ACHOICE smartwatch review

REVIEW – If you have gone searching for a smartwatch lately, I couldn’t blame you for being overwhelmed.  Of course, there are the mainstream top-of-the-heap smartwatches with the Apple Watch, the Samsung Galaxy Watch, and the forthcoming Pixel Watch from Google, which is getting a considerable amount of buzz.  And although those watches come with class-leading features, they also come with class-leading prices.  So if you look in the budget smartwatch sector, you’ll quickly see that you have more choices than you probably bargained for. Let’s review one of them: the ACHOICE smartwatch.

What is it?

The ACHOICE is a budget smartwatch ($49.99) that at first glance would make you think it is an Apple watch.  But it can be used with both Apple and Android phones.

What’s in the box?

• ACHOICE smartwatch
• 26 inch USB magnetic charging cable

Manufacturer specs

• Model:  ID207 mini
• Screen size: 1.5 inches
• Weight:  5.9 ounces
• Watch size:  .33 inches thick, 1.57 inches tall, 1.25 inches wide
• Phone compatibility:  Android 6.0 and above, iOS 9.0 and above
• 5ATM waterproof
• Battery:  210 mAh Lithium ion. 5-10 days per use, 30 days on standby. 2 hours charge time.
• Bluetooth:  5.1
• Silicon strap

Installation and setup

It was pretty easy to get going with the ACHOICE smartwatch. When you turn it on (by holding down the round button on the side) you will see a QR code that you scan which takes you to the app store where you download the VeryFit app.  The watch uses Bluetooth to communicate with your phone, so when you sit the watch close to your phone (with Bluetooth turned on, of course) then the devices will recognize each other and pair.  Once paired, there are many features and options that you can enable, which I’ll cover in the next section.

Design and features

The ACHOICE at first glance looks like the Apple Watch. In fact, several people noticed me wearing the ACHOICE and asked me if I liked my Apple Watch. But there are some pretty distinct differences between this watch and more expensive watches.

The ACHOICE smartwatch is certainly lighter than the Apple Watch, and the silicon wrist strap is very easy to wear and has lots of notches to fit just about any size wrist. You can also easily remove the strap to place another one.  There is a round button on the side of the watch just like the Apple Watch and pressing it can activate the screen. Aside from activating the screen, the button doesn’t do anything else. On the Apple Watch, you can roll that button to move through menus, press it to select options, hold it down to perform certain functions, etc.  But it doesn’t do much on the ACHOICE except activate the screen.

On the back of the ACHOICE you’ll see the charging connection that uses the magnetic charging USB cable. You’ll also see the heart monitor that has to touch your skin in order for the watch to gather your health data.

Performance

In addition to me using the ACHOICE smartwatch, I asked my wife and my daughter to wear it to compare it to their devices.  My wife wears the FitBit Charge 2 band and my daughter wears the Apple Watch series 3. They both swear by their devices and use them daily, so it was a good test to compare the ACHOICE to more expensive devices. Here are some pics to compare the ACHOICE to the Apple Watch:

While wearing the ACHOICE I discovered that if I didn’t wear it snuggly on my wrist that it wasn’t able to gather health data from my body. My wife and daughter discovered the same thing. My daughter said that she doesn’t have to wear her Apple Watch that snuggly.

All 3 of us used the ACHOICE 24 hrs a day and we all got about 3-4 days use before needing to charge.  ACHOICE says you should get 5-10 days use, but we never got that much.  Having said that, my wife said that battery performance is on par with her FitBit and my daughter said she has to charge her Apple watch basically every day because she uses it constantly. So I think the battery is pretty good on the ACHOICE smartwatch, comparably speaking.

The first thing you’ll notice is that when you navigate the screens on the ACHOICE with your finger, there is a slight lag when swiping or pressing the screen to select an option. It just isn’t as smooth as a more expensive device. My daughter noticed it right away, and she often mis-pressed things she didn’t mean to press because of it.

