The Misfit Phase looks like a dumb watch, performs like a smart one

Smartwatches typically have two major flaws: design and battery life, and the new Misfit Phase aims to address both of them.

In fact, you wouldn’t think it’s a smartwatch from looking at it, thanks to its analogue face and traditional, stylish metal design.

But smart it is, with the ability to track steps, distance, sleep duration and quality, as well as delivering movement reminders and text, call and app notifications.

The Misfit Phase does all this using a combination of the watch hands, vibrations and a small color window, though for more detailed information you’ll have to load up a paired app on your phone.

More than meets the eye

As well as alerts and tracking, the Misfit Phase can also actively be interacted with, as a button on the watch allows you to control your music, advance slides in a presentation or take a picture with your phone.

All that, along with its ability to automatically update to your current time zone, makes the Misfit Phase somewhat smart, if perhaps not quite a rival for the Apple Watch 2, but promises of a six-month battery life gives it a longevity that even the Pebble range can’t come close to matching.

The Misfit Phase is also water resistant to 50 meters and supports any 20mm field-band, so it sounds promising for anyone who puts design and battery life ahead of functionality, but still wants some smart features.

If you fit into that camp you’ll be able to pick the Misfit Phase up on November 7 from $175 or £165  (about AU$265) in a choice of six colors.

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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