Stratos 3 Ultra the rugged smartwatch by Zeblaze beautiful, functional and light (also in price)! APPROVED
Smartwatches are now as widespread as smartphones. The amount of offers is nothing short of “oceanic”, in fact just open Amazon (just to give an example) and you will find thousands of them, of every price and brand (mostly unknown). I have tried some, and today I want to talk to you about Stratos 3 Ultra, the spearhead of zeblaze a Chinese brand that produces smartwatches with a very interesting quality-price ratio. Let's go and see its features.
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Stratos 3 Ultra PACKAGE
The box is really well made and very refined, it has nothing to envy to the packaging of products that cost even €200:
- ZeBlaze Strotos 3 Ultra SmartWatch
- Magnetic charging cable
- Instruction booklet with Italian language
AESTHETICS AND DIMENSIONS Stratos 3 Ultra
De gustibus non disputandum est, there is no discussion about this... mine are not very easy, but this Stratos 3 Ultra I love it! The round form factor, the perfect display size 1.43", the weight of only 56Gr for a Rugged Smartwatch (we'll go into more detail later) they are the icing on the cake. And the weight aspect is really fundamental so as not to bother us during the day and also at night if we wanted to keep it to monitor our sleep. I took the white version and it is simply perfect with every outfit. The size of the Display is perfect, not too small and not even exaggerated so it is also ideal for women.
TECHNICAL FEATURES Stratos 3 Ultra
The technical sheet of this smartwatch is very respectable, and in some details I would say surprising. Why? Well, simple I would start right away why I used this adjective..
- Certifications: Certificate MIL STD 810H ! For many this acronym will mean little or nothing, but it is instead very important as it is released to devices that pass a series of very complex military tests. Here is the list:
- Extreme Temperatures: Ensures performance in a temperature range from a minimum of -32 ° to a maximum of 65° (for 4 hours)
- Humidity: The device is subjected to humidity cycles between the 58 and 88%.
- Rain: It is tested under the direct rain and receiving abundant splashes of water to assess whether internal problems are created.
- Vibration resistance: The performance of the smartwatch is re-evaluated after a journey of approximately 1600km on an off-road vehicle with intense vibrations of various levels.
- Drop resistance: A common situation of an accidental fall of the smartphone from a piece of furniture or from the hand is represented, sometimes if specified even from greater heights.
- Sand and dust: Leaving it in a room with dusty and windy atmospheres, the smartwatch is re-evaluated and disassembled to check its integrity.
- Salt Spray: This test is useful for evaluating the resistance of the coating, the paint and the corrosive effect that can occur on the internal electronic components.
- Thermal shock: Not to be confused with the extreme temperature test, this test is used to evaluate the resistance of the smartphone when it undergoes rapid changes in temperature with very high ranges, between -21° and 60°.
- impermeability: IP69K
- Satellite connection: Dual band GNNS, GPS-GLONASS-GALILEO-QZSS-BDS
- Display: 1.42″ HD Amoled Gorilla Glass, 1000 Nits, 391 PPi with over 200 Watchfaces (you can upload your own photos). On the downside, there is no automatic brightness adjustment, we will only have a manual setting with a 1-5 scale.
- Battery: 300 mAh, 45 days of standby time, 24 days of sports use, 86 hours with GPS and always-on HR detection, 1.5 hours of charging time
- BlueTooth 5.3
FUNCTION KEYS
There are 2 function keys: START round top right to enter the phone menu and go back and SPORTS the one below on the right to access directly the sports menu. From the smartwatch off, both will turn on the display. The screen can be turned on by moving the wrist but not by touching it.
