VIRMEE is trying very hard to make a name for itself in the budget smartwatch niche. Last year, it released Tempo VIRMEE VT3 PLUS to take on Amazfit GTS and Bip line-up. The smartwatch was quite successful owing mainly to its dirt-cheap price tag.
Later, the company introduced the Gearfly VG3 smartwatch and by the looks of it, we can easily guess the target. Gearfly VG3 apes the original Ticwatch by Mobvoi in design. A round face like a traditional watch, metallic bezel, and a flashy display is the highlight features.
However, like all its other siblings, this watch undercuts the competitors which are its major edge over them. Priced around $80, Gearfly VG3 is here looking for the market share left by Samsung, Mobvoi, and Amazfit round-faced smartwatches.
In this VIRMEE Gearfly VG3 smartwatch review, you would have our two cents on its design, display, smart and fitness features, plus the battery life and charging. So without further ado, let get straight to the specs and features.
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Table of Contents
VIRMEE VG3 Review: Specs and Features
Compatibility & Price:
- Compatible with Android 6 or above
- IOS 10 or above
- VIRMEE app can sync with Google Fit/Apple Health
Design:
- Round Face
- Weighs 32g without Strap
- Plastic and Metallic build (Bezel is made of Aluminium)
- IP68 Water Resistance (For up to 1.5m)
- Silicone Band
- Length: 10.43in
- Width: 0.87in
- Fits the largest wrist: 9.84in
- Fit the smallest wrist: 5.91in
Display:
- 1.3-inch TFT LCD touchscreen
- 360 X 360 resolution, 392 PPI
- Built-in 12 watch faces
Fitness and Health Tracking:
- All day heart Monitoring
- Blood Oxygen Tracking (Not Continious)
- Sleep Tracking (At fixed hours)
- Stress Tracking
- Breath Training
- 18 sports mode
Smart Features:
- Notification Alert (calls, texts, app notifications)
- Compass, Stopwatch, timer, Flashlight
- Alarm, Easy Camera, Sendentary reminder
- Do not Disturb, Multilanguage
Battery Life & Charging:
- 7 Days battery Life with normal usage
- Magnetic Charging Cradle
- It takes about 2 hours to completely charge
- 250 mAh Battery Size
What’s in the Box?
- User Manual
- Charger
- Smartwatch
Two Minute Review:
With Design and display its highlight features, VIRMEE Gearfly VG3 is the most expensive watch by the company. It has an aluminum bezel, circular design and a comfortable display. The screen is sufficiently bright and clear, and there is a side button to make navigation easier.
It is more of a fitness tracker than a smartwatch. You can find the standard heartrate and steps tracking along with blood oxygen tracking, the one about which Apple made a big fuss in its latest Series 6. Also the watch can track stress and sleep. There is a breath training guide too. But in our experience, only a heartrate tracking is reliable metric of all these.
Smartwatch features are limited and are what we usually called baseline features. Notification alerts, Alarm, timer, stopwatch, sedentary reminder, calendar and events to name a few. To put things in context, you would get music storage, voice assistant and calling feature in Amazfit GTS 2 while paying almost double the price at around $170.
The battery life is solid despite the small sized battery. VIRMEE make certain tradeoff including the lack of on-board GPS, limited sensors and average display. The magnetic charger connects quite conveniently to the smartwatch but the cable is quite short.
VIRMEE VG3 Review: Good and Bad Stuff
Pros:
- Blood Oxygen Tracking
- Solid Design
- Affordable
- Sleep and Stress Tracking
- 18+ sports mode
- Compatible with both IOS and Android
- Long Battery Life
Cons:
- On-board GPS is absent
- No third-party app support
- Smartphone app needs refinement
VIRMEE VG3 Review: Design
- Round Face, Dial Diameter: 1.69 inch, thickness:0.31-inch
- Weighs 32g without Strap
- Plastic and Metallic build (Bezel is made of Aluminum)
- IP68 Water Resistance (For up to 1.5m)
- 22mm Silicone Band (Length: 10.43in | Width: 0.87in)
If you have ever came across Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro, or the original Ticwatch, it would be easier for you to find that Gearfly VG3 has an unoriginal design. For its VT3 series, the company mimicked Apple watch’s square design. Whereas, for VG3 it picked the Ticwatch series. For originality, VIRMEE would get a rating close to zero.
The bezel of the watch is metallic and so does the button on the right side which looks like a Digital crown but can do only a little more than navigating back to the main menu. The back of the watch, though, is made of plastic to cut down price. The outside bezel is a little raised to protect the screen from damaging.
