The Haylou brand, whose name is derived from the English word "hello", also belongs to the Xiaomi ecosystem and focuses on wireless headsets and headphones. But you can also find smart watches in their portfolio. One of them is the Haylou LS02, which we tested.
At a very low price, they promise many features. What are they really like? Do you get a lot of music for little money? Read on to find out.
The price will surprise you
We ordered the Halou LS02 smart watch for the review from the official store on Aliexpress. However, at the time of writing the review, they had the best price at the seller TomTop, who launched a promotion with a price of only €18. The seller offers shipping completely free and considering the price of the product under 22 € you won't have to pay any additional fees.
Haylou LS02 smart watch, global version
Basic parameters
Hayle LS02 is its design similar to Apple Watch or Amazfit GTS. They measure 48 x 36 x 11.5 mm and are given a silicone strap with a length of 251 mm. They weigh only 38 g.
Watches have 1.4 ″ TFT display with resolution 320 x 320 px. It is protected by 2.5D tempered glass with a slight rounding around the edges. They have an optical sensor for heart rate measurement and an accelerometer. The manufacturer states the endurance of 20 days and certification is also missing IP68.
You will find here 12 sports, call and message alerts, sleep monitoring, and more. Based on the parameters, this is a relatively well-equipped watch.
Package content and processing quality
The package is relatively simple, but it basically contains what most smart watches and fitness bracelets do - watches, charging cable and instructions. Package does not work too well-but watch very surprised.
As for the quality of processing of the watch itself, we are very satisfied. The frame is made of a metal alloy, the watch is strong, does not crack even after a stronger push, and overall its workmanship is of high quality.
The strap is silicone, 20 mm wide, pleasant to the touch, long enough for a man's hand. We appreciate that the strap is very flexible and so it does not press on the hand. The only caveat is that dirt and dust stick to it a bit.
Overall, the watch wears very well on the hand. We had several people try them out and everyone was surprised that they were sold at such a low price. Low price and in this case does not mean that it is a poor quality.
Display quality
What must have been reflected in the low price is the display. Since there is a TFT display, its border can be clearly seen in daylight. The top of the watch is black and, of course, on the TFT display, black is not completely black, but rather dark gray.
On the display you can see a fine raster only on the text of the warning. Otherwise, all the elements shown are surprisingly soft and the colors are nice. Viewing angles are good and visibility is acceptable even in direct sunlight, even though the display shines in the sun.
The brightness of the display can be adjusted in four levels. You won't find automatic brightness adjustment here.
The display is definitely a smaller minus, but due to the low price it is normal, so we do not evaluate it significantly negatively. If the manufacturer wants to offer the watch at such a low price, there is no choice but to save on something. In this case, it is the display.
First start-up and pairing with the application
Haylou LS02 can be paired with the application of the same name, Haylou. It is available for Android and IOS.
The pairing process itself is simple. After switching on, the watch displays a QR code on the display, which must be scanned in the application. Subsequently, you just need to confirm on the watch that you want to pair them and the process is complete.
The application prompted us to enter the number of steps we want to have as a daily goal. This was followed by entering our height and weight.
We had the watch ready for use within a few minutes.
Watch menu and functions
The Haylou LS02 home screen displays all basic information such as time, date, day of the week, current temperature, heart rate, calories burned, steps and distance traveled. The last named data is always reset at midnight.
In the watch menu, you can move from the home screen in all directions. Swipe right or left to toggle between the following quick access screens: step, calorie and distance statistics, heart rate measurement, sleep monitoring, weather, and breathing exercises.
The heart rate screen displays the current heart rate, the minimum and maximum for 24 hours. You can also switch to the display in the graph, which shows the measured heart rate values for the current day on the time axis.
The sleep monitor on the watch shows the total length of sleep divided into light and deep sleep. The weather shows the outside temperature and weather forecast with a forecast for the next 3 days. To keep this information up to date, it is necessary to have the watch paired with a smartphone.
Breathing exercise is an interesting function that should be used for a short relaxation or exhalation after a demanding workout. You can choose between a minute and a two-minute workout. After switching on, an animation is graphically displayed on the screen, which shows how long you have to breathe (inhale, exhale).
Swipe the screen from top to bottom to switch to a menu where you can adjust the brightness level, night mode, go to settings, or search for a phone. The phone search function triggers a ringtone on your smartphone if it is within Bluetooth range.
Sports and other features
Swipe from bottom to top to open the main menu, which contains all the functions. In addition, in contrast to the above, there are, for example, sports. There are a total of 12 of them, namely: running, fast walking, cycling, climbing (hiking), spinning (stationary bike), yoga, running on a treadmill, strengthening, gymnastics, basketball, football and rowing.
The activity starts 3 seconds after it is selected, and the screen then shows its duration, calories burned, and heart rate or distance traveled (depending on the activity).
The notification center combines all notifications from your smartphone that can be deleted. If there are a lot of alerts, the movement between them is not quite smooth.
You can also use the watch to control music playback. There is a basic switching between the next and the previous song and a pause. There is also a stopwatch and a timer.
The settings offer switching between the five dials. Additional skins cannot be downloaded via the application either. In the settings you will also find the brightness adjustment, information about the system with the MAC address, turning off the watch and resetting it.
The offer is quite so rich and you will find everything you need here.
