WITHit Deca smartwatch review

REVIEW – I have always been a big fan of watches.  I have worn a watch off and on ever since I was a young boy because I just like having a timepiece on my wrist.  I was particularly fond of my various Fossil watches, but it became kindof a hassle when it was time to change the battery, sometimes multiple batteries, without taking it to a jeweler. And the watches got bigger and bigger, which sometimes was a hassle when my shirt cuff wouldn’t fit over the watch, so my interest in watches sort of waned. But then smartwatches came on the scene, and my inner geek got excited again! I tried the very first Samsung smartwatch because I am an Android guy, and I loved it, and I tried other smartwatches too of various shapes and sizes. Those first generations of smartwatches didn’t have the best battery life, and it was a pain all the time having to charge them so often.  So my interest waned again. Then I moved on to fitness trackers to track my health data and find out how lousy I am sleeping (anybody out there feel me?).  I particularly like the Fitbit devices, and they do a great job of tracking all that health data.  But using a Fitbit made me fall in love again with having a timepiece on my wrist, although the Fitbit isn’t really a true smartwatch.  So I decided to give it a go with the new WITHit Deca smartwatch. At a price of $52, I wasn’t expecting much, but it sure does look and feel nice.  Let’s see how it turned out.

What is it?

The WITHit Deca is a smartwatch that can answer calls, respond to emails and text messages, control your music, provide fitness information, count your steps, monitor your heart rate, track your sleep, and more.

What’s in the box?

• The WITHit smartwatch
• USB charging cable

Tech specifications

• AMOLED 1.43″ high-definition touchscreen display
• 466 x 466 resolution
• Magnetic rapid charger included
• 1.77 inch base metal case
• Silicone band with quick-release technology
• Water resistance of up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes
• Free WITHit Smartwatch App compatible with Android 5.0+ and iOS 9.0+
• Compatible with 22mm Samsung Universal watch bands
• 2-Year Product Guarantee

Design and features

The WITHit smartwatch is a watch, first and foremost.  So if all you want is a simple watch that’s affordable, this watch would suffice.  You can turn off all the smart features and disconnect it from your smartphone and just use it as a watch if you want.  I mean, you’re gonna want to connect it to your smartphone, don’t get me wrong, but you get my point.  WITHit offers both a round face smartwatch called the Deca (this is the one I got) and a squarish face smartwatch called the Giga that has a slightly larger screen. I prefer a round watch face because at first glance it looks just like a normal watch.  I think that square face smartwatches are easily recognized as a smartwatch, like the Apple Watch.  I suppose it’s just a personal preference, but I do like a round watch face.

The battery life is excellent, and with normal use, I can get about 5 days or so. Of course how much battery life you get will depend on whether you leave the screen on full-time, how much you interact with it, how many of the features you use to monitor your health data, etc.  But I am pleased with the battery.

The watch band that came with it (you can buy additional bands, of course) is a solid black silicone band that is comfortable to wear. It fits me great, but I would guess that people with very large wrists might find it a bit tight. WITHit says that the Deca is water resistant (IP68) for up to 30 min at a time, at a depth of no more than 5 feet.  I don’t swim with a watch or use one in a water environment so I couldn’t test this, but if you exercise with the Deca then you’ll be fine even if you sweat a lot or it’s raining.

The Deca comes with a smartphone app that is very nice. The list of features in the app is extensive, and you can control them on the watch or through the app if you want.  The feature list of what you can do with the Deca and the companion app is so long, I thought I would just list them in bullet point form so I don’t miss anything.

• Initiate and receive phone calls. (This works quite well in a pinch.)
• Get text message notifications (you can’t respond though)
• Control your music
• Track your calorie burn
• Track your sleep data
• Track your heart rate
• Monitor your stress level
• Monitor your breathing
• Monitor your blood oxygen
• Check the weather
• Control your phone camera
• Check your calendar
• A calculator
• A flashlight (your watch face turns bright white!)
• Count your steps
• Set alarms, timers, and a stopwatch
• Set reminders for getting up to move and drinking water
• Find your phone
• A world clock
• GPS tracking for exercise modes
• Load what is called an ‘e-card’, which can be like a QR code for Venmo, Whatsapp, etc, something you would use regularly.
• For women… you can monitor your menstrual cycle
• Change the watch face design between 43 pre-created designs, or load your own image from your smartphone picture gallery (you can see that in the picture above of my wife and I on the watch!)
• Finally, the exercise monitoring is quite extensive. I have included a screenshot below so you can see it. The app will even show you a map of the path you took on your exercise activity, like a run or a walk.

Here are some screenshots from the app:

On the side of the watch, you’ll see 2 buttons.  The top button is a rotating dial/button that you can either press or turn like a watch dial to accomplish certain things.  For example,e if you are just looking at the watch face, you can rotate the dial to switch between watch faces that you have loaded from the app.  If you pull up the feature menu on the watch, you can rotate the dial to scroll through the menu items.  But although you can use the dial to scroll through menus, I do find it easier to just use my finger to swipe and scroll up and down on the watch face, and the watch is very responsive to my touch.

The second button on the side serves a couple of purposes.  If you press the button multiple times it toggles between the watch face and pulling up your exercise menu to quickly pick your exercise activity. If you hold this button down it will also pull up the option to swipe between watch faces that you have downloaded from the app.  I should note one thing about this button that kind of annoys me.  I was finding from time to time that the watch face design changed without me having changed it.  I couldn’t figure it out at first, but then I realized what was happening.  The button on the side of the watch was being accidentally held down as I was moving my wrist in the normal movement of my hands.  And the watch was being moved such that the button was being pressed against my arm/wrist (depending on which arm I had the watch on) and held down, and then a stray swipe on the watch face was effectively changing the watch face design without me even knowing I did it.  Not a big deal, but mystery solved.

Finally, I will say that I am very pleased with the responsiveness of the watch. My touches/swipes on the watch face are smooth and responsive, and that hasn’t been the case with more expensive smartwatches that I have owned.  Also, I don’t set the Deca to have the watch face on the whole time, so I have to raise my arm to activate the watch face.  And this works every time I raise my arm.  It’s quite nice honestly, because even with much more expensive watches/Fitbits that I have owned, I would have to raise my arm multiple times to get the watch face to turn on.  The Deca just works!

What I like about the WITHit Deca smartwatch

• It’s comfortable and easily fits my wrist
• The screen is large, customizable, easy to read, and responsive
• The feature list is amazing
• Amazing price!

What I would change

• More watch face choices!
• Being able to respond to text messages instead of just reading them.
• Accidentally changing the watch face because of the stray touches on the side button is a tad annoying.

Final thoughts

If you want a smartwatch at a great price that provides a ton of features that you can customize, the WITHit Deca smartwatch should be on your short list.  Its price of $65 is so much cheaper than the name brand smartwatches, and what you get for that price is amazing. In addition to that, there is great battery life and a comfortable fit, and there’s not much that’s lacking with this watch.  It would be nice to have more watch face choices than the 43 that it comes with, but that’s a little thing. Overall, I highly recommend this watch!

Price: $65.00
Where to buy: Buy on the WITHit website.
Source: The sample of this product was provided by WITHit.WITHit  did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.