There are plenty of smartwatches you can buy from China but only some of them are good enough for daily use. A smartwatch I got recently from Banggood is one of those good watches which you can really use for a long time as your daily driver. The watch comes from a company named No.1 and the model no is G8. No.1 G8 supports SIM card thus it can be used independently. You can make calls and messages right from your watch and it’s really cool for a smartwatch which is priced under $37. So let’s check out the in-depth review of NO.1 G8 and by the end of this article, you will know, if No.1 G8 is really worth your money or not?
Specifications of No.1 G8 Smartwatch
- 1.3-inch (240 x 240) IPS round shaped display
- MTK2502 II chipset
- Bluetooth 4.0
- 32MB RAM
- 32MB ROM
- MC3413-P heart rate sensor
- Heart rate and Blood pressure sensor, Pedometer
- Nano SIM
- 300mAh battery
No.1 G8 Smartwatch Review
Build Quality and Design
At first look, the No.1 G8 smartwatch looks very nice on hand especially if you are using different coloured bands. The dial of the band is round and made out of stainless steel. The straps are detachable so you can use different straps whenever you want. Under the watch, there’s a heart rate sensor which helps you to track your heart’s activities. And just below that, the SIM port is situated.
On the left side of the watch, there’s a charging port while on the right side it has a Power button and a Multi-mode button which controls different watch modes. The watch fits perfectly in hand and feels comfortable. The build quality is very good and solid. The only drawback is its big bezels.
Display
No.1 G8 smartwatch features a 1.3-inch IPS round shaped display with a resolution of 240×240. The display is protected by some kind of tempered glass. We are using it with a screen guard so haven’t tested the resistance of the glass yet. We can control the Display Brightness and Screen timeout option from Settings. The brightness I would say is not very high. You can use it perfectly in indoor and outdoor under the cloudy sky. But under sunlight, it is sometimes very difficult to control the watch because of the brightness and the reflection from the display. But for a watch under $40, you can’t get much better than this.
Software and Connectivity
No.1 G8 is powered by MTK2502 II chipset with 32MB RAM and 32MB onboard storage. The watch comes with so many basic and important features like Calling, Messaging, Alarm, Calculator, Calendar, Stopwatch and Massager. All of these features work pretty well. The watch can be connected through Bluetooth on your phone and it can be controlled from Fundo Wear app. I have to say Fundo Wear is very unstable and all of its features are not working properly. The watch comes with 3 pre-installed watch faces. You can change them according to your need and mood. But the drawback is, you can’t install more watch faces. A smartwatch without watch faces is very dull. I was active on the company’s forum and they have made a new firmware which will support both independent calling and installation of new watch faces. You can download the firmware and try out.
You can get all your phone notifications right into your watch but you can only see them. You can’t reply directly from the watch. Only in messaging app you can directly type something and send to your recipients.
Sensors and Extra Features
G8 comes with a number of sensors such as Heart rate and Blood pressure sensor. You can easily track all your walk activities and the number of calories you have burned. You can also track your sleep activities. There’s an option called “Drink” which will poke you hourly to drink atleast 2.5L water on daily basis. The watch also comes with Outdoor features like Pressure, Elevation and UV measurement. You can also take pictures and control music in your phone from your watch over Bluetooth.
The watch comes with a Nano SIM slot where you can place a SIM. The network frequency is 2G GSM/850/900/1800/1900. Even if you are disconnected with your phone you can still make calls and do messaging easily from your watch. The calling happens in loudspeaker mode so you can be hands-free while answering the call.
Battery & Sound
G8 features a 300mAh battery which takes around 2 hours to charge. The battery life in this watch is really good. Using the Phone Mode constantly you can get up to 2days of battery back. While on the Watch mode you can get up to 3-4 days of battery backup depending on your usage.
We have also tested the call quality of the watch. I would its average. You can clearly hear what the person says but the person on the other side sometimes complains about your voice. Obviously, the mic is not of that high quality like we get in smartphones but it’s usable and good enough to make some quick calls.
Final Verdict
No.1 G8 is a really good watch to use. While the Phone mode is not good enough to use all the features seamlessly because you can’t reply to your notifications. But if you keep the notifications problem aside then it is really a good watch to go for. The price is not very high and you can get it under $40 from different sites. Normal good watches also cost like that so spending same amount of money on this smartwatch is definitely worthy.
