Lava Prowatch ZN Review: Basic fitness tracking but incredible value for money

Pros:
– Sturdy build quality, polished design
– IP68 rated dust and water resistance
– Sharp AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
– Reasonably accurate health tracking for the segment
– Good battery backup
– Simple and responsive user interface
– Bluetooth calling
– Extremely affordable, two years warranty

Cons:
– Only one slot for watch face of your choice on the watch
– App is basic, yet demands too many unnecessary permissions
– Limited watch settings and fitness tracking options

Price: Rs 2,599
Rating: 4/5

Indian phone maker Lava has been making some right moves since 2023. Their smartphones have been getting consistently better, and late last year, we got to sample their Probuds 22 TWS earbuds and were quite pleased with what they offered for a modest price. Recently, the company forayed into the wearables segment, or in simpler terms, fitness watches. Their debut product, the Lava Prowatch ZN looks surprisingly good for its asking price. But is it actually as good? Let’s find out.

Lava Prowatch ZN: Design and build
The Prowatch ZN looks quite elegant in an all-black metal alloy body, and you get a choice between silicon and stainless steel metal straps; we got one with the former for review. Nothing about the build or design suggests this is a budget watch. It can easily pass off as something a lot more premium. The branding is only present on the buckle if you are observant and at the back of the watch.

The build quality is quite solid and the watch feels sturdy. The watch is a tad heavier than average fitness watches but not too heavy to cause discomfort even if you wear it throughout the day. It is not the most ideal to wear overnight though. The silicon straps fit well and do not cause skin irritation even after wearing the watch for the better part of the day. They have a standard 22 mm width with a simple locking mechanism and can be replaced with any third-party straps of the same width.

The watch is IP68-rated dust and water-resistant. While it can easily handle a few splashes and dips, that does not make it swim-proof. So don’t forget to take it off before jumping into the pool. The SpO2 and heart rate sensors are located at the back, along with the charging pins. There are two physical buttons on the right side – one serves as a power-cum-screen on/off button as well as a Home button, while the other acts as a shortcut for fitness activities.

Lava Prowatch ZN: Display and Watchfaces
One of the most striking features of this Lava watch is its sharp and vibrant 1.43-inch circular AMOLED display. It has a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels and a peak brightness of 600 nits. And that’s not all! The screen is protected against scratches by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3; something quite rare in this segment. There were absolutely no scratches on the screen after weeks of use. Don’t think it has an oleophobic coating though, as you can spot a few smudge marks on the screen, but they aren’t excessive.

You get five levels of brightness of which level 3 is bright enough indoors, but you may need to push it a level higher under bright sunlight for optimal legibility. In the current cloudy weather, even level 3 was fine outdoors. You can turn on the screen by flicking your wrist or by pressing one of the buttons; both work fine. Flick to wake feature can be turned off during your sleep hours or in a dark room like a theatre. Always-on display is also available, but it takes a toll on the battery life. I preferred leaving it off and flicking my wrist instead.

As for the watchfaces, there are four of them preinstalled on the watch and a fifth slot for one of your choosing. You get a lot more options through the Prospot app. You get the usual mix of digital and analogue faces, and some with fitness data like steps count, heart rate, calories burned etc. There were a few good ones but you can store just one watchface of your choice on the watch. If you add another, it replaces the one that you stored before. The preinstalled faces cannot be removed. The company should have provided a few more slots for the users.

Lava Prowatch ZN: Software and UI
The user interface is quite simple and lag-free. Swiping down on the home screen shows a quick settings menu, while you can check notifications by swiping up. Swiping left lets you cycle through widgets like daily activity progress, heart rate, oxygen levels etc, and swiping right brings up the apps drawer from where you can choose different functions of the watch.

The top physical button can be pressed to jump to the home screen from anywhere while the other button lists fitness activities when pressed. The top button has a crown that works as a scroll wheel to cycle through the menus or watch faces when rotated. Before you start using this watch, you need to download and install the Prospot app and sync the watch with it. It is only available for Android. Realistically, I don’t see iOS users opting for this watch, so it’s a non-issue.

