boAt Watch Primia Review: BT calling watch now more affordable

A smartwatch with activity tracker and Bluetooth calling, that too under Rs. 5000 sounds a good deal. Budget smartwatches have upgraded their game with a long list of features in the sub Rs. 5,000 price band, giving buyers a variety of options to choose from. While buying a smartwatch under Rs. 5000, we look for smart features like, fitness tracking, activity tracking, notifications and bluetooth calling. And the new Boat Primia seems to be the one that ticks almost all the boxes of requirements. Though the company is specifically known for its audio products, its wearables offering also seems to be pretty impressive. The new Boat Primia is the first bluetooth enabled smartwatch by the brand in the price-sensitive category where Realme, Noise and a few other brands have already made their name. Priced at Rs. 4499, the smartwatch lets you receive and disconnect the call, track your daily activities and perform other basic smartwatch activities. I have been using the new Boat Primia BT enabled smartwatch for days and here’s what I have to say.

boAt Watch Primia: Design and display

As soon as I got the new Boat Primia out of the box, it reminded me of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch. I am really impressed with the design of this device that comes with a chunky, circular design finished in matte black. Its faux leather strap adds to the vibe. It is also available in a blue color option but I liked the black one. Coming to display, the watch has a 1.39 inch always-on AMOLED display (454 x 454 pixels) with ample brightness. It offers vibrant colors and is visible even under direct sunlight. The touch screen is pretty responsive. There are two buttons on the right spine for navigation aside from the touchscreen. The watch feels good and light on the wrist.

boAt Watch Primia: Health and fitness features

The smartwatch brings a handful of features right from basic smartwatch capabilities to bluetooth calling, health tracker, activity tracker, sleep tracker to always-on display, voice assistant and much more. Since, the accuracy of the health tracking features like heart rate monitor, stress monitor and sleep monitor are always in question, I tried to check out almost all the features and guess what! Most of these features work well.

While you can access most of these health and fitness trackers from the watch itself, you will be required to download the Boat Crest App to hook up your smartwatch with Android and Apple smartphones.

One of the features of this device that I really liked is 100 plus watch faces and customizable background.

boAt Watch Primia: Bluetooth calling

The Bluetooth calling works fine. You can receive and disconnect the call from the watch itself. There’s an in-built speaker that lets you attend the call when you’re on the go. You can even dial a call from the watch but there’s one problem that disappoints me -- I couldn’t call someone from the phonebook. I have to dial the number. The other bummer is it gives notifications for around 5 apps only and i have to check my mobile for other apps.

Other than these, flipping through music and capturing images from the watch via smartphone was done seamlessly. The Boat Primia does most of the things that smartwatches do at this price point. The watch comes with an IP67 rating for dust, sweat, and splash resistance.

boAt Watch Primia: Battery

The smartwatch lives up to its claim of having a seven-day battery life on a single charge but the charging time is pretty long. When fully drained out, it takes around 2 and half hours to get fully charged.

Verdict

The Boat Primia BT smartwatch offers everything that you expect from a budget smartwatch. With the clean and easy to use interface, it certainly can be a great choice, if you’re looking for a budget smartwatch under Rs. 5000. The accuracy of health and fitness trackers are also decent. The key differentiators are the companion app that is quite user friendly, the stylish look, AMOLED display with ample brightness and bluetooth connectivity.