
Of course, you know about rugged smartphones that often come with huge batteries, but what about a smartwatch with a similar style? Rugged, with a battery that lasts a month and water resistance up to 50 meters but let's add the obligatory set of monitored parameters (heart rate, oxygen, stress, sleep), Bluetooth calls and, in addition, optional but useful functions such as synchronization with Strava, compass and barometer. The Haylou IRON N1 is perhaps the most extreme and affordable smartwatch you can buy on the smart wearable market and we tell you about it in this review.
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HAYLOU IRON N1 Smart Watch 2,13'' AMOLED Display 5ATM Waterproof Bluetooth Call Sports Outdoor Smartwatch 30 Days Battery Life
48,56€ available
What's in the box?
The watch only comes with a charging cable with a USB-A interface and magnetic attachment, as well as a small paper manual. A removable 22 mm wide silicone strap is already attached to the watch, but there is no plastic film to protect the display, but who provides that anyway? The packaging is still well-finished and detailed with product specifications.




Design and construction
The Haylou IRON N1 smartwatch has a decidedly far from elegant look and feel, which doesn't mean it's ugly, but it's definitely not a watch to wear with a tuxedo. The watch is large (45x53 mm), thick (15,7 mm) and heavy (up to 86 g), but that's due to the sturdy metal construction. Not suitable for slim or feminine wrists, despite the software tracking of the cycle and ovulation period.




Available in black and gray with some inserts in metallic orange. In our case we had the pleasure of trying the gray variant, but do not expect the usual shiny color but we have a completely different type of gray, opaque, which looks very nice and recalls military finishes. Only the bevels on the edge of the display, the writings of the buttons and the four signs on the perimeter of the "dial" shine with shiny metal. In addition we have three physical buttons: two orange ones on the lower sides and a gray, round one. The latter allows you to turn the display on/off or, if held down, to activate a menu with which it will be possible to turn off the watch, restart it or start an SOS call and activate a siren to make yourself heard in dangerous situations. The button on the left side allows you to recall sports activities, but it cannot be set with other functions, but if held down it will recall the timer/countdown activity. The button on the right instead allows you to enter the system menu while if held down it will call up the voice assistant function of your phone, compatible with both Google/Gemini, Alexa and Siri.

The back “cover” is made of matte black plastic where the block with the sensors has been inserted in the center and, at the bottom, the contact group for charging. The strap has a 22 mm pitch and offers quick release, for a customization of the look. The basic one offers many slots for better breathability. Good closure via metal strap and double loop to avoid the flag effect. The strap is made of skin friendly silicone and despite the size of the smartwatch, contributes to a positive comfort.




Great AMOLED display and AOD function
Haylou IRON N1 integrates a 2,13-inch AMOLED display whose shape is unusual, that is, we are dealing with an octagonal shape while the resolution is 410×502 with a density of 331 ppi. I have no information on the type of glass used but I can assert that it is very resistant to impacts, scratches and also has an anti-fingerprint treatment. Unfortunately, the surface of the glass is not very recessed which would have contributed to additional protection. The display supports the Always On function: in this mode the screen saver in the form of an analog or digital clock with real time indication is constantly displayed on a black background.

In this mode, however, to actually wake up the screen we would have to use the buttons since it will not be enough to perform the wrist rotation gesture. This also means that in sports monitoring conditions to have the information on the screen we would always have to wake up the display. In any case, the colors are very clear and bright, making the readability of the information excellent even under direct sunlight, however there is no automatic brightness adjustment sensor, so you will have to go and change the parameter from time to time, although in my case leaving the value at 50% I managed to cover the entire day without problems. However, remember to enable the Do Not Disturb mode in the evening, which is not automatic, so you must also remember to deactivate it in the morning.




Companion APP available
To work with the IRON N1, you will need the Haylou Fun mobile app, available for both Android and iOS systems and an account to register for Haylou services. The association is very simple and immediate. Haylou Fun allows you to transfer and view information on all the main indicators monitored by the watch: steps, calories, heart rate, training records and more. There is also no shortage of customizations of the smartwatch such as for the dials, with personal photos or draw from the many present in the app, but we can also customize the notifications and update the firmware which in my case one was released in recent days. We can also change the sports to monitor, since from the watch we can only choose 11 out of over 100 available. There is also no shortage of customizations on health monitoring and any reminders such as drinking water, sedentary lifestyle, alarm clock and weather synchronization as well as being able to create an address book with frequent contacts.
What can Haylou IRON N1 do?
All menu navigation is done via the touch display. Starting from the home screen, swiping from the left edge opens a sidebar with a weather widget and icons for quick access to the last used functions. Swiping down from the top edge opens another sidebar, which mainly contains service functions (brightness and vibration settings, night mode, power saving, device information, charging and other settings).



