Now, thanks to the brand new halo rs4, is it smart enough and is it worth the modest budget asked lets inspect Music Applause? Hey welcome nice to meet you here, its michael from tech for all, and what we do here is to inspect fresh and cool tech and its time again, to do some wearables testing. This is coming from halo, a company which is somewhat related to xiaomi in their big ecosystem because they get their funding through you pin, which is obviously something that is funded by xiaomi, so yeah theyre, somewhat related, but halo rely on their own software solutions and whether Thats, a good or bad thing were gon na figure out throughout this episode for sixty dollars. You get some of the most tempting 2021 features in this really fantastic display and how far it is competitive and it can stand out in terms of features and performance thats. What we are about to find out now, as usual at the beginning, im gon na try to give you a shot list with competitors which offer similar feature pack at a close by price like the redmi watch series or me watch light or maybe honor band 6, Which is a fitness tracker with a smartwatch like look and feel by the way, together with the rs4? The release of rt2 by halo also happens. Both watches are almost the same in terms of functions, however, the rt is round in the rs is square shaped, just like the apple watch.
You guessed it right. This is my third halo device to try out in terms of unboxing small steps in the right direction, or at least i hope so rather modest packaging on the outside. There are some specifications and nice looking renders getting rid of the marketing part lets see the real gear heres. The watch very similar to the popular series by apple, as just mentioned, but easy to distinguish. Since the thing on the side is just a button and not a rotating crown, theres user manual included and also a charger first obvious thing to comment: is the build quality. You can see this metal looking case at the bottom. We can see the sensors for measuring blood oxygen, saturation and heart rate a little different to the usual kind of straps which, as it turns out, not among the most convenient ones. After powering the watch on clearly, the display is a highlight, very bright, vivid, colorful, serious step up from what weve seen in the older halo models did anything else. Change lets review the specs as starter, quite a basic chipset in the heart of the watch. The stunning 1.78 inch amoled display ip68 waterproof body up to 10 days, battery life, precise tracking of heart rate and blood oxygen, saturation 12 different workout modes and weight with the strap of around 49 grams. So far in terms of hardware, there is nothing too remarkable. There is no gps, no speaker, no microphone. Therefore, you cant make any phone calls, even if they are just relayed from the phone you cant rely on any smart assistant, and surprisingly, it supports currently with the current state of the firmware, only 12 workout modes, which is not too much.
In fact, a lot less than a basic fitness tracker, for instance, the me band 6 supports around 30 and the honor band 6. I dont really remember the number, but i guess its some something close to 100. among the major strengths. This really lovely looking screen its amulet well doesnt really have always on at least not with the current version of the firmware, but we have to admit it really looks good lets see about the navigation. We have a touch screen, so swipes and taps are what youre expected to use in order to communicate. Swiping left or right takes you through the main cards by default, daily activity, summary heart rate, spo2, sleep, summary weather forecast and the typical for halo section for breathing exercises. These cards are customizable swipe down. Here are the quick toggles swipe up, and this is the shortcut to the apps, a menu that looks strikingly similar to what i believe is what inspired creating this model, namely the mighty apple watch. What i find annoying is the side button which can only light up the screen or shut it off. There is no way to assign double press function and the press and hold opens the power menu aka rather useless. If you take your time, youre gon na get used to the navigation concept, but its not really ideal. Checking the apps one by one shows, however, that from the chaotic, poorly looking list on the previous generations, halo have gone a long way and have redesigned most of the sections.
It now feels like a more complete operating system. Note that whatever we say about the rs4 is relevant to the round brother, the rd2 as well. We still have the same limited amount of apps with inability to add new ones unless halo, decide to add such in the firmware, which is highly unlikely tracking, is possible. However, hindered by the limited amount of workouts and the lack of gps looks like one of the key focus areas for such a budget. Wearable is not so well implemented here. There is notable improvement from the predecessing motors. However, mi band 6 and number band 6 are already so powerful that again, this brand new halo device already looks a little outdated. Now, let me say a few words about the app uh calling it hi. Lo fun is actually a very fresh idea, but the word phone would be one of the last words i would use in order to describe the experience about the smartphone app. Probably if i have to use just one word, yeah its not too far away from a disaster yeah, there are a lot of features which are not implemented in a good way. There are a lot of bugs some things which are not quite right. There is no cloud backup and sync, so i guess we should be really thankful that it at least supports integration with google fit and back in the summer, because the rs3, which i reviewed back in the summer supports the same kind of smartphone app.
I probably wasnt that critical about it, but since there is pretty much zero improvement this time i i got ta show you some things which are not good at all. As a starter, it supports adding just one watch, so i was testing the rd2 for almost a week. Workout sleep tracking steps, heart rate everything. Then i thought im going to switch to rs4 and guess what all my data is gone, not a single record of the things i was doing. There is apparently no cloud sync. So once you switch to another phone data is gone to configure the watch. You have to go through a number of hard to reach and find menus at least once you are there. They will look and work. Okay, slight improvement are the watch faces. Some of them are very good. Looking also google fit integration, which is great and on the first page, the usual summary of your health data, which i now observe with the bitterness due to the circumstances just mentioned. I think if hilo entirely reworked their app, it might actually transform the watch into a reliable choice since im in drawback sharing mode. Besides the app there are some other software glitches, no always on display no smart assistant, no nfc, no speaker and microphone. No gps. Im saying all this, because there are devices in this budget niche that have one or some of the above mentioned features in the end. This is yet another attempt to bring fitness tracking features in a nice smartwatch looking case, but given the amount of drawbacks, i can only justify buying the rd2 or rs4 over a me band if the price gets considerably lower or unless you like the shape but theres.
The mi watch light with far better software and gps at the same price, designed one year ago, just saying so thats most of what i wanted to share with you about the halo rs4 and its a pity, because i cant give it a really good rating. Although halo are very close to mastering the hardware level and well, they still have a lot of work to do on the software side. Clearly, an improvement when it comes to the software inside the watch itself, but when it comes to the smartphone app, i really hope to see something entirely redesigned and only time can show. Probably by the time you watch this video thats already happened. Who knows you can download it from google play or app store, and let me know how it feels in the meanwhile if you want to order this device, because you love its amoled device, then check the video description for the best possible video.t6bS7o0PBLE
