After global companies started launching their own smart watches, the home-grown mobile manufacturer Intex has recently joined the bandwagon with its first Android smart watch, iRist.
The Indian company launched the iRist smartwatch at the ongoing Mobile World Congress, Shanghai.
Priced at Rs 11,999, the standalone smartwatch runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system and not Android Wear, Google’s de-facto operating system for wearables. Thanks to this, the smartwatch works much like a smartphone itself including an easy access to the Play Store.
Intex also claims that many popular apps like WhatsApp and Twitter have already been optimised for the watch’s display. However, we feel the app compatibility to be a concern since most Android apps are not yet optimised for a square, low-resolution display.
The Intex iRist also comes with a 3G SIM card slot which enables users to make/receive call, again, much like a smartphone itself. All you need for this is a bluetooth earphone which is being expected to come with the smartwatch for your ease.
Considering these features and also the SIM card support, we feel that the Intex iRist fairly competes with the Samsung Gear S which is priced extensively when compared to Intex iRist. However, features apart from the display screen and the operating system varies between the two with Samsung Gear S running on the Tizen operating system. Speaking about the technical specifications of the Intex iRist, it comes with a 1.56 inch sapphire glass screen with a clear 240×240 resolution display, 5 MP camera with face detection, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 512 MB RAM, 4 GB internal memory and a 600 mAh battery with a standby time of up to 200 hours and a talk time of up to 4 hours as claimed by Intex.
The iRist has a voice assistant that helps send emails, messages, dial numbers, open and close apps as well as te on-screen keyboard. The smartwatch also has the iConnect app that will sync with a smarthpone if used without a SIM Card.
Another significant feature of the smartwatch is that, it comes with an in-built pedometer to track your activity.
The Intex iRist is said to be exclusively available via eBay pretty soon.
