TechRadar Verdict

The Realme Band 2 continues the trend set by the previous generation and is a rather affordable fitness tracker with loads of features that are complemented by a bright display and powerful battery.

Pros

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Affordable
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Feature-rich
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Excellent battery life

Cons

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No message reply or call answering
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Inaccurate data readouts
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Lack of a physical button

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Two-minute Review

The Realme Band 2 is the updated version of the Realme Band that launched in India back in the month of May 2020. The new fitness tracker from Realme comes with some obvious improvements over its predecessor.

To start off the Realme Band 2 has a larger 1.4-inch touchscreen display which is housed in a rectangular frame compared to the 0.96-inch display on the original Realme Band. Display on the Realme Band 2 offers 500 nits brightness and sports 167 x 320-pixel resolution.

To top, it off it comes with tracking support for up to 15 modes and the company says that the band will be able to track 90 working modes after an OTA update. The Realme Band 2 will be able to track walking, running, swimming, cycling, etc. and can track almost all the popular sports including outdoor Run or Walk, cycling, Indoor Run, football, horse riding, hockey, table tennis, badminton, Indoor cycle, Elliptical, Yoga, Cricket, tai chi, badminton, boxing, Basketball and many more.

In terms of sensors, it comes with a continuous heart rate monitor and Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) which has become the basic requirements of a fitness tracker. The Realme Band 2 supports personalized dial faces, is water-resistant up to 50 meters, can track sleeping patterns and offers a 12-day long battery life.

Realme Band 2 price and availability

The Realme Band 2 has been priced at Rs 2,999 in India which makes it one of the cheapest devices from the company in India. It is currently available for purchase on Realme’s own website along with Flipkart.

Realme Band 2 Design

The Realme Band 2 has been designed with the elements of the Realme Watch in mind while trying to keep true to the slim aesthetic of the Realme Band’s first iteration. It has a rectangular 1.4-inch display with a 167×320 pixel resolution. Right below this display is a slim touch button that is again similar to the previous generation.

Unlike the previous generation, the Realme Band 2 features swappable bands which gives it a lot more flexibility. Users can now match the band to the watch face with universal 18mm strap support. The default band is black and has the ‘Dare to Leap’ branding. There are no physical buttons on the device and the underside of it features the sensors that allow it to keep a track of the vitals.

The smartwatch comes with as many as 50 watch faces within the Realme Link app. Although it could do with a little more variety and colour. The TFT LCD has a peak brightness of 500 nits which is pretty bright and seems to do the job well and is efficient even in outdoor conditions. And the extra real estate on the display also makes for more legibility.

One of the few complaints that I had about the Realme Band 2 is related to the band where it wasn’t the most comfortable to wear all day. Besides that the loop on the band to keep down the extra band has a sort of notch to lock onto the grooves which makes it rather difficult to get the band into. The band weighs about 27.3g only. But the ability to swap it out with another pair seems like a good way to avoid any issues with the band.

One positive about the design is that it supports water resistance up to 5ATM. Which means that it can be submerged in fresh water and is rated to withstand water pressure up to 50 meters. This means that it is safe for some swimming with the dedicated mode along with a mix of sports activities.

Realme Band 2 Features

The Realme Band 2 has a pretty convenient interface which allows you to easily access all the different features of the device. It comes with a GH3011 sensor which enables it to continuously monitor the heart-rate. This is a useful features and I expected it to guzzle on the battery but it did not.

It also comes with the SpO2 sensor which helps you keep a track of your blood oxygen levels. Besides this, it also measures stress levels, sleep patterns, the typical steps, calories, along with the distance traveled using the phone’s GPS besides other metrics.

The Sleep Quality analysis is something that is a hit and miss, and it has difficulty keeping an accurate track of your sleep cycles. Although I found that it was able to detect correctly the duration of the sleep if not much else.

The SpO2 tracking is also not the best and provides spotty results that I compared with a regular SpO2 meter. This also goes for the steps, which are sometimes accurate and at other times feels like a tad more than what I really covered in a day.

But one of the strongest features of the Realme Band 2 is its battery life with the 204mAh battery that is built into the device. With a full charge and wearing it as much as possible each day the Realme Band 2 lasted me for about a week and a half, which is admittedly good for a fitness band at this price range. This included fitness tracking, flexible brightness, and continuous heart rate monitoring.

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Fitness Tracking

On to one of the most important features of the Realme Band 2, fitness tracking is again an average feature for it. The smartwatch reminds you to take breaks when you are sitting down for a while as well.

I wore the smartwatch for a number of different fitness exercises during the review period although could not come close to trying all 90 modes available and while it did seem to be somewhat accurate in terms of how many steps I had taken and how far I have traveled, the calories burnt and other such data were not the most accurate. It always seemed to underplay the number of calories that I burnt in a run.

Considering that these are a combination of heart rate monitoring, SpO2 levels, and the stress monitoring, these could potentially be fixed with software updates. Another thing to worry about is that the Realme Band 2 can apparently be fooled by shaking one’s hand to think that the wearer is doing some form of exercise.

Companion App

The Realme Link companion App actually shows quite a low of relevant information and is quite convenient when setting up the device and pairing it with the smartphone. More than half of the features of the smartphone can be toggle from the Realme Link app itself which is rather helpful.

Navigating the app is as simple as swiping and it shows information about the daily exercises, the sleep, heart rate chart, SpO2 chart as well as pressure chart. If the user was engaged in specific fitness activities the app also shows the results.

Users can also change the watch face of their Realme Band 2 from the Realme Link app which shows the whole collection that has been made available by the company.