I Tried It: My Review of the Misfit Vapor Smartwatch
I recently won an Instagram giveaway with @misfitwearables for a Misfit Vapor Smartwatch. The Misfit Vapor was launched in Fall 2017 for 265 CAD (199 USD), and I was so excited to try out my first ever smartwatch. Text notifications on my wrist? Yes, please!
I have been wearing the watch every day for a couple weeks, from walking to work, to run commutes, to gym sessions, and everything in between. Read on to hear my thoughts!
Design and Fit
Out of the box, my first impression was that this watch was beautifully designed. I got the rose colour metal with the beige sports strap (more like a blush pink), which makes for a perfectly feminine combination. The watch face is sleek with brushed metal and a single button on one side. I love a minimalist design, and this had me swooning. The strap is easy to change, which is nice if you want to alternate between colours or materials. The silicone band that came with the watch feels soft and doesn't have the bulky look of a traditional sports band. I have been getting all sorts of compliments from friends and colleagues about how darling my new wrist candy is.
Though the watch looks nice, I don't find it to be particularly comfortable. Being used to a very thin quartz watch, I felt overwhelmed by the size and weight of the Vapor. I don't think that I have particularly small wrists, but I have to wear the strap on the 2nd or 3rd tightest notch to keep it from spinning around my wrist. Since the Vapor has an optical heart rate monitor built in, the strap needs to be pretty snug to get a proper reading. I checked the website immediately for a smaller replacement strap, but found that the straps were all one-size. I found this pretty surprising given that this is a fitness watch targeted at women (i.e. humans with small wrists). There is also a small button on the buckle digs into my wrists, leaving a little indent after a couple of hours of wear. This gets quite uncomfortable, especially during workouts.
This seemingly innocuous silver button is used to change the buckle on the strap. It also doubles as a wrist irritant.
Photo taken mid-workout showing irritation due to that little button.
I was very impressed by the touchscreen display, which has a nice crisp quality. It was very responsive for the most part, except a few times when I was trying to click a button at the bottom of the screen. If you're tired of using the touch screen to navigate through the different displays, you can also swipe across the touch-sensitive bezel around the screen. This feature didn't make a big difference to me in terms of navigating through the watch, but it's always nice to have options.
Battery Life
The first couple days with the watch, I experienced some growing pains. It has to be fully charged out of the box, and the first day it died within a few hours - I had to download/install updates and play around with settings, so this seemed totally fair to me (warning: don't expect to open the box and go on the first day! There is a lot of setup and syncing involved out of the box, especially if you're new to Misfit and Android wear). The second day, I wore it to work and by 10am I was down to 40% battery. I found myself googling battery issues and sent a message directly to Misfit, since I couldn't believe I would have to charge the watch mid-day!
The watch must have been making background updates these first 2 days, because by day 3 I was able to make it all the way to bed time without having to charge. I decided keep most of the functionalities enabled (like wifi and activity tracking), since disabling these features seemed to defeat the purpose of wearing a smart watch. I wore it from 7am to 11pm every day, and put it on the charger before bed ample battery still remaining. Every day I walk for about 90 minutes, and I am at the gym for 90 minutes most days, so I was happy to see that I was able to track all of my usual activities without having to worry about battery life.
The watch charges using a standard USB cable connecting with a magnetic charging disk, which makes contact quite easily.
Misfit Vapor as an Everyday Watch
The Vapor is powered by Android Wear 2.0 and comes pre-installed with Google Play, both of which were completely new to me (#iPhoneforlife). The watch did not come with extensive instructions, and I found myself a bit confused during the setup process - I was expecting to just have to download 1 app to sync with my phone, but I had to download both the Misfit app and the Android Wear app. The Android Wear app itself has very little functionality as a phone app (you can change watch faces and a few settings, but that's about it), but serves as a means to push notifications from your phone to your watch. That means that this app has to be open at all times, or you won't receive any notifications. As a compulsive app closer, I found myself missing a lot of watch notifications because I had accidentally closed the app on my phone -- oops. Apart from this, I didn't have any issues pairing the device to my iPhone.