The list of features on the ACHOICE is pretty impressive. The VeryFit app is great and allows you to set all your watch options without having to navigate through the watch screen. There are 14 exercise modes that you can set, which I found to be sufficient for my needs.  My daughter wanted more choices.  She regularly does things like rock wall climbing and kickboxing at her workout facility and the ACHOICE doesn’t have those, so she found herself choosing the generic “Fitness” mode often. This device is also sold internationally so you’ll find an option for “cricket” should you find yourself standing in front of a wicket with a bat in your hand! My daughter also said that it didn’t appear the ACHOICE was quite as accurate as her Apple Watch. She has a 3 mile path she runs daily and she said her Apple Watch shows she runs right at 3 miles, but the ACHOICE always shows she only runs about 2.75 miles.  And she experienced the same thing with counting her steps.  She thinks the ACHOICE slightly undercounts her steps compared to the Apple Watch.

You can set 3 weather locations for real time info on that. You can use the ‘find my phone’ feature to find where you set your phone down. You can control your music while exercising, which worked great for me. The screen will activate when you lift your wrist, which you would expect. There is an alarm, of course. There are 4 brightness levels, and I had no problem using it outside in bright sunlight. You can change the watch face as well to fit your style, which is very easy to do from the VeryFit app.  It also collects all the standard health data you could expect… heart rate, steps, distance, calories burned, and blood oxygen.  It also can measure your ‘stress level’, which is pretty neat. You can even set the ACHOICE smartwatch to remind you to get up and move and drink some water! It even has a feature called “breathing training” which is a neat way to calm down and relax and slow your breathing.

There is also a ‘family’ feature that you can utilize, which I wasn’t able to test since I only have 1 ACHOICE.  If other family members also have an ACHOICE then you all can connect your watches to the VeryFit app and keep track of each other’s health data.  I imagine that would be a great way to get your kids engaged in healthy activity by challenging each other to get moving and be more healthy.

You can also choose to get notifications from your phone calendar and incoming calls and texts. However, you can’t answer phone calls or respond to text messages like you can on more expensive smartwatches. I found this to be refreshing, honestly.  I used to wear a Samsung Galaxy smartwatch and when I got a text message or call on that watch I felt an obligation to answer, because I could.  I can’t explain it, but it was instinct for that watch to be an extension of my phone so I usually just answered calls and voice responded to text messages on the spot.  My daughter said the same thing about her Apple Watch. What we both experienced with the ACHOICE is that it was nice to get the notification that we got a call and a text message, but it was refreshing to not feel the pressure to respond immediately because we physically couldn’t do that.  Sounds strange, but it was an unexpected benefit to using the ACHOICE.

Finally, the feature that I use the most on the ACHOICE is monitoring my sleep. Every morning I grab my phone to look at the VeryFit app to see many hours I was asleep, how much light sleep I got versus deep sleep, and what my sleep quality was.  It keeps track of months of data so you can compare how your sleep has progressed over time.  My wife and I have taken to comparing our sleep data, motivating us to compete with each other on quality sleep.

What I like

• It is very light and the band can easily fit anyone’s wrist
• The battery is pretty good
• Great price
• Customizable home screen designs
• List of features is long, like stress level, breathing training, weather, music control, and more.
• You can’t reply to text messages or answer calls (some people might put this one in the “what I’d change” section!)

What I’d change

• When swiping the screens there is a slight lag and sometimes you click things you didn’t mean to
• The exercise data wasn’t quite 100% accurate
• There were fewer exercise modes from more expensive smartwatches

Final thoughts

If you want a full-featured smartwatch that you can answer phone calls with, respond to text messages, and maybe even use when you aren’t around your smartphone, then the ACHOICE smartwatch won’t be for you.  But the price of $49.99 gets you a pretty impressive list of features that cover a lot of bases on a budget. If you want to monitor your health and sleep and you are ok with just seeing notifications from calls, messages, and calendar items, and manage your music while exercising, then this watch is a great choice.  And I suppose the fact that at a glance it looks like the Apple Watch doesn’t hurt, right?

Price: $39.99
Where to buy: Amazon (Safe $5 with an instant clip coupon and $8 more with the coupon code: 7JZJIONC  expires 6-19-2022)
Source: The sample for this review was provided by ACHOICE.