We got our hands on the SoundPEATS Watch 2. The newest model from the brand following on from the SoundPEATS Watch 1. It’s relatively cheap for a smartwatch, but that isn’t bad. It inherits many features that made the previous models stand out and incorporate better and more contemporary options. But, is it any good?
A solid watch with some forgivable flaws
The SoundPEATS Watch 2 costs roughly £50. A great price. It’s not perfect, though. I’ve had two smartwatches previously – the WearOS TicWatch C2 and the Huawei Lite OS-based Huawei GT 2 Pro, which is my daily watch. That set me back £200 when it came out and has been well worth the money. I get more than a week from the battery, and it does almost everything I could want from a watch – I can live without the other stuff I want for the sake of battery life.
Because of WearOS on the TicWatch, I’ll ignore that for this. A fairer comparison would be against the GT 2 Pro, although “fairer” isn’t really fair given the obvious quality differences. But in terms of OS, features and battery life, it’s good to know how the two watches compare.
The Hardware
Let’s start with what’s changed from the Watch 1. The SoundPeats Watch 2 features a new slim, light, comfortable fit. Intelligent SPO2 blood oxygen detection and measurement, plus music volume control. Most of that is what I’d expect in a smartwatch, so it’s great to see those new features.
Saying the watch is light is a bit of an understatement. Maybe I’m just used to having a heavier watch. I likely am. That or I’m getting really strong because this watch weighs next to nothing.
The strap is nice and feels super smooth. I spent more time than I’d like to admit just stroking it. I have a thing for textures, okay?! It’s meant to be good with people with sensitive skin, which is perfect because I do. Not a sensitive person in any other way, but my skin demands the best! After a week, I had no signs of an allergic reaction, as I’ve shown with others, but I didn’t want to push it past that, so I used a metal strap I had for the rest of my testing. I need my wrist not to look like someone has been choking it.
It is IP68 waterproof, so if you’re one of those weird people that doesn’t take their watches off to shower, there’s no worry about damaging it. Although why you wouldn’t take it off is beyond me. You need to wash where the wrist strap has been; stop being filthy!
The battery, which is essential, lasts an impressive five days. It’s meant to be between 7 and 15. It could push 7, but I’ve found five days to be more realistic as you want to charge it before it completely dies on you. And at less than 10% on day 5, it needed charging. I reckon you could get more time out of it if you could turn the vibration down a notch. The vibration motor is insane. I felt it in my bones. I wasn’t missing any notification whilst wearing it, that’s for sure. And depending on what apps you link to, it obviously depends on how many times the watch will try shaking your drink out of the glass you’re holding. It’s believable that it could last longer than I got out of it, particularly as I was looking to try a lot of its features.
Design and Functionality
The design of the watch is nice. The screen looks fantastic, even though it’s only got a resolution of 240 by 240.
There’s also a surprising amount of watch displays, which is excellent. You can easily change how the watch looks on a day-to-day basis with ease.
The step count seems pretty accurate, although it does take a few seconds to update. You can walk from one side of the house to the other, look at the watch and see that you’ve walked exactly zero steps. Recheck it a few seconds later and watch that step counter tally up to where it should be. That took a bit of getting used to, as my GT 2 Pro adds steps instantly.
The vibration, as mentioned, is somewhat overpowered. At least it feels that way. When you really notice that is when you have it set to give you WhatsApp notifications, and WhatsApp decides to do a backup. My wrist did not appreciate an almost constant vibration as every percent of the backup triggered a continuous notification on the watch.
The heart rate monitor seems to work pretty well too. I tend to try and live as stress-free a life as possible. What does stress me out at times, though, is Football Manager. So I played a load of that, as our ‘Currently Playing‘ section shows. You know, for science. I have to test that the watch works. As it turns out, blowing a 2-0 lead in the Champions League final with 10 minutes to go really does show as not just a heart rate increase but also a blood pressure increase. Not enough to make me quit playing, but it was definitely interesting.
Connection and Software
Connecting the watch to my phone was easy. You just need the SoundPEATS Life app installed. Through there, the connection is straightforward – Absolutely nothing to complain about regarding that.
As for the app, the design is lovely. Useful information that is presented beautifully. Props to whoever designed that interface. The big problem, though, is connecting it to Google Fit. There’s an option for it, which is great. I want that to sync as I can then use that with Pokemon Go to collect those steps when I’ve walked off at work and left my phone charging. Unfortunately, when clicking on sync to Google Fit, you get an error saying that the app has been blocked. With no way that I can see around this, it’s a huge disappointment. All those missed steps on the one game I religiously play on my phone.
Conclusions
Thankfully, for the most part, the flaws of the SoundPEATS Watch 2 could be fixed with a software update. Stopping it going absolutely apeshit when WhatsApp is performing a backup would be a great start.
For the price, though, there’s not much to complain about. It won’t replace my GT 2 Pro, but it is a very capable watch that I would recommend to people. It looks nice and records data well, even if it isn’t instantly. The phone app is beautifully designed, and I actually prefer the looks of that to the Huawei one that I use daily. I can’t give it anything over than an 8/10. At just £50, it’s a great little watch. If this was my first smartwatch, I’d be very happy. It just needs a few improvements, and it’d be even better. Getting the app to actually be allowed to connect to Google Fit would be great. The thought is there, since the option is. But something has gone wrong somewhere since Google just doesn’t like it.
What they’ve packed into this device, though, is still impressive. The battery life is good, if not exactly living up to the time frame they advertise. If you use it regularly and choose to receive notifications from a few apps, you can still get 4-5 days out of it, which is perfectly acceptable. Especially at this price point.
If you fancy getting your hands on this, head over to the SoundPEATS Watch 2 Amazon page where until the end of August, you can get a 15% discount. It’s good value at £50. You can’t go wrong with that added discount.
A sample was kindly provided for us to review this product.
