We were given a sample by Gearbest for review. We have tried our level best to be impartial and we’ll be giving away the sample (after thoroughly cleaning and packing it as it came) to one lucky winner. See the end of the article for more details.
The Teclast H30 bracelet offers 24/7 smartwatch-style notifications, heart rate monitoring, and a step counter for only $16. Compare this to the Fitbit Charge HR which retails for $127 or the Garmin Vivosmart HR which retails for $149.99. The Teclast smartband has almost all the functions which the higher priced models offer.
Design
We’ll begin with the look and feel of the band. Sure, for many it is the quality of the technology that is important, but if we’ll be wearing something 24/7, it has to be comfy and should look good on our wrist.
The strap is made of food-grade skin-friendly silicone band, and has sweat grooves so that our hands feel clean after sports. It appears relatively sleek and it doesn’t snags on jacket sleeves or clothes. It is also very light-weight, weighing only 17 grams, and you will easily forget that you are wearing it after some time.
The display does an admirable job of keeping text readable and sharp, even when it isn’t quite large enough for full messages. It is a touchscreen OLED with a backlight for reading in the dark. It is basic, however it does a decent job of exhibiting your stats with a swipe across the screen. The upside, nevertheless, is that, unlike the Fitbit, the time is displayed permanently on the display, so it does a commendable job of doubling as a watch.
Notifications
Adding smartwatch notifications is the important way in which the Teclast H39 can differentiate itself from the likes of Fitbit, and it handles this aspect very nicely.
There isn’t any rocket science in the way it deals with notifications. Any push notification from your smartphone is replicated on the Teclast. It buzzes (in that grinding whirring way) and shows the kind of notification and a snippet of the message, whether its from Whatsapp, Facebook or a simple SMS.
It is enough to alert you to a notification if you’re away from your smartphone, and lets you know when it is safe to ignore your cellphone – however it’s nowhere near as useful as a smartwatch, understandably so because of its screen size.
Features
One other upside is the “water resistance” rating, which means you don’t have to take it off when washing your hands or face. It would have been even greater if we could have swam wearing it, but for this price, how much can a person expect!
The band will keep track of your steps, flights of stairs ascended and your sleep. It constantly keep tabs on your heart rate and it’ll monitor the amount of active minutes and how sedentary you are. It’ll even tell you how many calories you’ve burned when you are active. The APP will record and save all the data so you can see how you’ve been doing throughout the month.
Another feature of the Teclast H30 is that you can remotely take a picture with it. Which means no more setting a timer and running to the spot to get that picture. You can simply place your smartphone and use the smart band as a shutter to take a photo whenever you want.
The battery standby time is stated to be 30 days but we weren’t able to test that as we had to clean and repack the band, so that it can be given away to one lucky reader 🙄
Conclusion
The only downside, apart from the poor graphics in the app (compared to the Garmin’s app, but hey, spending $133 just for graphics isn’t worth it at all), we were able to determine is that it is not water proof, i.e. you cannot bath or swim with it. Otherwise, come on, at $17, it’s a steal! Even if you aren’t able to win this in our lucky draw, we think the price is too good. Click here to order the Teclast H30 from GearBest!
The Teclast H30 Smart Wristband Giveaway