Realme Watch 5 Review: I’m Not a Watch Person, But This Worked

Quick confession. I’m not really a watch person. I like my wrists clean. The only thing you’ll usually see there is a hairband, which I wear because I like the look and because man buns don’t tie themselves. Watches, bands, bracelets, I usually avoid all of that.

Which is exactly why wearing the Realme Watch 5 for this review was interesting. It’s a full-sized smartwatch with a large display and a fairly bold design, the kind I’d normally skip. But I wore it for days straight, including through a family wedding trip, and it didn’t end up annoying me the way I expected. That alone made it worth sitting down and properly reviewing.

PROS

• Excellent battery life that lasts several days without stress
• Large AMOLED display that’s smooth and responsive
• Detailed fitness and GPS tracking for everyday workouts
• Useful quick replies and reliable Bluetooth calling indoors
• Comfortable enough to wear all day despite the size
• IP68 water and dust resistance for daily use
• Design looks striking

CONS

• No auto-brightness
• GPS takes a few seconds to lock in
• NFC is present but impractical for most users
• Not ideal if you prefer lightweight fitness bands

Design and Comfort

There’s no hiding the size here. The Realme Watch 5 comes with a large 1.97-inch display and a chunky enclosure, and you’re always aware it’s on your wrist. If you’re used to slim fitness bands, this will feel big.

That said, it’s not uncomfortable. Despite my usual dislike for wrist wear, I didn’t feel the urge to take it off every few hours. I wore it for long days without fuss, which genuinely surprised me.

Design-wise, the cues are familiar. The flat display, squared-off body, and overall proportions clearly take inspiration from a certain fruit company’s smartwatch playbook. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It gives the watch a clean, modern look that feels instantly recognisable on the wrist.

The strap design is a bit different, too. It tucks under itself, which keeps the watch looking neat with no loose flap sticking out. It looks clean, but putting it on takes a bit more effort because of the added friction.

The watch is also rated IP68 for dust and water resistance, so everyday use, hand washes, or getting caught in the rain aren’t things you need to worry about.

Display

The Realme Watch 5 uses a large AMOLED panel, and in everyday use, it mostly does its job well. Touch response is smooth, animations feel fluid, and even with wet fingers, I didn’t run into missed taps or frustration. That’s something you notice quickly when you’re using a watch all day.

Outdoor visibility is where things get a bit mixed. Indoors, the display looks great and is easy on the eyes. Step out in bright sunlight, though, and you’ll often find yourself pushing the brightness to the maximum just to read notifications comfortably. It works, but it’s not effortless.

The bigger annoyance is the lack of auto-brightness. Since there’s no ambient light sensor, you’re stuck manually adjusting brightness whenever lighting conditions change. It’s one of those things that doesn’t bother you on day one, but after a few days, you start wishing the watch handled it on its own.

Battery Life in Real Use

Battery life is where the Realme Watch 5 quietly won me over. I started wearing the watch at 100 percent on December 24, the day I left town for a family wedding. I had always-on display turned off initially, with notifications enabled, and switched AOD on later that evening.

Even with that change, battery drain stayed very reasonable throughout the trip. By December 28, the watch still had 26 percent left. On December 29, it dropped to 11 percent. It finally died on December 30, but only in the late afternoon, which means it still got me through the morning after I returned home.

The best part is that I didn’t have to think about charging at all during the trip. I wore the watch almost all the time, and it made it through the entire wedding without needing a single top-up.

Charging speeds are solid too. In one session, it went from 53 percent to 84 percent in about half an hour. Another time, it jumped from 3 percent to nearly 80 percent in a little over an hour.

Software, Setup, and Day-to-Day Experience

Getting the Realme Watch 5 up and running is simple. You pair it using the Realme Link app, and the whole process takes just a few minutes. I didn’t run into any connection issues, and right after setup, the watch pushed a small bug-fix update, which felt reassuring.

The watch works with both Android and iOS through the Realme Link app, so platform compatibility isn’t an issue regardless of which phone you’re using.

Once you’re past setup, everyday use feels smooth. Syncing watch faces is quick, notifications come through reliably, and nothing feels unnecessarily complicated. There’s a lot packed into the interface, but it doesn’t overwhelm you. You can start using the watch right away and fine-tune things as you go.

Navigation is intuitive enough. Swiping down brings up quick settings like DND, brightness, raise-to-wake, flashlight, water ejection, and power saver. Swiping up shows notifications, while swiping left and right takes you through widgets like activity data, sleep, heart rate, stress, body energy, ambient volume, weather, music, and reminders, all of which can be customised.

Pressing the side button opens the full app list, which looks busy at first but becomes easy to navigate after a couple of days. Quick replies are genuinely useful, especially for WhatsApp, and being able to add your own preset replies from the app makes a real difference.

