It’s ditched the plastic case for a bigger round aluminum case that now hosts a 1.3-inch LCD show with a ramp-up in the decision in comparison with the primary Realme Watch, however, it does nonetheless lack an always-on show mode.
It’s additionally nonetheless a choice that only works with Android telephones, and as a smartwatch, it does the very fundamentals of letting you view notifications, manage your cellphone’s digicam shutter and music playback, and alter watch faces. In the event you’re pleased with the fundamentals, then the Watch S delivers them with none main points. As a health tracker, it would monitor your steps and sleep, and accuracy-wise it is within the ballpark of a Fitbit tracker we, in contrast, it towards.
Coronary heart fee monitoring is somewhat higher outfitted for each day monitoring than it’s for the train, the place it often posted wildly excessive most coronary heart readings for runs and indoor exercises. Nevertheless, steady monitoring appeared somewhat off too. You can too tackle the spot blood oxygen measurements, which proved rather more correct. There’s no built-in GPS, which implies you’ll have to depend on movement sensors or piggyback off your cellphone’s GPS to trace outside actions. The Realme Watch S did nonetheless fall fairly brief for distance monitoring even when leaning on our cellphone’s GPS.
On an extra optimistic be aware, the Realme Watch S’s battery does maintain up nicely. It has the capability to go for nicely over per week with all options in use, so even with heavy use, you need to comfortably get per week out of it. For the cash, the Realme Watch S does an adequate job. It appears like a pleasant smartwatch and retains issues easily. It’s simple to make use of, handles notifications and music options nicely sufficient, and does an okay job on the health monitoring entrance too.
In the event you’ve received lower than £100 (round $130 / AU$175) to spend, there’s sufficient to love right here. In order for you extra in the best way of sports activities monitoring in across the identical value bracket (or dwell in a rustic the place this is not accessible), we’d say look within the route of one thing from Amazfit’s assortment of watches, such because the Amazfit T-Rex.
Whereas Realme went sq. for its first smartwatch, it switched issues up and went spherical for the Watch S. That’s not the one massive change you may anticipate for its second stab at making a smartwatch. You’re additionally getting nicer case materials, improved display screen decision, and altogether one thing that appears a lot better on the wrist. Whereas it’s a drop-down in display screen measurement, you’re getting a step up in decision compared to the primary Realme Watch. It doesn’t really feel as washed out and it presents robust most brightness, good colors, and powerful viewing angles. There isn’t any horrible display screen lag while you swipe throughout it both, and it’s a step up in just about every approach. There’s no always-on show mode right here although and whereas increase to wake labored nicely generally, it appeared to wrestle a bit extra for responsiveness throughout the train.
Becoming a member of that touchscreen show are two bodily buttons, with the highest one pushing you into the app menu and the underside one providing fast entry to a function of your alternative. Out of the field, that’s set to exercise monitoring as default. These buttons twist as nicely, although that hasn’t been utilized for any of the onboard options. In the event you’re hoping to take the Realme Watch S for a swim or within the bathe, you’re out of luck. It’s been slapped with an IP68 water resistance score that’s higher suited to a little bit of rain or splash of water than being dunked in it for any time period.
As with the unique Realme Watch, that is one for Android cellphone house owners solely, and also you’ll have to obtain the Realme Hyperlink app, which requires your cellphone quantity to login and permission to enter your location always to arrange the watch. The Realme Watch S is working on Realme’s personal in-house working system and no particulars have been shared on the type of processor that’s powering it. The on-watch software program is fairly simple to make use of. Swipe as much as reveal your apps and options, swipe down for messages, and left or proper to see widgets for issues like exercise monitoring and climate updates.
You’ve got the flexibility to alter watch faces and that’s accomplished by urgent down on the primary watch display screen to swipe by way of a group of each analog and digital choices, with extra, discovered contained in the very primary Realme Hyperlink companion app. By way of the smartwatch options, you will have at your disposal, you may view notifications for first and third-party apps, and management music enjoying in your cellphone. You can too view climate forecasts and use the watch to manage your cellphone’s digicam.