PHONE MENU
Using the round button we can access the phone's menus, which are many:
- Statistics: summary of the day's statistics
- Workouts: sports menu
- Chronology:
- Quick Health: Measure all medical parameters in one touch
- SpO2: Blood saturation measurement
- Stress: measuring stress level
- Breathing:
- Heart rate: heart rate measurement
- Favorite contacts
- Call
- Keyboard
- Weather
- reminder
- Music
- Wake-Up
- Hours
- stopwatch
- World Clock
- Find phone
- Calculator
- Barometer: Measurement of atmospheric pressure and altitude
- Compass
- Dials: Select favorite dial
- Settings: Brightness-Sounds & Vibration-Lift to activate-Press to deactivate-Auto Lock-Always on display-Do not disturb-Menu layout-Automatic sport detection-Info-System (restart, power off, reset)
The back function, to go back once a menu has been selected, is done by swiping from left to right.
From the home screen we can access 4 quick menus: heart rate, blood oxygenation, stress, sleep with a left-right or right-left swipe.
With a swipe up and down we will access the notification area while from the bottom up we will access the quick menu screen (lift to activate, ND, energy saving, silent mode, settings)
SPORTS MENU
The sports menus are actually a bit few, although it must be said that all the smartphones that have an incredible amount of them are almost all unused. Let's say that the most important ones are there and the statistics work well. I tested it with walking and biking and the results are in line with very expensive smartwatches so I'd say we're there. At the end of the list of sports present on the smartwatch the words "add other sports from the application" appear but from the application I only found the possibility of removing them from the phone menu (interesting thing) but the 10 present seem to be the only ones that can be installed. Here is the list: Walking, Outdoor running, Treadmill, Outdoor cycling, Exercise bike, Muscle training, Core training, Aerobics, Yoga, Badminton.
It must be said that in the product data sheet, the monitorable sports are over 120. Unfortunately I didn't find a way to add them, I'll update the review if anything changes.
If we enter the sports activity monitor we will find, on the central screen, HR – Time elapsed – Calories burned – Colored crown (blue – green – yellow – orange – red) that will indicate the level of effort we are making based on the heart rate: light, intensive, aerobic, anaerobic, VO2 max. To interrupt/pause the activity, just swipe left.
APPLY BY
The application is really well done, after all it seems like a clone of MiFit. To install it, you just need to go into the store of your smartphone, search for "zeblaze fit", install it, give the classic location and BT permissions, register and add the smartwatch.
At this point you will have to set your health data, your physical details and the goals you want to achieve, and that's it.
Now you can set up your smartwatch as you like, change skins, view your activity statistics, etc.
In the device menu you can then decide which applications can send you notifications. You simply have to click on the dedicated rectangle "message settings" and from there you can authorize calls (you can answer and speak directly with the smartwatch which is equipped with a microphone and speaker), messages and notifications from third-party applications. It will not be possible to answer messages, only view them.
HOW IT WORKS
Easy answer, very good. Let's start with the autonomy, always a crucial issue for smartwatches, which is excellent. In standby it practically does not consume battery, if used even in an important way (sports tracking, HR, SpO2) you will easily do 10 days without having to recharge it. Tested with a professional treadmill and the step/distance counting is very accurate and relevant to reality. I think the HR detection is excellent, as regards blood oxygenation always take it with a pinch of salt, as it should be taken with a pinch of salt for all smartwatches. Good reactivity of switching on to the movement of the wrist, the only flaw is that it does not have automatic detection of external brightness and therefore adjustment of the display brightness. Maybe it's a bug, it seems really strange to me that it is not on a smartwatch made so well. If something changes with firmware updates I will modify the article.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
As always, the final considerations are related to the product's purchase price. For its features, beauty, compactness, the fact that it is a rugged smartwatch IP69K which looks like a “normal” smartwatch, a really well-made application, I expected a list price close to €170/180. And instead we are well under this figure. The Stratos 3 Ultra in fact costs only €129 but the fantastic thing is that thanks to GOOD BANG (thank you for sending us the sample) and with our discount code you can take it home with a 50% discount! I remind you that on Banggood, to protect your purchases, you can pay with PayPal and shipping will take place in approximately 10/15 days without the risk of incurring annoying customs duties.