Swiping left from the right edge of the main dial opens a customizable gallery of widgets, with activity data, heart rate, sleep, weather and default player control. Finally, if you swipe up from the bottom edge of the display, a list of notifications received from your smartphone opens. Speaking of notifications, we cannot respond, listen to voice messages or view photos. Emojis are also limited but above all there is no real synchronization with the phone's notifications, in the sense that if we read the notification on one device or the other it will not be deleted.




In terms of software, the Haylou IRON N1 is a typical smartwatch for its price category, but two functions stand out from the usual list, namely the compass and the barometer. Everything is fine with the second one, not only does it plausibly show the current pressure, but it also builds a graph of its variation, while for the compass I can't give you a real opinion, that is, I haven't had the chance to compare it with a real compass, but apart from that, unfortunately, what would have made the real difference is the location, in fact we don't have a GPS on board.

The Italian language is present, although some translations are too literal. Coming to the functions, I have already mentioned the presence of calling a number on the phone, a list of contacts for a quick call and all the contacts from the address book in addition to the presence of a voice assistant (not a separate one, but the one used on the smartphone). This is due to the presence of a speaker and a microphone that allow you to use the watch as a headset in all respects, so much so that you can listen to music directly on it. The audio quality that comes out of the speaker and the performance of the microphone are excellent, always keeping in mind that we are talking about a watch and not a smartphone, so do not expect exaggerated volumes or HiFi system sound.



The fitness group of apps includes a step and calorie report, a sports list, and a workout log. Health-monitoring features include heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen, and “blood pressure.” I put it in quotes because it’s a kind of synthetic parameter that rates something (probably similar to stress) on a 100-point scale. In the same group, we put an app to track a woman’s cycle and a breathing trainer.

And then we find the classic “apps” such as Weather, calendar, calculator, stopwatch and timer, phone finder and alarm that can be set directly from the watch. You will be woken up both by vibration and by a sound alarm. Finally we also find remote interaction functions with the smartphone, such as control of the music player and also control of the smartphone camera, but I specify that it will not be the native smartphone app to be used but a sort of alternative camera integrated into the companion app Haylou Fun. You will not be able to install other applications here, but you can not expect this from such a cheap watch.


How are things going with sports?
The Haylou IRON N1 can hardly be called a sports watch, after all it is not aimed at this segment of users. However, it seems to be the first watch in the Haylou range to have a synchronization function with Strava, which is an important point for those who like to record their workouts. This synchronization works perfectly without a hitch. The only thing is that only workouts done after connecting your Strava account are synchronized, they are not transferred retroactively. Another thing that is difficult to find (at least on the latest models) on Haylou devices is the presence of the SWIMMING sport, which makes sense considering the certification that the watch has, namely IP68 / IP69K and MIL-STD-810H, meaning that the device is tested to withstand shocks, falls, vibrations, high and low temperatures and pressures, as well as dust, sand, salt spray and even mold in addition to the possibility of immersion up to 5 ATM (50 meters). Speaking of which, there is a corresponding function at the software level that helps to get rid of moisture by vibration, so as to quickly drain excess water that has entered the case.

As already mentioned, we can access sports via the dedicated button, while with the app we can customize which sports to monitor. As for the sports themselves, there are so many, more than a hundred. In addition to the banal disciplines of running and cycling, there are for example aerobics, dance, martial arts and much more. Of course, not all of them have dedicated metrics, but what made me turn up my nose is that GPS-related workouts (running, walking, outdoor cycling and more) cannot be started from the watch itself, only from the app. It is clear that the watch does not have a GPS sensor, but I would like a software implementation to start any workout from the watch.



Autonomy
Another very convincing aspect of the Haylou IRON N1 is the infinite autonomy made possible by the use of an 850 mAh battery, which according to the manufacturer, can last 100 days in standby mode and a month in normal mode. This is three times more than the typical indicators for smartwatches of this level. In a couple of weeks of testing, I have not yet managed to drain the battery, already charged “out of the box”, despite active use and continuous heart rate monitoring.



Price and conclusions
Haylou IRON N1 is certainly an excellent smartwatch that boasts MIL-STD 810H protection and water resistance up to 5 atmospheres, offers an extended capacity battery with a duration of up to 100 days as well as having complete sensors for detecting and monitoring heart rate, blood oxygen and sleep, as well as a series of fitness functions with the possibility of exporting data to Strava. We can make calls directly from the wrist with a decent audio quality, an added value so that we can manage some situations hands-free, such as for example to question the smartphone assistant without taking the latter out of our pocket. On the other hand, the large size and weight, the limited sports functions in the software and the absence of GPS could discourage someone from purchasing it. However, we are talking about a device that costs around 50 euros and at this price it is worth taking it into consideration, especially if you pass by the official store, from which you can redeem the discount coupon EMANUELEIAFULLA20 and win this jewel at a price of around 38 euros.
HAYLOU IRON N1 Smart Watch 2,13'' AMOLED Display 5ATM Waterproof Bluetooth Call Sports Outdoor Smartwatch 30 Days Battery Life
48,56€ available