HAYLOU WATCH R8 – LESS THAN 25 EUROS AND DOES IT ALL
I've tried many smartwatches but no one has yet succeeded in how Haylou manages to amaze me with its products. In particular, today I want to talk to you about the new Haylou Watch R8 which, thanks to the Single's Day discounts, you can take home at a price of less than 25 euros and believe me for what it offers, it is undoubtedly the best wearable you can buy for this price. Curious? Then continue reading this full review.
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HAYLOU Watch R8 Smartwatch 1.43'' AMOLED Display Smart Watch Bluetooth Phone Call Mulitary Grade Toughness Smart Watches for Men
25,23€ available
Package Contents
The sales package is quite accurate, showing the image of the product on the front and some product specifications on the back, while inside we find simple and essential equipment, namely:
- Haylou Watch R8;
- Instruction manual in Chinese and English;
- Wireless charging base with USB Type-A connection.
A display protection film is missing, but who already provides it? In any case, having a wireless charging base is already a plus that should not be underestimated considering the ultra-economical nature of the device.
Design and materials
One aspect on which Haylou always keeps the bar high is that linked to the design and materials of its devices and in the case of the Watch R8 we can confirm this statement. Military-inspired design that exudes durability but also style. We find a beautiful fixed bezel made of metal with compass indications inserted, which wink at the rugged aspect of the device, which can count on a MIL-STD certification as well as certification for 3 ATM water resistance, but despite this Haylou Watch R8 does not support swimming among the monitorable sports.
Considering the adoption of metal for the ring, the weight of the wearable rises to 85 grams (including the strap) but despite this I had no comfort problems, also counting on a comfortable silicone strap with quick release and 22 mm pitch, to be replaced with other straps easily available on the market to create a completely personal outfit. The wearability is good and the strap allows the skin to breathe well even during sports sessions. The back of the case is instead made of glass-mixed plastic, where we find the specific sensors for heart rate and SpO2 value, but these are not the only health statistics that can be monitored.
On the profiles we then find 3 buttons, 1 on the left side which is used to turn the display on/off and go back to the menus, while on the right side we find 2 buttons of which the lower one is programmed to quickly recall the possibility of monitoring sports activities and the upper which is used to enter the system menu but which also hides a digital crown, to scroll through the menus without having to scroll on the display or to quickly change the watchface of the display. There is also a microphone and speaker as this watch is able to initiate voice commands via your phone's assistant and manage calls via Bluetooth.
Screen
Looking more closely at the display of the Haylou Watch R8 we notice a 1,43-inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 466x466 pixels in a circular shape, which also boasts a refresh rate of 60 Hz, a truly rare pearl in this price range . This configuration boasts a fluid and always reactive user experience but I add a further gem, namely the presence of the Always On Display function that can be set with digital or analogue skin or if you want you can keep the display on for up to 20 minutes. The AOD is a bit weak and cannot be seen very well in direct sunlight while there is no difficulty in viewing content on the screen in standard mode, although unfortunately I must point out the absence of a dedicated lighting sensor, which forces you to manually adjust the display backlight.
Here too we are faced with a good assembly; the display protection glass is recessed flush with the rest of the body, has a good oleophobic treatment and does not retain many fingerprints. The AMOLED display guarantees bright colors and deep blacks but above all helps in reading notifications as well as giving a premium look to the watch which you can customize with around 150 watchfaces available for free via the companion app.
Hardware
Naturally, I cannot give you the technical specifications relating to the processor or anything else but I can safely say that our Haylou Watch R8 comes with complete and dedicated sensors: we can in fact monitor the heart rate 24 hours a day via its sensor (green light) but also the value SpO2 (red light), but among the metrics dedicated to health we also find the stress value, sleep, the female cycle and generally also blood pressure, although in this case I hypothesize that the function is fake.
There is no GPS and therefore for greater precision of the route you will have to rely on the smartphone but there is an excellent Bluetooth 5.3, which proved reliable as I never found disconnections from the smartphone even reaching a distance of 30 metres, but at If necessary, via the app you can set the disconnection notification. As already mentioned, via Bluetooth we can make calls and recall the virtual assistant of the device to which the Haylou Watch R8 is associated, but if for calls we have clean audio with sufficient volume to manage a telephone conversation, as far as the assistant function the volume is low and poco usable.
