Intex iRist: A smartphone on your wrist

Smartwatches seem to be the next ‘in’ thing with many going ga-ga over the new piece of electronic wearables. However, though the smartwatches are considered as a ‘cool’ gadget, it does not ‘yet’ seem to be a must-have wearable. Wearables, especially the smartwatch, are still in its infancy, where manufacturers are trying to overcome one major roadblock—the battery life. With a tiny battery inside the watch, it is pretty difficult to get it running long enough. Motorola, LG, ASUS, Samsung, Apple and many other tech giants are releasing their smart wrist wearables with iterations that are better than the predecessors. However, each of these wearables is not yet independent, and they have to be paired with a compatible smartphone. Without a smartphone, they are nothing but a timepiece with few sensors.

Intex, the Indian computer manufacturer who has now diverted its attention from computer peripherals to smartphones, tablets and accessories, has launched its first smartwatch, iRist. The iRist is an independent Android-based device and does not need a smartphone to be paired. In short, it is a complete Android smartphone on your wrist. We would probably term it as an Android watch. The iRist is inexpensive—priced at just Rs 9,999, the Android watch can do almost everything that your smartphone can do. What we meant by ‘almost’ is that you would find it very inconvenient to use it for typing and gaming.

As for the iRist, the wearable does not sport an expensive premium device, but does not pronounce itself as a cheap gadget either. Encased in a glossy shell and topped by a sapphire glass, the iRist does look a little trendy. To add to the sporty look, the watch features a rubber fluorescent orange strap, giving. The iRist is not as bulky as you would think. Though it sports all the components of a conventional Android smartphone within, the chassis is pretty slim and small. However, the device is not as slim as you would expect, but is pretty comfortable to wear.

The iRist sports a replaceable strap, but you cannot change it yourself—you would have to get down to an authorized service center to get it done. The reason—the strap contains added electronics such as the speaker and the GPS antenna, which are connected to the watch with wires. Replacing the strap by yourself could damage the device. iRist should have thought about some connector to interconnect the strap to the body. The iRist straps are available in three colours—black, orange and pink.

The iRist features a complete Android smartphone in itself and is designed as a watch. The smartwatch sports a 14mm thick body and weighs just 83 grams. It features a 44mm by 44mm square 1.56-inch OLED display with 16M colours and a resolution of 240x240 pixels. Under the hood, the iRist is powered by a MT6572 chipset featuring a 1.2 GHz dual core processor along with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. The user gets around 1.3GB of storage for apps and data. This can be further expanded up to 32GB using a micro SD card that needs can be fitted inside the watch. To install the storage card, you need to unscrew four screws on the rear panel. Below the rear panel, you will find a battery and under the battery is the micro SD card slot. Sadly, the battery has a thin wire connected across the device and does not come out as easily, threatening to damage the wires. However, if you are careful enough, the work is a cakewalk. Intex has provided an additional rear panel with four more spare screws.

Moving further, the iRist features a 5MP camera with the lens protruding on the right side (edge) of the watch. Besides the camera are two large buttons, one each for the power/standby and back. The lower edge features the speaker, with a tiny slit on the strap. The left side sports, the microphone and the (single) SIM card tray, which needs to be ejected when installing. The bottom (or rear panel) has nothing but four contacts for charging the device and connecting it to the computer. Intex has supplied a magnetic dock which connects the watch to a regular micro USB charger. Sadly, the manufacturer has not provided a charger with the watch. Other features of the watch include GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, hotspot, and sensors such as G-sensor, pedometer, accelerometer, e-compass, and gyroscope. Apps and software features include auto call recording, Maps, Play Store, music, browser, pedometer, and a few others. You can install more from the Google Play Store. The iRist is powered by a 600mAh battery and can give you an estimated 240 minutes of talk time and around 200 hours of standby. This battery life is completely dependent on the way you use the device and the number of apps you install and use on it. Lastly, the iRist is powered by Android KitKat 4.4.2. Intex has confirmed that the device will not receive any further OS updates apart from conventional patches and security updates.

Bundled along with the iRist is a Bluetooth headset, which is a simple wire running across the two earbuds. The in-ear earbuds feature a built-in battery at one end and the other features the power button, volume button and the microphone. The earphones can be paired with the watch to make and receive calls and also enjoy music and videos while at it. The quality of the earphones is disappointing, and it goes against the product as a whole. The earphones need to be charged separately using any micro USB charger. Two micro USB cables are provided with the iRist, but you need to deploy separate chargers for each one or wait until you completely charging one device to move to the other. The earphones can be used for a maximum of one hour if you are listening to music continuously.

Usability of the iRist is surprisingly easy and comfortable. If you are used to an Android smartphone, there is no learning curve to it. Except adhering to the camera usage, you would have no issues whatsoever. The camera is placed on the right side of the watch (instead of the top), and you have to click photos with your subject at a 90-degree angle to your display. Another issue while using the camera is that most times you would end up straining your wrist as it comes between the subject and the camera lens.

As far as the watch is concerned, the operating system user interface is pretty smooth and simple. Multiple desktop screens are available on the display with four large icons on each page. You can change the home launcher to your preferred one, but we would advise against it as the watch’s UI is probably the best for convenient use. The iRist automatically displays a watchface as the screen saver. When you need to see the time, you simply need to tap the screen twice. To get into the app drawer, simply press the back button and proceed. The watch is convenient to use most apps—except that the text readability is extremely low owing to the tiny display. Reading emails and messages is a pain, but luckily the pinch to zoom option comes in handy.

Replying to messages is also good enough. The keyboard is pretty tiny and typing on it is a pain. However, we did notice that the accuracy of the tiny keyboard is pretty good. To help take this accuracy to another level, we installed a swipe-enabled keyboard and witnessed a comfortable texting experience. Overall, browsing the internet, using the maps and replying to casual chats are the minimum basic needs that you should expect from a device with a tiny display. If you are planning on using the iRist as your primary communication device, we suggest you stick to just talking and casual texting. WhatsApp, Email, Facebook, Twitter—though they work on the iRist, you will surely find the experience stressing out your eyeballs.

The device does not heat up—playing with it for long periods, clicking photos, using the maps and watching a few casual videos did not make the phone (err watch) heat up anytime. The user interface was also smooth enough, and we did not find any lags or stutters. Watching videos was also bliss—thanks to the resolution of the OLED display.

Using the watch for watching videos on the tiny display may be comfortable for shot minute-two-minute videos, but more than that, we would suggest you stick to your smartphone or tablet. The speaker on the watch is too low to be heard for videos and music, good enough for calls, but only indoors in a quiet environment. Using it outdoors is almost impossible, and you would need the Bluetooth earphones to use it. If you don’t like the bundled Bluetooth earphones, you can use any brand of your choice—they are compatible. Though the look of the headset is not as appealing (they are pretty bulky), they sound pretty good—the audio quality is above average.

Coming to the camera, the iRist‘s 5MP camera is just good enough for very casual pictures. Photos in broad daylight are not as great and indoor photos are pretty noisy. Check out the photo samples from the camera for yourself.

To sum up the experience with the watch, the iRist is definitely a nice-to-have wearable, but not practical for those who need it as a communication device, i.e. chat, email and alike. For those who are just in need of a smartphone with the options to do minimalistic chat and emails, the iRist is a great gadget. Those who can benefit from the iRist are those with low requirements for a full fledged smartphone and probably others who prefer to keep their hands free when working. For example, engineers, carpenters, videographers, drivers, laborers, and many others with a similar need for a hands-free smartphone. The only downside would be the battery life and probably the price as there are many Chinese-based manufacturers who have similar products for almost half the price.