The Ray K’anabis is well-designed watch with a rugged look and clean finish, unlike many other Chinese origin watches in the category, though it looks like a clone of the Amazfit Huami watch. The device offers IP68 water resistance and a 1.28-inch 240×240 pixel IPS display. You get a wide range of watch faces, which include a few decent classy ones too. Features include monitors for Blood Pressure, SpO2, Heart rate, and Menstrual cycle along with Sports and Sleep trackers. You can easily make calls from the watch and control music on your phone. The watch can be paired with an Android or iOS phone with Da Fit app, which seems to be the app of choice for a few brands in the same segment such as FireBoltt. However, we found these watches to be exactly the same under the hood, including the interface and features.

Coming to performance, the watch was easy to pair, and basic features performed as expected. The display was quite responsive to touch. We could control music and operate the camera on the phone via the watch. However, the sensors turned out to be far from being accurate. While the sleep tracker in our review unit had the tendency to add a few extra hours, the step counter would miss a large percentage of my daily steps. Heart rate was normal during workout and jumped up when I was at rest. Exercise tracker allows you to track walking, running, cycling, skipping, badminton, basketball, and football. We wonder why other sports modes are not included, especially swimming, considering that the device advertises an IP68 ingress protection rating even in saltwater.

The watch houses a 400 mAh battery that offers about 10 days of use with continuous heart rate switched on, but this is at the expense of an always-on display. Just Corseca Ray K’anabis is not a cheap smartwatch, especially when prices have come down recently. At just under ₹9,000 there are many smartwatches from established brands you can choose from.

RATING

★★★

WE’RE IMPRESSED Rugged looks, IP68 rating, good display, responsive interface

WE’D IMPROVE Accuracy of sensors, set of features, price

THE LAST WORD The Ray K’anabis sells at a segment where the final consideration is the price. Unfortunately for a basic smartwatch, the price brings it in direct competition with a few of the established and reputed brands.