Misfit Vapor X
RUNNING OUT OF STEAM.
WANT TO MAKE a Wear OS watch with personality? It’s not easy. These days, most smartwatches have the stand-out appeal of bags of white flour.
Misfit does not fall into the trap of trying too hard with its design. The Vapor X looks clean, clear and tasteful, unlike the fairly ugly TicWatch watches.
It also has all the features you need, including GPS, Google Pay and a heart rate sensor. However, getting around a day of battery life under real world usage won’t impress anyone, especially when there are longer-lasting alternatives like the Fitbit Versa, Samsung Galaxy Watch and Huawei Watch GT. So on balance, is the Misfit Vapor X a smartwatch you should be considering?
Many of the big names in wearables like Huawei and Samsung now use their own software. Wear OS watches are largely left to smaller brands like TicWatch, Fossil and Misfit. TicWatch has earned a lot of attention for its low prices, but a day with the Misfit Vapor X will make you consider spending a bit more.
The Misfit Vapor X is a very pleasant wearable. It’s much thinner and lighter than the original Vapor and is far better-looking than any TicWatch smartwatch. Misfit hasn’t changed the look too much since the Vapor 2, but we don’t mind.
Its case is aluminum, and elegant-looking stems attach the silicone strap. This is one of the smartest-looking Wear OS watches around, and it is very comfortable. It’s light at 43.2g and not bulky at just under 12mm thick.
The physical controls match the best, too. Its crown cycles between the watch face and apps screen, but also acts as a rotary dial, letting you scroll through menus and your notifications without touching the screen.
The Misfit Vapor X’s screen is plenty bright enough, has an ambient light sensor to allow automatic brightness changes, and there’s a boost mode for very bright conditions. We found this very useful when using the watch to track outdoor runs during summer.
The GPS provides very good route tracking. Run with your phone and it will use its location data as standard, but the smartwatch seems to lock on to a location about as quickly when using its own chip.
Heart rate measurements are mixed, though. The Misfit Vapor X frequently over-estimates resting heart rates, and we spotted a few unexpected peaks when recording walks and runs. Misfit claims this watch has a ‘best-in-class’ heart rate scanner, but it is an update or two away from perfection at the very least.
The Misfit Vapor X has a 310mAh battery, and its stamina is the dismal Wear OS norm. We find it lasts around 25 hours. This is without having done anything of note. No GPS tracking, no app use, just the occasional brief look at some incoming notifications.
The Misfit Vapor X is a nice smartwatch marooned on a withered platform. It is comfortable, looks good and has all the right hardware features. But even a new ‘efficient’ chipset can’t drag it beyond one-day battery life.
Okay, you can get two days using a watch-only mode. But if you want a watch that just tells time... Buy a watch.