It’s been a while since I have reviewed a smartwatch or fitness tracker, simply because I found most devices to be lacking, and break easily after a few weeks or months. It’s also difficult to find a device that combines long battery life, waterproofness, a decent screen, and all that at a reasonable price.
But I decided to give it another try when Geekbuying asked me whether I was interested in reviewing WeLoop Hey 3S sports smartwatch with 5 ATM waterproofness, a standby time of 30 days, a color display, an optical HRM, and built-in GPS. I’ve just received it , so I’ll start by posting specifications about the watch, and checkout what’s inside the package.
Weloop Hey 3S Specifications
- Display – 1.28″ color memory LCD display with 176×176 resolution, touchscreen
- Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 LE, built-in GPS
- Sensors – Heart rate monitor
- Battery – 270 mAh LiPo battery good for over 30 days in standby, around 7 days for 2 to 3 hours exercise per day, 20 hours running with GPS mode
- Weight – 38 grams
- Water Resistance – 5ATM
The watch can sync with smartphones running Android 4.4 or iOS 8.0 or greater, and both the watch and app are supposed to support English, Italian, German, Spanish, and French languages but more on that later. WeLoop Hey 3S can be used to track daily steps, heart rate monitor, and as functions to track running, swimming, and cycling.
The product description mentions the device ships with a USB cable , a charging, and a multilingual user’s manual in English, Italian, German, Spanish, and French.
Weloop Hey 3S Unboxing
The watch is sent in a cartonboard packaging itself containing a retail package.
Everything is neatly placed inside the box.
The user’s manual is however in Chinese language only, not other languages to be found. The back also includes a QR code linking to the Android/iOS app (Note: link appears to only work properly when accessing from smartphone).
As expected the watch, charge, USB cable, and wristband could also be found inside the package.
Two buttons: one on the right to go through menu, and accept changes, and one on the left to go back.
The back of the watch comes with the optical heart rate monitoring, 4 contact points for charging, and markings with 5ATM, and the CE/FCC certification with the latter using ID: YNG-HEY3S.
Wristband installation is super easy thanks to the bits on the edge of the band.
The watch will look bigger than your typical activity tracker, but it’s not too big, just the right size as far as I’m concerned.
The display is most readable in bright light, and a bit dim inside a room, although there’s a backlight triggered automatically when you turn your wrist or press the right button.
That’s all for the unboxing part, so we can now make sure it’s fully charged by placing on its charger, and connecting the latter via USB.
Weloop Hey 3S Android App(s)
In the meantime, I wanted to check out the app, so I went to link mentioned above, and everything is in Chinese. I can read a little, and click on the “standard download” button on the left to download and install the apk.
I was sort of hoping the app would switch to English language (the default language in my phone) automatically, but it was still in Chinese (middle screenshot above), and they asked for the phone number and a password to register. I tried mine, but It did not work since the app expect a Chinese number. So instead, if you look at the bottom, there are two icons that make it possible to login with QQ or WeChat. So I registered with WeChat, could login, go through a Wizard in Chinese, eventually letting me select Hey 3S model, and synchronize with my watch.
I even manage to upgrade the watch firmware to v2.13, but still no option to change language in the watch or app. That’s madness!!! Most GeekBuying customers won’t be able to use that watch properly… However, I could not see any complain how the lack of English language on th product page on GB, so I though maybe, just maybe, I should do a search for WeLoop app… and sure enough, I found it on Google Play and the Apple App Store both in English (and likely other languages).
You can sign in with an email address or Facebook, and I went through the same setup wizard as in the Chinese app. After connection to Hey 3S watch, I went to the Update section of the app, and could upgrade the firmware to v1.24, which also switched the language to English on the watch itself.
There are various option for daily/weekly goals, workouts, and settings, which I’ll go into more details into the second part of the review after further testing.
I’d like to thank GeekBuying for sending a review sample, and you may consider purchasing the watch on their shop for $89.99 including shipping. The device can also be found on Amazon and Aliexpress.
Continue reading “WeLoop Hey 3S Sports Smartwatch Review – Part 2: GPS, Running, Cycling, Notifications, and More“.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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