VKROBAG P114 Smart Watch Review: cheap all‑rounder with a few rough edges

I’ve been using this VKROBAG P114 smartwatch for about two weeks as my main watch, paired with an Android phone. I bought it mostly for three things: notifications, calls on the wrist, and basic fitness tracking (steps, heart rate, sleep). I wasn’t expecting much at this price, but I wanted to see if it could replace my older Huawei Band and save me from pulling out my phone all the time.

Right out of the box, it feels like a typical budget smartwatch from China: simple packaging, silicone strap, and a big bright screen. Nothing fancy, but it doesn’t look like a toy either. Setup is done through the Dafit app, which I already knew from other cheap watches, so I kind of knew what to expect: usable, but not polished like Samsung Health or Apple’s app.

Over these two weeks, I used it for daily walks, a few runs, strength sessions at the gym, and as a regular watch at work. I also tested the Bluetooth calling quite a bit (car, kitchen, walking the dog) and kept notifications on for WhatsApp, calls, SMS, and email. I charged it twice, just to see if the advertised battery life was realistic.

Overall, it’s a pretty solid budget watch with some clear pros and a few annoyances. If you’re used to high‑end smartwatches, you’ll see the limits pretty fast. But if you just want something cheap that tracks your basics and lets you answer calls from your wrist, it gets the job done. In the next sections I’ll go through design, comfort, performance, battery, and value for money in more detail, without the marketing fluff.

This is where the VKROBAG P114 scores the most points. For the price it usually sits at on Amazon, you get: a big color screen, Bluetooth calling, 24/7 heart rate, sleep tracking, basic sport modes, notifications, and decent battery life. If you compare that to big brands, you’re often paying 2–4 times more to get the same basics plus a nicer app and more precise sensors.

So, is it good value? In my opinion, yes, if your expectations are realistic. If you just want something to count steps, check your heart rate from time to time, see who’s calling, and maybe answer a call while your phone is in another room, it does the job nicely for the money. The build doesn’t feel premium, the app is a bit clunky, but the core functions are there and mostly work.

Where it makes less sense is if you’re really into sports training or if you obsess over data accuracy. In that case, you’re better off saving for a more serious watch with built‑in GPS and better integration (Garmin, Polar, higher‑end Amazfit, etc.). Also, if you absolutely need rock‑solid Bluetooth stability with zero drops, you might get annoyed by the occasional disconnects.

For someone buying their first smartwatch, a teen, or anyone who doesn’t want to risk an expensive watch at work or at the gym, the value is pretty solid. It’s not perfect, but the price softens most of its flaws. Just don’t expect a premium experience – think of it as a capable budget tool that covers the basics without emptying your wallet.

Design‑wise, this watch is pretty straightforward: a rectangular 1.85" screen with rounded corners, one side button, and a black silicone strap. It’s similar in style to a lot of generic smartwatches on Amazon. On the wrist, it looks fine – not premium, but not childish either. You can wear it at work without feeling like you’re wearing a toy, which is already a win at this price.

The bezels around the screen are there, especially on the bottom, but the watch faces are designed to hide that a bit. The display is bright enough indoors and outside on a cloudy day. In direct sunlight, you need to bump the brightness up, and it’s still readable but not super crisp. The touch response is good enough: not as smooth as an Apple Watch, but I never really struggled to swipe through menus. Sometimes there’s a slight delay opening a menu, but nothing dramatic.

I liked that the watch offers a lot of watch faces through the Dafit app (they say 150+). Most are a bit flashy, but you can find a few cleaner ones. You can also put your own photo as a background, which is a nice touch if you want something more personal. The interface is simple: swipe left/right for widgets (steps, heart rate, weather), swipe down for quick settings, swipe up for notifications. After one day, you know where everything is.

If I compare it to something like a low‑end Amazfit or older Fitbit, the VKROBAG looks a bit more generic, but the big screen helps. The only thing that really shows it’s budget is the thickness and the plastic feel. From a normal distance, it looks like any other black smartwatch. Up close, you see it’s not a £200 device, but for daily use it’s totally fine.

Battery is one of the areas where this watch does quite well. It has a 260 mAh battery and the brand claims around 7 days of use and 30 days standby. In real life, with Bluetooth always on, notifications active, heart rate monitoring, and sleep tracking, I got around 5–6 days on a charge. That’s with screen brightness at about 70% and raise‑to‑wake enabled.

When I pushed it harder – more calls from the watch, more frequent heart rate checks, and playing with settings – it dropped closer to 4 days. On a lighter week (fewer workouts, fewer calls), it could probably hit the 7 days they advertise. So the claim isn’t totally unrealistic, but it depends a lot on how you use it. Either way, you don’t have to charge it every night, which is a relief compared to some big‑brand watches.

Charging is done through a small magnetic cable. It’s not the strongest magnet in the world, but it holds if you put the watch flat on a table. It took me about 1.5–2 hours to go from roughly 15% to 100%, which matches what they say. There’s no wireless charging, but at this price I didn’t expect it. You’ll want to keep the cable somewhere safe though, since it’s a proprietary shape.

For someone like me who hates plugging gadgets in all the time, this is one of the main arguments for this watch. You can easily make it through the work week on a single charge. Just be aware that if you constantly take calls on it and crank the brightness to max, you’ll knock a couple of days off that number.

