Realme TechLife Watch S100 Review: Affordable, but is it powerful?
Realme TechLife Watch S100 Its price in India is Rs 2,499. This is the most affordable smartwatch you can buy among the company’s brands. It offers a lot in terms of features, which apart from heart rate and SpO2 tracking, it also has features like body temperature monitoring. Is this the most affordable smartwatch you can buy right now? Let’s find out in this review.
Design of Realme TechLife Watch S100
Most affordable smartwatches have rectangular screens. Most of these are inspired by Apple Watch. The Realme TechLife Watch S100 also has the same look, but its lower price overshadows the design and build quality of the watch. Still, it’s a good looking smartwatch at this price.
The Watch S100 features a 1.69-inch rectangular color display with a resolution of 240×280 pixels and a peak brightness of 530 nits. The screen is housed in a plastic case, which has a thick border around it. There is only a single physical button on the right side. Magnetic charger, optical sensor for heart rate, blood oxygen monitoring and body temperature sensor are provided at the bottom.
Its single button works as its power button (on or off with a long press) and standby button (screen on or off with a short press). This also helps to take you back a step if you’re in a menu. For navigation and device controls, the touch screen can be swiped and tapped to move between menus and select user interfaces.
The 20mm rubber strap of the watch feels quite comfortable and comes with multiple points for adjustment on the wrist. It can be removed and replaced. This smartwatch comes in black and gray color and has IP68 rating for water resistance. This rating makes the watch safe while bathing or swimming.
Realme TechLife Watch S100 is quite light. Its weight is only 34 grams. It has a 260mAh battery and apart from temperature sensor and optical sensors, there is also an accelerometer. For connectivity, it has support for Bluetooth 5.1. Realme Fit app is supported for pairing with the smartphone.
A charging cable is available in the box with the smartwatch. It attaches to the charging points at the bottom of the watch. You do not get a wall adapter in the box. Instead, you can use the charger or USB port of the computer.
Realme TechLife Watch S100 Software, Interface and Apps
Like most low-cost smartwatches, the watch runs on its own software, but requires an app to sync with a paired smartphone. The user interface is decent.
The watch has a quick settings menu through which battery status, brightness control, DND toggle, flash light and settings menu can be easily controlled. A notification shade has been provided to show fitness and health tracking notifications of some selected apps and widgets. You can also open the entire list of apps that come pre-installed in the smartwatch.
The watchface can be changed directly by tapping and holding on the home screen. It comes with three watchfaces pre-installed and always available. The fourth can be selected and synced from the companion app.
Realme TechLife Watch S100 has special apps with which you can make full use of its functions and use health tracking features. You can set alarms and timers, track workouts, trigger your phone’s camera shutter. You can also control music. Keep in mind that there is no way to install new apps on this smartwatch.
Unlike Realme Watch 2 Pro and many other devices, which run on the company’s Realme Link app, this smartwatch uses the Realme Fit app. This app is available on both Android and iOS platforms. Detailed fitness and health data is available in it. You can control workouts, change device settings, and choose which apps send notifications to the smartwatch.
I paired it with OnePlus 9 and the app worked well. The connection remained stable and notification push was also reliable. However, the app is not as well designed as the Realme Link. Many times I found strange things and mistakes related to the text in it which seemed like translation mistakes. Had Realme Link app been used in this, the experience would have been better.
Realme TechLife Watch S100 performance and battery life
Most wearables priced under Rs 3,000 are similar to fitness trackers, with a simple basic screen. But Realme TechLife Watch S100 looks and works more like a smartwatch. It has a big screen, health tracking features and a large collection of watchfaces as well as customization and personalization.
Due to the large display, you can easily read notifications. In some notifications, you will get basic details and you will not be able to respond to them from the smartwatch. In this, you can remove the notification for incoming call, but your phone will keep ringing even after tapping the decline option on the watch.
The watch faces on the Realme TechLife Watch S100 look quite nice. Many of these come with pre-installed complications that show live indicators for heart rate, steps and body temperature. I liked the pre-installed watchfaces the most, but the Realme Fit app gives you over 100 watchfaces to choose from.
Health and fitness features on the Watch S100 include step, sleep, heart rate, blood oxygen and body temperature tracking. Workout tracking uses step and heart rate data to show distance covered and calories burned. Other tools on the watch include a flashlight, stopwatch, timer, alarm, weather report, camera shutter remote, and music playback remote. These all work as expected.
The smartwatch tracked sleep accurately. It showed some difference when deep sleep was broken. The app also maintains a chart of how many times you sleep well in a week or month. A variety of workouts can be logged in the device including walking, cycling, yoga, cricket, football and basketball etc. It also has the ability to measure specific exercise or sport activities, but I only did basic tests on it and tried it while walking.
Manually I counted 1000 steps but this Realme watch counted 1048 steps. The error margin was less than 5 percent. When I compared it with the Apple Watch Series 5 over long distances (wearing both watches together), the margin of error was 1,055 steps, while the Apple Watch counted only 1,000 steps. This much error can be expected in this price range.
Its heart rate tracking was accurate in sitting and standing positions. Even then it was taking a few seconds to match the reading shown by my pulse oximeter. While walking, the readings were barely matching.
The blood oxygen readings in the Realme TechLife Watch S100 did not satisfy. This was showing a completely different reading than what the pulse oximeter showed. These readings were also fluctuating by 1-2 percent every few seconds, while the pulse oximeter readings remained stable.
Its body temperature sensor showed two separate measurements, one of skin temperature and the other of body temperature. It is difficult to say how accurate these are because it depends on where and under what conditions the temperature is being measured. I did not find its readings matching those of the contactless thermometer. But, it was generally giving satisfactory results. The changes in skin temperature were also showing quickly.
In normal use its battery proved to be very good which lasted for 8 days on a single charge. It lasted the same amount as the battery of Realme Watch 2 Pro, which is also more expensive and comes with a bigger battery.
Verdict
Affordable smart wearables mostly focus on fitness and health tracking and smartwatch features are rarely seen in them. But, Realme TechLife Watch S100 has been launched as a premium looking smartwatch and the price has also been kept low. It offers almost all types of functions. But, it does not affect much in fitness tracking. Its specialty is its large display and notification functions.
Heart rate, step count, and blood oxygen tracking were nearly accurate in my experience. The app design looks strange, yet its good screen, reliable connectivity, notification features and good battery life make it a good option at a price of less than Rs 3000. If you want to go towards smartband form factor then you can also check out Mi Band 6 priced at Rs 3,499.