Once I had setup the watch (and remembered to keep the Android Wear app running on my phone), I was excited to get the first little buzz when I received a text message. The watch does a surprisingly good job at showing messages on such a little space. While I realize that this is the most basic function of a smart watch, while in a meeting or while walking home it's nice to not have to dig your phone out of your purse or pocket in order to keep up with messages.
The watch has a built-in microphone, which allows you to dictate text replies or use the Google Assistant. It also has both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.
Misfit Vapor as a Fitness Watch
My expectation of this smartwatch is that it would seamlessly take me from everyday functions (like text message and email notifications) to fitness functions (step tracking, run tracking, gym tracking) all in one device. There are so many different devices and apps out there that it can become a burden to keep track of all of your data from one activity to the next. In my usual day-to-day, I use Apple Health on my iPhone to track steps, MyFitnessPal to track food and calories burned, Garmin synced to Strava to track runs and bike rides, and Apple Notes to track strength training.
This watch is equipped with a optical heart rate monitor, which uses light to read your heart rate right from your wrist. This means that the watch has to be on tight enough to not have any outside light interacting with the sensors. See above my comments on the fit of the watch/strap, and as you can imagine I did have some issues with heart rate accuracy. At rest, it measured my heart rate to be 85 bpm, while checking manually it was closer to 50 bpm (yes, I have a low resting heart rate!). After 10 minutes of rowing, it measured my heart rate to be 95 bpm. Again, I checked manually it and it was closer to 140 bpm. The watch seemed to measure my heart rate much better during a run on the treadmill, presumably because a) my heart was beating hard enough for it to actually read, and b) my arms were less active than during a rowing session. Perhaps the readings would be more reliable on someone with a better fit with the watch, but for me this was a big strike. I also couldn't figure out where the heart rate data was stored/displayed (as a runner, I want to be able to look back at this data), and after some digging online it sounds like it isn't available anywhere for viewing. What's the point?
On the topic of running, it should be noted that this watch is not GPS enabled. The Misfit website lists one of the watch's features as "Connected GPS", but that just means that the watch can connect to GPS when it is paired with your phone. In simple terms, you have to carry your phone with you if you want to track your running route. Having used quite a few running watches in the past decade, I was pretty astounded that this simple feature was left off of the Misfit Vapor. What it meant to me is that I wouldn't be ditching my Garmin Forerunner 225 for this watch.
I was excited to try the Google Fit app that was pre-downloaded to the watch, since I had read about some cool tracking features for strength training workouts. In theory, you hit start and do your set as usual. Based on your movements, the app guesses which exercise you did (e.g. dumbbell curls) and how many repetitions you did. Once you’re done the set, you confirm the information on the screen, enter the weight used (if applicable), and your pre-set break timer starts. Once the break is up, you start your next set and repeat this process. Of course... in practice, it did not work so smoothly. The app literally never guessed my exercise correctly, so after each set I was left scrolling through a list trying to select the right one. My breaks between sets are only 30 seconds, but the timer only starts once you confirm the previous set, so I had to kind of guess at the timing. It also gave me an error when I was doing one-handed kettlebell swings — apparently I was supposed to confirm the “set” before switching hands. While I am sure it would get smarter with time and get to know the association between your moves and the exercise, it really did not feel worth the effort to me.
I should mention that one of the big selling points of the Vapor is that it is a standalone music player with 4GB of storage and bluetooth headphone connectivity. As someone who essentially never listens to music while working out, this feature was admittedly completely lost on me. If you are looking for a watch that can play music without having to carry your phone around, this could be an integral feature for you.
Another feature that that may be worth noting for some is that this watch is waterproof up to 50 meters. So you can take it in the shower or track your swim activities, if that's something that appeals to you.
Overall Impressions
In my opinion, the Misfit Vapor falls short of being the functional fitness watch that I was hoping for. The heart rate monitor didn't work reliably for me, and the fact that it is not GPS-enabled completely sealed its fate. The design is beautiful, but this is really just a regular smartwatch with some extra bells and whistles (namely the optical heart rate monitor). Truthfully, I don't see myself wearing this watch day-to-day since I do find it quite bulky and uncomfortable. Maybe someone who could achieve a better fit would have more luck!
