Kogan Active Lite 2

Accompanying instructions to small to read – The instructions were too small and even with a magnifying glass I was unable to read. Have been unable to change date and time so have not used at all.

Ok for the price – I wanted a digital watch that displayed the seconds, that was always correct like my phone, that automatically changed for Daylight Saving, and that could pause and resume music and audiobooks. I only found one watchface that showed digital seconds among the hundreds of crazy watch faces you can choose from, and it’s more colourful than I’d… Read more

like. Can’t see a way to prevent the watch face changing accidentally, but that doesn’t happen often.

The app doesn’t keep the weather up to date unless I open it, so it often displays a little question mark at the top of the watchface I’ve chosen. This makes me suspect I would have to open the app manually to force the watch to update the time or apply Daylight Saving. I won’t know until October.

Occasionally the raise to wake is slow to wake the watch, and sometimes won’t wake at all, so I have to wake it with the button. Raise to wake failure can be fixed by waking with the button and then swiping right to bring up the menu, then letting it sleep again. Just waking with the button doesn’t fix it. Must be a bug, but there’s no manufacturer information to allow me to report it.

Not all the menu items are described in the brief manual, nor all the ways to access the menus.

The step counter seems reasonably accurate. It’s often close to what my iPhone says, sometimes a bit less. The heartbeat seems accurate if I open the heartbeat app, but the heartbeat display on the watchface I chose rarely updates. The oxygen app often doesn't show any reading.

Calls and texts and other notifications are shown on the screen. This is configurable per app, but a lot of apps are grouped under “Other”. I can tell my phone to answer a call by tapping the watch screen. Sometimes I can hang up that way too, but not always.

I can pause and resume whatever I’m playing on my iPhone, but had to guess how to reconfigure the swipe left menu to make the music controls more accessible. It’s a little annoying that it reverts back to the watch face after a few seconds, and that the pause button is so tiny. I eventually discovered the wheel can be turned to control volume while the music app is showing. It would be great if the other button could be configured as pause/resume, but it seems dedicated to the sports mode menu, which I rarely use.

It took me a long time to discover that it was this watch that was causing all my phone calls to have no sound sent to my Bluetooth hearing aids for the first 6 or more seconds of the call. The cure was to go into the iPhone’s Bluetooth settings and tap Disconnect for the watch’s connection. Bizarrely, that fixed it without actually disconnecting the watch fully! Ie I can still answer calls and control music, but no more call audio delays. It even has raise to wake failures less often. I think there must have been a clash between my aids and the watch's Bluetooth calling, which can't be turned off. I just have to repeat the disconnect process if I ever reboot the phone or the watch.

The silicone band is ok, but the two keepers kept sliding along, so I ended up tying one in place.

I get 4 or 5 days use from a charge, but charge it every couple of days when it gets down to 3 bars.

I haven’t been able to find a screen protector or protective case for it because it’s not a name brand. Kogan only sell spare bands and chargers. I got a 45mm silicon Apple Watch cover, and that fitted ok after I cut the right hand side open to fit over the raised section.

Ok for the price. I’m not keen on paying 10 times that much for an Apple Watch.