Review: Realme Watch

Two-minute review

The Realme Watch is a smartwatch for anybody that wants these features you’d affiliate with a related watch, however for lots much less cash.

That is Oppo spinoff Realme’s first try at making a smartwatch after initially getting into the wearable area with the Realme Band.

Like its health band, it squeezes a good quantity into that watch physique together with some features you’d generally affiliate with costlier watches. There’s 24/7 exercise monitoring, a built-in coronary heart charge monitor and even a SpO2 sensor. Related GPS may even allow you to observe outside actions with the power to view notifications and control music playback for smartwatch followers.

The Realme Watch adopts the Apple Watch look when it comes to design with a touchscreen show and swappable watch straps. Unlike Apple’s smartwatch, there’s the promise of per week’s value of battery life and possibly extra relying on how you employ it. That is nonetheless a choice for Android phone house owners solely.

It’s a supremely finances smartwatch that on the entire performs nicely, however, you do have to make some compromises in design and efficiency which may persuade you to spend a bit of more cash for greater all-round smartwatch expertise.

Realme Watch price and release date

The Realme Watch launched in Might 2020 and is priced at £49.99 / $50 /AUS$169. You can also purchase additional bands in pink, green and blue all at £10.50 / $14 / AUS$19.

Design and show

• 1.4-inch, 320 x 320 color touchscreen display
• 20mm interchangeable straps
• IP68 water resistance score

The Realme Watch appears to be like like a mixture of an Apple Watch and a Fitbit Versa albeit with a notably extra plastic design. It features a 36.5mm case, measures in at 11.8mm thick and weighs simply 31g. It is a small statured watch that’s mild to put on, however not too mild to make it really feel low-cost. The shiny end on the casing offers off the impression of one thing costlier, however that is positively a plastic affair.

There’s a solitary bodily button to get up the watch, but the touchscreen show is your foremost technique of navigation. It’s not a completely fashioned display nonetheless, with a big chunk taken out from the underside of it. It’s much less noticeable with a darkish watch face on, but it surely’s disappointing to see that there’s no more display to utilize right here.

It’s definitely not finest in school when it comes to display high quality both, although does supply good brightness on the entire. For indoor viewing, there’s no visibility points. Out of doors in vibrant daylight, you’ll want to show up the display to full brightness to get the perfect viewing expertise. It’s good to see that Gorilla Glass three is in place to toughen issues up, although it’s disappointing to find this doesn’t have an always-on show mode.

The larger problem with the display is responsiveness. In that it’s not superb. It may be at instances sluggish to reply to swipes and faucets and might be extra of a problem when your digits get a bit of sweaty from a exercise.

The watch comes with a black silicone basic strap that may be eliminated to swap in one in every of Realme’s trend bands. These are nonetheless comprised of silicone , however supply up just a few brighter colours to brighten up the look. It additionally swaps the watch-style buckle for a single button clasp. They don’t really feel probably the most luxurious of bands, however they’re becoming for a exercise and are typically snug to put on.

If you wish to go swimming with the Realme Watch, nicely, you in all probability should not. It comes with an IP68 water resistance score, which suggests it’s secure for withstanding some sweat or surviving you carrying it washing the dishes. It does imply it’s much less appropriate for leaping within the bathe or getting just a few lengths in with it.

Efficiency and software

• Works with Android phones solely
• View first and third social gathering notifications
• Music playback controls

Realme makes use of its personal working system, which is presently solely match to work when it’s paired up with an Android phone. It hasn’t shared particulars on processing power or memory, however what we will say about efficiency is that it’s not good. Whereas menus and features launch with out problem, there’s some noticeable lag swiping by means of screens.

The software program expertise on the entire is fairly simple no less than. Swipe all the way down to see notifications from each first and third social gathering apps. You’ll be able to increase and swipe by means of to learn messages. The one motion you’ll be able to take after that’s to dismiss them.

Swipe up and you will find the primary menu, which on the smartwatch entrance gives an honest quantity. You’ll be able to management music playback in your phone, although not throughout train. There’s a remote camera shutter mode and the power to tug in climate forecasts when paired to your smartphone.

Realme additionally plans to roll out a software program update to allow you to management smart dwelling gadgets like audio system and lamps, however that’s provided that you personal Realme’s smart gadgets.

Swipe left and also you’ll discover a sequence of widgets devoted to data like coronary heart charge, latest sleep and your each day exercise monitoring stats. You can too change issues up within the watch face division. Urgent down on the watch face will serve up a handful of various watch faces with extra out there in Realme’s companion app.

