GV18 Aplus smartwatch -- what can you expect for $35? [Review]

It's always the way with technology that it starts out expensive then tumbles in price as more manufacturers enter the field. With smartwatches that fall in price has come pretty quickly as Chinese manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon.

The last budget smartwatch we looked at proved pretty impressive for the price. The GV18 Aplus is cheaper still and yet packs in even more features. So, is it cheap and cheerful or cheap and nasty? Let's find out.

The watch comes in a sturdy cardboard box along with a USB cable, a battery and a Chinese/English instruction leaflet. It's compatible with Android phones and comes with a whole host of features including NFC, a camera, sleep monitoring, anti-theft feature and more.

You need to insert the battery before you do anything else. You're on your own with this as it's not mentioned in the instructions at all. There's a screw on the back presumably to hold on the cover but on our review sample it just went round and round without biting on anything. Even with the screw loose -- stop making up your own jokes! -- you need to lever the back off and there's a nagging worry that you might damage something.

Battery installed you need to plug it into a USB port for a couple of hours to charge it up. The socket is covered by the obligatory rubber flap. Once plugged in it's recognized by a PC as a storage device making it easy to download any pictures you've taken. While it's charging you can download the sync software to your phone by scanning the QR code in the instructions. This is a bit disconcerting as the initial setup screens are in Chinese, it’s also not on the Play Store so you'll need to compromise your security settings to install it.

The watch is a chunky design and quite weighty, but whilst the front is stainless steel the back is plastic, the strap is a soft rubbery material that's comfortable to wear. However, that screw is a bit annoying as it stands slightly proud of the surface.

Okay time to switch on, you're greeted with an animation and a slightly too loud jingle. The screen is nicely responsive though and bright enough for most use, although it can be hard to see in bright sunlight and there are only a limited range of color options. As with most smartwatches you need accurate fingers as it's easy to press the wrong button especially on things like the settings screens and calculator.

The watch has some useful standard features including a pedometer -- "your private health butler" as the website rather charmingly describes it -- and a sedentary warning which tells you if you've been sat still for too long. All of these are easy to set up and work reasonably well. It's also possible to install a SIM card in the watch itself and use it independently of your phone.

The built in camera is only 0.3 megapixels and the resulting images aren't brilliant quality with washed out colors and limited depth of field as you'll see from the full-size example below. There's also a long delay after taking a picture before the watch will let you do anything else. If you don't want to use the built-in camera there's also the option to control your phone's camera remotely.

At just under $35 the GV18 is undoubtedly cheap, and with that plastic back, dodgy battery cover and low-res camera it feels it. On the other hand all of the day-to-day functions like reading messages or accepting calls from your phone work well enough. If you have an Android phone and want to try out a smartwatch without straining your budget it might be worth a look but don't expect premium quality.

The GV18 Aplus is currently on sale for $34.79 and our review sample was provided by GearBest.com.