The dial is 1.69-inch in size, quite big for a slim wrist, and so a large bezel. The actual screen size is 1.3-inch. However, the watch is relatively thinner at 0.31-inch. It weighs only 32g so you might not feel it on your wrist, but the bulky size of the watch makes it uncomfortable especially while tracking sleep at night.
The watch comes with a silicone strap as standard which is 10.43-inch in length and roughly 0.87inch (22mm) in width. You can change the strap with the third-party one available on the market. VIRMEE claims that the strap has enough holes to fit wrist size as large as 9.84in or as small as 5.91in. The rubber is textured on the outside.
Gearfly VG3 is IP68 rated which generally means it can easily handle pouring, taking bath and even pool swimming. We found it to be the consistent with the claim.
VIRMEE VG3 Review: Display
In the display department, the watch doesn’t fail to impress you. It comes packed with a TFT LCD screen with 360 x 360 resolution and 392 PPI. In laymen terms, it means a flashy display with vibrant colors. But you shouldn’t compare it with Retina display of Apple Watch or Super AMOLED display of Samsung Galaxy Watch as it dulls in comparison to these titans.
The display doesn’t has AMBIENT light sensor. The brightness can be adjusted from quick access menu. It is pretty clear in both outdoor and indoor condition.
We had expected always-on display feature on the watch and after the absence of built-in GPS it was our biggest disappointment. Alternatively, you can adjust screen time of the watch via the propriety app. Or else, you can wake the screen by the flick of your wrist.
At this moment, the watch only support 12 watch faces, pre-built in the watch, and can be accessed by long press of side button. However, VIRMEE promised that it will make customize widgets available on the watch by filmware update. The watch faces include both simple and modern designs, and most of them were copied from other popular brands.
VIRMEE VG3 Review: Interface and Controls
The watch runs its proprietary OS which is quite basic and easy to navigate. You can swipe from top to bottom to access quick access buttons that allows you to activate ‘Do Not Disturb’ Mode, flashlight and timer among other things.
Swiping right to left would take you to sports mode, there are 18 of them. Only few of them are practical and show advanced tracking feature. A further swipe to the left would take you to the heart rate curve, you can access other metrics by swiping up from there.
Next swipe will take you to an interactive menu where you can change language, set watch face, access compass and a couple of other things. A further swipe to the left will take you to the rings in different colors, a ditto copy of a watch face in Android Devices.
Wherever you are in the menu, the physical button on the right side would take you to the home.
VIRMEE VG3 Review: Smartwatch Features
Gearfly VG3 is leaning towards fitness tracking so we get only handful of smartwatch features.
You can sync with Google Calender and events. The case is same for Apple devices. There is an alarm which alerts you by vibration, a timer and a stopwatch. There is a compass which is quite odd as the device doesn’t has on-board GPS, and not even a single feature that can make it suitable for hiking or trecking.
You can only preview notifications on the watch. You cannot take calls or send messages, and can only receive notification from selected apps.
One useful feature on the watch allows you to set timer for camera. There is a sedentary reminder too. you can set the timing of both in the smartphone app.
VIRMEE VG3 Review: Fitness & Health Features
Blood oxygen tracking is certainly the highlight feature of the watch, and as we mentioned earlier, Gearfly VG3 is big on Fitness and health features.
Heart Rate Tracking:
The watch tracks your heart rate and alert you when it is higher than a certain limit. You can view the heart rate curve directly on the watch or can access the smartphone app to get an intuitive view. The static heartrate tracking is quite accurate but is a way off during exercise.
Sleep and Stress Tracking:
Following the footsteps of Fitbit, Gearfly VG3 has also introduced sleep and stress tracking for the conscious users. The sleep tracking is limited to particular time frame and cannot be changed at will. The pre-programmed time limit is from 8PM to 9AM.
The sleep tracking data is pretty detailed. It is broken down into light, deep and REM. For those who don’t know, REM is an abbreviation for Rapid Eye Movement, a stage in sleep. You would have to turn on the “Heart Health” switch on the watch if you need REM monitoring.
The stress tracking of the watch is unreliable as there is a dial similar to speed dial that keep shifting from green to red zone even when we were feeling quite relaxed.
Blood Oxygen Tracking:
You can take blood oxygen measurement on the watch by keeping still for about 30 secs. The watch doesn’t support 24/7 blood oxygen tracking. VIRMEE Gearfly VG3 tracking is not as accurate as the latest Apple Watch Series 6.
