lWe analyze one of the best value smartwatches on the market, the Zeblaze Crystal, a wearable with a multitude of features and functionalities.
Zeblaze Crystal, an inexpensive smartwatch
The Zeblaze Crystal is one of the best-selling smartwatches in online stores. Its success is understood by the perfect combination between seductive design, interesting features and really attractive price.
This smartwatch is presented in a rigid cardboard box with rough texture that conveys the feeling of being, within what you would expect in this price range, a careful product.
Inside we find the documentation (a simple paper accordion with instructions in English and Chinese), a micro USB cable and a power adapter, an accessory to charge the device or connect it to the computer and finally the smartwatch with the strap.
As we will see in this review of the Zeblaze Crystal, it is an economical smartwatch that has several functionalities oriented to the monitoring of the health of the user.
Design
The Zeblaze Crystal is a unisex smartwatch with a modern design with rounded lines. It is 49 mm high and 41’5 wide. As for thickness, a very relevant feature when using this type of wearables, it stays at 10.9 mm. It is also a very light accessory: it only weighs 47 grams.
It is IP65 certified to guarantee splash and sweat resistance, and is built with stainless steel and glass. It is a good complement to perform land sports, such as running or other varieties of athletics, but it is not designed specifically for water sports.
It is available in three color combinations. Black with metallic details – the one we had the opportunity to analyze in Computer Hoy – has an elegant and discreet look. The white and gold version is more feminine and the silver version has a convincing finish.
As for the strap, the manufacturer ensures that the material used is leather, but we have not been able to identify with certainty whether it is genuine or synthetic leather. In any case, the feeling to the touch is a bit austere, although it does not produce chafing or any other similar inconvenience.
The Zeblaze Crystal is a smartwatch with an attractive and very light design. Dimensions are within reasonable limits and not too bulky on the wrist. Regarding the strap, it fulfills its function, it is comfortable to use, but the leather is of medium quality and users with narrow arms may need to add an extra hole to adjust it correctly.
Hardware and performance
Inside this smartwatch we find a single-core Mediatek MTK2502 processor that offers excellent performance, especially if you take into account the price value of the device. During the analysis of the Zeblaze Crystal we have not noticed lags or any other defects related to the chipset.
The touch screen is the main element of this watch. It has 1.54 inches and integrates a 240 x 240 pixel LCD panel. It allows up to five different levels of brightness and is visible outdoors, also on sunny days. On the other hand, it does not have «always on» technology, that is, it shuts down after a few seconds of inactivity.
Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity allows you to always keep your device connected to your smartphone and has a range radius between 6 and 10 meters. This technology manages the battery more efficiently than previous versions, so the user can always be in sync without worrying about whether or not to arrive at the end of the day.
The most interesting sensors at the Zeblaze Crystal are the pedometer, which provides all kinds of functions to measure the user’s physical activity; and a heart rate monitor located on the back of the smartwatch, in contact with the skin. It also integrates a fairly powerful speaker that will play acoustic signals to alert you to incoming calls, notifications and other smartphone activity.
Finally, the hardware is powered by a 280mAh battery that provides 120 minutes of continuous call and up to 72 hours in standby time. Our experience in reviewing Zeblaze Crystal confirms this autonomy, reaching even almost three days of moderate use.
To charge the battery, the watch has an accessory that connects to the power via a conventional micro-USB cable. This stand is very easy to use and can complete the load in just over an hour and a half.
Functions and software
The Crystal works with Zeblaze’s own software that syncs with the user’s smartphone through an app compatible with iOS and Android devices. In the smartwatch’s application menu is the MainUITHEME function that will allow you to switch between two different versions of the operating system: a flat design, more modern, and a more classic one with retro icons.
This smartwatch has several interesting functions. The most conventional are: audio recorder, calculator, stopwatch, contact book, SMS inbox, alarm, calendar and a notification manager. All these tools have proven to be reliable and very comfortable to use from the touch dial of the watch.
Some features that have caught our attention – although they are not necessarily innovative – are: remote capture, which allows you to take pictures with your mobile camera from the watch screen; the music player, which allows you to stop or resume, move forward or backward and turn up or down the volume of the audio tracks; and search for a device, which is beeping on our smartphone to locate it quickly.
The Zeblaze Crystal has been designed for two main uses: smartphone management and user health monitoring. As for the first one, we can configure to our liking the notifications and notifications of missed calls and unread SMS, we can answer calls, listen to our interlocutor through the speaker and also consult the contact book.
This smartwatch is able to monitor parameters of the health and physical condition of the user thanks to the pedometer and the heart rate monitor. This sensor is quite accurate when measuring our beats and provides realistic statistics on user activity. The sleep monitor is a function that records sensor information at night and releases approximate data on sleep quality.
Fundo Wear
The Zeblaze Crystal syncs with our smartphone through a mobile app compatible with iOS and Android devices, Fundo Wear. It can be downloaded directly from Google Play or the App Store, but the manufacturer has also included in the smartwatch a QR code that allows us to install directly on our phone the APK for our operating system.
From the main interface of Fundo Wear we can check the activity that the pedometer has detected (steps, calories consumed and distance traveled) and see our progress with the sports challenges that we have previously assumed, such as walking a certain number of steps.
In the drop-down menu we find the function «Heart Rate», from where it is possible to check the records of the sensors on different days. The «Set Goals» function allows you to set a target between 4,000 and 20,000 steps per day in multiples of 500. Depending on the goals set by the user, the app will indicate whether the challenge is low intensity, moderate intensity or high intensity.
In short, the Fundo Wear app of the Zeblaze Crystal allows us to synchronize the data of the smartwatch with the smartphone to take advantage of the functions aimed at improving the health of the user. From this interface you can also configure the notifications and alerts that will be shown to you on the smartwatch, although the software does not always synchronize with the device at the first attempt.