Review: SOUNDPEATS Watch 2 Budget Smartwatch

Haven’t you been seeing a lot of people wearing smartwatches lately?
While many people immediately think of the Apple Watch when they hear “smartwatch,” there are actually numerous smartwatches released by manufacturers other than Apple.

This time, I am going to review a smartwatch released by SOUNDPEATS, a brand well-known for its earphones.

Basic Information on the “SOUNDPEATS Watch 2”

Specifications

Screen Size	1.28 inches
Resolution	240×240
Dimensions	45.7×42.6×11.6 mm
Weight	38g
Bluetooth Version	5.0
Water and Dust Resistance	IP68
Battery Life	7 days (when heart rate monitor is constantly enabled)
Battery Capacity	220mAh

A major feature of this smartwatch is its ability to measure blood oxygen saturation, which became a hot topic during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, since it is not designed as a medical device, all figures are for reference purposes only.

Package Contents

Design & Appearance

It also featured a sticker indicating it won a VGP Award 2022.

Opening the box, my first impression was that it didn’t look as cheap as I had expected.

Charging is done using the included charging cable like this.
Instead of connecting via USB or the like, it attaches magnetically to charge.

Actual Usability

A dedicated app is required, and on top of that, it drains the battery like crazy

To cut straight to the conclusion, you should refrain from buying this smartwatch.
As written in the heading, a dedicated app is required and it drains the battery terribly. It is completely unusable.

The image above is a screenshot taken when the smartphone was charged to 100% and used down to 20%.
Since it’s 21% out of 80%, that means this app consumed roughly 1/4 of the smartphone’s battery.

It’s not that there are no workarounds.
If you prevent it from running in the background, the battery consumption will naturally calm down.

In exchange, message notifications won’t come through, and data will no longer sync automatically.

Create Your Own Custom Watch Face

The image above shows the app’s settings screen.
From the watch face settings, you can use your favorite images to create a customized watch face.

It displays surprisingly naturally.
However, since the resolution isn’t exceptionally high, fine details probably cannot be rendered.

Illustrations are likely fine, but when it comes to photos of people, faces tend to get distorted or blurred.

Few Watch Faces Support Digital Display Down to the Second

As you can probably tell by looking, there are very few watch faces that allow digital time display down to the second.

Considering that the number of watch face styles itself is quite large, I personally find this to be a major disappointment.

Conclusion

Simply Cannot Recommend It

As I mentioned earlier, you should avoid buying this smartwatch.

The device itself is actually quite wonderful, but the companion app is so hopelessly flawed that it is truly disappointing.
Rather than buying this, you’d be several times happier spending a little extra money to buy a smartwatch from another well-known manufacturer.

Recommended For

Thank you very much for reading to the end!

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This article was originally written in Japanese and has been translated.