2 minute review
After a month of testing, this Poco Watch review isn’t very passionate, positive or negative. Smartwatches with this number certainly don’t disappoint-but it also doesn’t seduce.
The Poco Watch is Pocophone’s debut smartwatch, making a name for itself by delivering powerful yet affordable mobile phones. Mobile phone brands have a considerable tradition of manufacturing wearables to complement their mobile phones. Xiaomi Mi Watch, Honor Magic Watch and Oppo Watch come to mind as examples of other Chinese companies. Each is on the list of the best smartwatches or the best cheap smartwatches.
However, unlike Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Apple Watch 7, Poco Watch is within the “budget” that fits Poco’s Modus Operandi. However, while Poco’s smartphones have the best features despite their low price, their smartwatches aren’t as effective as their competitors.
This device does everything you would expect from an affordable wearable. You can receive notifications on your wrist, track certain types of exercise, and count your steps. All of these features work fine.
It also has great battery life, as it lasts for two weeks, and it’s much longer than the battery life of many other smartwatches.
But it doesn’t offer anything we’ve never seen before-and cheaper and decisively never seen-its feature set is about the same as that of many similar smartwatches. is.
Poco could have been able to remove the leaves from the books on the smartphone by finding a unique selling point for the device. Probably a way to tie it to mobile or a special fitness tracking mode. But at this point, I don’t understand why people need to buy it.
PocoWatch Price and Stock Status
Poco Watch will be available in the UK. Poco usually doesn’t sell devices in the US or Australia, so don’t expect availability outside of Europe.
Watches cost £ 79.99 (about $ 100 / AU $ 140), which makes them fairly affordable as smartwatches advance, well below Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Oppo alternatives. But if you’re looking for a budget smartwatch, Amazfit has several options with more features.
One of the rivals we want to emphasize is the Honor Watch ES, which went on sale for £ 99.99. Sure, it’s a bit more expensive than the Poco Watch, but it has some unique features such as fitness course mode, proving that affordable smartwatches still stand out.
Poco watch design and display
Like most smartwatches, the PocoWatch consists of a body and two removable straps. Well, in theory it’s “removable”. Because it’s very difficult to press the buttons that need to be pressed to remove them.
You can buy a beige, navy, or black version of your smartwatch. As the image shows, I tested the latter version. Both the strap and the watch body are provided in the selected color.
In particular, watches are fairly lightweight, weighing only 31g, including the strap, so the fit is generally quite comfortable. These straps are made of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), a synthetic material that is slightly less irritating than rubber. It does not rub as much as silicone and is not irritating to people with poor skin condition. The band also has a lot of holes so you can easily adjust the fit to fit your wrist size.
The body is square like the Apple Watch, but it doesn’t have a sense of design for the Apple Watch. There was one button on the far right, which was a bit annoying to press, but not as annoying as the strap button.
Its square body material is durable but lightweight, making it ideal for smartwatches. You can hit things while running or fall while resting on your wrist, reducing the risk of injuring your face. With a water resistance of 5 ATM, the watch can withstand a water pressure of about 50 meters.
The display is 1.6 inches diagonal, with a resolution of 360×320 and AMOLED tech. The latter is the standard for smartwatches, and its high brightness and contrast make it easy to see your watch outdoors.
PocoWatch Performance and Software
Most smartwatch-only operating systems feel very similar, at least except for WatchOS, Wear OS, and HarmonyOS, and PocoWatch is no exception.
From the main watch face, you can swipe down to see the notification list or swipe up to see the quick settings list. Swipe sideways to see a carousel for features such as heart rate monitoring, weather forecasts, and music control.
Press the home button to see a list of apps. The app doesn’t have a label, so it can be very overwhelming. You need to guess what your app is based on your logo. So if your alarm clock, stopwatch, or timer all have a clock-like logo, it’s very difficult to tell which app you’re looking at. However, using the watch for a while will help you learn the difference.
Familiarity with Poco Watch software is not a problem. This is to facilitate navigation for smartwatch enthusiasts (apart from the strange app tags in the list). In addition, the art style and color scheme are very attractive.
The software is clean and intuitive, so the clock is easy to operate. Poco hasn’t disclosed the details of the chipsets available in the watch, but it’s up to the job to power the device.
Some additional modes here include breathing, music control, notification processing (you can read but not respond to notifications), and the remote shutter on your smartphone camera.
There were some bugs in the software. The remote shutter tool never worked. The smartphone didn’t want to recognize it. Also, I often received notifications on my watch several times. Music controls generally worked fine, but sometimes the watch didn’t recognize that music was playing on the phone.
Poco Watch Fitness
The Poco Watch has over 100 fitness modes, but not all modes are created the same.
A significant number of metrics have been reported for some core modes, such as running. Running shows time, total kcal, active kcal, average pace, maximum pace, average speed, steps, cadence, stride, and heart rate (graph and zone breakdown). All of this is useful for up-and-coming runners, but for elite performers, it doesn’t get as much information as a dedicated running watch.
However, if you select some of the more niche activities that are being tracked, such as snowmobile riding and Latin dancing, you won’t get as much activity-specific information as you would in running mode. In baseball mode, match-related information and swing details are not displayed.
Some of these modes are clearly filler modes, especially considering that hiking, trekking, and outdoor walking are all listed as separate activities. Still, PocoWatch is fine for general activities and those who don’t need a detailed breakdown.
But don’t expect training advice. When I ran with my watch, I had a strange tendency to record my overall heart rate as V02 Max (the most intensive option), so add a little salt to get the data. Training even with gentle running.
Unlike many other low-priced smartwatches, it also has GPS built in. This means you can use your watch without a smartphone, or at least independent of the smartphone’s own GPS system. The tracked distance was found to be more accurate than the device to which the GPS is connected (which relies on the GPS of the mobile phone).
Poco watches can track heart rate, Sp02, steps, menstrual cycle, and sleep, but many of these indicators actually require you to use the Tyin smartwatch app to get the data. As with fitness modes, these help you keep track of your health, but you can’t get the same depth of data as you would with a more expensive device.
Pocowatch battery life
We were skeptical when we heard Poco’s claim that smartwatches have a battery life of two weeks. I didn’t expect to be able to install a very large battery because my body looks slender.
But we were wrong. According to our tests, the PocoWatch’s battery life is definitely two weeks. It was an occasional workout, but obviously, if you run for two hours every day, your device won’t last that long. If you use the always-on feature, that number will be significantly reduced.
Charging is done using a small magnetic pin charger that comes with the device and connects to a USB-A port such as a wall plug or PC.
Poco Watch Review Scorecard
| attribute | Note | evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| Design and display | The Poco Watch has a fairly standard look and display. | 3/5 |
| Performance and software | Apart from a little buggy software, PocoWatch works fine. | 3/5 |
| Fitness | The Poco Watch has a standard collection of fitness modes, but only a few are deep. | 3/5 |
| battery | Clocking in in two weeks, the Poco watch’s battery life is much better than its competitors, but some rivals last up to a month. | 4/5 |
| worth | The Poco Watch is pretty affordable, but it’s not the cheapest smartwatch I’ve ever seen. | 4/5 |
Should You Buy a Poco Watch?
Purchase in the following cases …
Do not buy if:
Also consider
If this Pocowatch review doesn’t meet your desire for a new smartwatch, you have several options.