Mibro GS Explorer S Watch review

We gave the Mibro GS Explorer S to our tame enduro racer Aran to see if he could fathom it out to push him into a podium spot. Did he manage it?

• Brand: Mibro
• Product: GS Exlorer S Watch
• Price: £199.99
• From: Mibrofit
• Tested by: Aran Francis for 3 months

Pros

• Good value for money
• Impressively durable
• Clear and customisable display

Cons

• GPS takes an age to locate
• Occasionally unpairs from phone for no reason (though is simple to re-pair)

It’s hard to look past Garmin when it comes to the world of smart watches, but there are other options. One such option is the Mibro GS Explorer S. Based on the rest of Mibro’s line up, value for money seems to be their main USP; the standard GS Explorer can be picked up for just €109.99 (at time of writing).

The Explorer S model is mainly separated from the standard GS Explorer by more advanced features in ‘Explorer’ mode, and better features for underwater activity (this said, both models are rated to 10 ATM water resistance).

The Explorer S retails at a reasonable €159.99 on the Mibro website. The Explorer S is not simply cheaper; the watch is definitely a good option in its own right.

The display/face of the watch is excellent. There is an incredible amount of freedom offered for face customisation with plenty of readymade face layouts, as well as an option to customise your own display to suit your needs.

With the black strap fitted it’s subtle enough for outdoor or day-to-day ‘civilian’ wear, and actually works really well as a normal watch. The overall design of the watch is well thought out, even down to little catches on the back of the buckles which stop the spare strap drifting out of place and flapping around.

I’ll rattle off some things I really like about the watch.

Firstly, the waterproof claim is accurate. I’ve swam in rivers and the sea, even diving down a few meters under. Whilst the touchscreen is understandably difficult to use underwater, the water doesn’t start mucking about with the touch screen and pausing activities etc.

Once started, activity recording is accurate and activities will automatically sync to Strava if you so please. Mibro claims ‘military grade durability and to its credit I haven’t even been able to even scratch it so far, even after bangs, scrapes and some biggish crashes.

The customisability of the display is really good. The initial set-up is quick and painless. The battery life is excellent; though obviously frequent GPS usage will drain the battery quicker. Yet even with a fairly active schedule, I have managed to get at least a week or two out of it before recharging.

The calls and message notifications feature works well even – if I am slightly peeved to receive MS Teams notification whilst out in the hills!

The watch boasts a lot of features. From weather forecasts, a compass, heart rate monitoring (although I am sceptical of any watch’s HRM accuracy), sleep monitoring, tide times and even as a remote control for your phone camera and so on.

Whilst it covers your basic activities (running, cycling, swimming etc) there are a number of other sports that the watch tracks. The Explorer S doesn’t just do the bare minimum – just giving you a time and maybe calories burnt – it provides a thoughtful display for each sport. For example, in ‘racket sport’ mode it will show you your swing speed, or in ‘free diving’ mode it shows you your underwater time and maximum depth reached.

I do have a few small gripes.

Whilst the battery life is good overall and activities do sync automatically when the watch syncs with your phone, if you do have the watch dying mid-activity, there is no option for it to be saved. Your hard work is simply lost. Having said that, the watch gives you ample warning before it runs out. So don’t ignore it!

Secondly, the watch seems to unpair from your phone randomly but periodically. It is an easy process of forgetting and reconnecting the device though (no more complicated than connecting to headphones or something).

The one main issue I had with the GS Explorer S was starting an activity on the watch which could be a frustrating process. Sometimes it’s quick and painless but more often than not I find GPS acquisition to take an age to a point where I simply give up after a while and set off regardless. Connecting to your phone and making sure it is connected to your watch does help, along with moving around, but it is still frustrating when you’re sitting waiting for your watch to say you can start riding. My tip would be to make starting your activity the very first thing you do when preparing to head out on a ride (or whatever), instead of checking your tyre pressure , finding your shoes/helmet, lubing the chain etc.

From a cycling specific point of view, the watch really does pretty much cover everything I want. You can switch the display to show heart rate (here it has a nice graphic to show you which zone you are in), distance and time travelled or elevation gain.

When you get sweaty the silicone strap can cause it to slide down your wrist and bash on the back of your hand over rough stuff, however just wearing it a notch tighter than usual solves this pretty quickly. It possibly imprives the HRM accuracy too.

The watch also features waypoint marking and return-to-track navigation. Whilst this is a cool feature, it isn’t the most intuitive to use and – with Mibro being quite a niche brand – it’s hard to find a information on how this works. It is definitely worth familiarising yourself with this feature before you need to rely on it.

Overall

Yes there are a few frustrating points – with GPS acquisition being chief among these – but overall I would say the GS Explorer S is decent value for money. Finally, in Fresh Goods Friday 762, Benji said: “We’ve given this to our tame enduro racer Aran to see if he can fathom it out to push him into a podium spot finally…”. I’ve entered two races since receiving this watch and got onto the podium for both of them, – maybe the GS Explorer S was in fact the missing ingredient in my training!