AliExpress Smart Watch “For Samsung Galaxy 6” Review

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The last watch I tried from AliExpress looked great but inside had little in common with the prestigious watch it closely resembled. Even so for the looks alone it proved to be a decent buy when compared to other budget smartwatches.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is a high quality premium grade smartwatch currently priced at around £230 on Amazon. The AliExpress Smart Watch “For Samsung Galaxy 6”.- which very closely resembles the expensive original - is widely available across AliExpress from multiple sellers at a range of prices. The one I am looking at today is priced at just me just £15.17 including taxes and shipping.

The AliExpress watch has a 1.4 3" 360x 360 display, a stainless steel body and a 300mAh battery with wireless charging. The product page claims a wide range of features including GPS, NFC, notifications, wireless charging, Blood pressure, SP02, sleep and heart rate tracking, Bluetooth calling, music control, camera control, and multiple sports tracking.

In the box are the watch, silicon strap, charging cable and a User Guide in English. The presentation is OK but far from premium grade, the box is low to mid market but attractive enough for the price.

The build quality was not so good as the last AliExpress watch but far from being terrible. The watch body feels reasonably weighty and although it does not feel cheap and throwaway neither does it feel classy or high end. The watch strap is silicone with a simple traditional style metal buckle which again feels mid to low end. So far, as regards the hardware, I think this to be a budget priced watch but from a well known name. Things start to change when looking at the magnetic charger which is lightweight and seems cheaply made The user guide too is not good, being poorly written, badly printed and hard to read.

The magnetic charger works well enough but the magnetic connection is not very strong and it is prone to falling off. I found that I could get about 36 hours of normal use from a full charge. 

Turning the watch on for the first time I have to say I was very fairly impressed by the display, which is bright colourful and detailed. The watch paired easily to my phone running the required NewFitapp although it identified the watch as being the T5 Pro. The phone link seems pretty stable and I have not yet needed to manually reconnect.

The NewFit app covers some of the claimed health tracking modes, although not all are fully supported by the watch. The app is reasonably well designed and easy to navigate, although good eyes are required to read the tiny lettering and often hard to read lettering. A large number of free watchfaces can be downloaded through the app onto the watch but many of them are very similar to each other and not well designed. The watch comes with 4 built-in watch faces which cannot be changed and one custom watch face which can either be downloaded or designed inside the app from your original photo.

The watch interface is simple and easy to navigate reacts instantly and rapidly to touch and is fast, responsive and lag free in use. From the home screen swipe down to view notifications and up to a shortcut panel, Swipe right to access six app widgets (which cannot be changed) and swipe left to see the same six widgets for Daily Activity, Phone, Music Control, Sleep, Blood Pressure and Weather (which has never worked)

The watch has two physical buttons. The top one returns the watch to the desktop or to the app list when the desktop is open. The lower button turns the watch screen off when short pressed with a long press bringing up the power off option screen.

The watch claims to monitor these parameters: Steps. Distance, Calories, Sleep, Heart Rate, SP02, Blood Pressure GPS route tracking and NFC. It also shows weather, phone notifications, breathing mode, phone music and camera controls.

Let’s look in more detail at watch the watch can do

NFC - NFC is claimed on the product page but there is no sign of it on the watch or app.

GPS - There is no onboard GPS but it will offer connected GPS using your phone. To my surprise, after an exercise session, the full GPS track is shown in the app along with calories used, pace, heart rate graph etc. I checked the GPS track on the onscreen map and it seems reasonably accurate.

Steps – The step counter works but with results different from my usual watch.

Distance – This works OK and uses the phone's GPS but gives acceptably accurate results.

Calories – The app calculates this and is probably no more accurate or otherwise than any other, as I have doubts about them all. However, it does seem consistent and is probably good for showing a day on day usage.

Sleep – This seems to work and mirrors pretty much the same feature on my Amazfit watch although in less (unneeded) detail.

Heart Rate – The heart rate monitor seems pretty accurate and will poll automatically 24/7 in the background although at a rate less frequently than my usual watch and which cannot be altered. Spot readings can also be taken.

Blood Sugar - It seems to work and is reasonably accurate, so far as I can tell.

SP02 Monitor - It seems to work and is reasonably accurate, so far as I can tell.

Blood Pressure - Wildly Inaccurate, as it has bveen on every watch I have tried.

Music Controls – Yes, this works well and seems to recognise most audio phone apps. You cannot store music on the watch itself but only control playback from the attached phone.

Phone Notifications – Yes, these work, and are large and easy to read although do not identify the app used.

Siri/Android Assistant: open the watch, scroll, find and open the Assistant app, tap the screen and speak, audible reply comes through the watch speaker. It is easier just to use the phone directly

Phone calls - Works and you can initiate and answer a call from the watch. The caller's voice comes through the watch speaker.

SMS Message - Yes, they can be read on the watch screen

Lost Phone/Watch Alert – Yes, this works well and is noisy and hard to overlook.

Do Not Disturb – You can define a start and stop time and it works just fine.

Sedentary Reminder – yes, this seems to work.

Weather – Yes, this works too but is very bare-bones.

Watch Faces – A small selection can be made from within the watch and others can be downloaded using the app, either way, is a simple process.

So this is no Apple Watch, but it is better than some of the ultra cheap junk watches I have tried. The hardware seems to be of reasonable quality with a screen that is bright, clear, fast and responsive.

It has all the basics that you may need but many high end features are missing and some of those claimed are not present or do not work correctly.

A large number of apps are included but no third party ones such as Facebook, Instagram etc. There is no onboard GPS or NFC and some of the tracking apps, such as for sleep, are rather basic.

Physically this watch looks very much like the Galaxy Watch 6 but lacks the high end features and of course, will not work with Samsung apps.

This is not a bad buy for the price. If you need a well made, and easy to use smartwatch, that performs the basic features OK and looks OK too then might be for you. If you want a simple sports tracking watch then this is for you too. For the crazy price, this is a good buy but don't expect a Samsung.

Music: YouTube Audio Library: Chris Haugen: Mirage