Kospet Prime is not just any other smartwatch. It might look like a watch, a big one for sure, but within its watch form factor lies a full fledged smartphone. The Watch Phone is currently available on AliExpress, as well as a number of other online stores starting at around $140. This is my Kospet Prime Review, hope you enjoy it.
Unlike loads of smartwatches in the market that run on a stripped OS tuned specifically for watches, the Kospet Prime runs on a Full version of Android OS. The Watch Phone is loaded with Android 7.1.1.
This means that with the Kospet Prime, you get all the bells and whistles of a smartphone. You can make calls, receive calls, send and receive SMS, browse the internet, stream and download videos, download and install apps from the Google Play Store, navigate with Google Maps, and more. In fact, you can even create a Wi-Fi hotspot with this thing.
Of course, it is also a full fledged smartwatch with all the usual fitness, tracking, and monitoring features.
Kospet Prime also has one of the largest battery capacity of any smartwatch. The 1260 mAh battery means you can expect better battery life from the smartwatch.
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Before we continue with our Kospet Prime Review, here are some of the key features:
Kospet Prime Main Features
- 1.6-inch IPS Full Round Touch Display, 400 x 400 pixels (354 ppi)
- 1.25GHz Quad-core Mediatek MT6739 CPU
- Android 7.1.1
- Syncs with iOS 9.0 / Android 5.1 and Above
- 9 Sports Modes
- 3GB RAM and 32GB Built-in Storage
- 2MP Front Camera and 8MP Side Camera
- Face Unlock
- 4G LTE Network Support (with VoLTE)
- One Nano SIM Card Support
- 1260 mAh Li-Po Battery
- Built-in Speaker and Mic
- GPS / GLONASS / A-GPS Navigation
- Dual-Band Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n)
- Waterproof (IP67)
- Bluetooth 4.0
- micro-USB port (via magnetic dock)
- Heart Rate Sensor
- Pedometer
- G-Sensor
- Special Action Trigger Sensor
- Easily Replaceable Watch Band
- Magnetic Charging Dock
What’s in the Box
Kospet Prime comes in white box inside an open-ended black box.
On the under side of the black box, you will see some of the key features of the watch phone.
Here are all the items we found after we opened the white box:
- Black Kospet Prime Watch Phone unit
- Magnetic Charging Dock with microUSB port
- microUSB Cable
- Protective Film
- 4 x Replacement Screws
- Screwdriver
- User Manual
The Design
Kospet Prime is huge. The face measures 50.8 mm in diameter and 17.5 mm thickness. This makes it very noticeable on the wrist.
The top part of the watch form is made of ceramics, while the rest of the body is mostly plastic.
On the right-end of the ceramic bezel is a protrusion that sports the 2 megapixels front facing camera on top and the 8 megapixels side camera on the side.
Sandwiching this protrusion are two physical buttons made of plastic. The button above the bump is the power button and also functions as the home button. The button below the bump functions mostly as a back button.
On the back, you have a four pin power/communications connector and a green-light heart rate sensor with the microphone on the left edge and the speaker on the right edge.
While most of the back is made of plastic, a section of the back is covered by a metal plate held-on by a screw.
You unscrew the metal plate to access the Nano SIM card slot.
A screwdriver is included in the box and because the screws are very tiny, three extra screws are included in the box in case you lose it.
The metal back plate makes it easy for the watch to latch onto the metallic charging dock.
The overall design is great and looks premium, but the default strap is a bit of a let down. Kospet Prime comes with a 22mm replaceable rubber straps that gives off a cheap feel.
However, you also have an option for black or brown leather straps or a black silicon strap. The Kospet Prime has a total length of 273 mm with the straps on.
The Display
Kospet Prime sports a good quality display. The 1.6-inch IPS display is bright and visible outdoors. The display has a resolution of 400 x 400 resulting in a pixels per inch of 354 for a sharp view.
Colours are also bright and beautiful. The display supports multi-touch, so you can zoom photos and other content with two fingers.
When browsing with the Smartwatch phone, I noticed that the text were legible enough for me to read without any need to zoom.
To save battery the screen shuts off after about 15 seconds of inactivity. When the screen is off and you want to check time or weather or other information, you can just spin your wrist clockwise to turn the screen on for about 5 seconds, which is enough time to read the data you need.
However, there is a time lag of between 1 and 2 seconds after the wrist spin before the screen comes. I believe this can be made shorter.
Performance
When we say, the Kospet Prime doubles as a full fledged smartphone, we were not exaggerated.
The specs alone is impressive even for a smartphone. It sports a 1.25GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6739 processor, 3GB RAM, and 32GB storage.
Key to the versatility of the smartwatch is the full version of Android 7.1.1. You can download just about any app that supports the Android version on the Play Store.
You can watch videos or use Maps and play games on this watch. Of course, there are limitations, because of the small screen real estate and of course battery.
The small screen also becomes a problem when typing. You will surely mix-up some characters on the onscreen keyboard. This means the watch will not be convenient for typing text and emails. Login details and passwords will do.
The smartwatch phone runs smoothly with very little lag. Most of the apps and settings open within half a second and 1 second. Swiping the touchscreen is also smooth.
Software and UI
Kospet Prime comes with the full version of Android 7.1.1. This means it runs just about any Android app that supports its specs. However, how well it will run is the only question.
You can download games and loads of other apps.
The user interface is clean. Swipe right to view the main menu. The software is designed intuitively in such a way that if you swipe in one direction to get into a menu, swiping in the opposite direction will get you out of the menu.
Clicking the upper physical button (also the power button) takes you to the homescreen from whatever screen you are currently on while, the lower physical button is a back button that takes one view back.
