My friends know that I rarely wear any watches, even though I’ve received a few of them for review. But lately, if you’ve been following me on social media, you might have noticed that I have been posting a lot about the latest smartwatch from realme.
So why the sudden change of heart and why can’t I take it off my wrist? Here’s our review of the latest realme watch 3.
As more people become conscious about their health and lifestyle, the popularity of smartwatches continues to skyrocket. Now it seems every tech brand is coming out with their own smartwatch or fitness band to get a slice of the growing market. And unlike before when you had to spend over P10K to buy a decent smartwatch, you can now get a good fitness watch for even less than P5K.
The realme Watch 3 is designed to be every Filipino’s fitness companion. This latest addition to realme’s TechLife portfolio tries to strike a balance between fitness and health tracking, useful features, and affordability. It has a 1.8″ Super Large & Bright Display, All-Day Comprehensive Health Monitoring, 7-Day Battery Life, IP68 Dust & Water Resistance, 110+ Sports Modes, and 100+ Stylish Watch Faces, and the latest upgrade features Bluetooth Calling.
Bluetooth calling on the realme Watch 3 works with the smartwatch functioning as a hands-free speaker and microphone.
The realme Watch 3 is available in two color options–black and gray. We have the gray variant for review, which has gray straps, but the sides of the smartwatch itself is quite glossy, and the reflective nature makes it look more premium. The front and back of the realme Watch 3 are black, and the you could easily replace the 22mm straps with any compatible watchstrap.
Exploring the watch, the right side of the realme Watch 3 has the microphone along with the main button that controls power and navigation functions. On the left side there’s a loudspeaker which you can use for calls on the smartwatch. At the bottom are the contact points for charging, and the optical sensors for heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring.
The realme Watch 3 features a 1.8″ Super Large & Bright Display that utilizes a TFT-LCD panel with frames per second set to 30FPS, allowing smooth scrolling through the display. In addition, the bigger display of realme Watch 3 can flash more information such as notifications, messages, and other text. The realme Watch 3 also supports 110+ Sports Modes to ensure that users have a good level of tracking and provides seamless adjustment in their health routines. On top of all these, the realme Watch 3 also comes in 100+ Stylish Watch Faces that include both static and dynamic watch faces. Users have the option to use personal photos for watch faces as well.
The realme Watch 3 weighs 40g and the strap feels comfortable enough for wearing all day. The device uses Bluetooth 5.3 for connectivity and it has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, so you don’t need to remove it when washing your hands or when swimming. Though I do recommend you also wash it regularly to make sure it stays clean.
To navigate, swipe left or right to cycle through the main apps, including activity tracking, sleep tracking, heart rate tracking, weather, and music controls. Swipe up from the bottom to see notifications with a quick preview of the text, and swipe down from the top shows quick toggles for brightness, power saving mode, settings, and more. Pressing the side button will show all the apps in either grid or list format.
Speaking of apps the realme watch has all the apps you expect from a smartwatch, including a stopwatch, timer, alarms, camera shutter control, heart rate and blood oxygen tracking, workouts and workout records, and settings, among others. The user interface is quite intuitive and its very easy to access and get used to even if it’s going to be your very first smartwatch.
Be sure to download the realme link app first to connect your watch to your phone. If this is your first realme device create a profile to record/monitor your progress and health goals. If you have multiple Realme products such as earphones or IoT devices, the Realme Link app serves as a common hub for all of them.
Connect it to your smartphone via Bluetooth to synchronize fitness data and so that you can receive call and message notifications. The Realme Link app handles the connection between the Realme Watch 3 and your smartphone, and is available for both iOS and Android. The app provides a detailed and organized view of fitness data collected by the smartwatch
This impeccable feature makes it more efficient for users to keep track of their health with the 24/7 Heart Rate Monitor, Stress Monitor, and Sleep Detection and Tracking. In addition, the realme Watch 3 can also measure the Blood Oxygen Level and has a Reminder to Drink Water as well as a Women’s Special monitoring with menstrual cycle tracking once set by the user. Users do not need to worry about getting the realme Watch 3 exposed to dust and even water or sweat with its IP68 Dust & Water Resistance. This technology makes the realme Watch 3 survive from particles and dust build-up. It also has the capacity to sustain being used or submerged underwater at up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.
The realme watch 3 is great for those who are on-the-go or live an active lifestyle with its Clear Bluetooth Calling feature. The device is equipped with a single chip that is capable of dual-mode Bluetooth, providing support for both basic functions of a smartwatch and support for mobile voice calling directly through the realme Watch 3’s microphone and earpiece. The realme Watch 3 also boasts of a 7-Day Battery Life as it is packed with a battery capacity at 340mAh. This means that the realme Watch 3 can last long while comprehensively tracking the user’s body metrics.
As for health and fitness tracking, what I like most is the sleep monitoring feature. As someone who find it hard to sleep the watch alerts me of how long I was able to sleep the previous night as well as the varying duration and quality of my sleep; if it was deep sleep or just a light one. For steps, I think it’s a bit generous as far as counting my steps.
Lastly, battery life on the realme Watch 3 is also quite good lasting around a week of regular use with health tracking, sleep and viewing notifications.
Verdict
For the price of PHP3,499.00, the realme watch 3 is a stylish looking smartwatch that covers all the basics of fitness and activity tracking with the additional bonus of Bluetooth calling capabilities. It is a fairly well-equipped device for the price, and worth considering if you want a smartwatch but have a tight budget.
So far I am really enjoying my time the realme watch 3 and would probably be wearing it until the next one comes out.