Lenovo HX03F Spectra Band Review – Dependable and worth the price

The Lenovo HX03F Spectra is one of the latest launches from the Chinese manufacturer, the company has done a pretty good job at the design and the function. The Lenovo fitness tracker provides excellent features at a very affordable price and makes great fitness tracking available at a lower price point while compared to other fitness trackers from Fitbit and Garmin. The Lenovo HX03F comes with a color TFT-LCD display which is both an advantage as well as a disadvantage. The TFT-LCD display means that you get a color display available for just around Rs 2,000 while the downside is the fact that they tend to consume more battery and thus reduce the overall efficiency of the fitness tracker.

We’ve been testing the Lenovo Fitness band for a while now and liked it, the tracking is pretty good and, in our usage, we found a deviation of about 10% in the number of steps and about 0.85% in the distance covered. This shows a significant difference in the distance assumed as a step, we tested this alongside the much more expensive Smartron t.band and the two band gave us very similar results and delivered very close counts on the number of footsteps. The Lenovo HX03F features a built-in heart rate monitor that automatically tracks the heart rate at regular intervals, this helps you keep a track of your heart rate throughout the day such that you can always go back and monitor your day.

The heart rate option also allows you to set a threshold on crossing which you will be notified about the potential risk to your health, this can be very handy and on entering the sports mode on the fitness band, the heart rate monitor is activated more often and you can monitor your fitness activity more intensively. In the sports mode the display changes to show the heart rate and time on the first screen, distance and calories burnt on the second page and the time on the next page, the Sports mode can easily be toggled from the watch itself allowing you to leave the phone behind.

One of the best things about the smart fitness tracker is how it charges, the Lenovo HX03F fitness tracker has a built-in USB charging stick that can be connected to any wall adapter and be charged on the go, this eliminates the need for an extra dock and thus greatly increases the convenience when you are on the move. The battery charges very quickly and is rated to give about 10 days of backup, in our usage we got around a week of usage with the heart rate tracking set to automatic at a 15-minute interval.

The app is very well designed and it is extremely easy to connect and pair the app with the fitness tracker, in the settings of the Lenovo Healthy app, you can also turn on notifications for certain apps that will be streamed to the watch on the go. This is a great feature and isn’t very common in watches in this price range. You can also turn on the Find Phone function in the app that allows you to trigger the phone ring from the watch itself when it gets difficult to find. The Lenovo HX03F also has a Wrist-up display feature that automatically turns off the screen when you raise your wrist to see the time.

You can also configure the Sedentary reminder that will remind you to stay active between a chosen time interval, this way you can stay active and keep burning the calories. For those few who are not satisfied with the Vibration Intensity, you can increase or decrease it to your liking. The app also supports the alarm feature to wake you up using the vibrations without disturbing anyone around you, these alarms can also be viewed on the fitness tracker.

The app is very well segregated and there are three main screens, the first one shows the current distance and the activities while the second one is for the Sleep mode. The sleep mode is automatically activated and measures the amount of wake-up time, deep sleep and light sleep which can be easily seen in the phone application. The last screen is the heart rate tab, here you can easily check the last few readings and the latest reading is highlighted.

The Lenovo HX03F comes with multiple watch faces in both digital and analog options that can be easily swapped from the watch itself. The Fitness tracker comes with a Silicone band which can easily be detached and it thus makes the USB Direct Charging accessible. The Lenovo HX03F comes with IP65 water resistance, this makes it safe for use in the rain but anything more intensive than that has the potential to damage the watch. The Lenovo HX03F works with the Lenovo Healthy app which can be installed on both Android and iOS.

Final Verdict

The Lenovo HX03F, also called the Spectra band is quite dependable, and surprisingly for us, this was even better than the higher priced bands like the Smartron tband though it misses out with the features like blood pressure monitoring. For a regular fitness enthusiast, this band should be enough to offer the basic requirements, which include the step count, heart rate measurement, activity tracking, and having the IP65 certification help be worry-free about the environments where you are wearing it.

There’s also an affordable option called the Cardio band from the company, but we’d easily suggest the Lenovo HXO3F over the other options in its price range, though as usual the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 does its jobs perfectly and thus stands a good chance here. Overall, with the set of features offered, the Lenovo Spectra fitness tracker is a good buy for the price.