Realme Watch 2 Pro Review: Good Alternative To A Smart Bands?

Design- Same Old Form-Factor With A Bigger Display

The Realme Watch 2 Pro ends up looking like most of the budget smartwatches. There's a big rectangular dial supported by a glossy casing and silicon straps. The brand has tried to differentiate the look and feel of the new wearable by offering a bigger display and a strap marked by the brand's logo- 'Dare To Leap'. Thankfully, it's not very loud and gets easily mixed up with the strap's base color.

Feels Comfortable On The Wrist

Moving on, the build quality isn't very impressive. The plastic construction keeps the weight in check but doesn't inspire much confidence. The smartwatch is comfortable to wear all day long. It doesn't feel too heavy on the wrist but you might want to remove it while sleeping as the big display makes it slightly uncomfortable to wear. The smartwatch weighs a mere 40g with the straps.

The Watch 2 Pro is available in two color options- Space Grey and Metallic Silver. We are testing the Space Grey variant which goes well with most outfits when paired with black color straps.

How Durable Is The Realme Watch 2 Pro?

As far as durability is concerned, the Watch 2 Pro can withstand both water and dust damage. The wearable is IP68 water-resistant and can be used to measure the body's vitals while intense workout sessions without worrying about sweat causing any damage to the watch's internals.

Moreover, Realme claims that the Watch 2 Pro has undergone some rigorous testing to ensure longevity. The brand claims to have performed 100,000 times button test, 300 times 1 Meter drop test, 5,000 times charging test, and 168 hours 55℃/95%RH burn-in test on the Watch 2 Pro.

Realme Watch 2 Pro Display- Bigger And Colorful

The biggest upgrade comes in the form of a bigger and brighter color display. The Watch 2 Pro flaunts a 1.75-inch full-touch color LCD with 320x385 pixels resolution. The 287 pixels per inch is a good number to make the text and graphics look crisp on the bigger real estate. You won't notice any pixelation or face difficulty in checking time and notifications outdoors as the peak brightness of 600 nits ensures good visibility.

The LCD panel's color reproduction is decent but fails to match those of OLED displays. Blacks could have been deeper for better color vibrancy. Nevertheless, this is still a good display in its respective price point. You will enjoy changing those myriads of watch faces on the 1.75-inch display. The screen is also protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla glass. The 2.5D glass covering the LCD can resist some scratches that happen mostly when you accidentally hit any hard surface with your watch on the wrist.

Display's Touch Response Could Have Been Better

And while the screen real-estate, brightness, and colors seem to be decent enough for the price, the touch response is pretty average. The problem seems to be with the panel's ability to register a touch action. You need to be very precise while swiping up/down, left/right, or while tapping on an icon to trigger a response. This isn't a very smooth touch-screen experience and is more or less similar to those sub-2K fitness brands that feature OLED touch capsules. A more responsive LCD would have been better on the Watch 2 Pro.

The bigger disappointment is the lack of an ambient sensor. Every time you step out in the sun or try using the wearable in a dimly lit room, you have to manually adjust the brightness. This isn't something I expect from an upgrade or any smart wearable priced at Rs. 5,000.

Lastly, there's just one physical button on the right edge which is not reprogrammable. You can only use it to turn on and off the display. A second button could have been useful to navigate the UI.

Realme has tried to offer everything that one would want to see on a budget fitness tracker. The Realme Watch 2 Pro comes equipped with a host of sensors and fitness-centric modes. The wearable has 90 sports modes covering most useful exercises including outdoor/indoor run, cycling, free exercise, strength training, football, basketball, cricket, badminton, jump rope, rower, and many more. At any point in time, you can have 15 sports modes on the wearable, which I guess is more than enough for any fitness enthusiast.

The watch can be used to perform VO2 Max tests, monitor heart rate, sleep pattern, blood oxygen level, distance covered and calories burnt. As it comes equipped with a built-in GPS, you can check the route you have covered during outdoor running/cycling sessions.

On the utility side, you can control music on your smartphone and the camera from the wrist. There's the Find My Phone feature, weather forecast, multi-language support, incoming calls notification, alarm/message reminder function, DND mode, and power-saving modes. Since there's no microphone or speaker on the wearable, you cannot attend a call or invoke the voice assistant, which is a bummer.

Like most budget smartwatches, the Realme Watch 2 Pro can auto track your steps and offers 24-hour heart-rate monitoring. You can measure your pulse and monitor your sleep pattern. The sleep data is represented efficiently and shows different sleep stages- deep sleep, light sleep, awake time, and REM. You can also check how your heart rate changes over the night from the companion app but I doubt the wearable notifies you of any anomalies while sleeping.

The SpO2 is built-in but has to be activated manually. You can check your workout history from the watch itself. The sensors seem to offer accurate readings; however, you must understand that the wearable isn't a piece of medical equipment and the readings should only be considered in non-emergency usage.

Realme Watch 2 Pro Software Limitations

The Realme Watch 2 Pro runs on an in-house OS that tries to offer the most useful features but has a fair share of limitations.

• You cannot install any third-party app from the Play Store.
• There's no Realme marketplace to explore apps.
• The wearable can only display your notifications and does not let you respond to them, even with basic preset texts.
• You can only disconnect an incoming call, pretty much a problem with all budget wearables.
• There's no built-in voice assistant support.
• You cannot access the phone's music library on the wearable and can only play/pause and change tracks.

As far as the software and performance are concerned, the UI is neatly designed and represents data in a workable manner. I would have preferred a more intuitive set of widgets and shortcuts for the effective utilization of such a bigger LCD.

For instance, you cannot change the font size and can only read the text to a certain length. There's no double-tap feature to activate any particular app or function. You can also not weak vibration patterns for different alerts. A more thoughtful software approach would have made for a better upgrade.

The Realme Watch 2 Pro's strength lies in its long-lasting battery life. Powered by a 390 mAh battery, the wearable can easily last for up to 10 days even with heavy usage. It's been eight days since I have been using it in a connected state with my smartphone with most features enabled to deliver the best possible wearable experience. The watch will surpass the 10-day mark and would still have some juice left.

As far as connectivity is concerned, the Realme Watch 2 Pro works with both iOS and Android devices. It connects to smartphones via Bluetooth 5.0 and ensures solid connectivity.

Verdict

The Realme Watch 2 Pro fails to offer anything exciting and distinctive. It's just another budget smart tracker with a fairly bigger display and smartwatch appeal. It is a good alternative to budget smart bands but by no chance a full-fledged smartwatch. For Rs. 5,000, you can only expect basic fitness tracking, some useful features, and fairly long-lasting battery life. And that is exactly what the Realme Watch 2 Pro offers.