Unboxing and First Impressions
The boAt Wave Connect arrives in the brand’s signature youthful, vibrant packaging. Inside, the contents are neatly arranged: the smartwatch itself, a user manual, and a proprietary magnetic charging cable. The immediate impression is one of surprising solidity for the price point. The watch features a square, 1.69-inch IPS LCD display with a 2.5D curved glass front, which gives it a premium look and feel that belies its cost. The aluminum alloy middle frame contributes to its lightweight yet sturdy construction, weighing in at just under 50 grams. It’s comfortable on the wrist right out of the box, with a silicone strap that is soft, hypoallergenic, and features a standard quick-release pin design, allowing for easy customization should you want to swap it for a different style. The single physical button on the right side provides a satisfying click and is used for powering the device on/off and accessing the menu.
Design and Build Quality: Style on a Budget
BoAt has consistently understood its target audience, and the Wave Connect is a testament to that. It’s designed for a modern, active lifestyle. The watch face is compact and sits flush with the body, avoiding any clunky protrusions. The display is surrounded by reasonably thin bezels, which are cleverly masked by a default watch face that blends into the UI, creating an illusion of a larger screen. The rear houses the necessary sensors for health tracking in a raised module, along with the pogo pins for charging. The silicone strap is 22mm wide and is available in a variety of colors like Active Black, Azure Gleam, and Scarlet Sprint to match different personalities. While the build is primarily plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap or fragile. It feels durable enough for daily wear and tear, gym sessions, and even the occasional splash, thanks to its IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. This means it can withstand immersion in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes, making it safe for hand washing, sweat, and rain, though not for swimming.
Display: Bright and Vibrant for the Price
The centerpiece of the Wave Connect experience is its 1.69-inch IPS LCD display. With a resolution of 240 x 280 pixels, it offers a pixel density that is more than adequate for a device of this size and price. Icons, text, and watch faces appear sharp and clear. The colors are vibrant, and the brightness levels are impressive. Even under direct sunlight, the display remains legible, though you might need to crank the brightness to its highest setting for optimal visibility. The touch response is smooth and accurate, allowing for easy navigation through menus and widgets. The 2.5D curved glass not only adds a touch of elegance but also makes swiping gestures feel natural. It’s a significant step up from the smaller, duller displays found on many other budget smartwatches and is one of the Wave Connect’s strongest selling points.
Bluetooth Calling: The Star Feature
This is the headline act and the primary differentiator for the Wave Connect. The smartwatch features a built-in microphone and speaker, enabling you to make and receive calls directly from your wrist. The setup is straightforward: pair the watch via Bluetooth with your smartphone, and it will sync your contacts and call log. To make a call, you can either use the dial pad on the watch, access your recent call list, or use the dedicated contacts app. The call quality is surprisingly decent. The speaker is loud enough to hear in moderately noisy environments, and the microphone does a fair job of picking up your voice without requiring you to shout. It’s incredibly convenient for quick calls when your phone is in another room, in your bag, or when you’re engaged in an activity where pulling out your phone is impractical. However, it’s not a replacement for your phone’s call quality in windy or very loud conditions, but for its purpose, it performs admirably.
Health and Fitness Tracking: Comprehensive for the Casual User
The boAt Wave Connect is packed with sensors aimed at health-conscious users. It features a continuous heart rate monitor, SpO2 (blood oxygen) sensor, sleep tracker, and multiple sports modes. The heart rate monitoring provides a constant readout on a dedicated widget, and the data can be viewed in detail within the companion app. The SpO2 measurement takes about 30 seconds to provide a reading, which can be useful for a general wellness check, especially after strenuous activity. Sleep tracking automatically detects when you fall asleep and provides a breakdown of your light, deep, and REM sleep cycles, along with awake time. For fitness, it offers over 100 sports modes, though in practice, these are primarily pre-set profiles that change the watch’s focus rather than fundamentally altering its tracking algorithm. Step counting is accurate for daily motivation, and the watch allows you to set goals for steps, calories, and distance. It’s important to note that this data should be considered for informational and motivational purposes rather than for rigorous medical or athletic training.
The boAt Hypertouch OS and Companion App
The watch runs on boAt’s proprietary operating system, which is intuitive and responsive. The interface is navigated through swipes: swipe down from the top for a quick settings shade (brightness, settings, find phone, etc.), swipe up from the bottom for notifications, swipe left or right to cycle through various widgets (heart rate, weather, music control, etc.), and press the side button to access the full app grid. The app icons are large and easy to tap. The companion app, boAt Crest, is required to unlock the full functionality of the watch. It’s where you can view all your historical health data in graphs and charts, manage watch faces, configure notifications, set sedentary and drink water reminders, and find a device function. The app is functional and relatively easy to navigate, though its design can feel a bit cluttered compared to some competitors. The connection between the watch and the app is stable, syncing data seamlessly in the background.
Battery Life and Performance
Battery life is a key strength. BoAt claims up to 7 days of battery life on a single charge, and in real-world usage, this is largely achievable. With Bluetooth calling enabled, continuous heart rate monitoring, and regular notifications, you can expect 4-5 days of use. With more conservative settings, hitting a full week is possible. This is exceptional for a smartwatch with a calling feature and a large, bright display. The magnetic charging cable attaches securely and charges the device from 0 to 100% in about 2 hours. Performance is smooth for core tasks like navigating menus, viewing notifications, and tracking workouts. There are occasional, very slight delays when switching between particularly heavy apps, but it never feels sluggish or frustrating to use.
Additional Features and Daily Usability
Beyond the major features, the Wave Connect is packed with small quality-of-life additions. You get weather updates (which require the app to sync with your phone), a breath guide for meditation, a stopwatch, timer, and alarm. The music control feature lets you play, pause, and skip tracks on your phone’s music app. Notifications for calls, SMS, and apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook are delivered promptly and are readable on the screen. You can’t reply to them, but you can dismiss them. The ability to find your phone by making it ring from your watch is a simple but perpetually useful tool. The watch also offers a multitude of watch faces—over 100 cloud-based options available through the boAt Crest app. You can easily download and apply new ones directly to the watch, allowing for extensive personalization to match your outfit or mood.
Value Proposition and Competition
The boAt Wave Connect exists in a fiercely competitive segment, rivalling offerings from Noise, Fire-Boltt, and realme. Its value proposition is incredibly strong. It consolidates the most desired features—a large, vibrant display, Bluetooth calling, solid health tracking, and stellar battery life—into a single, very affordable package. It doesn’t try to be a high-end flagship smartwatch; instead, it focuses on excelling at the basics that most users actually want. While it lacks more advanced features like GPS or an AMOLED display, its concessions are logical for the price. It represents a near-perfect execution of the budget smartwatch formula, offering maximum functionality for minimal investment. For a first-time smartwatch buyer, a teenager, or anyone seeking a capable, no-fuss wearable without breaking the bank, the boAt Wave Connect is a compelling and highly recommendable choice.