Pedometer, sport and heart rate test
For comparison we used Xiaomi MiBand 4 as it is in the same price range. We put the Haylou LS02 and the MiBand 4 next to each other on the same hand, and we turned on the monitoring of sports activity (walking), which monitors the number of steps, distance and other similar parameters.
Results can also see the screenshots below, we have they made of applications. Haylou LS02 recorded the following data:
- Distance: 3.1 km
- Number of steps: 3932
- Calories burned: 193 Kcal
- Average heart rate: 99 bpm
- Time: About 7,5 hrs in total, 4,5 hrs to go up and 3 to come down 15'22"
For comparison, let's look at the values measured on the MiBand 4. We present only the data that are recorded by both watches.
- Distance: 2.92 km
- Number of steps: 3770
- Calories burned: 136 Kcal
- Average heart rate: 100 bpm
- Time: About 7,5 hrs in total, 4,5 hrs to go up and 3 to come down 16'15"
As you can see, the number of steps is slightly different, but the distance is almost the same. Also, the number of calories burned and the pace are slightly different. During this test, we also had activity enabled on the Samsung Galaxy S9+ smartphone, which measured 2.92 km, 4286 steps, 206 Kcal and a pace of 14'03".
Because the number of steps, calories, and pace vary on all three devices, it is difficult to decide which device measures these values most accurately. We do not draw any conclusions from this test, we present it only for information.
As for the data recorded on the activity, Xiaomi is leading in this direction. It offers more data than, for example, a route map if the MiBand is connected to a phone or a cadence. Overall, the MiFit application seems more sophisticated.
We also tested heart rate measurement in the same way. We turned on his measurement on both watches at the same time. Haylou LS02 showed 84 bpm, while for MiBand 4 it was 86 bpm. Then we measured our heart rate on the phone, which measured us 82 bpm.
If we look at the average heart rate measured during the test walk and subsequently also the heart rate measured during the second test, we see that they are almost identical. However, during repeated tests, it sometimes happened to us that the Haylou LS02 watch measured a significantly higher heart rate than the Mi Band 4 or smartphone.
Sleep monitoring
We performed a similar test during sleep. We also put MiBand 4 and Hayla LS02 on one hand. MiBand recorded a sleep of 8 hours and 18 minutes. Of which deep sleep was 2 h, 27 m, light sleep lasted 5 h, 51 m.
Haylou LS02 registered sleep lasting exactly 8 hours. Of this, deep sleep was 3 h, 59 m and light sleep 3 h, 43 m. The watch also recorded an interruption of sleep for 18 minutes.
The differences are quite visible, but we take this function on the watch only for information.
Application and notifications
The Haylou application offers an overview of the current day on the home page. Here you will find all the necessary statistics that the watch measures. You can also start a sports activity through the application, where you can also see the map. Therefore, it is strange that no map is displayed when the activity started via the watch is completed.
The most important part of the settings on the watch, which can be done only through application. Examples include permission notifications from various applications and notification of an incoming call.
A long sitting alert can also be set here. You can choose the length of the session after which you want to be notified and also the time from when the application should monitor the long session. You will use this function especially for sedentary work. It was also considered a lunch break, when these notifications will not be sent. Just set the time you have your lunch break.
If at some time you do not want to be disturbed by notifications, it is possible to set the so-called DND mode. The watch will not display alerts in the selected time range.
We did not notice any problems with the operation of the application. However, we were not completely satisfied with the notifications. When we were notified of new messages in Messenger, we often received unnecessary notifications that chat headers were active. This warning is unnecessary and quite annoying.
There are other Haylou apps in the Google Play store. In addition to Haylou, there are Haylou Fit, Haylou Sport and Hello Haylou. We were unable to pair the watch with the Haylou Fit and Sport applications.
Of those named, only Hayla, which we used during the test, which is officially recommended in the enclosed manual, and Hello Haylou, worked.
However, Hello Haylou can work with Haylou. It brings a different display of statistics, more settings related to incoming calls and other settings. However, some features are only available in the paid version of the application. However, its price is only 1.49 €.
Battery, endurance and charging
Haylou LS02 received a 260 mAh battery. The manufacturer promises endurance for 20 days with a manual heart rate measurement mode and other conditions. We first tested the watch with an automatic heart rate measurement mode, where the watch measures the heart rate constantly at regular intervals. After 4 days of intensive use of the watch, our battery has dropped to 28%.
With the manual heart rate measurement mode and notifications turned on, we lost about 5 - 6% per day. Endurance thus depends very much on the intensity of the use of various functions. We estimate that with normal daily use, most people will endure around 13-15 days.
With the included cable with a magnetic charging tip, the watch is charged from 25% to 100% in about an hour and a half.
Price and availability
The Haylou LS02 watch sells for just over € 20. This is a really cheap and affordable watch for everyone.
Haylou LS02 smart watch, global version
Final evaluation
The Haylou LS02 smart watch pleasantly surprised us. Due to the very low price, we were initially skeptical, but in the end it was not confirmed that the low price also brings low quality. But we would rather call them a fitness tracker in the body of the watch, as we imagine a real smart watch a little differently.
This watch is more suitable for a less demanding user who can do with a cheaper, TFT display. However, they will definitely serve well for regular monitoring of activities during the day, and at a given price they are among the best you can buy.
