The affordable smartwatch space is quickly emerging, and some of the early players in the space have established their credibility. Realme has been working hard to build an ecosystem with a strong presence in various segments including smartphones, audio products, and tablets. The Realme Watch 3 is the latest addition to the company’s extensive portfolio of smart wearables, which attempts to strike a balance between fitness and health tracking, practical features and affordability.
Priced at Rs. Priced at $3,499 in India, the Realme Watch 3 is Realme’s latest affordable smartwatch, hoping to put the brand back in the spotlight amid competition from similarly priced products like the Noise, Fire-Boltt and Boat. With a big screen, Bluetooth calling, and fitness tracking, is the Realme Watch 3 the most affordable smartwatch you can buy right now? Find out in this review.
Bluetooth calling on Realme Watch 3 works with the smartwatch as a hands-free speaker and microphone
Realme Watch 3 design and specifications
Priced at Rs. Priced at 3,499, the Realme Watch 3 is directly compared to the recently launched Noise ColorFit Pro 4, which has similar features and specifications. While the Realme Watch 3 has a 1.8-inch TFT LCD touchscreen, which is slightly larger than the Noise smartwatch, it’s not as sharp and has a resolution of 240×286 pixels. However, it is said to have a maximum brightness of 500 nits.
The Realme Watch 3 is available in two color options, black and gray, the latter of which the company sent me for review. While the strap is gray, the sides of the smartwatch are a glossy, reflective silver, which, in my opinion, looks pretty good. The Realme Watch 3 comes in black on the front and back, and the 22mm band is removable and replaceable with a compatible aftermarket option.
The Realme Watch 3 has thick bezels around the screen, which makes it look a bit dated. You can use a black background to reduce the visual impact of the bezels, but TFT-LCD screens have slightly worse black levels, which means you’ll still be able to see the difference up close.
Realme Watch 3 has IP68 dust and water resistance rating
The right side of the Realme Watch 3 houses the microphone as well as the main button that controls power and some navigation functions within the interface. There is a speaker on the left side, which is used when making or receiving calls on the smartwatch. The bottom of the device has contact points for charging, as well as optical sensors for heart rate and blood oxygen readings.
Realme Watch 3 is IP68 dustproof and waterproof, and weighs 40 grams including the strap. The device uses Bluetooth 5.3 for connectivity. Included in the sales package is a magnetic charging cable for the smartwatch.
Realme Watch 3 Software and Apps
Like most affordable smartwatches, the Realme Watch 3 has a simple user interface with a fixed set of apps to operate its features and functions. Applications cannot be installed or uninstalled from this watch. In addition to the device’s wrist-worn speaker functionality, a Bluetooth connection to your smartphone is used to sync fitness data and receive notifications.
Swipe left or right to cycle through the main apps on the Realme Watch 3, including activity tracking, sleep tracking, heart rate tracking, weather, and music controls. Swiping up from the bottom lets you view notifications with a quick preview of text, and swiping down from the top reveals quick toggles for brightness, battery saver mode, settings, and more. Pressing the side button displays the full application menu in grid or list format.
Realme Watch 3 has a button to control power and some navigation features
There are apps for most of the key features you’d expect on a smartwatch, including stopwatch, timer, alarm clock, camera shutter control, heart rate and blood oxygen tracking, exercise and workout logging and settings, and more. It’s all easy to access and get used to.
The Realme Link app handles the connection between the Realme Watch 3 and the smartphone and is available for both iOS and Android. The app provides a detailed and organized view of the fitness data collected by the smartwatch. It also allows you to customize settings and other features on the watch, as well as change watch faces.
You can choose from Realme’s ever-growing list of watch faces and save up to four watch faces simultaneously on the watch to quickly switch between them. You can also choose which apps you want (or don’t want) to receive notifications from your smartwatch and create event reminders for the watch to notify you at the correct time and date. Waking the watch requires you to press a button or raise your wrist; tapping the screen in standby mode does nothing.
If you have multiple Realme products, such as earphones or IoT devices, the Realme Link app can be very convenient as a common hub for all of them. During my review period, the connection to the smartwatch was stable and notification delivery was reliable.
Realme Watch 3 performance and battery life
Affordable smartwatches often pack a lot of features and functionality, but the actual experience isn’t quite what it claims to be. That said, I’ve found that most devices in this price range, including the Realme Watch 3, do a decent job of displaying the time and notifications, thanks to the color screen and the ability to change watch faces.
Up to four watch faces can be stored simultaneously on Realme Watch 3, and more can be downloaded using the app
Bluetooth calling is particularly useful on the Realme Watch 3, and I can use the device to have short conversations in relatively quiet places like home or the office. I found the dialer interface on the smartwatch a bit clunky, but you can define frequent contacts to make it easier to call the people you need on a regular basis. Answering calls on your watch is easy and hassle-free.
As for health and fitness tracking, I found the Realme Watch 3 to be pretty outrageous, but there aren’t many other options in this price segment that are very accurate. When I manually counted 1,000 steps, the smartwatch measured 1,072 steps, similar to the Noise ColorFit Pro 4 in the same price range. Over longer distances, the difference increases to about 85 steps per 1,000 steps compared to wearing an Apple Watch Series 7 at the same time.
Oddly, distance measurements are under-recorded and calorie measurements over-recorded compared to the Apple Watch. Heart rate readings while moving were also fairly inaccurate, but matched the readings I get on my Apple Watch or pulse oximeter while standing or sitting. Blood oxygen readings are generally more accurate than pulse oximeters. Sleep tracking seems good in terms of duration.
The Realme Watch 3’s battery life is in line with the company’s claims, with the device running for less than 7 days. My usage includes frequent activity and fitness tracking, taking occasional calls on the smartwatch, and viewing notification previews. This figure is also in line with what the most affordable smartwatches in this category have to offer.
judgment
Realme Watch 3 is available at a price of Rs. 3,499, including good looks, solid connectivity, decent battery life, and the important extra feature that sets it apart from its predecessor – Bluetooth calling. The fitness and activity tracking accuracy is less than ideal, but other than that, this is a pretty good value for money device and worth considering if you want a smartwatch but are on a tight budget.
That said, the Noise ColorFit Pro 4 is also worth considering, mostly for its sharper screen and better watch faces. It all comes down to brand and personal preference, but the Realme Watch 3 is basically worth every penny (and more), so it’s a worthy choice.