There’s nothing ground-breaking right here, however, crucially the options all work largely without challenge. You possibly can’t reply to notifications, however, they’re typically nicely optimized for the show and straightforward to learn. Although some messages from apps like WhatsApp didn’t all the time show appropriately, and emails ship topic strains and nothing extra. Music controls work and you’ll enter them throughout the train as an added bonus. Climate forecasts are useful as nicely. It’s primary smartwatch expertise, however, it’s a great one for essentially the most half.
If you swap from a smartwatch to a health monitoring mode, there’s an honest array of options at your disposal. Realme features a fairly typical 3-axis accelerometer sensor to ship issues like step monitoring and exercise modes resembling indoor working. It additionally delivers computerized sleep monitoring. There’s an optical coronary heart fee sensor that brings options like steady monitoring, resting coronary heart fee, coronary heart fee alerts, and coronary heart fee throughout the train. That sensor additionally permits blood oxygen measurements as one other window into your health ranges. It took measurements without challenge and matched up with the readings from a devoted pulse oximeter.
There’s no built-in GPS, however, you do get related GPS, permitting you to lean in your cellphone’s GPS sign to map outside actions. There are additionally extras like guided respiration workout routines, which aren’t all that totally different from comparable options we’ve seen on Apple, Garmin, and Fitbit watches. As a health tracker, you may both preserve monitor of your stats from watch faces that help it, or head to the devoted widget that reveals steps, energy burned, and hours you’ve stayed lively for. There are additional options like inactivity alerts and the flexibility to arrange some useful “drink some water” reminders.
From an accuracy perspective, we typically discovered step monitoring to be inside 500-1,000 steps of a Fitbit health tracker. However steady coronary heart fee monitoring, which samples at a minimal fee of each 5 minutes, posted wildly excessive common coronary heart fee readings. In instances, it was 20bpm greater than was recorded by Fitbit and Garmin health trackers and a chest strap monitor. When it’s time to go to the mattress, the Realme Watch S will monitor sleep length and deep, gentle, and REM sleep levels. It moreover tracks coronary heart fee throughout sleep, although once more, it doesn’t really feel vastly dependable.
Typically, it tended to submit longer intervals of sleep than the Fitbit Sense we, in contrast, it towards. It clearly logged the time we have been in mattress earlier than falling asleep as time slept, and whereas sleep levels have been roughly the identical, its sleep monitoring positively feels somewhat off. If you transfer to monitoring actions, there are 16 modes overlaying a variety of indoor and outside actions. There are the same old suspects like working and biking together with issues like yoga, soccer, and energy coaching. Simply don’t anticipate it to trace your actual actions on a soccer pitch or your downward-facing canine.
For working, the related GPS help was fairly snappy at locking onto the cellphone’s sign, and also you’ll be capable of seeing stats like tempo, distance, and length. You’ve got a display screen devoted to music controls, and also you hit the highest bodily button while you’re prepared to finish the monitoring session. If you go for one thing like soccer or cricket, you’re simply getting exercise length and coronary heart fee knowledge.
Our exercise knowledge, nonetheless, suggests the Realme Watch S just isn’t a match to deal with that monitoring. On runs, it tracked one much less mile and knowledge like common tempo and velocity have been approach off from a Garmin Forerunner watch. With coronary heart fee, common HR knowledge was often inside 3bpm of a chest strap, however, most coronary heart fees was at instances 15bpm out from the chest strap. It was the same story for indoor exercises the place coronary heart fee knowledge didn’t really feel dependable sufficient.
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The Realme Watch S packs a 390mAh battery with the promise of providing you with as many as 15 days of battery life. That’s double what the primary Realme Watch promised. That 15 day relies on lab situations, like turning on steady coronary heart fee monitoring and receiving message notifications 100 instances. If you’re working low, there’s a power-saving mode that leaves you with the time and battery standing. In our time with it, these battery claims appeared to ring true. It doesn’t considerably drain the battery every day even with all of its key options in use.
We often noticed round 5-10% drop off every day and that was with the display screen at computerized brightness, monitoring an exercise for around 30-40 minutes, and with steady coronary heart fee monitoring enabled. When it’s time to cost, there’s a magnetic charging base that sits securely on the again of the watch case to the energy you up while you’re working low.