Comfort was actually better than I expected. The silicone strap is soft and flexible, and the watch isn’t too heavy. I wore it basically 24/7: at work, at the gym, in the shower (quick rinse, not hot water), and at night for sleep tracking. No skin irritation, no weird marks, and the strap holes give you enough adjustment to find a good fit.

The watch case is a bit thick, which you notice when you bend your wrist back a lot (like during push‑ups or certain gym exercises). It’s not painful, just a bit present. For typing on a laptop or using a mouse, I didn’t find it annoying. During runs and walks, it stayed in place and didn’t slide around, so heart rate readings weren’t constantly disrupted by bad contact.

For sleep, I usually hate wearing watches, but this one was tolerable. The strap doesn’t have rough edges, and the buckle is standard. The only annoying bit at night is the raise‑to‑wake gesture: if you’re someone who moves a lot in bed, the screen can light up randomly. You can disable that in the settings or set a "do not disturb" schedule, which I ended up doing after the first night.

On the wrist size side, my wrist is average and it fits fine. On a very small wrist, the watch might look a bit big, but the strap can go pretty tight. On a large wrist, you still have enough strap length. In short, comfort is good enough for all‑day wear, and sleep tracking is doable if you’re not hyper‑sensitive to having something on your wrist at night.

I obviously haven’t used it for years, but in two weeks of normal abuse, the VKROBAG P114 held up well. I wore it in the shower (quick, not hot water), washed dishes with it, got caught in light rain, and did a few sweaty gym sessions. No fog under the screen, no weird behaviour, and the strap hasn’t stretched or cracked. The IP68 rating means it’s okay for swimming and handwashing, but they clearly say not to use it in hot water or seawater, and I’d respect that.

The case is plastic, so don’t expect the solidity of a metal‑cased Garmin or a high‑end watch. That said, I bumped it a couple of times against door frames and dumbbells, and it didn’t leave any obvious marks. The screen is still scratch‑free so far, but I’ve been reasonably careful – I’d still recommend a cheap screen protector if you’re clumsy or do rough work with your hands.

The strap is standard silicone with a classic pin buckle, and it feels like it will last. If it breaks, you can usually find compatible generic straps of the same width for cheap, though they don’t really advertise standard lug size, so you might have to experiment a bit. The single side button still clicks fine after many presses and hasn’t become mushy.

Overall, durability feels good enough for normal daily use: office, gym, casual swimming, commuting. I wouldn’t take it on construction work, rock climbing, or saltwater sports and expect it to survive years. But for regular life and fitness, it doesn’t feel super fragile. Just remember: it’s a budget device, so treat it as such, not as a tank.

Let’s be honest: this is not a sports lab device. But for daily use, the performance is decent. Steps: I compared it to my phone and another wearable on a few walks. It was usually within a 5–10% range, sometimes a bit generous with counts when I was gesturing a lot. For normal walking, it’s fine. It gives you a realistic idea of how active you are, not an exact science.

Heart rate: at rest and during light activity, numbers were close to my reference watch. During intense workouts (intervals, burpees, etc.), it sometimes lagged behind or smoothed out peaks. That’s pretty common for wrist sensors in this price range. If you just want to know if your heart rate is low/medium/high and see a rough trend, it’s okay. If you’re training by precise heart rate zones, this is not the right tool.

Sleep tracking: it correctly detected my general sleep and wake times most nights. It splits into deep sleep, light sleep, and awake periods. I wouldn’t trust the exact minutes, but it matched how I felt: short night vs long night, restless vs calm. The Dafit app shows simple graphs and gives you a "score". It’s basic, but it helped me see patterns, like going to bed too late on weekdays.

Connection and notifications: this is where I had some hiccups. On my Android phone, Bluetooth stayed stable most of the time, but a couple of times during the week the watch just stopped getting notifications. I had to reopen the Dafit app or toggle Bluetooth off/on. It’s not constant, but it happens. Another Amazon reviewer mentioned intermittent connection with a Samsung phone, and I can confirm it’s not as rock‑solid as a Samsung or Apple watch. If you really rely on notifications 100% of the time, that’s something to keep in mind.

On paper, this VKROBAG P114 packs a lot: 1.85" HD touch screen, Bluetooth calling, 115+ sport modes, heart rate, sleep tracking, IP68 water resistance, and up to 7 days of battery. It works with both Android and iOS via Bluetooth and uses the Dafit app to sync all your data. You can also get notifications from WhatsApp, Facebook, SMS, calls, etc. So the basics are covered.

In practice, the features I actually used daily were: step counter, heart rate, sleep tracking, call handling, notifications, timer/stopwatch, and alarms. The 115+ sport modes are mostly just variations of the same thing. You get the usual metrics: duration, estimated calories, heart rate, steps, and distance for some activities. Don’t expect advanced stuff like VO2 max, training load, or GPS tracks – this watch doesn’t have built‑in GPS, it only uses your phone’s GPS if you launch activities from the app.

The watch also includes a few extra tools: calculator, weather, sedentary reminder, camera shutter for your phone, and a basic voice assistant shortcut (which just triggers your phone’s assistant). These small things are handy but not life‑changing. The main value here is: cheap watch, big screen, calls on the wrist, and simple health stats. The rest is bonus.

Compared to brand‑name watches (Samsung, Fitbit, Garmin), you clearly see where the corners are cut: the app is basic, metrics are more "rough estimate" than precise, and long‑term health analysis is limited. But for the price, it offers more functions than most basic fitness bands, and that’s what makes it interesting if you don’t want to spend much.