Cherry Mobile Fit Activity Tracker Review

Targeted towards individuals who want or have been planning to keep track of their daily activities, Cherry Mobile launches the Fit which is a Bluetooth-enabled activity tracker. After a week of wearing it, we’re now ready to share with you our thoughts on the device.

Design and Construction

Having an outstretched display, it spans nearly 1-inch across and recognizes simple touch and swipe gestures. There’s a single button on the side for selection and waking up the display of the device.

It wasn’t mentioned but the screen type used looks to be a black and white memory LCD which is known for its high contrast but low power consumption. This makes it possible to achieve good legibility even under sunlight and prolong its life compared to gadgets that utilize full-color displays.

Meanwhile, the strap used is rather questionable — well at least with the unit provided to us. Its faux-leather material is not exactly the appropriate look for a fitness band but it should do well for everyday casual use. Additionally, the bands don’t seem to be swappable either.

The device also doubles as a headset. Simply detach it from the wristband and voila, you can now slip it in your ear like your usual Bluetooth headset.

When removed from the band, the Fit reveals its earpiece which has an extra earbud included and a micro-USB port for charging. We can’t help but see an incarnation of the Huawei TalkBand B2 since these two devices have so much in common.

As listed by Cherry, the Fit is dust and splash proofed, although there’s no certification. So, it’s not exactly a thing you should keep wearing when in the shower or swimming pool.

Overall, the watch is comfortable to wear and is a nice fit (pun intended). We would just prefer if the band used was a bit more sporty-looking but then again, that’s just us. We usually don’t trust faux leather since overtime, it cracks and chips away. On a positive note, using this type of material makes it possible to still wear the Fit even when you’re all suited up for a formal event.  It’s fairly sleek and visually modest thanks to its all-black hue.

Cherry Fit App

Interestingly, Cherry has its own app for the wearable that you can download from the Play Store. The Cherry Fit app, when paired to a phone, compiles all the data recorded on the wearable — it counts your steps, time your jogs/run, and show the amount of calories burned doing the said activities.

Here you can keep an eye on your performance and also set a goal. Tweaking the main settings of the Fit is also done through the app including software updates, alarm setup, and notification settings. You can also adjust the brightness, set alarms, and even enable the display to wake up every time you flip your wrist to check the time.

What we noticed, though, regarding this feature, was that you really need to whip your wrist in a 180-degree turn for its G-sensor to realize the movement. Once the display is lit, flipping the wrist in the same way scrolls to the next page — like a hands-free equivalent of swiping down on its display.

The app is pretty easy and straightforward to use. Pairing it with the Fit is also a breeze and we didn’t experience any problems. The UI offers a clean and uniformed look which makes it less confusing compared to the other interface of similar gadgets.

Performance

The Fit shows five-fold windows of data that it has recorded.  The first and main page being the clock face, next is the steps taken, then the mode if you want to time your jog/run, calories burned, and finally the Bluetooth and battery level indicator. Additionally, the main page where time is shown also lets you know of the current temperature, and weather.

In terms of how accurate its pedometer is in tracking footsteps and footsteps alone, we noticed that it’s not as sensitive like other activity trackers that we’ve tried before. This is not necessarily a bad thing since the meter doesn’t count hand gestures which happened with the other devices similar to Fit. Because of this, we feel like we’re a step closer to getting a more accurate reading on the things we do.

Legibility under the sun proved to be satisfactory — it wasn’t super clear but was decent enough to understand the data written. This was under 75% brightness to conserve a bit of battery but you could always max it out to 100% for easier viewing.

We also used it for answering a call and the voice quality of the person was clear and feels like you’re just using a regular Bluetooth device. In addition, our voice was also reportedly understandable on the other end.

While everything was going smooth during our time with it, there was one instance where the Fit froze after checking the time. We couldn’t reset it or do anything about it but to wait it out until the battery dies. It just happened once during the entire one week of using it. It may be just a software bug but we thought it’s something that we should share to you, our readers.

Battery Life

As for the battery life, its 100mAh built-in battery proved to be able to last for a long time on a single charge.From 100%, we were able to use it everyday for 5 full days before we needed to charge it again. Thanks to its low-power display, this puts the CM Fit along with the ASUS Vivowatch in terms of battery life.

Conclusion

Cherry Mobile’s Fit is a pretty straightforward activity tracker that’s equipped enough to be a reliable partner day in and day out. It has a subtle design wildly reminiscent of the Huawei Talkband B2 but with a slightly bigger display. Touch sensitivity is on point, we had no problems with the screen’s legibility, and it doesn’t look cheap.

Although one thing that we really liked about it was the fairly lengthy battery life that it provides its users. This way, you can concentrate more on the things you need to do and accomplish rather than worry if your watch needs to be charged soon.

We came across a hiccup along the way with the device freezing but apart from that, it did what it was supposed to do.

With a retail price of Php 3,499USD 60INR 5,055EUR 57CNY 434, the Cherry Mobile Fit is probably one of the most affordable activity trackers out in the market right now and is a good option if you’re on the lookout for a new wearable.

Cherry Mobile Fit specifications:
0.96-inch PMOLED display @ 64 x 128 pixels
G-sensor
Bluetooth 4.1
100mAh battery
46.6 x 20 x 10.5 mm
25 g

What we liked about it:

• Pretty accurate tracking
• Long battery life
• Straightforward app

What we didn’t like:

• Slight software bugs
• Faux leather band