For sports enthusiasts, accurate fitness tracking is key. The Haylou Solar Ultra Smart Watch delivers affordable performance, balancing robust sports features with style, making it a reliable companion for workouts and daily commutes.

In this review, we will examine the Haylou Solar Ultra to determine if it’s the best sports smartwatch. To guide our evaluation, we’ll focus on three key criteria: (1) design and fit, assessing overall aesthetics and comfort; (2) health functionalities, evaluating built-in health and wellness features; and (3) tracking accuracy, analyzing the precision of activity and fitness tracking. By setting these benchmarks, we aim to provide a comprehensive assessment of this smartwatch’s value for fitness enthusiasts.

What’s in the box

In the box of the Haylou Solar Ultra, you get:

The watch itself

The manual

A USB charger

And some Haylou stickers

Design

The Haylou Solar Ultra features a premium design that resembles a typical G-Shock, making it both casual and effective. Its high-quality plastic build feels sturdy, blending in whether at the gym or on an outing.

The display is large and clear. Functions are easy to see, and though sizable, it fits well.

However, its straps are made of TPU and about 2.5 millimeters thick, which may feel minimal to users who prefer chunkier straps. Comparable watches offer 3 millimeter straps made from silicone or leather for a sturdier feel. If you prioritize style or customization, replacement straps are available on sites like AliExpress in a variety of materials and thicknesses.

The watch includes two buttons and a notch: the power button, a sports shortcut, and a notch that opens the menu for all functionalities. The shortcut button especially sets it apart from typical smartwatches.

Overall, the Haylou Solar Ultra has an impressive, premium design compared to other smartwatches.

Display

The Haylou Solar Ultra features a large, 1.6-inch AMOLED display that looks great.

AMOLED screens deliver bright, sharp images, and the Solar Ultra excels in this regard. With a 480×480 pixel resolution and up to 1000 nits, it performed perfectly even in sunlight without boosting brightness. I was impressed in both shade and sun.

A standout feature is AOD (Always-On Display), which is rarely standard on smartwatches. While it consumes more battery (about 2% per hour), the convenience of seeing the time without pressing a button makes it valuable. Users can weigh the visual benefit against battery impact to fit their habits.

Though Haylou claims a 60Hz refresh rate, this feels closer to 30Hz. Compared to the Zeblaze Stratos 4, the latter is smoother, but I still love the Haylou display.

Fit and comfort

The watch excels in fit and comfort. Although it looks like a G-Shock, it doesn’t strain your hands, even when tight. For gym users, a watch that grips securely during activities is essential, and this one delivers.

During testing, I noticed no strain from wearing it, even while sleeping. The skin-friendly plastic prevents irritation, making it comfortable for extended use.

Whether you’re a gym regular or dressing casually, the Haylou Solar Ultra fits well and blends seamlessly with any outfit. Its sporty look is subtle enough that most won’t notice you’re wearing a sports smartwatch unless they’re close up.

In summary, the Haylou Solar Ultra’s fit is excellent, causing no discomfort or irritation even after prolonged wear.

Fitness and sports

The Haylou Solar Ultra offers impressive sports features, especially its ability to record and set fitness goals—a function not standard on many smartwatches, but included here as a sports-focused device. While Garmin and Fitbit offer comprehensive goal-setting dashboards, they often cost more.

The Garmin, for example, offers detailed metrics and performance insights, but the Haylou stands out by providing robust goal-setting. The Garmin offers detailed metrics at a higher cost, while the Haylou stands out for robust goal-setting at a budget-friendly price. While Fitbit offers advanced tracking, it may lack some sport-focused features that Haylou includes, such as goal-based running.

The watch provides robust exercise goal-setting for outdoor runs, walks, cycling, treadmill, rowing machine, elliptical, jump rope, yoga, climbing, or swimming—ideal for those focused on tailored exercise.

Recording workout progress is important. The watch includes PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence), which tracks your activity and awards. Tracking workout progress is crucial. The watch uses PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence), awarding up to 100 weekly points to motivate you.

It comes standard with water resistance up to 5 ATM, so you can take it swimming, and it also lets you actively track your swimming and record your heart rate while swimming. Another interesting fact is that this one comes with a function that removes water from the watch by playing a simple sound through its speakers.

