Want to hear a gadget-themed irony? Well, here goes. An expensive smartwatch may not last if you are careless with it, but a smartwatch that costs one-fifth of an Apple Watch Series 11 may not mind your carelessness at all.
The “cheap” smartwatch I am talking about is the new Rollme Hero D6. Billed as a rugged outdoor smartwatch designed with adventurers in mind, this new kid on the smartwatch block features a high-strength polycarbonate body that promises “an excellent balance of durability and lightweight comfort.”
Its injection-molded construction has reinforced edges, protective corners, and impact-resistant structures to survive whatever your adventurous life reasonably throws at it. Rollme also says it is built to meet MIL-STD-810H standards for resistance to shocks, vibrations, and changing environmental conditions. The only thing it is missing is a proper tough-guy name like Casio’s G-Shock. “Hero D6” sounds more like a supporting character in a tabletop game.
For navigation, the watch has L1+L5 dual-frequency GPS, full-color offline topographic maps, track navigation, a compass, and a barometric altimeter. In other words, it may know where you are even when you do not. Bluetooth calling with AI environmental noise cancellation is onboard, too, should you need to tell someone exactly how lost you are.
Up front is a 2.13-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a 410 × 502 resolution and sunlight-readable On-Cell touch technology. A dual-core MCU and DSP architecture, paired with dual GPUs, supposedly keeps everything smooth without draining the enormous 850mAh battery.
Health features cover heart rate, blood oxygen, stress, and sleep, while more than 170 sports modes track nearly every conceivable excuse for sweating. It also carries a 5ATM water-resistance rating for swimming.
Rollme claims up to 70 days of battery life, although the precise conditions behind that heroic figure are not stated. Curiously, neither is the watch’s weight, despite “lightweight” being one of its headline qualities.
The Rollme Hero D6 is available now in Trail Green and Storm Gray for US$79.99. Since it is not wildly expensive, the pressure of trying not to damage it simply is not there. The irony is that its rugged construction may not let you damage it anyway. Well, that’s assuming, of course, that Rollme delivers on its promises of durability.
Images: Rollme.