Breathing Guide:
VG3 has 4 built-in breathing training methods to help you relax.
- Deep Relax
- Nervous Regulation
- Replenishing Energy
- Self-Reconciliation
Their sophisticated names should not trick you to believe that watch is offering something extraordinary. They are essentially timers with on-screen instructions to help you breath properly.
Sports Tracking:
There are about 18 sports mode.
Run, Bike, Fast Walk, Hike, Basketball, Badminton, Soccer, Sit-ups, Jump Rope, Yoga, Dance, Aerobics, Swimming, Tennis, Elliptical, Rowing Machine, HIIT, HIIT(Full Body).
The watch offer detailed metrics for only a few of them. Running mode offers the most metrics followed by swimming. It is quite unusual for a watch that could hardly be submerged in the water to offer SWOLF metrics for swimming.
Only a few sports mode are useful, and if you are into serious athlete level training, better get your hands on Garmin and Polar smartwatches even if you have to pay extra for them.
VIRMEE VG3 Review: Virmee App
You can download the Virmee app for your respective device from the links below.
The smartphone app of the watch, namely Virmee, is not at par with the Fitbit, Watch or Google Fit app. But we can cut the company some slack here as it is not charging us the top dollars for it.
You cannot view all the important metric on the smartwatch as it has limited storage capacity. The Virmee app plays the role of a sidekick that keep track of all the important metrics for you.
You will get a detailed breakdown of important health metrics like like heart rate, SpO2, stress, sleep, and more. It keep close tabs on sports metrics.
The comprehensive data is usually presented in the form of different graphs and navigating through the app is a breeze.
The app has multilanguage support. To change the language, right swipe on the screen to get to the menu and scroll to find settings. Select language and you will have access to several languages. (English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese,Japanese, Portuguese). However, you can change language directly on the watch.
Overall, the Virmee App is intuitive and works with the least glitches. Vimree VT3 Plus has done a great job in delivering a great hardware, software pair. Also, it is compatible with Google Fit app.
VIRMEE VG3 Review: Battery Life and Charging
- 15 Days battery Life on basic mode
- Magnetic Charging Cradle
- It takes about 2 hours to completely charge
- 250 mAh Battery Size
The company claims that the watch would last for 15 days on a single charge and we found it to be the case with one major caveat: it will tell the time and nothing else. You can take a guess from the small battery size of the watch, precisely 240 mAh, which is comparable to the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 that last for 3 days.
Gearfly VG3 has enough juice for 6-7 days as the battery-intensive features like an onboard GPS, LTE connectivity and Always-On-Display are missing.
It comes with a magnetic charging cradle with two pins that connects securely to the ones on the back of the watch. However, charging takes a while as the watch takes almost 2 hours to get to 100% from empty. To put things in perspective, MOTO 360 3rd Gen takes only 1 hour and Apple Watch Series 6 takes about 100 minutes.
VIRMEE VG3 Review: Verdict
If you are on a budget and needs a fitness tracker disguised as a smartwatch, VIRMEE Gearfly VG3 is made for you. It has a solid battery life of 7 days with normal usage, an attractive, bulky display. Almost all the standard fitness and health features that you can find on expensive Fitbit and Garmin tracker are available on the watch. There are 18 sports mode and a handful of smart features too.
The absence of GPS, voice assistant and third-party app support might be a deal breaker for many. But, in this price range, the watch is totally worth the price if the bulky design of the watch doesn’t put you off.
VIRMEE VG3 Review: FAQs
How to pair VIRMEE VG3 with smartphones?
Follow the instructions to pair the watch with android or IOS device.
- Turn on the smartwatch and navigate to Menu> Settings> About to check the Bluetooth name of the Smartwatch.
- Install VIRMEE app on the smartphone, and register an account.
- Follow on-screen instruction to create a profile, allow the app to access your Bluetooth.
- In Device section search for the available devices. Tap on the name of the device to connect.
Keep in mind that the watch is compatible with iOS (10.0 above) and Android (5.0 above) smartphones.
Can we change the languages on the VIRMEE Gearfly VG3?
Yes, we can.
You can change directly from the watch or from the VIRMEE app.
VIRMEE VG3 supports 10 languages including English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese.
Is the watch suitable for a thin wrist?
The smartwatch is 0.31-in thick and has 1.69-in dial. In our opinion, it is suitable for thick/big wrists. The band has enough holes to fit a wrist as thin as 5.91-inch, but it would appear unusually bulky.