Intex FitRist Cardio review: a robust fitness tracker that does the basics

“Equipped with a heart rate sensor and an OLED display, can the Intex FitRist Cardio find a place on your wrist?”

The use of tech in the health lifestyle market has mushroomed over the past few years. More and more brands are rallying behind the likes of Fitbit and Garmin in hopes to replicate their success. Arguably, the budget wearables segment in India has seen the most success and recently, indigenous tech giant Intex launched the successor to its FitRist wearable, dubbed the FitRist Cardio. If you had your eyes set on the fitness band and were wondering if it delivered as advertised, then stay with me as I walk you through the review of the Intex FitRist Cardio.

What works?

 

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First, let’s talk about the things that the FitRist Cardio gets right. The band takes its design cues from its predecessor, is fairly low-key and doesn’t draw too much attention. Despite being constructed out of plastic, the FitRist Cardio feels solid and is extremely light weight. The strap is made of rubber, and can be fastened to the wrist using the metal clasp. The OLED display makes a return on the FitRist Cardio, albeit is slightly bigger this time around and measures 2.18cm. The display gives insight on the current date and time, the number of steps you’ve taken, the distance you’ve travelled as well as the number of calories you’ve burnt. Much like the last iteration, Intex hasn’t made the display touch-sensitive and you’ll have to use a capacitive button below the panel to navigate your way around the FitRist Cardio. The button response was accurate and I didn’t find myself tapping the capacitive button over and over for my command to register.

Towards the underside of the FitRist Cardio, buyers will find a new addition to the tracker in the form of a heart rate sensor. Being IP68 rated, the band can survive dips in the swimming pool and is resistant to sweat too, making it ideal for workout sessions as well. As I mentioned earlier, the band feels extremely solid and despite dropping it several times and accidentally brushing it on walls/tables, I didn’t notice any scratches on the screen.

Besides step-tracking, the FitRist Cardio can display notifications and comes with music/camera control as well. Notifications from WhatsApp, Facebook, SMSes and Calls show up on the OLED display. However, seeing how the display is small, buyers will only get the name of the app from which they’ve received the notification. For instance, a message on WhatsApp from any sender will just show up as ‘Whatsapp’ on the OLED display. There is an option to enable vibration for incoming notifications from within the app too if you so choose.

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The FitRist Cardio was fairly accurate when it came to tracking the number of steps and the distance I had traveled in a day. To be clear, the band does overestimate the distance traveled but that’s the case with almost every fitness tracker in this price segment. I took the band with me for a 3KM run for which, the wearable displayed that I had covered 3.3KM, which is a reasonable margin of error. The heart rate sensor works fine too and can be fired up from within the app or by scrolling to the ‘heart’ icon on the band and long-pressing the capacitive button.

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The Intex FitRist Cardio comes with a companion app which can be downloaded from the company’s website. Besides offering an in-depth look at your fitness goals, the companion app also lets you set the alarm and tweak with various settings such as turning on the screen with a flick of the wrist. You can also set your sleep preferences from within the app and monitor your sleep cycle. The app can also be used to turn on the Anti-lost or Phone-finder feature, which displays a notification on the connected smartphone if the band is out of a 10-metre range. The battery life of the fitness tracker lives up to its 7-day claim too and the band takes approximately 3 hours to hit 100 percent battery level.

What doesn’t?

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Despite being extremely light-weight and sturdy, the FitRist Cardio isn’t very comfortable to wear as the metallic clasp bites the wrist. I would recommend you wear the band slightly loose if you wish to avoid that. Although the Camera and Music control are welcome additions, the implementation on both is iffy. The camera control doesn’t work with the stock camera app and instead works only from within the companion app. Similarly, the music control also works only with Google Play Music and no other streaming service, making the functionality moot if you are say, a Gaana subscriber.

Worth it?

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The Intex FitRist Cardio isn’t a revolutionary fitness tracker by any means and does little to differentiate itself from the swarm of budget wearables available in the market. That said, the wearable is accurate when it comes tracking steps and distance, offers a solid build and lives up to its 7-day battery claim. If you can get by with the finicky Camera and Music controls, then the FitRist Cardio, with its price tag of Rs 1,499 offers decent value for money.  and gets my nod of approval. If you ask me though, the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 (review) is still a very worthy choice, despite its marginally higher price tag. The Mi Band 2 offers similar functionality, but the one area where it shines is battery life – up to three weeks on a single charge. You can also take a look at the recently launched Lenovo Smart band in this price range. 

Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5 


Photos by Raj Rout