We find another inaccuracy regarding the step count: in sports monitoring mode the count is rather precise although slightly overestimated, in standard activities I was able to notice that the step count is decidedly staggered, counting false steps as the sensor is very sensitive and also counts hand movements while you are driving your car and changing gear or other things or if you wash your hands often. The heart rate and SpO2 value sensors are perfectly aligned with reality, compared with higher-end smartwatches. The sleep monitor is also accurate, recording the start and end of sleep and whether you've woken up but it doesn't record REM sleep or naps. However, I cannot give you information on the female cycle monitor and related reminders, as you will understand that it is not a function that I have been able to try.
HAYLOU Watch R8 Smartwatch 1.43'' AMOLED Display Smart Watch Bluetooth Phone Call Mulitary Grade Toughness Smart Watches for Men
25,23€ available
Software
The software is one of those aspects that sometimes leaves you disappointed on these products, but in the case of Haylou, net of some translation inaccuracies in our language, I must admit that it is convincing, a result full of functions. With a swipe from top to bottom, from the home page, you access the toggle menu including adjusting the brightness, setting the do not disturb mode (which however is not smart), accessing the real settings, searching for the smartphone, enabling whether to output audio from the watch case or smartphone and much more.
By swiping to the right or left from the home page we access the quick tabs, where we can, for example, find the statistics of the day, have the address book and telephone functions at hand, manage the music and much more, as you can add any of those available as you like. By swiping upwards we access the notifications, which we can read and delete, but not respond. I also point out that we cannot view emojis, respond to audio notes and above all that notifications are not perfectly synchronized with the smartphone, that is, if you read a notification on one or the other device, it continues to remain in memory on the device where you have not viewed it. the notification.
Entering the actual menu, we find many functions including the weather, the possibility of remote control of the smartphone camera (but only via the companion app whose shutter release occurs with a slight delay), world time, alarm (can be set directly from the clock), stopwatch/timer, health functions (cardio, SpO2, sleep, stress etc..) and much more.
Sports activity and autonomy
The sports that Haylou Watch R8 is able to monitor are up to 100, but strangely despite the 3 ATM certification, we do not find swimming but water sports such as canoeing are present. It goes without saying that not all 100 sports have dedicated metrics and that where we find them, these are basic but still able to provide us with a trend on our sporting activity. We are not in the presence of a sports watch, but for 25 euros I would not have expected such a thing, but overall for occasional athletes, the monitor for certain activities was quite precise and satisfactory.
In terms of autonomy, Haylou's wearable boasts a 3400 mAh battery which offers up to 7 full days of battery life with all functions active, but without AOD which, if active, effectively halves the autonomy. You can however increase the real value of the autonomy by better managing the settings, for example heart rate monitoring, adjusting the intensity of the backlight or whether or not to activate the wrist gesture etc..
Sync application
There is also a dedicated application which, however, compared to other smartwatches of the brand, is not Haylou Fun but Haylou Watch, which at the moment only allows you to pair the R8, however available for both iOS and Android, an indication that the company perhaps has in store to have a lineup of semi-rugged smartwatches? Inside the navigation menus of the app we find the Status section where we will find all the values collected by the smart wearable, including calories, distance travelled, heart rate, SpO2, sleep, stress and daily activity data including steps .
Then we have the Sport tab, where you can start a sporting activity using your smartphone's GPS for greater accuracy of your steps and track. In the Device section we can choose the watchfaces, decide which apps to receive notifications from, set the alarm, receive a sedentary reminder, synchronize the contacts in the address book and much more. Finally, in the Me tab you can set personal goals, update the firmware and poco other.
HAYLOU Watch R8 Smartwatch 1.43'' AMOLED Display Smart Watch Bluetooth Phone Call Mulitary Grade Toughness Smart Watches for Men
25,23€ available
Final considerations and price
Haylou Watch R8 you can find it on the brand's official store on AliExpress which until 17.11 offers this smartwatch at the incredible price of €24,39, a decidedly super interesting price if you are looking for a wearable with an AMOLED display, capable of managing calls wrist, good autonomy and reliability of the data collected as well as rugged watch resistance. Also excellent as a gift idea for Christmas now upon us or in any case to have a secondary device to take to the seaside or mountains.
