Realme Watch S Pro Review: A smarter fitness tracker

The Realme and Xiaomi turf war shifted from smartphones to ecosystem products in 2020. When Xiaomi introduced the Mi Watch Revolve, it was only a matter of time if Realme would follow suit. Enter the Realme Watch S Pro

The premise is similar enough. The Realme Watch S Pro is not a full-fledged smartwatch, but a crossover. It combines the features of some of the best fitness trackers with nicer additions like a bigger screen and slightly more robust functionality for an easily accessible price. Has Realme finally launched a product that does what it says on the market? Read our Realme Watch S Pro review to find out.

About This Realme Watch S Pro Review: I wrote this Realme Watch S Pro review after using the watch for 10 days. It was paired with my OnePlus 7T Pro for the duration of the review. In the course of the check, the watch was updated to software version 1.3.0.61. The Realme Watch S Pro test device was provided by Realme.

What you need to know about the Realme Watch S Pro

Like the earlier Realme Watch, the Realme Watch S Pro also takes a fitness band plus approach. The main attraction here is the Smartwatch Lite features at a cutthroat price. Priced at just Rs. 9,999, the Realme Watch S Pro is a direct competitor to the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve.

However, this is not a full-blown smartwatch. In addition to the fitness focus, the range of functions is rather thin. You don’t get much more than rudimentary controls for smartphone apps like music playback and camera, and a notification feed.

What is the design of the Realme Watch S Pro?

In contrast to the Mi Watch Revolve and its huge bezels, Realme opted for a more traditional sports watch look. I like this.

Nobody will mistake the Realme Watch S Pro for a high-end wearable. However, the design works and looks nifty enough not to cause eye pain. In fact, it can easily hide under a shirt cuff. This is in sharp contrast to the Mi Watch Revolve, which looked like a wall clock on my wrist.

The 1.39-inch display is vibrant, although the colors don’t seem as strong as the Mi Watch Revolve. However, with a peak brightness of 450 nits, the AMOLED panel is clearly visible outdoors. The presence of an ambient light sensor is definitely appreciated as well, and it worked admirably well.

In the course of the review, my Realme Watch S Pro review device received an update that enabled the always-on display mode. Unfortunately, not much stands in the way of the selection. You can choose between a digital and an analog watch face.

The rest of the package holds up too, with the two side pushers providing excellent tactile feedback. Not all is perfect, however.

The overall build quality is excellent for the price, though the plastic underbody is a downer.

The plastic bottom of the watch looks fine from a distance, but you can see the corners have been cut to match the price. This is particularly noticeable in the quality of plastics. The quality of the included silicone straps could also use an upgrade.

The 420 mAh battery is designed for a battery life of 14 days. I did it for about nine days with the display on all the time that stayed on during the day. I’m sure most users should get the promised two weeks of longevity with the device turned off. Even so, advanced GPS-based workouts will inevitably degrade that number.

The watch weighs 63 grams with the strap. This is slightly more than the Xiaomi smartwatch, but combined with the smaller size, the watch feels more substantial. For the price, there’s not much more Realme could have added to the Watch S Pro to sweeten the deal.

Fitness and health

The Realme Watch S Pro belongs to that weird category of products that are more than just a fitness band but don’t let you add to the experience with third-party apps.

Realme leans heavily on the fitness aspect of the watch by introducing a number of hardware and software integrations. The hardware sensors range from a 6-axis accelerometer to a geomagnetic sensor, a gyroscope, a heart rate monitor, and a blood oxygen monitor. This is paired with around 15 sport modes. These include:

Compared to the Realme Watch S, the Watch Pro offers the right basics. I found it for just the basics like step tracking. Activities can be started directly with the button and you can choose one of the activities offered.

Compared to my Fitbit Ionic, step tracking was only deactivated by a few steps. That’s good enough for the money. However, it has been plagued by the same problem as the Mi Watch Revolve – – poor GPS reception.

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At first I chalked it up on a cloudy sky. However, for several days and in several places, the watch was either unable to obtain a GPS lock or simply dropped it entirely. It’s not a feature I’d recommend buying the Realme Watch S Pro for.

The heart rate measurement on most fitness wearables these days is very good, and so is the Watch S Pro. The watch calculated my resting heart rate to be 64 beats per minute, which was slightly more than the 58 beats per minute measured by my Fitbit. The variance during exercise was similar, with the Realme Watch S measuring a maximum heart rate of 133 beats per minute over a brisk walk compared to the 140 beats per minute measured by the Fitbit.

Incidentally, sleep tracking is also great with detailed sleep cycle data. This goes without saying. Still, it’s good to note that the clock was accurate. The measured data was available within a minute or two of waking up.

The SpO2 sensor is not triggered automatically and does not provide any insight into sleep apnea or sleep disorders.

Finally, the watch has a built-in SpO2 sensor, but I wouldn’t put much weight on the data here. There is no automation at all. Users are expected to take manual measurements. Without the option to measure your blood oxygen levels while you sleep, the Realme Watch S Pro offers no way of providing insight into sleep apnea. Elsewhere, the measurements weren’t particularly accurate either.

I tested the watch with a dedicated pulse oximeter and the variance between readings was pretty significant.

Does the Realme Watch S Pro have smartwatch functions?

Like the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve, the Realme Watch S Pro is a Smartwatch-Lite. It has the basics like notifications, but there isn’t much else you can do. They cannot respond to notifications, nor is there any kind of smart assistant integration.

The general navigation on the user interface is practically the same as most other fitness watches. It includes a series of swiping and tapping movements to switch between notifications, quick settings, the app drawer, and widgets.

The swipe-based interface is easy to navigate and the integration of home screen widgets like Wear OS is handy.

I like Realme’s implementation of widgets. With them, you can quickly get information about your sleep cycles or daily fitness level right on the home screen – even if it looks like it’s been taken straight from Wear OS.

I also really liked the variety of dials on offer, as there is something for every taste. You also get applets for a stopwatch, media control and the ability to control the camera of your smartphone. Realme plans to integrate controls for its IoT ecosystem products into the watch in the future. We need to see how these plans work out.

Also read: Amazfit GTS 2 and GTR 2 review: room for improvement

How is the Realme Link app?

The Realme Link app is where you need to set up the watch and access all of the data it collects. The application is a bit rudimentary, but conveys all the basics. The homepage gives you an overview of your daily step count, sleep data, heart rate and more at a glance. From here you can tap on subsections to get more detailed data on specific parameters.

You can configure the watch to remind you to have a drink or to get up and take a walk. However, there is still no 24-hour heart rate monitoring. Instead, Realme allows you to configure steps from 5 minutes to 30 minutes to collect heart rate values.

Realme Watch S Pro specifications

Price and competition

The closest competitor to the Realme Watch S Pro is the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve. It offers a similar range of functions and the same price as the Realme fitness watch. It has a bolder design and a brighter display, but doesn’t offer much functionality.

There is also the Oppo Watch. It is a “real” Smartwatch with Wear OS that is available for a similar price. The Oppo watch costs Rs. 14,990 and has great fitness tracking as well as the ability to install third-party apps.

Realme Watch S Pro review: the verdict

Regardless of the GPS training, the Real Watch S Pro does most of what it says on the package. If you’re looking for a fitness wearable in the market that can do just a little more, the Realme Watch S Pro should be for you.

That said, unless you really care about a bigger display, you can get a lot of the same functionality for a lot less money with a fitness band.

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