There’s also basic music control and limited onboard storage, though I mostly used it to control playback on my phone rather than storing tracks on the watch itself.

The software isn’t perfect, though. If you don’t interact with the screen while viewing stats or workout data, the watch quickly drops you back to the watch face, forcing you to navigate back again. It’s a small annoyance, and a simple screen timeout option would’ve made this feel smoother.

Overall, the software feels capable and stable. It may not be the most polished interface out there, but it gets the basics right and stays out of your way most of the time, which matters in daily use.

Health and Sleep Tracking

Health tracking on the Realme Watch 5 feels fairly comprehensive for a watch in this segment. It covers the basics like 24×7 heart rate monitoring, SpO2 tracking, stress monitoring, and sleep tracking, along with a body energy metric that gives you a rough sense of how rested or drained you are through the day.

Heart rate readings in daily use felt consistent, both at rest and during light activity. SpO2 readings also seemed reasonable when checked occasionally, though, like most wrist-based trackers, it’s best treated as a general reference rather than something to rely on medically. Stress tracking runs in the background and ties into breathing exercises, which are easy to access if you want to slow things down for a bit.

Sleep tracking breaks things down into light sleep, deep sleep, REM sleep, and awake time. In my use, the results felt believable, and it also picked up daytime naps without me having to manually log anything. You also get breathing quality data during sleep, which adds a bit more context instead of just throwing numbers at you.

None of this feels revolutionary, but it’s reliable enough to be useful. The watch quietly collects data in the background without demanding attention, and for everyday health tracking, that’s exactly how it should work.

Fitness Tracking and GPS

Fitness tracking is one of the stronger parts of the Realme Watch 5, and it shows once you actually start using it outdoors. I tracked my outdoor walks with the built-in GPS, and the first thing I noticed is that it does take a bit of time to lock in. Roughly 15 seconds. It’s not instant, but once it’s ready, tracking stays stable.

What stood out for me is how detailed the metrics are. Beyond the usual time, distance, and steps, the watch gives you pace curves, heart rate fluctuations, cadence data, and average stride frequency. If you like looking back at your workout data, there’s plenty to dig into.

Beyond walking, the watch supports a wide range of other activities, including running, cycling, strength training, yoga, dance, and a long list of sport modes. You won’t use all of them, but it’s good to see that common workouts are well covered. For outdoor runs and cycles, you also get additional insights like heart rate zones, recovery time, and VO2 Max, which add more context to your sessions.

The watch lets you pause workouts using the side button, which is useful when you need a quick break without fiddling with the touchscreen. There are also guided running courses built in, which are simple but handy if you want some structure without overthinking it.

All in all, for tracking everyday walks, runs, and workouts, the Realme Watch 5 feels reliable and consistent, which matters more than chasing advanced features most people won’t use daily.

Bluetooth Calling and Audio

The Realme Watch 5 comes with a built-in microphone and speaker, which lets you take calls directly on the watch when it’s connected to your phone. In everyday use, this works better than I expected.

Indoors, call quality is perfectly usable. Voices come through clearly, and the speaker gets loud enough without sounding tinny. The microphone also does a decent job of picking up your voice without you having to speak unnaturally close to the watch.

Step outside into noisier surroundings, and things do take a hit. Calls are still possible, but clarity drops if there’s a lot of background noise. It’s fine for quick calls, but not something I’d rely on in busy outdoor environments.

There is NFC on paper, but since it only works with compatible M1 access-control readers, it’s not something most users will realistically end up using.

Pricing and Availability

Realme launched the Watch 5 in India with a price tag of ₹4,499. It’s available through Realme’s official store, Flipkart, and most offline retail channels.

Colour options include Titanium Silver, Titanium Black (our review unit), Mint Blue, and Vibrant Orange, so there’s a bit of choice if you want something that stands out.

Verdict

The Realme Watch 5 focuses on getting the basics right, and that works in its favour. Battery life is its biggest strength. The fact that it lasted through an entire wedding trip without me worrying about charging says a lot about how reliable it is in real use.

Fitness and health tracking are solid, with detailed metrics, and while the GPS takes a moment to lock in, it’s dependable once it does. The software is mostly smooth, quick replies are genuinely useful, and Bluetooth calling works well enough to be practical.

It’s not perfect. The lack of auto-brightness can get annoying, the UI could handle screen timeouts better, and the size won’t suit everyone, especially if you prefer lightweight bands like I usually do. But despite that, I wore it for days without feeling the need to take it off.

If you’re looking for a dependable smartwatch under ₹5,000 with strong battery life and useful everyday features, the Realme Watch 5 makes a convincing case.