Vastking Fit M3 Review: Getting The Fundamentals Right

If you're familiar with Gadgetbyte, you know how much I love smartwatches and that I never miss a chance to use one. A while ago, Vastking sent us their latest Fit M3 budget smartwatch and I have been testing it ever since. As it costs only USD 60, I'm not expecting anything special here. Let's find out more about the Vastking Fit M3 smartwatch in this review.

Vastking Fit M3 Specifications:

• Body: 4.35 x 35.8 x 8.5mm, 40 grams
• Display: 1.65-inches IPS panel, 240 x 295 pixels
• Design: Metal body, silicon wrist band (20mm)
• Water Resistance Level: IP68 rating
• Compatibility: Android 5.0+ / iOS 9.0
• Companion App: Da Fit (Android | iOS)
• Sensors: 3-axis accelerometer, Heart Rate, Blood Oxygen
• Sports Mode:  8 different modes
• Built-in GPS: Unavailable
• Battery: 200mAh
• Charging: Magnetic charger

Vastking Fit M3 Review: 

Design

• Metal body, Silicon wrist band (20mm)
• IP68 certified against dust/water damage

The first thing you will notice about the Vastking Fit M3 is that it has a really attractive design. Needless to say, its look is reminiscent of Apple's smartwatches, but that's not a bad thing really. Besides, I really appreciate how supple the silicon band is, which in turn makes wearing this smartwatch quite comfortable.

Adding to the premium-ness is its metal body with which the watch weighs only 40 grams. So, it does not feel like you are carrying a lot of weight on your wrist either. At the same time, the Fit M3 doesn’t feel cheap or plasticky, so that’s good too. For durability, the company has made sure to provide IP68 dust and water resistance here. Therefore, pool dives up to 1.5 meters deep, water splashes, or minute dust particles aren’t going to be a problem on this watch.

Physical controls

Now, as with many smartwatches these days, it features a button on the right frame that triggers both the power and back function. Interestingly, it can also lock your watch, which is a feature that not many budget smartwatches have. Similarly, navigating the Vastking Fit M3 is really simple too. Swiping left gives you access to all of your health metrics while swiping right brings up the menu. Likewise, swiping up gets you to the notifications panel while the quick toggle menu appears with a downward swipe.

Display

• 1.65-inch IPS panel
• 240 x 295 (HD) pixels

For interacting with the smartwatch, you get a 1.65-inch IPS touch screen that features an HD resolution with 240 x 295 pixels resolution. The screen is fairly bright to look at, although it’s better not to expect excellent visibility under direct sunlight. Also, during my time with this watch, I wished it had a better touch response too. I don’t know if it’s because of the relatively slower animation but scrolling through the widgets takes a bit of time and requires a firm touch gesture as well.

Apart from that, the company hasn't disclosed what type of display protection it has or if it has one at all. The reason I am so keen about this is that my usage pattern is quite rough when it comes to smartwatches and our review unit of the Vastking Fit M3 has already seen some scratches. So, if you're looking to buy this one, be sure to install a screen protector to ensure long-term durability. Anyway, the raise-to-wake function works perfectly fine here. However, it takes a second or more to do so. You may also sync your calls to the watch, but since it lacks a microphone and speaker, the M3 lacks the ability to make/take calls from the watch itself.

Health, Fitness, Sleep Tracking

• Heart rate, SpO2 monitoring
• 8 sports modes in total

With all that out of the way, let’s get to talking about the health tracking features of the Vastking Fit M3. As I said before, this is a budget smartwatch with the most basic of abilities. It can track your steps, calories, heart rate, blood oxygen, alongside a total of 8 types of exercises. This includes walking, running, cycling, skipping, badminton, basketball, football, and swimming.

The pedometer on this watch is quite accurate and so is the sleep tracking. I tested it against the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, and the results were impressively comparable. In terms of heart rate monitoring, although the company claims to continuously record heart rate information, it only does so once every half an hour only.

The basics

Moving on, as with other budget smartwatches, the Vastking Fit M3 doesn't support all-day blood oxygen (SpO2) level tracking. So, you're gonna have to manually record it. Still, I did compare its heart rate and SpO2 readings with that of the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and found them to be more or less similar.

In addition, the SpO2 recording on the Fit M3 takes only about 5-6 seconds which is quite fast for a budget smartwatch in this price range. Yet, that affordable tag means you don’t get GPS tracking here. Therefore, in case you'd like to trail your exercise routes, you're gonna have to refer to the phone's GPS. But strangely, turning on GPS just activates the workout on your phone and not the watch. So, you'll have to start/stop the exercise from your phone, which is a bit annoying. Likewise, there is no automatic workout detection either which is a shame because even budget fitness trackers like the Mi Smart Band 6 and Honor Band 6 support this feature.

Connectivity and App

• Bluetooth 5.0, Da Fit app

On the connectivity side, the Vastking Fit M3 features Bluetooth 5.0 and it syncs with your smartphone via the Da Fit app. The app is really basic and has nothing sophisticated to interact with. Its landing page contains all your health stats presented in an easy-to-understand manner. Here, you can simply scroll through stats such as the number of steps, sleep info, exercises, etc. As expected, you'll get more details about your health data on the app rather than on the watch. Here, swiping to the left takes you to the watch face, notifications, and other settings while the last page has your profile and a few other regulatory information.

In-depth

More about the app—it lets you set your daily steps goal and notifies when you’ve achieved certain milestones. Assorted functions like setting alarms, camera shutter, recording water intake, sedentary reminders, etc. are accessible via the app as well.

One thing to note about notifications is that the watch does not support emojis and Unicode Nepali/Indian font, which is a slight bummer. The app also has quite a large selection of watch faces that you can download. You even have the option to make your own customized watch face if you’d like. However, the watch can only store 4 of them at once. Plus, you will have to be super patient when downloading and syncing watch faces since it takes quite some time to do so. Other than that, health data and everything else syncs with the watch swiftly enough, so I haven’t had any problem regarding that.

Battery

• 200mAh cell, magnetic charging

Finally, I have been fairly satisfied with the battery life of the Vastking Fit M3 as well. It packs a 200mAh battery and testing it out with all the functions like continuous heart rate monitoring, 50% brightness, I got good 7-day battery life.

On the other hand, keeping continuous heart rate monitoring off, the watch endured twice as long. Impressive! As for charging, the Vastking Fit M3 uses a 2-pin magnetic charger that takes around 2 hours to go from 0-100%.

Vastking Fit M3 Review: Conclusion

Wrapping up the review, having used the Vastking Fit M3 for more than 3 weeks, I would say that it's a decent budget smartwatch that gets the fundamentals right.  It offers an enticing look but apart from that, its functionalities are pretty much similar to what other budget smartwatches provide—or maybe even less in the case of exercise and sports modes. Still and all, for all its features, the Fit M3 definitely justifies its price. So, if you are looking for a good-looking smartwatch with all the basics under a strict USD 60 budget, I don’t see a reason why you shouldn't consider the Vastking Fit M3. But if you are more serious about health and fitness, I would suggest you add some more cash and get the Honor Band 6 or Huawei Band 6.

Vastking Fit M3 Review: Pros and Cons

Pros

• Metal, lightweight body
• Attractive design
• IP68 dust-water resistance
• Easy-to-use companion app

Cons

• No automatic workout detection
• No build-in navigation feature