It has not been even 2 years since realme entered the smartphone market with the realme 1, and they have already released a staggering 21 phones, covering nearly every price range. Now, they have decided to enter the wearables market, with the launch of the realme band. With claims of being one of the cheapest fitness bands with a heart rate sensor and 9 sports modes that includes a cricket mode, is the band worth it? Read on in our review and do share your thoughts on the Band in the comments below.
Box Contents
We recently unboxed the realme band on our FoneArena Tamil YouTube Channel along with a first impressions of using the device.
- realme Band in black colour
- Quick start guide booklet
Design and Build
The realme band has a typical smart band design that is very simple. A 0.96-inch screen on the front with a tiny touch capable circle below it, which serves as the sole way of interfacing with the band. It weighs in at 20gm, which is lightweight and is pretty comfortable to wear. The straps are made out of Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) that is skin friendly and has plenty of holes, adjustable between 152-227mm to fit nearly any arm. Pulling out the top strap reveals a USB-Type male port that is used for charging the smart band.
On the back of the device is the heart rate sensor which will glow green with the two LEDs to measure your heart rate. The Band is also IP68 water and dust resistant, which is kind of disappointing as some competing fitness bands are rated for 5ATM. Overall, I didn’t feel like the watch was anything special, which is fine. It is a fitness band. Style isn’t its main concern anyways.
Display and Features:
For the screen, realme has fit an 0.96-inch TFT-LCD screen with a resolution 160×80 pixels. The screen itself is not very bright so visibility is very poor in direct sunlight but indoors I faced no issues. Brightness can only be controlled via the app and not on the device which is annoying sometimes, but then again, I always kept the brightness setting at high and never touched it again, so I guess it is alright. Auto-brightness with an ambient light sensor is not available, which is as expected for a device in this price range.
Coming to the interface itself, the realme band is very simple to control. There is a single capacitive touch button right below the screen which can be used to cycle between the 7 screens that are available. The 7 screens are the Watch face, Step count, heart rate, 3 sport modes and Information. Long pressing the touch button for some of these screens will cause the band to vibrate and show more screens for that selected one. For example, long pressing on the Step counter will show information on the steps walked, calories burnt, distance and time walked. Long pressing on any of the 3 sport modes will show its corresponding information and finally when entering the information screen, you can see the product name, regulatory information, etc.
Let’s talk about the different sport modes that are available on the fitness band. The realme band has 9 different sports mode which are Cricket, yoga, running, walking, hiking, climbing, cycling, spinning and fitness, of which 3 can be selected at a time. So how good is the fitness data from the realme band?
Beginning with the basic Walk and Run modes, the realme band will show 5 screens to toggle between. These include duration, step count, distance, SPM (steps per minute), distance per step, pace, calories burnt, and heart-rate. This is a good amount of data and I have no complaints there. Hiking and Climbing modes also has similar data collection. But regarding the rest of the modes? It will only take heart rate and calories. That’s it. So what is the point of having a separate mode for Cricket, a feature that is highly advertised by realme for Indian users? No clue. It shows the same data as the rest of the other modes.
Sleep tracking, on the other hand, was good. The watch, if worn in the night, will automatically detect if the user is sleeping and start collecting data which can be viewed the next morning via the app. Users can see how much of their sleep was split into Deep sleep and Light sleep and also view their heart rate during the entire sleep period.
Other features for the band include incoming call alert, idle alert, drink reminder, alarms, raise to wake up, DND mode, message notification and Google Fit integration. Another feature in this band is automatic sport status recognition for Walk and Run modes, however it never worked for me.
Heart Rate Sensor
The PPG heart sensor is the highlight feature for the realme Band. It offers two monitoring settings, either Auto, which will record your heartbeat every 5 minutes, or Manual, which is self-explanatory. It is hard to detect the accuracy of the health sensor, but when comparing it with the Honor Magic Watch 2, it showed nearly identical values.
The band detects your heart rate the usual way, flashing two LEDs on to the skin, detecting the amount of light absorbed and then making the calculations. In Manual mode, I did notice the band taking a little longer than I would like to measure my heart rate, but it was no deal breaker.
Software
The realme band heavily depends on its companion app, realme Link which is available for download on the Play Store. The app has a card style layout for its UI element that is clean and simple. Once the device is connected, clicking the band will show a screen with battery level, connection status, and four cards showing information at a glance. These four cards include Steps, Sleep, Heart rate and Sport Record. Clicking on each card reveals more information related to it.
Clicking on the settings icon at the top, we can see many essentials options for customising the realme Band experience. At the top we see the option to select from the 5 watch faces that will immediately reflect onto the band.
Below that lie various options for the band which include:
- Incoming call: Get incoming call alerts when this is toggled on. The call can be denied by long pressing the touch button on the band.
- Idle Alert: When turned on, the band will vibrate if the user sits idle for too long between 9am and 7pm
- Alarm Clock: You can set multiple alarms during the day along with a small message to be displayed on the band.
- Message Notification: You can choose which apps to receive notifications for on the band.
- Drink Reminder: When turned on, users can customise frequency and days during which the band must push a reminder to drink water.
- Heart Rate monitor: Set the heart rate monitor to Auto or Manual
- DND mode: To Toggle a Do Not Disturb mode
- Sport Mode: Select the three sports mode to be shown on the band among the 9 available modes
- Raise to Wake up: Toggle raise to wake up the band
- Auto Recognise Sport Status: When turned on, the watch can automatically recognise either Walk or Run modes.
- My Goal: Set the Step goal for each day
- Brightness: Select between 5 brightness levels and also toggle a night brightness setting
- Heart Rate Range: Choose the maximum heart rate level to decide the various ranges of heart rate measurement.
- Screen Rotation: Choose between portrait or landscape orientations for the band.
- Unit Setting: Select between units for length and weight.
- First day of the week: Choose the first day of the week
- Sync to other Service provider: Here you can choose to sync with Google Fit.
Battery Life
The realme Band has a 90mAh battery that realme claims will give the Band 6 days with the heart rate function enabled and 9 days without the heart rate function enabled. During my testing, I kept the heart rate function at enabled throughout and was able to get around 6-7 days, however this was with light use. I used the walk mode every day, used the running mode a total of 3 times and did a few fitness workouts. Those users who have intense workouts everyday might see reduced battery life.
Another point to consider is that once the battery drops below 20%, the Band will refuse to start any sport mode. You can only use the passive functions like step count and heartbeat from the main menus, that’s all. Charging the band from nearly empty to full took about 1 and half hours, which is normal. Fast charging would have definitely been nice, but at this price point, I can forgive realme.
Conclusion
realme is entering a market that is getting increasingly crowded with competitors like Xiaomi, who already have significant market share with their Mi Band. The positive for this band comes from the fact that there is a heart rate sensor at this price range. If basic fitness with heart rate information is what you are looking for, then the realme band is the cheapest option there is at Rs. 1499. However, if you are looking for more features, then maybe consider the Xiaomi Mi Band 3, which has come down in price. It offers a lot more features but it has a reduced battery life. Another thing to keep in mind is that, considering realme’s track record, we have no doubt that they will release version 2 of the Band in a few months with more features. Then maybe, the realme Band can get a solid recommendation from us.
The realme Band is available from Amazon.in and realme.com, but currently only through flash sale.
Pros
- Reasonably accurate heart rate sensor
- Good battery life (as advertised)
- Simple to navigate companion app
- Good data for few sport modes
Cons
- Poor sunlight visibility
- Only IP68 water resistance
- Limited feature set
- Very few watch faces