After the global pandemic, two markets have grown on a massive scale and those are the smartwatch market and wireless earphone market. Where the health tracking and monitoring part is constant for every smartwatch available on the market irrespective of the price, the calling feature was available in the premium watch only. At this point, companies like Inbase took the stand to make this feature available in the budget segment as well.
In the second week of March, Inbase launched the Urban LYF M Smartwatch packed with all the required health tracking and monitoring sensors along with Bluetooth Calling and Voice assistant support, which is also under Rs.4,999 price segment. The Urban LYF M Smartwatch costs Rs.3,999 and is available in three colour options. There is a Black Dial with a Blackstrap, Rose Gold Dial with a Violet Strap, and a Silver Dial with a Grey Strap.
I have been experiencing the grey strap model of the smartwatch for over a couple of weeks and now sharing what I have observed to date in this review.
Features
- 1.69-inch IPS Touch Display
- 200+ Cloud-based and customisable watch faces
- Bluetooth Calling
- Built-in microphone and speaker
- Dialerpad, recent calls, quick contacts
- Notification Alerts
- Voice Assistant support
- Up to 8 days of battery life
- SpO2, Heart Rate, Sleep Monitoring, Blood pressure, Calories
- Multiple Sports Modes
- IP67 Water Resistance
In the Box
- The Urban LYF M
- Charging Cable
- Paperworks
Design & Build
Among the three options, I got Silver Dial with a Grey Strap model. This smartwatch has a metallic hard frame and rests managed with good quality plastic build. The edges of the scene are slightly curved. So, every swipe gesture feels smooth. The rotating crown, on the right, is placed well. The built-in microphone and speaker are right and left sides respectively.
The rubber strap is soft and gentle to the skin. With the long usage, there was no uneasiness at all. The good part is the strap is easily replaceable. Just need to move the sliders of each side to detach it from the smartwatch body.
In addition, this wearable device is IP67 certified. So, it is completely safe from splashes and sweats. I didn’t try putting splashes intentionally, but I used it in some sweaty conditions. The watch is working fine.
Display
The Urban LYF M smartwatch from Inbase has a 1.69-inch IPS display with 240×280 resolution. The brightness is sufficient for a clear look at the details on the screen, however, in harsh sunlight conditions needs to bring the wrist closer sometimes to read. I will put the screen quality in between decent and premium. If you are not accustomed to the AMOLED screens, the screen will be good to serve all your needs with ease.
The screen is touch-sensitive as well, so managing all the things with the tap and swipe gestures are very easy. The touch response is very accurate and works smoothly. Within this long time of usage, the Urban LYF M smartwatch never misses responding to any gesture.
In short, the display and touch of the Urban LYF M smartwatch are good at below Rs.5,000 price segment.
Fitness & Tracking
There are eight sports modes to explore that include Walking, Running, Cycling, Skipping, Badminton, Basketball, Yoga, and football. Frankly speaking, I’m not a sports person at all. So, tested the steps counter for walking only. It works pretty accurately which is easily acceptable for any smartwatch.
Other than the sports modes, the smartwatch has multiple other health tracking sensors too. We can measure heart rate, blood pressure, and SpO2, and monitor sleep quality as well. To make these sensors active, need to swipe the smartwatch screen towards the left and tap on the respective icon to start measuring. There is an option for continuous heart-rate measuring, but have to enable from the mobile application.
Bluetooth Calling & Microphone
It is the main highlight of this Urban LYF M smartwatch. This Bluetooth Calling feature not only allows you to take or reject the calls but also to communicate directly from your wrist. Alongside, facilities such as the dialer, recent calls, and favourite contacts.
The connectivity during the calls remains solid. Both the microphone and speaker work decently. In low noise environments, the communication was good for me. The microphone picked up my words clearly, but the range between mouth and wrist must be maintained for the best calling experience.
As a bonus, we can use the speaker for media as well, if you want to do so.
Software
Two software are there – the first is the OS and the second is the mobile application. The operating system works fine with the provided hardware. Every screen transition is perfect. Along with it, the animations are also good. In the music player, the Play/Pause button remains the same, no matter if the track is playing or paused. This is the only part I noticed that needs to fix.
Coming to the mobile application – the Urban smartwatches use the DaFit application to monitor or analyse the tracked data. This application allows to get the battery level, set the favourite contacts, and alarm, manage notifications, pick and apply watch faces, customise those, and so on. The interface is good and friendly. So, accessing all the options from the application is not a problem.
Other
Apart from the above-mentioned features, this smartwatch packs a lot more other features. It has support for Google Assistant. Along with your smartphone notifications, it makes the weather report available on the screen. There is breathing exercise guidance, a stopwatch, an alarm, and a flashlight. All these features work nicely. The only condition is the smartwatch should be connected to your smartphone most of the time and should be placed in your wrist properly.
Battery life
As per the company claim, the Urban LYF M can run for up to 8 days and take around 2 hours to get the charge back. In my case, keeping the calling feature enabled for the watch went for two days long and went for 6six days after keeping it disabled fully.
Inbase is providing a magnetic charger for it. The charge refilling process took almost two hours.
The average battery life of this smartwatch is very good. With the mixed usage charging it every three to four days will be enough and it happened to me too.
Verdict
At Rs.3,999 cost the Inbase Urban LYF M Smartwatch is offering the Bluetooth Calling feature combined with the other health-tracking features. It also manages to provide sufficient battery life too. Altogether, it’s a good pocket-friendly package to experience calling directly from your wrist.
Inbase Store: https://amzn.to/3xGdKYp
