"Apple" style: five budget and mid-league smartwatches with a rectangular screen

Inexpensive Canyon smartwatches have been gaining ground in the wearable market lately. In the image and likeness of the popular "apple" watch, the CNS-SW78 model is made with a stake on the autonomous operation of the audio player. But let's talk about everything in order.

The gadget has 512 MB of on-board memory and a built-in music player; in addition, it supports direct connection to audio devices via Bluetooth. The watch quickly connects to wireless headphones and portable speakers. You can safely go for a conditional morning run only with a smartwatch on your wrist, and a bulky smartphone will be waiting for you at home. Pre-loaded music tracks or podcast audio tracks will help brighten up sports.

In terms of sports activities, walking, running, cycling, swimming, basketball, football, badminton, jumping rope and yoga are loaded into the memory of smartwatches. The "waterfowl" nature of the model is confirmed by the assigned IP68 case protection class - thanks to it, the watch is suitable for swimming in fresh water.

As wearable devices, the Canyon CNS-SW78 duplicates incoming notifications from a paired smartphone and allows you to remotely control the mobile phone's camera. Another essential function of the watch is to measure the level of oxygen saturation in the blood. Offline mode provides 6 hours of continuous operation of the device in music player mode and up to 7 days of gadget activity at low loads. The model lacks only a wide variety of dials. However, this problem can be solved in the future with the release of new firmware for watches.

Realme Watch 2's high chances of success in the affordable smartwatch category are based on a few simple factors - support for multiple training modes, optimal battery life, easy interaction with a smartphone and other devices in the Realme ecosystem.

The rectangular form factor of "smart" watches was brought to people by Apple. It is also used in this instance of a wearable device with rounded corners and a slightly convex display. The front panel of the smartwatch is occupied by a 1.4-inch TFT screen with a resolution of 320x320 pixels. The display instantly lights up after raising the wrist and turns off as soon as the user lowers the hand. 5 gradations of screen backlight brightness are set manually.

For Realme Watch 2, support for 90 sports training modes is announced. The lion's share of them calculates activity based on the indicators of the heart rate monitor. For outdoor exercise, location information is taken from the GPS module of the paired smartphone. In addition, the smartwatch monitors blood oxygen saturation levels and analyzes the quality of sleep. Through the Realme Link app, watch faces are installed as screen savers for the watch's desktop.

With other devices from the Realme ecosystem, the model “contacts” through the built-in hub. For example, with an active connection to the Air Buds 2 headphones, noise reduction is adjusted using the watch, the game mode is turned on and off, and the hand is kept on the pulse of events regarding the remaining charging of the “ears”. The reverse side of the medal of the wearable gadget is the unhurried reactions of the menu interface to touch and the overestimation of the number of steps taken. You can’t call the critical shortcomings of the model - as the first “smart” watch, Realme Watch 2 will serve as a superb option for purchase.

The “light” modification of the Redmi Watch 2 smartwatch differs from the original in screen characteristics (the model has a TFT panel versus an AMOLED matrix) and the absence of an NFC chip. Otherwise, it is an iconic player in the low-cost wearable arena.

An important advantage of the model over its peers is the built-in GPS for overlaying a jogging or cycling track on a map. With an active GPS module, up to 14 hours of non-stop watch operation is provided. With average weighted loads, Xiaomi Redmi Watch 2 Lite "survive" without an outlet for up to 10 days.

Smartwatches support more than 100 sports modes, measure heart rate and blood oxygen levels, record activity time, monitor sleep and body stress levels. A separate line in the menu of the compatible Xiaomi Wear application is the women's calendar. For each type of training, the menu of the mobile program provides detailed statistics of the user's physical activity. For a better visual perception, many parameters are displayed in the form of visual graphs and diagrams.

Of the claims to the watch, there are complaints about the slow reactions of the menu interface to user actions. Yes, Xiaomi Redmi Watch 2 Lite is not a record holder in terms of responsiveness, but the model "leaves" due to really developed functionality, water protection of the 5 ATM case and the aforementioned GPS adapter. Smartwatches are a great replacement for fitness trackers and will look great on both men's and women's wrists.

The GTS 3 smartwatch from the Amazfit autumn portfolio of 2021 is tailored for active users - the wearable gadget has about 150 pre-installed sports modes, automatically recognizes the types of loads, monitors the body's stress level, and comprehensively measures health indicators.

According to the “stuffing”, the watch is a complete analogue of Xiaomi Amazfit GTR 3. The only difference is that the model under consideration has a rectangular dial on a 1.75-inch diagonal AMOLED-matrix substrate. The key feature of the screen is the dynamic refresh rate (from 4 Hz when displaying a static image to 60 Hz when rendering animations). Also in the screen of the smartwatch, the Always on Display mode is implemented.

The gadget runs on Zepp OS operating system with support for installing third-party applications. True, at the time of the release of the device, their list turned out to be very modest. But the watch is ahead of the rest in the number of supported sports modes - running, walking, cycling are automatically recognized from one and a half hundred training programs, and exotic modes can be manually selected in the manner of archery or checkers. When doing water sports, Xiaomi Amazfit GTS 3 measures the pulse in the water.

With one click, smartwatches allow you to get the results of a comprehensive measurement of health indicators - literally in 30-40 seconds. they give information about the pulse, the level of stress of the body, the degree of saturation of the blood with oxygen and the frequency of respiration. To increase the effectiveness of training, the model takes into account the maximum amount of oxygen uptake, the time to complete recovery, training load and training effect. For dessert, the smartwatch has a women's calendar and a GPS module, which is the main "devourer" of energy reserves in the 250 mAh battery cells. With the always-on GPS monitoring function, the battery life of the watch is up to 20 hours, in general, it will need to be charged every 5-7 days.

Garmin is a recognized guru among the manufacturers of "smart" wearable electronics. Of the models with a mundane price tag, the hypothetical interest of the general public is the device Venu Sq - a square watch with sports ambitions and a function of close monitoring of health indicators.

The smartwatch is armed with a 1.3-inch diagonal screen with a resolution of the broadcast image of 240x240 pixels. A gadget with such a display looks appropriate both on a man's wrist and on a thin girl's hand. In the settings, you can set the always-on screen mode.

Garmin Venu Sq measures heart rate, monitors blood oxygen levels (including at night, helping to identify sleep apnea), monitors stress and energy levels, collects sleep statistics. There are about two dozen sports training modes in the watch: from classic outdoor running to cross-country skiing or strength training. You can connect the desired sensor to the device using the ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart protocols.

The smartwatch received a GPS module and an NFC chip for making contactless payments in the Garmin Pay system. In comparison with more venerable peers, the model does not support additional training metrics and drawing animations of classes. On other points of the program, it is almost as good as other Garmins. Also on sale you can find a musical version of the wearable gadget - Garmin Venu Sq Music with a built-in audio player.