Titan Juxt Pro : Worth the Hype?

I recently happened to attend the launch of Titan Juxt Pro through a special invitation for tech bloggers. Titan Juxt Pro is Titan's second attempt in capturing the smartwatch segment, a large portion of which is left completely untapped.

The " Fitness band" companies tried to make a significant attempt in making a dent in the Fitness and Lifestyle industry, but no one except Xiaomi could even remotely get a minuscule share. Either wearing the fitness bands became a fad or people had very less options except for the 1000rs Xiaomi Band  or the 10,000 Rs Fitbit Band (for the premium segment). Frankly both Xiaomi and Fitbit offered similar quality in terms of accuracy, measurement, features, though Fitbit seemed to last much longer.

The Titan Juxt I

 

Cut to the chase to the smartwatch industry, the whole trend began with Apple who infamously launched an Apple Watch. With very less takers in India,  this gave watch leaders like Titan to mark their presence by launching the first ever Indian smartwatch , called Titan Juxt for 15K . This smartwatch was more or less the usual watch with standard dials except for a small rectangular digital display which gave you notifications from the web, calls and counted steps as well

Hands on with Juxt Pro :

The Juxt Pro however is a complete redesign from its predecessor. Its a complete smartwatch in all aspects, with fully customizable digital display dials, storage options for music, steps counting, call notifications and much more. It comes with both a metal and a leather variant, has a stainless steel encasing, and a battery that can last for 36-48 hours depending on usage

                          

Pros  

• First impressions with the watch seems impressive. With all those hardware built inside, the watch seems slightly heavy but doesn't have much of an issue when you wear it for sometime. 

• Everything about the watch is digital. Be it the Cloud storage for steps and other info , remote locking, 20+ digital  dials that can be changed at the click of an button (even you    can design your your own dial)

• Works on a Titan built OS , though fully compatible with  Android and iPhone (A key point compared to Apple watch that doesn't sync with Android phones).

• With barely any competition in the smart watch, this will be the only brand that may probably pop into your mind.

• Waterproof and can work upto  30m below water (Smartbands with IP67 tech can work only upto 4-5 m under water)

• Touch screen is smooth and has a corning gorilla glass 3 for scratch protection

 

  

Cons

• Priced at 23,000 this can be a huge deterrent for many interested people. Even the luxury segment customers may find this a bit costly for a "Titan" smartwatch. Even during the launch, we were expecting them to price it at 14-16,000 but 23,000 is a bit too much

• The watch doesn't exude luxury. Yes, it's a digital watch but it doesn't project the luxury/premium watch feel you get, when you buy a similar watch for 20,000. 

• The interface takes some time to get used to. The side buttons in the watch are slightly hard to press to change settings and displays and not really smooth.

Verdict 

    

Titan has played a big gamble and invested quite heavily in this smartwatch, which reflects directly on the high price. But has the smartwatch industry really caught on , for a buyer to invest 23,000 rs into it? Probably not just yet.

Smartwatches are definitely the future, with the Internet of things catching up on every single appliance around the house and the need to "Stay digitally connected" has just intensified. Smartwatches deliver you just that. But one may not be ready to pay that amount of a price for that need.  Until then a 1,000 rs fitness band with a digital display and heart monitor is just more than enough to do the trick (at least for now)

Here's a link where you can purchase the watch from  : Titan Juxt Pro

It's funny that phones are now being used for checking the time , and watches are being used to check phone notifications. That's the world we live in -  Karthik Murali

Redmi Note 3 vs Redmi 3S Prime

Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 3 in Gold  colour on March 9, 2016 and was declared to be an instant hit. Probably they literally "struck" gold with this one.  You can read its review here : Redmi Note 3 (Gold) Review

However just 5 months later , Redmi has now launched a 3S Prime version of the Note 3.

However new is not always better and you may have to think twice before considering the 3S Prime over the Note 3

Why Redmi 3S Prime is Better 

• Price

The Note 3 was priced at Rs. 9,999(16GB ROM/2GB RAM) and 12K (for 32GB ROM/3GB RAM) version. Interestingly, the 3S Prime has been priced Rs.3000 cheaper at just 8,999 for a  32 GB/3GB variant .  This may immediately seem like a better deal in paper , to think you are getting a newer variant with a higher capacity for 3K cheaper(compared to a 2GB variant)

• Operating System

3S Prime comes with Android Marshmallow (v6) compared to Lollipop in Note 3 (no official word on a OS upgrade yet on the latter) .

• Screen Size 

Redmi Note 3, similar to its "Note" predecessors came with a 5.5 ' screen (which became a screen standard for similar brands like OnePlus ,Asus,LeEco, Motorola etc)3S prime however comes with a reduced 5' IPS display screen .  This could be an interesting strategy among a growing discontent of large screen phones, that's difficult to handle with a single hand or keep it securely in a shirt/jeans pocket.(On Similar lines Apple iPhone SE came up with a 4' screen for a 40K price tag,but it bombed heavily in the Indian market )

Why Redmi Note 3 is better ?

 

• Processor : 

Apart from the RAM, the processor is the key in ensuring that the phone can handle multiple applications at once, doesnt lag or hang , and can work a whole lot faster.  Quite disappointingly, Redmi 3S Prime has opted/downgraded for a " Snapdragon 430 Octa Core 1.4 GHz" processor when compared to a relatively powerful Snapdragon 650 64-bit 1.8 GHz. This can mean significantly poor performance in the 3S Prime and can handle only very basic apps

• Camera

The Redmi series have never enjoyed the brilliance of a Xiaomi Mi Series camera , but Note 3 offered  a very decent camera quality to the consumers and came with a 16MP/5MP camera
3S Prime, for reasons unknown comes with a reduced camera resolution of just 13MP in the rear while the front remains the same ( All early reports indicates a very poor photo clarity taken in the 3S prime)

• Resolution 

Source : ccm.net

Redmi Note 3 was on target with a Full HD, 1920 x 1080 Pixels resolution. The Redmi 3S prime on the other hand is just 1280 x 720 Pixels and doesnt offer a full HD resolution
(Again a significant downgrade from the Note 3 series)

Comparison Summary :

Redmi 3S Prime Redmi Note 3 Price 8999 11,999 Resolution HD, 1280 x 720 Pixels          Full HD, 1920 x 1080 Pixels Graphics Adreno 505 Adreno 510 Processor Snapdragon 430  1.4 GHz   Snapdragon 650  1.8 GHz Camera 13 megapixel  16 megapixel RAM 3GB 3GB Storage 32GB 32GB Verdict Redmi Note 3 overpowers the 3S Prime in all aspects including Camera, Resolution, Processor and even a bigger screen size. Even if the 3K price difference bothers you, you can still opt for the 2GB Ram variant of Redmi Note 3 at 9K and be content, than purchasing the 3S Prime With the 3S Prime, it clearly shows that the folks at Redmi and Xiaomi are just experimenting with their existing models without driving anything new. The mark of a Xiaomi brand is its innovation, quality and sturdiness. This is very clearly lacking in all departments when it comes to the 3S Prime. I'd sincerely hope Redmi discontinues the "Prime" series in future and stops experimenting on the Note series. Buy it here :  You can buy the Redmi 3S Prime here : http://fkrt.it/rFJ9RNNNNN Redmi Note 3 Purchase Link :   http://fkrt.it/VdzVNuuuuN