The Realme TechLife Watch S100: A Budget-Friendly Smartwatch With Big Ambitions
The Realme TechLife Watch S100 is a compelling proposition for budget-conscious consumers seeking the features of a smartwatch at a remarkably affordable price. While it boasts a large color screen, comprehensive health tracking capabilities, and a bevy of smartwatch features, the question remains: does it truly deliver on its promises, or is it merely a stylish facade concealing shortcomings? This review delves into the Realme TechLife Watch S100’s design, software, performance, and battery life to determine whether it’s a worthy investment.
Realme TechLife Watch S100 Design
Taking inspiration from the Apple Watch, the Realme TechLife Watch S100 features a 1.69-inch rectangular color display with a 240×280 pixel resolution and a peak brightness of 530 nits. While the screen itself is decent, the plastic casing surrounding it features thick bezels, which may detract from the aesthetically pleasing appeal of the device. A single physical button placed on the right side provides control over power, standby mode, and navigation within the interface. The underside houses the magnetic charging points, optical sensors for heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, and a dedicated sensor for measuring body temperature.
The 20mm rubber strap offers comfort and adjustability, catering to various wrist sizes. Its removable and replaceable design allows for customization, further enhancing its appeal. The watch is available in two attractive color options – black and grey – and boasts an IP68 rating for water resistance, making it suitable for everyday wear, including showering and swimming.
With a lightweight design, weighing in at 34g, the Realme TechLife Watch S100 is comfortable to wear for extended periods. It houses a 260mAh battery and an accelerometer, in addition to the aforementioned sensors. Connectivity is handled by Bluetooth 5.1, enabling seamless communication with a paired smartphone.
The charging cable, magnetically attaching to the watch’s underside, is included in the package. While the magnetic connection provides convenience, it may easily disconnect due to accidental jostling, requiring careful handling during charging.
Realme TechLife Watch S100 Software, Interface, and App
Similar to many other affordable smartwatches, the Realme TechLife Watch S100 relies on its own software but necessitates a companion app for synchronization with a paired smartphone. The user interface is relatively straightforward, mirroring the design found on other Realme smartwatches, such as the Realme Watch 2 Pro.
Navigation through the interface involves swipes and taps on the display. A quick settings menu provides easy access to essential information and functions, including battery status, brightness control, DND toggle, flashlight, and settings menu. A notification shade displays alerts from selected apps, and widgets offer insightful visualizations of fitness and health tracking data. Users can also access the full list of preinstalled apps.
Customization options extend to the watch faces, which can be changed directly on the smartwatch by tapping and holding down on the home screen. Three preinstalled faces are always available, while the ability to choose and sync an additional face from the companion app allows for personalization.
The Realme TechLife Watch S100 doesn’t offer the ability to install new apps. However, preinstalled apps provide functionalities like using the sensors and health tracking features, activating the flashlight, setting alarms and timers, tracking workouts, triggering the phone’s camera shutter, and controlling music playback.
Unlike the Realme Watch 2 Pro, which relies on the Realme Link app, the Watch S100 uses the Realme Fit app, available on both Android and iOS. This app allows users to view detailed fitness and health data, manage workouts, customize device settings, and control which apps can send notifications to the smartwatch.
While the Realme Fit app provides reliable connectivity and notification pushes, its design and user experience are not as polished as the Realme Link app. The app suffers from odd phrasing and typos, which can lead to a less user-friendly experience.
Realme TechLife Watch S100 Performance and Battery Life
The Realme TechLife Watch S100 stands out from other affordable wearables by offering a larger color screen and comprehensive fitness and health tracking features, aligning more closely with a traditional smartwatch. This large screen enhances text legibility and significantly improves the notification experience. However, notification details are limited to basic information, and users cannot respond to them from the smartwatch. While incoming calls can be declined, the phone will continue to ring despite the user’s action on the Watch S100.
The watch faces on the Realme TechLife Watch S100 add a touch of elegance and personality. Many faces include preset complications providing live indicators for heart rate, steps, body temperature, and other relevant data.
The Watch S100 incorporates a plethora of health and fitness tracking features, including step, sleep, heart rate, blood oxygen, and body temperature measurement. Workout tracking utilizes step and heart rate data to estimate distance covered and calories burned. Other noteworthy tools include a flashlight, stopwatch, timer, alarm, weather report, camera shutter remote, and music playback remote, all of which function flawlessly.
The watch’s sleep tracking capabilities were accurate, providing insights into light and deep sleep durations. The app keeps track of sleep patterns over the course of a week or month, offering valuable data for sleep improvement. Users can log several workout types, including walking, cycling, yoga, cricket, football, and basketball, along with various free training exercises, designed to measure activity specific to each exercise or sport. However, for this review, the tests were limited to walking.
During a manual count of 1,000 steps, the Realme TechLife Watch S100 registered 1,048 steps, resulting in an error margin of slightly under five percent. When compared against the Apple Watch Series 5 over longer distances, the error margin increased to approximately 1,055 steps on the Realme TechLife Watch S100 per 1,000 steps on the Apple Watch. While this margin of error is expected in this price range, the overestimation can impact the accuracy of workout tracking.
The heart rate tracking feature on the Realme TechLife Watch S100 performed accurately when sitting down or standing still, although it generally took a few seconds to provide a reading matching the measurement from a pulse oximeter. During walking, readings often deviated significantly from those reported by the Apple Watch, sometimes differing by as much as 20bpm.
Blood oxygen readings were equally inconsistent on the Realme TechLife Watch S100, displaying discrepancies compared to readings from a pulse oximeter. These readings also fluctuated by 1-2 percent every few seconds, while the pulse oximeter maintained a constant reading.
The body temperature sensor provided two separate measurements: skin temperature and body temperature. While it is difficult to ascertain the accuracy of these readings due to the inherent variability of temperature measurements depending on location, there was often a significant difference between skin and body temperatures. The readings did not perfectly align with those obtained using a contactless thermometer, but the Realme TechLife Watch S100 appeared generally accurate and quickly responded to changes in skin temperature.
Battery life on the Realme TechLife Watch S100 proved to be a strong point. With ordinary usage, the device lasted approximately eight days on a single charge, comparable to the more expensive Realme Watch 2 Pro despite its larger battery and GPS connectivity. This impressive battery life makes it a noteworthy feature for a device in this price range and feature set.
Verdict
Affordable smart wearables often prioritize fitness and health tracking, essentially serving as fitness bands with minimal smartwatch functionality. Devices like the Realme TechLife Watch S100 aim to provide a premium smartwatch experience while keeping costs low. While it offers a wide range of functionalities, the smartwatch falls short in terms of fitness tracking accuracy, and its primary allure lies in its large color screen and notification capabilities.
Step counting, heart rate, and blood oxygen tracking proved to be significantly inaccurate during my testing. The companion app also presents a somewhat awkward user experience with its design and certain elements. However, its attractive screen, reliable connectivity, clear notifications, and impressive battery life make the Realme TechLife Watch S100 a compelling option for budget-conscious consumers. For those willing to sacrifice the traditional smartwatch form factor, the excellent Mi Band 6, which is priced at Rs. 3,499 in India, offers a more accurate fitness tracking experience.
Ultimately, the Realme TechLife Watch S100 is a decent smartwatch for its price point. It offers a large color screen, reliable connectivity, and an impressive battery life. However, its shortcomings in fitness tracking accuracy and app design may deter some users.
