Maxima Max Pro X6: The Game-Changer in Affordable Smartwatch Category Under Rs. 5,000?

Wearable technology like smartwatches and fitness gadgets has gained significant traction, especially among today’s younger generation. They are used extensively for both health tracking and style. The Indian market offers a plethora of options across various price points, but recently, there has been notable activity in the sub-Rs. 5,000 range. Typically, products in this category consist of basic fitness trackers or notification devices rather than comprehensive smartwatches.

Today, I am excited to introduce the Max Pro X6 from Maxima, an Indian watch manufacturer that asserts it offers more than just basic notifications. It includes features like SpO2 monitoring, an IP rating for water resistance, and importantly, the ability to answer phone calls—a capability that many of its competitors in this price range do not provide. How does it stack up against established models such as the Redmi Watch and the Realme Watch 2 Pro? Let’s explore.

Maxima Max Pro X6 price in India

The Maxima Max Pro X6 is available for purchase online through the manufacturer’s website and other e-commerce platforms at a price of Rs. 3,999. It comes in a singular 43mm case size and is offered in four color variations: Black, Black with Gold accents, Peach and Gold, and Silver.

Track your sleep with the Maxima Max Pro X6
Photo Credit: Robin John/Gadgets360

Maxima Max Pro X6 design

The design of the Maxima Max Pro X6 takes cues from the Apple Watch, featuring a rectangular shape and a crown on the right side. Its metallic casing sports a shiny finish, giving it a high-end appearance. The watch boasts a 1.7-inch display with a purported brightness of 400 nits. Pressing the crown allows you to access the home screen, and while it can be rotated, this action is merely aesthetic.

Pressing the crown also wakes up or turns off the screen, takes you back to the home page, pauses activities, and a long press powers down the device. On the back, you’ll find the heart rate and SpO2 sensors, along with two magnetic contacts for charging. The speaker and microphone placement here feels somewhat awkward, as the wrist tends to cover them while wearing the watch.

The Max Pro X6 comes with quality rubber straps that are simple to detach and replace. If black isn’t your preferred color, any 20mm watch strap can be used instead. The watch is lightweight at just 44g. Rated at IP67, it should be fine for swimming or showering. It is compatible with Android devices running on Android 5.0 and up, as well as iOS devices with iOS 9.0 or newer. Inside the box, you will find manuals, a warranty card, and a charger featuring a USB-A connector on one end and a custom magnetic charging pin on the other.

Notifications cannot be replied to on the Maxima Max Pro X6
Photo Credit: Robin John/Gadgets360

Maxima Max Pro X6 software, interface and app

The Maxima Max Pro X6 operates on a unique user interface (UI) reminiscent of the Fire-Boltt Talk. As previously mentioned, it draws significant inspiration from the Apple Watch, which is evident in its software as well. The UI is decent, but the screen lacks vividness due to low color saturation. The icons and text are not particularly crisp, leading to some blurriness along their edges. Users can choose to display the app drawer in either list view or a honeycomb format, similar to that of the Apple Watch.

By swiping down from the home screen, you can check the weather, adjust brightness, activate or deactivate battery saver mode, and turn on the flashlight—this essentially flashes the screen at maximum brightness. Swiping right reveals the step counter, which details your daily step count, calories burned, and the highest and lowest step counts recorded in a day. It also presents a weekly bar graph of your activity for quick assessment.

Switch between honeycomb and list views for the Maxima Max Pro X6 app drawer
Photo Credit: Robin John/Gadgets360

Continuing to swipe right shows your sleep data, including total sleep time, deep sleep, and light sleep metrics. Further down is a weekly bar graph akin to the step counter. One more swipe right shows health tracking options, beginning with the heart rate monitor and SpO2 tracker, culminating in the Bluetooth calling feature where you can see recent calls, a dial pad, and contacts. The watch can hold up to eight contacts, which must be manually added through the app. Notably, you cannot rearrange the menu pages.

To connect the Maxima Max Pro X6 to your smartphone, you need the Da Fit app, which is compatible with both Android and iOS. The pairing process was smooth, and I had no issues linking it with my Realme 6 Pro or iPhone 12. Long-pressing the home screen allows you to cycle through preloaded watch faces, with a maximum of five designs stored on the watch at any time.

Additional watch faces can be selected from the Da Fit app, which boasts a substantial variety. Swiping up reveals incoming notifications, with the app providing options to regulate which messaging or social media applications are permitted to send alerts to your watch.

The Maxima Max Pro X6 also functions as a remote shutter for your smartphone’s camera. You can control your phone’s music playback from the watch, although you cannot store music on it or access song metadata like titles or artists.

Charging the Maxima Max Pro X6 takes about two hours
Photo Credit: Robin John/Gadgets360

Maxima Max Pro X6 performance and battery life

I have been using the Maxima Max Pro X6 for nearly a month and found it comfortable for long durations. The display quality is acceptable, achieving brightness levels ideal for outdoor visibility. I encountered no issues when using it in direct sunlight. However, the absence of an auto-brightness feature means settings must be adjusted manually when outside.

The Max Pro X6 serves well as a notification device, displaying alerts from WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and more, capable of showing messages up to 13 lines long. It can also interpret messages in Hindi, though the formatting can be somewhat confusing. Nevertheless, the limitation that restricts the Max Pro X6 from being a genuine smartwatch is the inability to reply to notifications directly from the watch itself.

This watch does allow you to answer calls directly; you can accept a call after enabling the function in the settings. The speaker volume is sufficiently loud, though the microphone quality is average, which is expected at this price. You may need to bring the watch closer to your mouth for clearer communication on calls. Despite the unconventional placement of the speaker and microphone, they performed adequately during my tests.

A peculiar issue I encountered, also noted with the Fire-Boltt Talk, is that once call functionality is activated, the watch’s speaker acts like a Bluetooth speaker, playing any audio from your phone, whether from YouTube, Netflix, or other sources. To prevent this, you must either disable the call feature or alter the ‘Media audio’ setting in the Bluetooth menu on Android.

The heart rate monitoring function was mostly accurate when compared with the Amazfit Verge Lite. The accompanying app supports continuous heart rate monitoring throughout the day, though this will affect battery life adversely. I conducted standard step tests by walking 1,000 steps, with the Maxima Max Pro X6 recording 1,004 and 1,007 steps in my tests, yielding satisfactory results.

The Maxima Max Pro X6 supports eight sports activity modes
Photo Credit: Robin John/Gadgets360

The SpO2 monitoring was impressively accurate compared to a medical-grade oximeter; however, I still advise using dedicated devices for this purpose instead of relying solely on the smartwatch. The watch can also track sleep accurately, as per my testing.

Maxima asserts a battery life of up to 10 days with calling off and about three days with it on. My testing indicated that the watch lasted about four days with Bluetooth calling off and around two to three days with it enabled. Given that it lacks built-in GPS, I anticipated better battery longevity between charges.

Throughout my usage, the watch remained connected to my phone with all social media notifications and calls active, and I tested it with the quick view feature enabled, which lights up the display with a wrist flick. The watch does not indicate battery percentage, just showing a bar under quick toggles. To keep track of the battery level, accessing the app periodically is necessary.

Charging the device took approximately two hours. The proprietary charger is somewhat tricky to handle, necessitating careful alignment to ensure a secure connection and avoid disconnection.

The DaFit app offers a wide range of watch faces
Photo Credit: Robin John/Gadgets360

Conclusion