A standout feature on this one is its multiple exercise functions. You get a variety of workout modes, ranging from outdoor sports to indoor. It offers multiple exercise modes, covering outdoor, indoor, ball games, dance, combat, and more, placing it among elite sports smartwatches. Now, you might get a slight off count while recording your walking steps, but on the other hand, this is common with most smartwatches, including some Apple smartwatches like the Apple Watch 5, so it does not stand as a deal breaker. For users experiencing step count drifts, a quick recalibration can help. Try resetting your watch’s step counter at the start of your walk, or ensure it’s securely strapped to minimize tracking discrepancies.

Health functionalities

Like every smartwatch, this one comes with a bunch of health features, and I’m quite impressed with many of them.

Now, standard on eve. Like most smartwatches, this has several health features, and many work well. I didn’t help but notice it’s quite accurate compared to the Haylou Watch 4. Well, I guess Haylou didn’t make much of a change there, but this serves a very useful function.

This one also comes with SpO2, which measures the oxygen saturation of your hemoglobin. Now, this, as well as the heart rate monitor, mIt includes SpO2 to measure blood oxygen. Like heart rate monitors, accuracy can vary over time, but it performed well compared to the previous Haylou Watch 4. It’s just another feature we don’t use.

This one can track how long you were asleep, when you were awake, when you were in REM, when you were light sleeping, and when you were in. On paper, it sounds like a bluff, but during testing, I found it was pretty accurate. tty accurate. Although I’m not that of a deep sleeper, I was still able to note, and it’s accurate.

Another very interesting health feature is its breathing exercise. Now, most people don’t know this as a thing, but it’s slowly gaining ground. The Haylou Solar Ultra can perform a breathing test, prompting you to breathe at a time you set. It can be either 1 minute or up to 3 minutes, and you can set a particular speed. And this goes hand in hand with its stress test. I personally use a breathing exercise to test my stress. This watch also has a stress test, great for individuals who experience stress, to measure their stress levels.

You also get an inbuilt women’s health section. Now, this is a very thoughtful feature: you can set your menstrual cycle in the Haylou app, which helps you keep track and alerts you at close intervals. As I mentioned, this is a very thoughtful addition, and I’m seeing this on most smartwatches as of today.

General functionalities

Now, this one is not just a sports smartwatch; it also comes with some pretty cool features. On the Haylou Solar Ultra, you can make and receive calls using its built-in phone application. You can view recent calls and contacts, and it also includes an average speaker and keypad option. During my testing, I found the call quality to be quite satisfactory in a quiet room, with voices clear and distinct. However, on a busy street, while the speaker performed well, it was hard to hear the conversation clearly amid the noise. This contextual insight is useful for those planning to use this watch across various environments.

You also have a notification center where you can see missed calls, sent messages, and even messages from specific apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, X, Facebook, and co.

You also have a weather option, calendar, alarm, world clock, calculator, flashlight, voice recorder, timer, stopwatch, camera control button, game mode, album mode, and music app, which connects to your mobile and gives the option to either play, pause, or skip songs without touching your device.

But one extra feature that caught my attention is its emergency features. This one comes with an inbuilt compass and an SOS feature that can be set via the Haylou app. This one can come in very handy if you get lost, and I tested the compass, which proved to be very accurate.

User interface and software

The Haylou Solar Ultra has been one of the most interesting and easy to navigate yet. Scrolling and accessing features are quite easy and very straightforward: 1) The notch button acts as a general menu button. With a simple click, you are all set. 2) Swipe down on the watch to get a control panel that houses the brightness, speaker, do not disturb, battery, and settings. 3) Swipe up to access your notifications panel. 4) Swipe left to reach a quick access menu. 5) Swipe right to view your sports activities.

The software of the Haylou Solar Ultra is a powerhouse. It’s actually called the Haylou Fun app. You get a bunch of accessibility functions on the app, and the most interesting of all is the watch face. Now, this is a wallpaper function that lets you choose what you want your watch to display.