Generally, the software runs smoothly, swipes are instant while opening apps are just barely noticeably slow.
Kospet Prime supports Face unlock feature, powered by the front camera. Once you setup, a pattern password or Face ID will be required once the screen is locked.
With Face unlock setup, the homescreen will always light-up to show the time and other available smartwatch info when you spin your wrist clockwise, however to access menu or any other feature of the smartwatch phone, you will enter the pattern password or use Face ID.
Also baked into the software are utility apps for cleaning and freezing background apps in-order to improve overall performance.
Kospet Prime offers a couple of different watch faces. You can change the default watch face to anyone you like.
Just press and hold on your current watch face, the face will minimize then swipe left or right to checkout other options.
See a watch face you like? Just tap on it to make it your watch face.
The is one looks great for music lovers, with a shortcut to your music playlist. It also has a shortcut to Google Assistant.
There are more watch faces to pick from and you can download more if you want.
One issue with the software experience in some apps is that while the screen is round the view of some of the apps are designed for a rectangular screen, this means that sometimes some parts of the content at the top and bottom edges are not totally visible.
I noticed this on Google Maps. The parts of the search bar is cutoff as well as the navigation selection.
Cameras
The Kospet Prime sports two cameras which distinguishes it from most smartwatches. You get one camera in the front and the other on the side.
The 2 megapixels camera can be used for taking selfies and making video calls. The camera also powers the face unlock feature.
You get better quality photography on the side camera with a 5 megapixels sensor, though through interpolation the output is 8 megapixels.
The front camera has a narrow field of vision which makes most photos taken with it a close cut.
The side camera has a wider field of view but the side of your sometimes is caught in the final photo.
Connectivity
The Kospet Prime offers all the connectivity options of a standard smartphone. You get Bluetooth 4.0, which works just like it would on a smartphone. Bluetooth connectivity is also used to sync with the companion app on your smartphone.
The smartphone watch can sync with iOS devices running on iOS 9.0 and above and Android devices running on Android 5.1 and above.
Dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) is supported with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n baked in. You can connect the smartwatch to Wi-Fi easily.
Kospet Prime has a Nano-SIM slot on the back. With the SIM card, you can connect to most mobile networks for voice and data services.
The smartwatch phone supports quad-band GSM (850MHz, 900MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900MHz) and tri-band 3G WCDMA (850MHz, 1900MHz, 2100MHz). It also supports bands B34 and B35 of the TD-SCDMA offered mostly by Chinese networks.
For superfast data downloads, the Kospet Prime supports 4G LTE. Numerous 4G bands are supported with FDD and TDD in the mix.
There are a good selection of bands that ensures the smartwatch phone will support 4G in most countries. On FDD it supports LTE bands B1, B2, B3, B5, B7, B8, B12, B17, and B20.
On TDD, the Kospet Prime supports LTE bands B38, B39, B40, and B41.
Kospet Prime can make and receive phone calls as well as send and receive SMS. It also supports VoLTE. Call quality is good. The speaker is loud enough to ensure you hear your caller and the microphone is also sensitive enough to ensure the person on the other end of the call hears you properly.
While, the Kospet Prime lacks a micro USB port on the body, the magnetic charging dock included in the package has a USB port.
Once the smartwatch phone is properly docked on the charging port, the USB port becomes an extension of the watch. Just like in a smartphone the USB port can be used for either charging or for data transfer (communication).
In fact, that was how I transferred the photos I took with the watch to my PC.
For navigation and location services, GPS, GLONASS, and A-GPS are supported. However, the watch takes longer than normal to sync to a location.
The Battery
Kospet Prime boasts of one of the largest battery on a smartwatch. The built-in 1260 mAh Li-Po battery takes about 1 hour, 50 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%, but once fully charged can last you a day and a half of normal use.
You charge the smartwatch phone using the magnetic charging dock provided with the device.
Once the watch latches on properly to the dock charging begins in earnest. However, the trick is in ensuring that the four connectors on the dock makes proper contact with their counterparts on the back of the watch. Without any feedback this can be a bit tricky.
The Companion App
The companion app (WiiWatch2 app on the Play Store and App Store) enables you sync your smartphone with the Kospet Prime.
While Kospet Prime can work properly without the companion app, syncing it to your phone will enable you get notifications on your phone to show on your watch.
You can also control music and camera on the watch among other interesting features. The App is available for Android and iOS devices.
Fitness and Health Features
With all the bells and whistles, it is very easy to forget that the Kospet Prime is a smartwatch and hence should primarily offer health and fitness features.
The smartwatch comes with an in-built activity tracker app that supports 9 different activities. You have Outdoor Run, Outdoor Walk, Indoor Run, Outdoor Bike, Play Basketball, Play Football, Play Ping-Pong, Play Badminton, and Rope Skipping.
Kospet Prime has a green-light heart rate sensor and suffers from the issue such sensors have with dark skin. I was not able to successfully get it to measure my heart rate while on my wrist.
The only way it could measure my heart rate was when I placed my finger on the heart rate sensor as though it were a fingerprint sensor. Placing on the palm of my hand also got me a reading.
If you are white skinned and I mean Caucasian, you will not have this issue.
However, you should note that the Kospet Prime does not offer continuous heart rate tracking. You have to physically tap the button to get it started.
Conclusion
The Kospet Prime is one of the best options if you are looking for a smartwatch running full smartphone OS.
While most smartwatches will hardly go half a day, this smartwatch phone will take you through the day with ease and still have some juice to spare for the half of the next day.
So, if you fancy a smartwatch that can stand in for your smartphone sometimes, the Kospet Prime is one of the better options in the market.