That companion app is named Realme Hyperlink and is your home to evaluation well being and health data in addition to customise watch settings. It’s an app that basically retains to the fundamentals. You’ll discover a snapshot of health data, which you’ll be able to dig deeper to discover traits. There’s additionally entry to observe settings like controlling forms of notifications you’ll be capable to view and enabling features like music playback management and the discover my phone characteristic.

If you wish to push your data to different platforms and apps, Realme does allow you to do this, however proper now that presently solely stretches to Google Match.

Fitness

• Continuous heart rate monitoring
• SpO2 sensors
• Connected GPS

Monitoring your well being and health is what the Realme Watch does finest and, for the cash, it gives a good quantity so far as what it guarantees to record and monitor.

Let’s begin with the basics. It would observe steps, distance lined, mechanically monitor sleep, and report calorie burn. There’s no altimeter right here, so that you won’t be capable to observe elevation like stairs climbed nonetheless. The accuracy of these features largely held up towards a rival health tracker and a devoted sleep tracker. Sleep monitoring is saved to the fundamentals breaking down deep, mild and REM sleep. It does no less than allow you to view a few of that data on the watch in addition to inside of the app.

There’s also the choice to constantly monitor coronary heart charge, letting you pattern readings all through the day from intervals starting from 5 minutes all the way in which as much as 30 minutes. Once more, the reliability of that data fared nicely towards a devoted coronary heart charge chest strap monitor.

One surprising feature to seek out is the SpO2 sensor, letting you tackle the spot measurements of blood oxygen ranges as one other approach to assessing your present state of well being and health. These measurement readings take around a minute to take and are saved within the Realme companion app. They had been accurate too, when in comparison with a pulse oximeter.

You additionally get some helpful reminder features in the way in which of inactivity alerts and a nudge to drink some water to inspire you to maintain up common habits. A meditation mode additionally brings the same type of guided respiratory train features we’ve already seen crop up on the Apple Watch and Google’s Put on OS watches amongst others.

If you’d prefer to take issues past the fundamentals, there are sports activities monitoring modes onboard right here too. From the Exercise display, you’ll be able to observe outside runs, walks, indoor operating, outside cycling and also the likes of cricket and yoga. Although in case you’re hoping it is going to be in a position to acknowledge whenever you break into cat pose, you’ll be sadly disillusioned. Apart from operating and biking modes, you’ll be able to count on to only see coronary heart charge, exercise period and energy burned in actual time.

For operating and cycling, there’s no built-in GPS, however you need to use your phone’s GPS to raised observe these outside actions. On the treadmill, you’re counting on the accelerometer to trace distance. From an accuracy viewpoint, it tended to overshoot on distance and report inaccurate data for operating metrics like cadence. We additionally skilled points the place it failed to trace distance in any respect.

That coronary heart charge monitor will also be used for exercise too and is obtainable to supply real-time readings and alerts that really maintain up nicely towards a Polar coronary heart charge chest strap. Like many wrist-based sensors although, it struggled for accuracies throughout excessive depth exercise like indoor bike interval coaching and operating intervals. For basic train, it appears to do an honest job.

Realme even discovered room to squeeze in automated exercise recognition help for operating and strolling, one thing additionally, you will discover on Fitbit and Samsung’s watches. Sadly, it wasn’t one thing that labored all nicely for us, typically taking it’s time to acknowledge whenever you’d began an train or exercise. You’re higher off ensuring you manually observe these actions.

Battery life

• 160mAh battery
• 7-9 days battery life
• 20 days in power-saving mode

The Realme Watch guarantees to give you over per week’s value of battery life, however these numbers are based mostly on Realme’s lab exams. In actuality, it’s truthful to say it’s been a bit over optimistic with these numbers.

We tended to get nearer to four days, maybe 5 at a stretch versus wherever close to a full week. Should you’re recurrently utilizing the entire key features like steady coronary heart charge monitoring, notification help and cranking up the screen brightness, that’s what you’ll be able to count on to get.

Realme does additionally embody a power saving mode that strips the expertise all the way down to displaying the time and battery standing. Should you’re operating low and wish a bit of additional use out of it, it’s a helpful characteristic to maintain issues going a bit longer.

If you do run out of battery, Realme makes use of a puck-style charging cradle that clips onto the again of the machine. It tended to take over an hour to go from zero to hundred %, so it’s a comparatively nippy charger no less than.

Should I buy the Realme Watch?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…