Among the crowd of cheap smartwatches, Fire-Boltt’s Phoenix Ultra stands out. This is mainly because of two factors – price and design. The smartwatch is currently available in India for Rs. Priced at $2,199, it’s one of the most affordable smartwatches around, with a classic watch design and a metal body that feels familiar and looks more like a traditional watch than a smartwatch. I’m excited to see how such a device is offered at this price point, but after a few weeks of using it, I’m wondering how it’s done.
Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra Price, Design and Specs
The Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra is currently available as a single option with an official price of Rs. 2,999, but it can be bought for as low as Rs. 2,199 from online retailers. Fire-Boltt supplies the smartwatch with a silicone strap, a supermagnetic metal loop strap, and a two-pin magnetic charger (included in the box).
The smartwatch is available in three case finishes: steel, black, and gold. These finishes come with various strap combinations in the box. I received the steel case with a magnetic blue metal strap and a soft gray silicone strap.
Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra features metal housing and 3D curved display glass
At first glance, the steel face of the 44mm case does look elegant, very similar to a traditional timepiece. The metal case has a surprisingly good finish for an entry-level smartwatch, without any sharp or rough edges. The back of the case is made of plastic, with the sensor in the very center and the metal charging contacts closer to the edge above it. The Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra weighs 55 grams without the strap and is rated IP67 for dust and water resistance.
The Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra comes with a metal and silicone strap, which is fairly comfortable to wear without feeling heavy. The 22mm silicone strap has a quick release to secure it to the case. The metal loop band has strong magnets to hold the watch in place. During the review period, the watch never came loose no matter which strap I was using.
Fire-Boltt also provides an extra magnetic metal loop strap in the box
The Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra has a fairly basic 1.39-inch LCD display with a resolution of 240 by 240 pixels and a standard refresh rate of 60Hz. It has some really thick bezels around it, and the display in my device seems to be misaligned because the bottom bezel is much thicker than the other bezels.
Smartwatches have just one button, and pressing it either wakes up the display and shows the watch face, or turns off the display. If you’re in any other menu or app in the watch interface, pressing the button takes you right back to the watch face.
Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra Software and Performance
The Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra offers a very basic software interface. While it lacks any support for third-party apps, even the basics aren’t covered here. For example, there is no way to set a display timeout on the watch, which is set to five seconds by default. There’s also no basic calculator app. I can’t even check the charge status of the watch.
The Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra needs to be disconnected from the charger to view the watch face, which is the only place where the battery status is displayed. Setting an alarm, timer or stopwatch requires entering the settings menu, which is one level down from the main menu.
The display on the Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra appears to be misaligned
Navigating this simple software interface using swipe gestures is very easy, which is why the purpose of the crown is reduced to simply powering the display on or off, as the swipe-to-wake gesture also works just fine.
Moving on to the companion app, it’s as basic as a smartwatch’s UI and available for iOS and Android smartphones. The Da Fit app consists of three main sections – Today, Device Settings and My (basically the user’s profile). Setting up the app with an Android smartphone is a fairly simple experience, except you have to lock the app in your phone’s Recents menu to continue receiving notifications on your watch.
Da Fit companion app has a simple interface
The Today page displays readings from your Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra, including steps, sleep, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and activity history. The device settings section lets you change watch faces, adjust notifications, set alarms, and more. There’s an important section here called “Other” that lets me set the time format, unit system, DnD timing, continuous heart rate setting intervals, and most importantly auto-lock or display sleep settings, which are not accessible on the watch.
Since the Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra doesn’t have built-in GPS, GPS-connected workouts like outdoor runs or walks can only be done through the Da Fit mobile app. I did find it odd that the watch never synced the data to the app unless you went into the mobile app and swipe down to refresh the data in the “Today” section.
The watch face gallery has some preloaded watch faces (including one for Mahendra Singh Dhoni), but opening the online gallery using the mobile app gave me access to more downloadable watch faces, which seemed more interesting. However, I was not able to download and install the watch faces, even though they are only 159kb in size. During this time, neither the smartwatch nor the app can be accessed, which can be frustrating.
It’s hard to tell which app a notification is coming from on the Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra
Notifications from smartwatches are cut off. But it’s hard to tell which app they’re from because there’s no clear icon to indicate the same. Setting a timer on the smartphone will also push continuous notifications every second, filling up the notification menu on the smartwatch.
Fitness tracking is another reason most users choose a smartwatch today. Sadly, my experience with the Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra was far from perfect. For starters, the watch only offers two automatic health monitoring features. The first is sleep monitoring, which attempts to provide detailed sleep stage data or reports, such as deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep, etc.
However, I found this stat to be far from accurate, as the watch often counted the time I was resting in bed (before falling asleep) as sleep time, so the resulting figures were inaccurate. Continuous heart rate monitoring is another automatic health-tracking feature, and it’s customizable, letting you choose intervals.
Routine heart rate measurements are inaccurate, inconsistent and highly unreliable compared to measurements provided by standalone oximeters. SpO2 readings are more reliable, but still inconsistent.
Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra offers up to 123 exercise modes for fitness tracking. I tried basic step tracking using the walk workout mode, and the watch managed to detect 505 steps instead of 500, which seems fine for a smartwatch at this price. However, this isn’t the smartwatch I’d pick for health and fitness tracking.
Bluetooth calling worked as expected, and setting it up didn’t require me to pair the watch with my Android smartphone twice. The caller’s voice was loud and clear, but couldn’t tell I was calling from the smartwatch.
Magnetic charger fits snugly in place when charging Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra
In terms of battery life, I found the Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra to live up to its claimed 7-day battery life. This is possible mainly because the watch offers few automatic health tracking features, as most of them must be activated manually. Even data synchronization doesn’t happen automatically. Daily battery drain is around 15-20%, which includes a short workout and sleep tracking. Automatic heart rate monitoring, despite its warnings, doesn’t seem to affect battery life significantly if I set its interval to 30 minutes. Charging the Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra does take a while. When connected to a 33W charger, it takes about two hours.
judgment
For this price, it’s hard to beat the Fire-Boltt Phoenix Ultra, and sadly, that’s the only reason to consider it. For everything else, there are better options on the market.
If you’re looking for accurate health tracking in a wearable, a basic fitness tracker like the Amazfit Band 7 (review) is definitely the more reliable option (and at a lower price). Those looking for a more premium or something closer to a smartwatch (with features like a larger display, Bluetooth calling, and automatic health tracking) will find the new Redmi Watch 3 Active a better option at Rs 100. 2,999. If you’re looking for a good-looking smartwatch, the OnePlus Nord Watch (review) seems to be the better option at Rs 100. 4,999.
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