Talking smart watches, most of you probably think about Android Wear devices or the Pebble which isn’t surprising at all since those devices are the most popular of their kind. In our opinion Android Wear devices have been the reason smartwatches have been hyped for quite a while.
However, the hype went away rather quickly. Still, smartwatches don’t seem to be dead since manufacturers keep launching new devices and the discussion doesn’t stop either. But what about China? As strange as this might sound: They have been a little late this time. Yep, that’s surprising considering the fact that they had so-called phone watches in place years ago and yet it took them ages to catch up with other wearable manufacturers. But slowly we seem to be getting there. After some near misses like the WeLoop Tommy or Elephone W1, budget smartwatches from China apparently have started to grow up.
Think back to the news of the past few weeks and you will remember No.1 announcing the Sun and Zeaplus launching the DM360 smartwatch. Both devices seem extremely attractive, yet are very affordable. Time to get our hands on one of China’s latest tries to get hold of the smartwatch-market, and yep, it is the Zeaplus DM360 we got for a review this time.
The wearable arrived a few days ago, so don’t expect a full review now, we are just giving you an unboxing and a quick overview about our first impressions.
To be honest with you, we’ve been a little surprised while unboxing the Zeaplus DM360. It came in a very good quality packaging, similar to the one we know from Meizu phones. Inside the book-style box the watch is placed alongside its accessories which included a screen protector and a USB cable for charging and data transfer.
Like advertised by Zeaplus, the watch is made from Stainless steel and feels very solid. The screen is covered by thick glass. The rear of the watch is made from plastic and contains the charging connector and an optical heart rate sensor, similar to the Apple Watch. The wristband is made from synthetic leather and might look a bit cheap to some, but in reality looks better in the hand. The feel of the wristband isn’t cheap. The overall quality could be better at $99 though, and we also miss a way to replace the band which apparently is impossible without opening the watch.
After charging the Zeaplus DM360 we played around with it for a few hours now, too early to give you any detailed information, but enough to tell you a few basics though. First, the screen is very good for a rather cheap LCD panel. It is visible in the sun, the colors are pretty vivid and viewing angles are perfectly fine which is important for such a device. Also, the touch screen work just fine, but does have issues with water – definitely a con since this watch is waterproof (tested), at least in a limited way.
The UI is quite simple and relies on the concept of Android Wear. Those of you familiar with this OS will know how to use it immediately. Everyone else will figure it out within a few minutes. The watch doesn’t run Android Wear though, but Mediatek’s Nucleus OS, which is a lightweight OS for their wearable chipsets (MT2502A in this case). It offers a huge amount of features with good translation and very usable user interfaces. Now to make a long story short, here are some things that stood out the most so far:
- Extremely easy to set-up with no annoying bugs so far
- Bluetooth range of 15m+ (depending on the phone as well)
- Extremely nice internal speaker not only suitable for hands free but as a bluetooth speaker as well (lots of bass)
- Quality vibration features you can not hear at all
- We gave it a 3 minute dip into water and it still works
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for the full review coming as soon as possible. And thanks to the guys over at Zeaplus who shared one of their samples with us.
Add another $10 shipping if you live in the US. It would be nice to see an unbiased Moto 360 vs this Chinese clone review. BTW, the Moto 360 is on sale for less than $150 until June 9.
Sellers on Aliexpress are selling it for $86 with free shipping.
Great…but no PayPal protection on AliExpress though. If if doesn’t arrive, you’re SOL.
If it doesn’t arrive, you can lodge a dispute with Aliexpress and get your money back.
At leat in theory, I’ve had good experience with this but still paypal and ebay offer much better protection and are on the buyer’s side of the dispute ( in case it’s your word agains the seller’s )
Well … no thanks. At $100 it’s too much for a not so smart watch. I’m calling it not so smart because it doesn’t really have an OS where you can install apps and such, if it did then yes it would have been worth $100 had it come with Android Wear.
I think the reason Chinese manufacturers aren’t really selling smart watches en mass is because Mediatek hasn’t really provided a good reference design so far and most manufacturers use that. It might also be a certain lack of interest for such watches in China.
Add another $10 shipping if you live in the US. It would be nice to see an unbiased Moto 360 vs this Chinese clone review. BTW, the Moto 360 is on sale for less than $150 until June 9.
Great…but no PayPal protection on AliExpress though. If if doesn’t arrive, you’re SOL.
At leat in theory, I’ve had good experience with this but still paypal and ebay offer much better protection and are on the buyer’s side of the dispute ( in case it’s your word agains the seller’s )
Well … no thanks. At $100 it’s too much for a not so smart watch. I’m calling it not so smart because it doesn’t really have an OS where you can install apps and such, if it did then yes it would have been worth $100 had it come with Android Wear.
I think the reason Chinese manufacturers aren’t really selling smart watches en mass is because Mediatek hasn’t really provided a good reference design so far and most manufacturers use that. It might also be a certain lack of interest for such watches in China.
There is a discount code to save $10 on official shop: ZDM360, and the price is only 79 euro on giztop.
There is a discount code to save $10 on official shop: ZDM360, and the price is only 79 euro on giztop.
Why it is “flat tire” style if is a watch with big bezel !?
Why it is “flat tire” style if is a watch with big bezel !?
Zeaplus is just an Reaseller of china Phones and Watches the real watch costs only 60 Dollar for lot buing also the new M7 is just a resseler phone from a company called mijue! so they selling it for much more than actualy price
Zeaplus is just an Reaseller of china Phones and Watches the real watch costs only 60 Dollar for lot buing also the new M7 is just a resseler phone from a company called mijue! so they selling it for much more than actualy price