I picked the Halloween face. You also get the option to choose from a variety of amazing faces depending on what suits you best. Setting up the watch via the Haylou Fun app was quite easy and seamless; all you had to do was have the watch connected to your device via Bluetooth, and you were good to go. You have extra features like seeing where your watch is on the map, and also an option to update and reset the watch via the app.

Battery and charging

The battery of the Haylou Solar Ultra has to be the highlight of the watch itself. This one comes equipped with a 450 mAh battery, and it’s no lie: a beast. Now, let’s put it in context: even with Always-On Display turned on, I was pretty much able to get more than 48 hours of straight use on this device, which is much better than the Haylou Watch 4. For a clearer comparison, the Fitbit Versa 3 offers about 24 hours of battery life, making the Haylou Solar Ultra a superior choice for those who value extended usage without frequent charging. So if you are the kind of person who always forgets to charge their accessories, like me, then this one really stands out for its battery capabilities.

Charging, on the other hand, is quite remarkable. I was able to get around 60% in under 20 minutes, charging with my laptop. That’s around 40 minutes for a full charge from 2% in real-world testing. Now, note that charging speeds may vary depending on the charger’s capacity. But in a nutshell, I’m pretty impressed with its charging speed.

Bluetooth and connectivity

The Haylou Solar Ultra comes equipped with Bluetooth 5.3, which is already outdated. We’ve seen newer accessories with Bluetooth 6.0, but that’s not a deal-breaker, as the Bluetooth on this device is still relatively strong, and the range is superb.

On this watch, you can do around 10m without issue, and I’ve never had an issue connecting this device to my mobile phone. The connection process was very seamless and fast. I loved how, whenever I’m in range, even if I didn’t take the watch, it stays connected without me having to do it manually.

The calls and other functions on the watch were superb, too. No cracks or breaks when using it to call. I was particularly impressed by its connection speed, which, in my opinion, is way better than the Haylou Watch 4.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Looks premium and gives off that G-Shock vibe, so it works for the gym and everyday outings.
• The plastic build doesn’t feel cheap at all.
• Big screen, easy to see things clearly, and it still sits well on the wrist.
• The extra-sport shortcut button is actually useful, and the notch makes navigation easy.
• The 1.6-inch AMOLED is a beauty: sharp, bright, and usable even on sunny days.
• Always-On Display is a big win because you can glance at the time without pressing anything.
• Comfort is solid: no strain when tight, good for the gym, and even fine for sleep.
• Fitness features are strong for the price: goals, exercise records, and plenty of workout modes.
• GPS locks in well and helps with distance and running goals
• 5ATM means you can swim with it, track swimming, and even eject water with the sound feature
• Battery is a beast: you get over 48 hours even with AOD on, and charging is fast.
• The Bluetooth connection was stable and had a good range, and calls worked without interruption.

Cons

• The straps feel too minimal compared to what you expected from Haylou.
• The “60Hz” doesn’t feel like 60Hz in real use (you said it feels closer to around 30Hz)
• Step counting can be slightly off when tracking walks.
• Like most smartwatches, you noticed occasional lag-outs during workouts.
• Bluetooth 5.3 is not the newest (but you said it’s not a deal breaker)
• Health readings like SpO2/heart rate can drift sometimes since it’s still a smartwatch, not medical equipment.

Should you buy the Haylou Solar Ultra?

The Haylou Solar Ultra, for its budget, is one of the best you get in the market right now that meets basic functionalities and is a great sports watch. I’ve had this watch for some time, and I can stand by saying I’m pretty impressed with what a $69.99 smartwatch can offer.

You get a good-looking sports watch that pairs well with any outfit, a bunch of health- and fitness-tracking options, a very good GPS system for emergencies, and much more. It’s ideal for individuals seeking a reliable, low-cost option with solid performance features.

Whether you are a weekend runner seeking precise phone-free metrics or a fitness enthusiast in need of versatile tracking capabilities, the Haylou Solar Ultra fits diverse lifestyles effortlessly. So, should you buy the Haylou Solar Ultra? If you are in the market for the best budget sports smartwatch, the Haylou Solar Ultra is your best pick. For $69.99, you get everything a premium watch offers. At a budget, but you will have to lower your expectations.

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