The Realme Watch S Pro (Review) that was launched at the beginning of this year remains one of my favorite smartwatch not just because of it’s affordability, but also the design and features that it offers to users.
I’m therefore really excited to check out another model that was launched by the company this year – Realme Watch 2 – which is targeted more towards the budget segment of the smartwatch market.
Sporting an attractive price of just $99, the Realme Watch 2 is one of the few smartwatches in Singapore that sits below the S100-mark. However, does it have all the features you’re looking for in a smartwatch? Let’s find out in our Realme Watch 2 review!
A Sporty & Trendy Design
Just like it’s predecessor, the Realme Watch 2 retains a rather familiar square-shaped design for it’s watch case which comes with a sporty and trendy appearance that goes well with any training gear or casual outfit.
While the watch itself has a plastic build, but it does features a much needed IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. That basically means the watch is able to withstand light drizzle or even being submerged to a maximum depth of 1.5m underwater for up to thirty minutes.
Therefore, there’s hardly a need to take the Realme Watch 2 off your wrist, especially when the watch felt so comfortable on the wrist thanks to it’s featherlight weight of just 38 grams.
Moving on, it’s Black-colored watch case is matched with a 22mm watch strap of the same color. The strap itself is made of silicone which feels soft and gentle on the skin without causing skin irritation even when I worn it throughout the day.
As with any other Realme smartwatches, the watch strap can be easily detached and replaced with a third-party strap whenever there’s a need. Hence, you wouldn’t need to worry about any potential wear and tear of the watch strap.
A Vibrant Display With Intuitive UI
The Realme Watch 2 builds around a 1.4” LCD display which packs a sharp-looking 320 x 320 pixels screen resolution. While this isn’t an OLED display that we normally see among high-end smartwatches, but the display still looks pretty vibrant with good color reproduction.
Most importantly, the display also supports a peak brightness that can goes up to 600 nits, which is surprisingly brighter than the Realme Watch S Pro. This is no doubt an important feature as it ensures the screen is always visible even when you’re wearing it under harsh sunlight.
However, there’s auto brightness on the Realme Watch 2 due to the omission of an ambient light sensor. Nonetheless, you can easily adjusts the brightness of the screen to five different levels depending on the environment you’re in.
Most of the time, keeping the screen brightness to 40% or 60% should be sufficient for the screen to be legible, even though you’ll probably need to crank it up to 80% or 100% in outdoor environment.
To make it more convenient for users to check time, the Realme Watch 2 does supports a handy raise-to-wake feature which automatically turns on the display when you raise your wrist.
As usual, it’s watch face is also highly customizable with hundreds of gorgeous watch faces that are available for download via the Realme Link app. Still, my favorite watch faces are still the ones with Realme’s official mascot – Realmeow.
In terms of user interface, it’s pretty much the same thing asn what we saw on any of the other Realme smartwatches. Swiping the screen downward will bring up the list of available notifications, while swiping to the right will lead you to a quick setting page with toggles for some of the more frequently used features.
Likewise, performing a leftward swipe will reveal various widgets which help to track the number of steps taken, amount of calories burned, as well as heart rate monitoring, sleep data, whether forecast and music control. Finally, you’ll get to explore the list of available apps on the device by doing an upward swipe.
Features That Keep You Fit & Healthy
Quite expectedly, the Realme Watch 2 also brings along a good selection of health tracking features which encompass all the most commonly used ones like 24-hour heart rate monitoring, high/ low heart rate reminder, sleep monitoring, SpO2 measurement, sedentary reminder as well as water reminder.
Most importantly, readings obtained on the Realme Watch 2 are also highly accurate when I compare it with my other smartwatches including the Huawei Watch GT2 Pro (Review). It generally differs by a fine margin of at most 1 or 2 points for heart rate and SpO2 readings courtesy of the upgraded, professional-level PPG sensors.
Just like other Realme smartwatches, data measured or obtained from it’s sensors can be subsequently synced over to the Realme Link app where you get a highly-detailed break down and analysis of data that offer you greater insight into each of the respective health metrices.
In terms of sport modes, the Realme Watch 2 also brings along a total of 90 different sport modes which is a huge upgrade over last year’s Realme Watch which has only 14 different sport modes.
For mainstream users, it got you covered with all the popular workout modes like outdoor/ indoor walking, outdoor/ indoor running, outdoor cycling, dynamic cycling, hiking, yoga and free training, among others.
Other than that, it also comes with many other interesting ones like fishing, dancing, bowling, darts and hula hoop that we don’t normally see among smartwatches. Nonetheless, we ain’t gonna complain about that for sure, since it’s always better to have more than less.
Up To 12-Day Battery Life
According to Realme, the 315mAh battery that sits under the hood is able to support up to 12-Day battery life based on lab test carried out under a specific usage pattern.
That’s kind of accurate based on my own testing which nets me around 10 to 11 days’ usage with screen brightness set to 60%, raise-to-wake feature turned on, as well as around four hours activity tracking in a week. Also, the watch is connected to my smartphone only when I’m out for a meeting.
Therefore, heavy user who keeps the smartwatch connected to the phone at all time along with features like 24-hour heart rate monitoring turned on may experience a comparatively shorter battery life. However, I believe most average users should still be able to clock at least one week’s worth of battery life with a single charge.
Speaking of charging, the Realme Watch 2 comes with a 2-pin magnetic charger out of the box. Using this charger, you can charge a completely flat battery from 0 to 100% in just around 2 hours.
Verdict
The Realme Watch 2 might be a budget-centric smartwatch which cost only $99 in the local market. However, that doesn’t necessary means the company cut corners to achieve such attractive pricing.
Like what I mentioned in earlier parts of the review, the Realme Watch 2 do come with plenty of sweet features including a sharp and vibrant display, IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, good selection of health and fitness trackers, as well as a long-lasting battery life.
Therefore, it shapes up to be a great option for those who’re looking for an affordable smartwatch which has all the most commonly used health and fitness trackers, along with other smart features like music control and the ability to view notifications.
For those who’re interested, the Realme Watch 2 is available for purchase via Realme’s Official Store on Shopee.
