Realme Watch 3 Pro review: Feature-packed smartwatch under Rs 5,000

When the Realme Watch 3 made its debut earlier this year, it came with Bluetooth Calling as its marque feature. Now, Realme has the Watch 3 Pro. That’s right, even smartwatches have a ‘Pro’ variant now. The Realme Watch 3 Pro comes with an AMOLED screen and built-in GPS along with some other changes, but is also priced higher at Rs 4,999. Is it worth that money? Find out in my full review below.

Realme Watch 3 Pro: What’s good?

Display

The Realme Watch 3 Pro comes with a great 1.78-inch AMOLED display that delivers sharp colours and deeper blacks than most TFT-display smartwatches. This allows you to enjoy black and other darker watch faces the way they should actually look as well as gives the watch a classier look when its screen is off. When the screen is on, you can enjoy the many good-looking watch faces you get here, some of which are also animated and look really cool.

Of course, the AMOLED screen also enables AoD or Always On Display and you can now enable the feature in analogue or digital, both of which look great. However, you are limited to only these two styles and get no customisation whatsoever, besides being able to schedule it through the day.

Realme Watch 3 Pro, realme watch 3 pro review, The Realme Watch 3 Pro comes with a great AMOLED screen. (Express Photo/ Chetan Nayak)
The wear detection of the watch also needs some work as I noticed the Always On Display turning on when the watch was placed on a table and a polyester sheet, despite the settings allowing it to turn on only when worn. This could be fixed with an update, though.

Fitness tracking, other features

Tracking my heart-rate and steps throughout the day was a breeze on the Realme Watch 3 Pro which showed fairly accurate results. This, however, cannot be said for the sleep tracking features which were a hit or miss at times.

The watch also has support for 24-hour heart rate and SpO2 monitoring which is a great addition at this price. For the heart-rate, users will be able to set the watch to take readings every 5, 10, or 20 mins and also alert users if the readings falls below or rises above a set number.

Realme Watch 3 Pro, realme watch 3 pro review, All of the watch’s apps are neatly laid into a grid menu, and you can use the Realme Link app to remove apps you don’t use to avoid clutter. (Express Photo/ Chetan Nayak)
The watch also had a number of other features I found pretty cool. Camera control for instance, lets you take a picture from your phone by tapping on the watch. While this feature has been seen in watches before, it usually is via a custom app and not the phone’s own default camera application. That isn’t the case here, and I was able to use the watch to take shots on my Nothing Phone 1 via the stock camera app. Music playback control also works as expected.

Bluetooth calling

The Bluetooth calling feature on the Realme Watch 3 Pro is really great at this price. The watch can use its built-in microphone and speaker to take calls via Bluetooth directly from your watch and it works perfectly with no issues on the microphone input, or the audio output via the speakers. However, there’s more.

Realme Watch 3 Pro, realme watch 3 pro review, The Realme Watch 3 Pro shows notifications similar to how most budget watches do, and you still cannot to reply to them. (Express Photo/ Chetan Nayak)
Unlike some cheaper Bluetooth calling watches where the watch behaves like a pair of Bluetooth headphones and reroutes all calls towards themselves, things are different with the Realme Watch 3 Pro. If you receive the call from the phone, you can speak via the phone’s earpiece regularly despite the watch being connected. The watch’s calling mechanism kicks in only when you receive a call from the watch itself. This was very convenient.

Battery Life and charging

The Realme Watch 3 Pro can easily last a week with AoD on (with wear detection) and regular use of the heart-rate and SpO2 tracking features. With very heavy use, it should still last 4-5 days at least for most people. It also is pretty quick to charge.

Realme Watch 3 Pro: What’s not good?
Design

The Design of the Realme Watch 3 Pro isn’t bad, in fact the rectangular dial with metallic sides and TPU straps is a tried and tested formula at this point, and it is exactly that reason which makes the Realme Watch 3 Pro indistinguishable from the sea of rectangular budget smartwatches out there.

Realme Watch 3 Pro, realme watch 3 pro review, Despite all its pros, the Realme Watch 3 Pro looks like any other budget watch on your wrist. (Express Photo/ Chetan Nayak)
If you aren’t concerned with aesthetics, this will not be a deal-breaker, but the Realme Watch 3 Pro looks just like any other budget smartwatch despite upping the ante on pretty much every competitor in its segment.

Should you get the Realme Watch 3 Pro?

The Realme Watch 3 Pro is a solid package under Rs 4,999 which gives you a good display, accurate tracking and reliable connectivity via the Realme Link app, with features like smart Bluetooth calling and switching helping it stand out. If you can look past the underwhelming design of the Watch 3 Pro, it is a solid recommendation from me in this segment. A festive offer live on the Realme site right now even lets you get another Rs 500 off the price.