Thanks to massive success in the Indian market, China’s Realme is becoming a big player in the smartphone market. The company might not have the most feature-rich devices out there, but its cheaper price point and competitive performance have made it a go-to device in places where value trumps cosmetics, and India is one of those massive markets which has seen Realme’s image shine.
Like most other smartphone markets, Realme is moving into other “smart” markets, with the company announcing a new range of smartwatches and smart TVs, as revealed in The Verge. First up is Realme’s first smartwatch, which is unimaginatively called the Realme Watch. It has a square design with a 1.4-inch 320×320 LCD display and runs a custom version of Android. It can display notifications, control music, hang up phone calls, and do other typical smartwatch things.
The Realme Watch has similar functionality to the fitness band that the brand launched in March, including a heart rate sensor, sleep monitoring, and the India-targeted cricket-tracking mode. The larger screen makes this look more like a Fitbit-style watch, though and features bands that are easily removable for a change-up in style. The company is claiming 7 to 9 days of battery life from the watch, or 20 days in its power-saving mode, which is a rather ambitious claim and it would be interesting to see exactly what features are available in its power-saving mode.
It’s not exactly a device that will bring anything new to the market, but at a price of just $50 (R800), it is easily one of the cheapest smartwatches out there and will likely make a massive impact on the Asian markets once again being significantly cheaper than all the other traditional big market players.
Along with the new watches, Realme is also launching a Smart TV range with a pair of Android TV sets. There’s a 32-inch 720p option and a 43-inch 1080p model, though with no 4K option here, so these are not devices providing cutting edge visuals at all. Realme claims the sets support HDR10 and HLG, reaching up to 400 nits of brightness and make use of a quad-core MediaTek processor and have Dolby Audio-certified 24W quad speakers. The 43-inch set will sell for $290 (R4800) and the 32-inch model for $170 (R2800). Again, nothing remarkable, but at that price, it’s practically a steal.
The company also joined every other tech companies in offering a new pair of earbuds with the Realme Buds Air Neo that cos just $40 (R650) along with a new 10,000mAh power bank for $13 (R220). These devices will be available on Realme’s sites soon. They aren’t available in South Arica just yet, but with prices like this, you can’t help but think if they did release here, they could easily penetrate a market that is driven by value for money at the moment.
Last Updated: May 26, 2020
