As the environment all around us slowly deteriorates, people have started looking at tech to help them lead a healthy lifestyle. From buying air purifiers to get some relief from the polluted air to wearing fitness trackers to keep their health in check, people are looking for help wherever they can find. As a result, companies catering to such needs have also gone up significantly. Timex, an old name when it comes to wristwatches, is now looking to carve a place for itself in the fitness wearable space. With good fitness bands already available in the market, does the brand new Timex Blink stand a chance? We put it to the test.
Timex Blink design
Timex has gone with a simple design consisting of two elements: a curved stainless steel core, and a user-replaceable strap. The company provides 2 straps in the box – you have a metal strap that is attached to the device and a silicon band included alongside. The bright coloured silicone strap is good to look at and is suitable to be worn during workouts while the metal mesh band goes well with formals. Providing two bands is a plus in our books, as it gives you the option to swap it to suit your outfit. Both the bands have a quick release pin that can be used to swap bands without any issues. Once secured properly both the straps hold on well and we haven’t had any issues with the core falling off. However, we did notice that the pins aren’t secured in the metal strap and fall out easily.
The core has a rectangular display on the front and a capacitive touch button underneath. We liked the touch-sensitive display on the Ambrane Flexi Fit which made it convenient to use the band, but you have to make do without one here. There is no heart-rate sensor at the back of the Timex Blink, so it will only be capable of tracking steps and computing calories burned. At the back, you do get a Micro-USB port covered under a thick rubber flap for water resistance.
Timex Blink performance
Like most other wearables, the display on the Timex Blink automatically detects when you raise your wrist and lights up the display to show the time – or is supposed to, anyway. In practice, we found the lift to wake function to be highly erratic and had to tap the button to wake the device up. Apart from time, the first screen on the Timex Blink gives you information about the date and the battery status. You can tap the capacitive touch button to see more information like the number of steps taken, distance travelled, and calories burned. The band does sleep tracking as well, but the data is only available via the companion smartphone app, available for both iOS and Android.
Pairing the band with the app is fairly easy – the app sends the band a pairing request which needs to be accepted by pressing the button on the band. The process did not go as smoothly as we expected and we needed to restart the phone to get it going. Once paired, you can enter all your details such as height, weight and stride length to help the band better calculate calories burned etc. You also get the option to enable notifications on the band which notifies you when you get alerts on the phone. You can even set alarms via the app – the band will buzz 5 times at the set time before automatically setting a snooze for 5 minutes later if you do not acknowledge it. Overall, the app looks good and the first screen displays a lot of information at one go, however, navigating through all the options isn’t all that easy.
Tracking on the Timex Blink isn’t very accurate – on most occasions we observed that the step count was lower than we counted. Even when testing the device alongside a Mi Band 2, the step count was a little lower. The lack of a heart-rate scanner means that you don’t get the option to track that while working out. There is auto sleep tracking and the band goes into tracking mode automatically. Sleep is segregated into light sleep and deep sleep to give you an idea of your quality of sleep. You even get notified of calls along with the caller name scrolling across the screen, a feature not all budget trackers offer.
Battery life on the Blink is slightly on the lower side and the 90mAh battery on the band will last you only a week before needing charge. Thankfully the Micro-USB port is convenient for charging the device up. One thing that the band provides over other wearables is the SOS feature. While setting up, the app asks you to select contacts for the SOS feature. Setting it up isn’t easy as it requires you to manually type in the number and the email of the recipient. Once set, long pressing the button on the band sends an SOS to the saved contact along with last known location.
Verdict
The Timex Blink is a very basic wearable backed by a known brand. It has basic step and sleep tracking and a handy SOS function that might come handy in emergency situations. With two bands in the box, you also get the option to choose what goes well with your outfit. However, tracking seems to be off by a little and it misses out on a heart-rate scanner that reduces its usability a little bit. At the price that Timex is demanding, you are better off looking at the Mi Band 2 or an Ambrane Flexi Fit.
Pros
- Micro-USB port is convenient for charging
- SOS feature can be handy
Cons
- Lift-to-wake gesture does not work
- Overpriced
- No heart-rate sensor
Ratings (Out of 5)
- Design: 3
- Tracking: 2.5
- Other Features: 2.5
- Overall: 2.5
[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]
