GOQii Smart Vital Ultra review: AMOLED screen and useful fitness features

Here's our take on the Rs 3,799 priced GOQii Smart Vital Ultra smartwatch

• By Ashish Kumar -
Published On: November 18, 2022

The GOQii Smart Vital Ultra is not extremely loaded with features, but when it comes to fitness tracking, there aren't many smartwatches in the segment that do it as accurately as the GOQii wearable. The GOQii Smart Vital Ultra's fitness features include continuous heart-tracking, SpO2 tracking, sleep monitoring, steps tracking, 18 exercise modes, and more. Besides that, the wearable has a nice 1.78-inch AMOLED display, a claimed battery life of 7 days, and is IP68 water- and dust-resistant. Check out my detailed review to learn more about the GOQii Smart Vital Ultra smartwatch.

The lowdown

• Starting with the design, the GOQii Smart Vital Ultra is light on the wrist and easy to wear. The watch comes in a plastic rectangular frame, which, along with its silicone straps, weighs around 37 grams. The straps don't itch or bite, but the same cannot be said for their loops. The latter bit my wrist every time I tried to secure the loose end of the strap. The good thing though is that the straps sport quick-release pins for easy swapping with other straps of similar size. 
• Besides that, the GOQii watch is IP68 water and dust-resistant certified, which allows it to be taken for a short swim or shower. The wearable has a physical toggle on the right spine that can be used to power on/off the device, access pre-install apps, and jump to the home screen. Speaking of the screen, the Smart Vital Ultra sports a 1.78-inch AMOLED display with 320 x 380p resolution and 2.5D curved glass atop. While the curved glass helps with smooth operation, it lacks a fingerprint-resistant coating to keep the fingerprints at bay. The glass is also susceptible to scratches. If you want to avoid those, I would recommend you don't take the smartwatch to the gym.

• Be that as it may, the display is bordered by relatively sleek bezels and offers good colour calibration. The display also gets plenty bright and is legible under direct sunlight. That said, the watch doesn't have auto brightness. The screen brightness needs to be adjusted based on the ambience, by swiping down from the top on the home screen. The wearable also offers an always-on mode and raise-to-wake gesture; though I wouldn't recommend using the former if you are not planning to charge the watch almost daily. If you do turn on the always-on display, you have the option to choose between digital and analogue options. Both modes show you the date and time when the display goes to sleep. Unfortunately, the watch doesn't have the option to customise the always-on display. As for the raise-to-wake gesture, it works just fine, even though the display takes a fraction of a second to light up. This could be attributed to the watch's slow processing capabilities, which even made the animations look jittery. That being said, the GOQii Smart Vital Ultra's screen was super-responsive to the touch.

• The wearable is easy to manoeuvre, thanks to its intuitive UI, which is no different from any other smartwatch in the segment. To give you a perspective, the heart rate, SpO2, exercise modes, weather updates, music control, and the notifications panel are just a few horizontal swipes away. Additionally, you can press the physical toggle to get all the options in one place. Moving on, a swipe up from the home screen offers today's stats, comprising steps walked, calories burnt, distance covered, and duration, while a swipe down provides battery status, along with four other options, including brightness, raise to wake gesture, do not disturb mode, and settings. You can swipe to the right to go back to the previous page/ screen or press the toggle to jump to the home screen. The UI also provides options to set timers, control Music, find your phone, set alarms, and manage notifications.

• On the fitness front, the GOQii Smart Vital Ultra has 18 built-in exercise modes, including run, workout, cycle, walk, cricket, yoga, climb, aerobics, and meditation. The wearable can also track your vitals, including heart rate, sleep, oxygen saturation level (SpO2), and steps. While it may not have features specific to women's health or GPS tracking, I found the watch's continuous heart rate, sleep, and SpO2 monitoring on point. Apart from this, the Smart Vital Ultra step tracking was more accurate than the GOQii Stream (review). The wearable added minimal ghost steps while I was sleeping or driving.

• The health data can be accessed via the watch itself, but if you are looking for detailed analysis, you need the GOQii app. The latter is available for download on iPhones and Android mobile phones from their respective app marketplace. The GOQii Smart Vital Ultra offers an easy pairing with the app via Bluetooth. You can either scan the QR code or choose the good old search option to connect your smartphone to the tracker. Once the pairing is done, the app will sync with the watch and show all your health stats on the home screen. You can then interact with the stats to see how active you were during the week, month, or year. 

• The app also offers doctor consultations, personal coaching, and live training programs, among other things, but they are subscription-based services. That said, you can use the voucher code bundled with the GOQii Smart Vital Ultra to get three months of free subscription to the services. The services let you consult certified experts regarding diet plans, workouts, recovery, and more. The experts also actively monitor your activities, based on the data collected by the watch and the information you might share, and set goals to improve your lifestyle. Meeting the goals will help you earn GOQii cash, which is an in-app currency used to purchase products on the GOQii app.

• While it all works out just fine, I wish the app was more user-friendly. Just so you know, I had the latest GOQii app version 2.3.8 installed on my iPhone, and it looked more like an e-commerce platform instead of a fitness app. I had similar issues while using the app with the GOQii Stream smartwatch. It would have been better had the app offered a separate section for its products on sale, while the home screen was focused on the user's health stats and watch settings. The latter is buried under the small watch icon in the top right corner. Tap on the icon if you wish to adjust the settings of the watch, set targets, install the latest firmware, unlink your tracker, and download new watch faces. 

• The GOQii Smart Vital Ultra supports a variety of watch faces. The wearable can store up to seven watch faces at a time, which can be accessed via a long press on the home screen, while the new ones can be downloaded from the app. Additionally, you can even customise the watch face by choosing wallpaper from the gallery and adjusting the time format position and colour as per your liking.
• The GOQii Smart Vital Ultra is rated to last up to seven days on a single charge, which seems to be accurate. I was getting a week's battery life on the watch, with continuous heart rate tracking on, sleep and steps monitoring, smartphone notifications enabled, an hour of daily workout sessions, and the always-on display turned off. With the latter on, the watch could only last for around two days between charges. The charger provided inside the box is capable of juicing up the Smart Vital Ultra from 0-100 percent in about an hour and a half.

Verdict

The GOQii Smart Vital Ultra is currently selling in India at Rs 3,799. Do note that the wearable lacks Bluetooth voice calling and has fewer sports modes compared to its competitors. The likes of the Realme Watch 3 (review), Fire-Boltt Visionary, and Noise ColorFit 4 Pro all come with over 100 sports modes and a hands-free calling experience. These wearables also look more stylish than the GOQii watch and are available in more than one colour option. The Smart Vital Ultra, on the other hand, comes only in Black.

That said, fitness enthusiasts will have plenty to like about the GOQii wearable. The smartwatch can accurately keep track of your vitals, while the GOQii ecosystem, which is free for three months, will help you get things on track with assisted coaching, live classes, and doctor consultation. The watch also offers a lovely screen and a respectable battery life. So, if you are looking for a fitness tracker under Rs 4,000, the GOQii Smart Vital Ultra deserves a closer look.

Editor's rating: 3.5 / 5

Pros

• Lightweight and comfortable
• Nice and bright AMOLED screen
• Good fitness tracking
• Decent battery life

Cons

• Lacks auto brightness
• No women's health features
• GOQii app could have been better