Haylou RS3 Smartwatch Review: SpO2 & GPS tracking on a Budget; Is it Any Good?

Haylou RS3 is another smartwatch linked to Xiaomi with incredible specs and attractive price. Looks like the Haylou RS3 ticks all the boxes for a great budget feature watch. But how good it actually is?

Let’s inspect!

Overview

In a hurry, read this short overview stating the pros and cons of Haylou RS3.

Pros

AMOLED screen
Lightweight and Solid frame
Great Battery endurance
Comfortable to wear
Water-resistant
HR monitoring is good

Cons

Deep and light sleep data is not accurate.
Mediocre smartphone app
Button configuration issues
GPS is not accurate

Haylou RS3 – Price

First thing first, the price, as it is a decisive factor. Haylou RS3 is an affordable 80$ smartwatch. It is the most expensive watch by the company with a bunch of good features. Moreover, now it has all the features that were missing in the previous version.

There is a chance of price reduction as it happened with the previous model.

Haylou RS3 – Unboxing

The unboxing experience is one of the best from Haylou so far. It is not as good as other popular brands, but it is pretty good. The box is excellent, and the outer shell is very well designed, with prominent features on the back of the box. Removing the cover will take us to the white box. It has two watchfaces, and ironically, these are the only watchfaces that RS3 has by default. You can install more from the app.

In the box, we have the RS3, charging cable and user manual.

Appearance and Build Quality

Haylou RS3 – Bright Screen

At first glance, the watch looks great. It is lightweight and pleasant to touch moreover; body is not too thick. On the back, we have the charging port and sensors. The screen is smaller than an average smartwatch. It has a 1.2-inch screen with thick bezels; they look weird with some watchfaces. The rubber straps are replaceable.

Build quality is excellent; the AMOLED screen has good glass protection. The frame has a rigid aluminium construction that provides unbreakable build quality. Unlike Amazfit Stratos 2, the lugs are also made from aluminium which gives extra strength.

Navigation is straightforward; it is a bit different but easy to understand. The short presses of the button will turn on/off the screen. It will not open any app launcher as other watches do. Swiping left will take you to information cards like heart rate, sleep chart, weather etc. Swipe up for the apps and down for quick toggle. The menu is a bit laggy, and there are not many options on the menu. Like it doesn’t even have basic entries like screen timeout. You have to use the Haylou Fun app to customize it.

Technical Specifications

Screen: 1.2-inch AMOLED screen with 390×390 resolution
Body: Aluminum Alloy and Glass
Weight: 46 grams with strap
Strap: 22mm Silicon Strap
Battery: 230mAh with up to 12 days
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0 compatible with Android 6.0 and iOS 11.0
Sensors: Low-power dynamic heart rate sensor, Accelerometer, Sony GPS
Waterproof: 5ATM

Haylou RS3 – Features

Haylou RS3 is a nice smartwatch, the OS is nowhere close to wearOS devices, but still, there are a few good features in the watch.

There are 14 sport modes in the watch; it covers all the major sports that an average person does. It covers everything from indoor activities to outdoor and swimming as the watch is 5ATM water-resistant.

Messages with No Emojis

Real-time text reminder, you will get a real-time reminder of your call and messages. But unfortunately, you cannot respond to them through watch as there are no quick replies. Moreover, RS3 cannot display emojis, which is not suitable for a 2021 device. I hope that a firmware update will bring emojis.

The apps are not a lot, there is about a dozen apps and no marketplace for third party apps. There are a few useful apps like weather forecast, find phone and music. Find phone and music are useful features because often people forget where they have placed their phone, and controlling music through your smartwatch during a workout session is always handy.

Haylou RS3 – Fitness Tracking

Haylou RS3 can measure usual things like calories, steps, distance etc. The central tracking features of the watch include SpO2 tracking, Heart Rate Monitoring, Sleep monitoring and sport modes.

Heart rate monitoring is good; results are promising. Moreover, the charts have details and AI also provide helpful recommendations to improve your health.

SpO2 and GPS tracking were satisfactory as well.

Sleep tracking, in general, looks fine; it’s somewhat accurate. But the differences between RS3 and Oneplus watch deep and light sleep are significant. Moreover, my naps are not recorded by the watch.

Sport modes data has a good amount of details, but there is nothing extraordinary about it. I noticed that heart rate is not measured while swimming.

Battery

Battery endurance is good. The 230mAH battery gave me a solid 7days with all the tracking modes and GPS tracking every day.

Haylou Fun App

The official app is called Haylou Fun App, and there is nothing fun about it. It asks to turn on the location setting all the time; it will not work if it’s off, which is frustrating. Reaching the watch setting is even more frustrating. Firstly, you will go to hardware, then Haylou RS3 and main config. This will take you to the device setting. On the main screen, there is a summary of tracked activities.

The app is not intuitive and user-friendly.

Haylou RS3 – Limitations

There are a number of issues in the Haylou RS3.

The watch has an AMOLED screen, but still, there is no “Always on Display.”
The smartphone app needs to be polished.
No speaker and mic.
Interface is sluggish and laggy.
GPS tracking is not accurate
Music control is not good.

Final Thoughts

Haylou RS3 is another Haylou device that leaves me with mixed feelings, and due to the poor state of the software, I’d recommend checking on Haylou’s website for possible updates, and if there aren’t such; think about alternatives.

The Mi Watch Lite covers almost all the features in a lot better way and nicer price; The non-lite Mi watch costs 20 bucks more and is a LOT better option. You can check some of the Amazfit devices, or even some basic fitness trackers: if SpO2 and GPS are not necessary. Galaxy Fit 2 by Samsung is a lot more polished solution, with a lot better software and asking just half of the price of the RS3.

Where to Buy?

If you are looking to buy Haylou RS3, then click here to get the best possible deal. You can visit our YouTube channel for video review and click here to read about similar smartwatches.