Looking for a smartwatch on a budget? Give the Haylou Solar a shot
View(s):By Mahesh De Andrado
So why did I swap to a Haylou Solar aka the LS05? Put simply, I wanted a smartwatch that looked like a smartwatch but didn’t cost an arm and a leg. For this, I had a few requirements. The primary one was that I wanted a watch with a circular face, y’know, like a regular watch. Next up I needed it to have Google Fit integration, so that it can transfer my steps to Pokemon Go (yes that’s a thing). Battery life and build quality were next. My Mi Band 5 gets me through about 10 days on a single charge with notifications on for messaging and social media apps and 24h HRM (heart rate monitoring) so I used that as my baseline. With all these in mind, I set out perusing stores both online and brick and mortar to see what my options were. This is when I came across the Haylou Solar. Granted, it’s not a new product, but if it works, that’s all that mattered.
The first thing I noticed was that the Solar is indeed a good looking device. The body is made up of gray galvanized metal which helps prevent corrosion and also gives it a more premium look. A single button on the right side of the watch acts as a power button and a back button when navigating the settings from within the watch itself. The straps are silicon/rubber and use a cool latching mechanism so you can swap it out with any compatible 22mm watch strap of your choosing. If you’re the extra careful type, you’ll be happy to note that tempered glass screen protectors exist for the Solar and you can put one on to protect from accidental bumps.
Despite the name, the Haylou Solar isn’t solar powered (though that would have been cool). It runs a custom operating system much like the Mi Band and connects via Bluetooth 5.0. It packs a 1.28”, 240×240 resolution TFT display, as opposed to the Mi Band 5’s 1.1”, 126×294 resolution AMOLED display. The clarity in the display on the Mi Band is visible, but the Solar’s larger TFT display means you have more screen estate so notifications and messages have more room to be displayed. It’s not as bright as the Mi Band 5, but I found it perfectly fine.
Powering the Solar’s display, heart-rate monitor, proximity sensor and accelerometer are a 340mAh battery which is almost double the battery of the Mi Band 5. Haylou claims a standby of 30 days or 15 days with 24h HRM. As a standalone watch, the Solar shows the time, (but might be wrong until you sync it with your phone). You can also monitor your steps, heart rate, and do a 2 minute breathing exercise.
If you want all the additional functionality such as notifications and alarms, then you will need to install the app. Speaking of apps, Haylou has 2 apps that work with Solar; Haylou Fit and Haylou Fun. Since I was looking for Google Fit integration, I installed Haylou Fun. As soon as I opened the app, I was told I had to upgrade the firmware on the Solar, so that’s what I did. Once that was done, I paired the watch (which again was a fairly straightforward process) and I was good to go.
The first thing I noticed was how streamlined the app interface is. Coming from the Mi Fit App (which is now Zepp Fit), I wasn’t expecting such a polished interface from a relatively unheard of brand. While Haylou is owned by Dongguan Liesheng Electronic Co, it is not a brand under Xiaomi. Rather, Haylou secured Series A funding from Xiaomi Technology, becoming one of the youngest members in Xiaomi’s ecological chain. The inheritance is clearly seen in the Haylou Fun app as it bears a lot of resemblance to the Zepp Fit app. Once you’ve added your basic information such as name, weight and height, the Haylou Fun app is good to go. The main interface shows the battery percentage of the watch, your daily activity , sleep pattern and your exercise record. Each of these categories can be clicked to see more information.
My usual walk home from work is approximately 4 kilometers and this was what I used to test the accuracy of the Solar. And suffice to say, it indeed tracked the distance perfectly and showed me my steps, heart rate, distance walked and also gave me a map layout of my walk home. So far, I was impressed. One possible bug that I noticed was that if I launched an exercise mode, the steps recorded there were not added to my overall step count for the day, but rather kept as a separate entry. Perhaps Haylou wants to keep regular steps and exercise movement steps as two entities? But for all intents and purposes, my steps were recorded, and that was done. It was also transferred to Google Fit, much to my delight. Granted the process involved synching the data from Haylou Fun to Google Fit manually, but it worked.
So far, my expectations with the Haylou Solar have been met. The battery life is as promised and can either increase or decrease based on how many app notifications you get and if you use the exercise modes regularly. Despite having a metal body, it’s lightweight and I feel no strain in wearing it. The straps are comfortable to wear and won’t leave you itching. Long story short; if you’re in the market for a smartwatch/fitness tracker that won’t leave a hole in your wallet, the Haylou Solar is a good place to start. It offers almost all the functionality of a higher end smartwatch, except for making/receiving calls and having an in-built GPS. If you already have a Mi Band 4 or 5 and you want a more watch-looking device, then you can also give the Haylou Solar a shot. It’s available for ~LKR 12,500 at most shops in Majestic City and other smartphone stores in Colombo and across Sri Lanka.
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