The app is fairly basic for now, which is good for beginners but could have been done with a bit more depth. But one annoying aspect is that it asks for way too many permissions to function. Not asks but demands, and refuses to function till all of them are granted. This is one aspect that the app developers need to change. Other than watch settings and watch face library, you get access to daily activity progress, workout data, heart rate, sleep data and SpO2 level. Tapping on some of them displays more information with limited depth.

Another unusual issue I noticed was my older workout records seem to have vanished when I tried accessing them after a month. Interestingly, some of them are still visible on the watch, however, my sleep data from the previous month could not be retrieved. Another bug for the developers to quash.

Lava Prowatch ZN: Performance
You can track 10 different fitness activities on this watch ranging from walking, running, cycling and yoga to sports like basketball, badminton, table tennis and football. The company advertises 110 sports modes; not sure about the remaining 100 which are probably variations of the above 10. The watch has a heart rate sensor that can monitor your heart rate all day. You can toggle continuous heart rate tracking on or off but cannot set the frequency of measurement.

The SpO2 sensor on this watch does a good job in terms of speed and accuracy. You get a reading in just 15 to 20 seconds if you wear the watch right and keep your hand steady. The readings are at par with a clinical oximeter with a single-point variance at times. But never forget, these are just reference values and are not meant to replace clinical instruments. The Lava Prowatch ZN does not have a built-in GPS, but walks and runs are tracked with more than decent accuracy.

There is about 5 to 7 per cent margin of error, which is acceptable in this segment. It errs on the lower side, which means you are doing slightly better than what the watch shows. Even better, the pedometer doesn’t register false steps. The accuracy of sleep tracking is also fine. It provides information about different sleep stages like light sleep, deep sleep, REM and awake time. While the overall sleep duration seemed fine, I felt the deep sleep numbers were a bit generous as compared to some more premium fitness watches I have tested.

Lava Prowatch ZN: Other interesting features
Like most fitness watches these days, this Lava watch also supports Bluetooth calling feature. You can make and receive calls from the watch itself as long as it is synced with a smartphone with an active connection. The built-in speaker and mic do a good job when indoors or in quieter places, but the speaker feels slightly weak in noisy areas and you will need to hold the watch closer to your ear for better clarity. Not a deal-breaker though.

You also get notifications and messages from various apps on your phone that you give permission for. The messages are perfectly legible on the watch screen but you cannot reply back. Other than the above, you get the usual set of features like music controls, remote camera shutter, weather alerts and also a calculator.

Lava Prowatch ZN: Battery backup
The Lava Prowatch ZN has a 350 mAh Li-ion battery that claims to last for a week on a full charge with normal usage and half of that with Bluetooth calling. In reality, it does way better, especially if you do not indulge in too much calling from the watch. During my testing, it went on for almost a week with 5 to 10 minutes of daily calling and other settings and activities as follows.

Without Bluetooth calling, screen brightness set to 3, notifications limited to SMS and email, three hours of weekly fitness activity, two SpO2 readings daily and three nights of sleep tracking in total, the watch lasted close to two weeks, which is quite impressive. It takes about an hour to charge the watch fully using the bundled charging cable that plugs into any standard USB-A charger. No complaints about that either.

Lava Prowatch ZN: Price and Verdict
The Lava Prowatch ZN is priced at just Rs 2,599 and offers a 2-year warranty, including one-time free watch replacement. That is a bit too good for what you get here. Yes, the feature set is fairly limited but most of the basics are covered with fairly accurate health tracking and good battery backup. On top of that, you get a good-looking watch with a metal alloy body and a sharp AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass protection.

The watch does have a few limitations and the app is a bit too basic with a few glitches, but some of the shortcomings can be overlooked at this price point. Of course, this is not a watch for someone looking for highly accurate activity tracking or distance tracking with GPS, but there’s nothing in this price band that does all that. However, for basic fitness tracking with more than a hint of style, I cannot think of anything better under Rs 3,000 at the moment.