PLAYFIT SW75 review: Feature-rich budget smartwatch with impressive design

PLAYFIT SW75 is obviously a great-looking smartwatch with accurate tracking and more-than-decent battery. For beginners, it is a good choice to begin smartwatch journey

Wearables have seamlessly blended in our everyday life and unsurprisingly, the number of companies making them have proliferated. One of the latest in the fray is a Delhi-based tech start-up 'PLAY' who recently launched its PLAYFIT SW75 Smartwatch. We reviewed it for a few weeks and here's how it fared.

Design

From the get-go, you can see that the smartwatch's design is inspired by the best there is -- Apple Watch. Right from the square-shaped body to curved edges, PLAY's SW75 smartwatch is Apple Watch through and through complete with stainless-steel casing. When the screen isn't lit, it gives the look of a bezel-less watch. At 2,999, you wouldn't normally expect such a premier look. There is a metallic button on each side (left to enter an option, and right to exit it).

For display, you get a 1.3-inch touch LCD panel with a resolution of 260x260 that's bright enough even in full daylight. The display is protected by 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 3 -- another premium feature. The watch comes with silicon straps with double socket buckle so it can fit anyone's wrists. 

Like almost all smartwatches nowadays, the watch is water-resistant up to 50m. The watch is big but not bulky and hence really comfortable. To wake up the display you can either tap it or lift your wrist. The touch is fine but I noticed a discernible lag between lifting my wrist and the display actually waking up. 

Performance

PLAYFIT SW75 can track up to 14 sports mode: walk, run, bike, hike, cycling, basketball, football, badminton, dance, climbing, treadmill, spinning, cardio, and even yoga. Glaringly enough, the swim mode is missing. That shouldn't be a downer though. In terms of tracking, the step and run trackers were quite accurate and reliable. The heart rate monitor works fine. There is also a nice little addition called the 'relax' mode which guides you through a short inhale-exhale routine.

Apart from that you have your regular alarm, music controller, timer, and a record book of sorts. You can also modify basic settings from the watch itself. This includes watch faces -- of which there are only four with apparently no way to add new ones-- brightness, and long-press action. Swipe down, and you can get the summary of your day's progress. Swipe up and you have your phone notifications. Overall, the interface is really simple and elegant.

To get a detailed and historical insight of your progress, you need to pair the watch with PlayFIT app on your phone. You can also track your sleep pattern on the app, but it's a very simplified one with the total hours of sleep sliced into deep sleep, light sleep, and awake hours. That's about it. PLAY can obviously offer more in this segment in its future iterations. A unique feature that SW75 provides is female health care that keeps track of the menstrual cycle and report irregularities. The app is a simple one, much like the watch itself, with the essentials done nicely and stripped of all the frills.

Battery

PLAY promises "10-15 working days" with SW75's 210 mAH battery. I used the watch for a couple weeks and had to charge it only once despite using the basic features at all times and the heart rate monitoring at least twice or thrice a day. In that sense, the battery backup is sublime. 

Verdict

PLAYFIT SW75 is obviously a great-looking smartwatch with accurate tracking and more-than-decent battery. There is obviously the missing swim mode, delayed reaction on wrist lift, and limited watch faces, but at Rs 2,999, you do get an otherwise great set with a big display. If you are a beginner, it's a great place to begin your smartwatch journey with. If not, PLAY still holds a good promise regarding what it can come up with in future.