Realme Watch 5 Review: Apple Watch Vibes Without the Apple Price

India's affordable smartwatch market is dominated by a few but familiar names, with boAt and Noise often leading the conversation. Realme, however, isn't a name that usually comes up when discussing budget wearables. In fact, until recently, the company had only a single smartwatch in its Indian portfolio, the Realme Watch S2. That has now changed with the introduction of the new Realme Watch 5, which also flags the company's renewed push into the affordable smartwatch segment.

The Realme Watch 5 price in India starts at Rs. 4,499 for the Midnight Black and Ocean Silver options, both with silicone straps. With features such as a large AMOLED display, built-in GPS, Bluetooth calling, and long battery life, the smartwatch aims to carve out a niche for itself in an already crowded market, and it succeeds in doing so. Here's why.

Realme Watch 5 Design and Display: Hello Apple Watch Ultra

The Realme Watch 5 features a rectangular design with rounded corners. At first glance, it bears a striking resemblance to the Apple Watch Ultra and can easily be mistaken for one, even up close. Further contributing to the visual similarity are the square-ish case, a flat display, a prominent metal frame, and a raised crown. While the materials and overall build quality aren't in the vicinity of Apple's smartwatch, the resemblance is hard to ignore, and it can be easily confused with a far more expensive smartwatch, which works well in Realme's favour.

Realme Watch 5's design, and even some watch faces, closely resemble the Apple Watch Ultra

Realme's latest smartwatch is fairly large, and that's something I noticed the moment I took it out of the retail box. Despite this, the watch sits comfortably on the wrist thanks to its flat back and well-balanced weight. During my time with the watch, it never felt top-heavy or cumbersome to wear.

The aluminium alloy frame lends the Realme Watch 5 a more premium appeal than many of its plastic-bodied competitors. The silicone strap is comfortable for everyday wear, and I did not experience any skin irritation even after wearing the watch for hours on a humid day. On the durability front, the Realme Watch 5 has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, meaning it can withstand dust, splashes, and rain.

Even though the display is vibrant, reflections make it tough to use outdoors

The Realme Watch 5 sports a 1.97-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 390 x 450 pixels. It's sharp, vibrant, and easy to read. Colours look punchy, and viewing angles are good. It comes with five brightness levels, and I found the first two sufficient for indoor use. Outdoor visibility is decent at higher levels, though the smartwatch does not get an auto-brightness feature since there's no ambient light sensor. Another caveat is the bezels. The smartwatch has fairly large bezels on all sides, and there appears to be a gap between the glass and the screen itself, which results in reflections.

Realme's latest affordable smartwatch also supports an always-on display, and its implementation is basic but functional. While it does show basic details like the time, there is a sizeable impact on the battery life. During my time with the watch, I preferred to keep it off and relied on the wrist-wake feature instead.

Realme Watch 5 Software and Companion App: Functional, Yet for Room for Refinement

The Realme Watch 5 runs on the company's proprietary software, which I found to be considerably better than its rivals from brands like boAt and Noise. The navigation is handled through swipe gestures and the rotating crown, and I found the interface fairly intuitive and fast. Menus are laid out in the signature Apple-style, and basic actions such as toggling a workout, checking health metrics, or responding to calls and messages are snappy and straightforward—no complaints on this front.

The watch runs on Realme's proprietary OS

That said, the animations are pretty basic, which positions the Watch 5 as a wearable that is not designed to prioritise functionality over a rich experience. While you are limited to the features Realme provides out of the box, they should be fine for most users in this segment and will not feel restrictive to first-time smartwatch buyers or those switching from competitors.

The Realme Watch 5 is compatible with the Realme Link app, which is available on both Android and iOS. The companion app offers plenty of information and customisation options, including health data, workout history, sleep tracking, and SpO₂ trends, which are presented in easy-to-read graphs. You can set up Bluetooth calling, enabling SMS notifications, and tweak the watch settings here, too. There are a variety of different styles of watch faces to choose from, and they sync up surprisingly quickly for a watch in this segment.

Realme Watch 5 is compatible with the Realme Link app

That said, the app experience isn't the most intuitive, and it can feel cluttered at times. It works well enough, but there's room for refinement.

Realme Watch 5 Performance and Battery Life: Exceeds Expectations

Performance is one key area which provides to be a dealbreaker for most affordable smartwatches, but that is not the case with the Realme Watch 5. It feels responsive and dependable in everyday use. The smartwatch registers swipes, menus load quickly, and I didn't run into any major slowdowns while navigating the interface or switching between features.

You get music playback controls on the Realme Watch 5

While Bluetooth calling worked reliably for short conversations, the speaker volume could have been a bit louder, as it struggled with output when outdoors in noisy surroundings.

One of the most surprising yet welcome inclusions on the Realme Watch 5 is the built-in GPS. It eliminated the need to carry my phone alongside the watch to log distance or routes. While GPS lock certainly takes some time to occur, especially when you're indoors or under tree cover, tracking holds steady more often than not. Though this is a niche feature which may not be used by everyone, it adds real practical value for fitness enthusiasts who don't always want to carry a phone on outdoor sessions.

Health and fitness tracking is pretty accurate on the latest Realme watch

I also tested the Realme Watch 5's health and fitness tracking, using the Apple Watch Series 11 as a point of reference, and step tracking between the two was surprisingly close. Where the Apple Watch recorded around 8,200 steps on a typical day, the Realme Watch 5 logged roughly 8,000–8,100 steps. This is certainly within an acceptable margin for a watch in this segment.

SpO2 readings were similarly aligned, too. In one instance, the Apple Watch showed a reading of 97 percent, while the Realme Watch 5 hovered between 95 and 97 percent. However, it took a few extra seconds to deliver the result. Sleep tracking, however, was not as granular and stage durations differed by a considerable amount. Thus, it is not the most reliable here.

All of the important sensors are located at the back of the watch

Music control is a thoughtful yet staple inclusion on the Realme Watch 5, allowing users to control playback, skip tracks, and adjust volume directly from the watch. It worked reliably with streaming apps like Apple Music and YouTube Music during my time with the watch.

Battery life is a strong suit of the Realme Watch 5. It has a 460mAh cell, which promises up to 16 days of battery life with normal use. I enabled notifications, continuous health tracking, and music control, and the watch lasted over a week on a single charge. Turning on the always-on display, however, did shorten battery life by some margin.

While the rotating crown is a neat addition, I found the speaker volume to be on the lower side

Charging times are a bit lengthy, and it took more than two hours to charge it from 0 percent till the “fully charged” status appeared.

Realme Watch 5 Verdict

The Realme Watch 5 is a great introduction to India's affordable smartwatch segment, and it gets most of the fundamentals right. The smartwatch has a design that resembles a product several segments above, a vibrant AMOLED display, reliable day-to-day performance, and surprisingly accurate health tracking for its price. The value proposition is further bolstered by the inclusion of built-in GPS and Bluetooth calling.

There are, however, a few caveats. The companion app could use refinement, and charging speeds are slow. Still, the Realme Watch 5 is an easy recommendation for users looking for a feature-rich smartwatch under Rs. 5,000.