Noise ColorFit Pro 3 is priced at Rs 3,998. (Photo credit: Shruti Dhapola) The wearables market (wristbands, smartwatches and TWS buds) has exploded in India with research firm IDC reporting that smartwatches as a category grew 400 per cent, maybe at the cost of smart bands. It is safe to assume that most users want a smart watch or are looking to upgrade to one.
The leader in this space is homegrown brand Noise. Its ColorFit Pro 3 watch comes with many features and specifications that one would find on more expensive watches from Apple and Samsung.
The ColorFit Pro 3 offers continuous heart-rate monitoring, is swim-ready and water-resistant, and also does blood oxygen monitoring. The last one on the list has become doubly important in the COVID-19 pandemic. But how does the watch perform? Here’s my review.
Noise ColorFit Pro 3 can measure your heart rate. (Photo credit: Shruti Dhapola)
ColorFit Pro 3 review: What’s good?
The smart watch sports a rectangular shape and at first glance will remind one of the Apple Watch like many others in the market. The watch has a polycarbonate case with a metallic finish on top. It is quite sturdy and you won’t damage it so easily. The watch is very light to wear, though the metallic paint on the case is prone to scratches.
The green strap variant looks quite stylish for a budget smartwatch. But it was not the most comfortable to wear. The watch has 1.55-inch HD display with 320*360 resolution and is bright enough for use, no matter the lighting conditions. The watch animations are quick, it responds quickly to touch, and worked smoothly during my usage period. The user interface is easy to understand as well. Smartwatches at times can be frustratingly slow, or tend to freeze, which was never an issue here.
Noise ColorFit Pro 3 has a colour display. (Photo credit: Shruti Dhapola)
You can press the button on the side to access the entire menu or swipe right from the watch face to access some key features such as workouts, your daily step count, heart-rate, control music player on the phone, etc.
The focus here is on fitness activities, and I didn’t expect it to do much from a smartwatch perspective, but I was wrong. The watch did show messages, WhatsApp notifications from my iPhone and I was able to control music as well quite accurately. It also comes with the ability to track your phone.
The watch is packed with features such as Blood oxygen monitoring, continuous heart-rate monitoring, and several exercise modes, including cycling (indoor and outdoor), walking, running, strength training, swimming support, yoga, etc. When I had first set the watch to my iPhone, it did not show strength training as an option. When I reset the watch to an Android, it reflected this.
Noise ColorFit Pro 3 has a punchy display. (Photo credit: Shruti Dhapola)
With exercises such as walking outdoors or indoor cycling or yoga sessions, I found it to be mostly reliable. In fact, the automatic detection for when you are doing outdoor walking is pretty accurate. It would get activated around five minutes after I had started. Just remember to end the sessions when you are done.
The heart-rate tracking was also accurate, especially during my exercise sessions and in line with what I expected. The watch also has blood oxygen monitoring for those who are interested, and I used the feature post COVID-19. I’m not sure about accuracy at all times, because once it showed saturation levels of 92. I’m not sure why the reading was wrong, but it was back to 96 percent ten minutes later.
The strongest feature of this watch is the battery life, which will easily last a week or so, even with heavy-duty usage such as exercising once a day, some notifications coming in, etc.
The Noise app has plenty of watchfaces to choose from as well. It also shows all fitness data from steps to sleep, and detailed inputs for each exercise session.
ColorFit Pro 3 review: What’s not good?
The step count on the watch is not entirely accurate. During a car ride, the numbers really spiked. I noticed that even for periods when I was mostly sitting, the step count sometimes rose by 10-20 steps, which is not ideal.
The sleep tracking was not entirely convincing either, though it does give detailed breakup of deep sleep, light sleep, REM, etc. For some days it showed I slept for more than 9 hours and a longer time duration, which I knew was wrong. Even now when I keep waking up during the night, the watch data doesn’t reflect that very well.
The sleep score and breathing score also needs some further explanation. Is 36 a good breathing score or bad? It’s not very clear, even when I click on the information option.
The app can show more on data, especially for exercise sessions, and perhaps it needs more clarity. It also feels very cluttered. Even with the ‘stress’ feature, which is accurate, but I’m not sure how the watch is calculating this and it could have some more explanation in the app.
Noise ColorFit Pro 3 can control music as well. (Photo credit: Shruti Dhapola)
ColorFit Pro 3 review: Verdict
As a budget smartwatch priced at Rs 4,999, Colorfit Pro 3 comes packed with features and looks quite stylish. The user interface is easy to understand and the watch does the job well. It’s not entirely accurate for steps-tracking based on my experience. If you are looking for a budget smartwatch with all possible features, this is an option to consider.
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