Recently, we had the opportunity to try several very available models of smart watches at a price of around € 30. Many suffered from various ailments or their functions did not work properly at all. This time we got a smart watch from the Xiaomi family, Imilab KW66. They offer the functions of a fitness bracelet in the body of a classic watch.
We know the Imilab brand mainly thanks to their cameras. Some time ago, we brought you a review of a wireless, security camera with a battery, Imilab EC2. These days we are also testing another camera from the same manufacturer, Imilab EC3.
Where to buy Imilab KW66
We received the Imilab KW66 smart watch directly from the manufacturer. However, you can buy them from the official Imilab store from a European warehouse, and we also have a special coupon available.
Imilab KW66 smart watch
Contents of the package
The Imilab KW66 watch is packed very well. The box is really strong, with thicker walls, which is very difficult to deform. Other, similarly cheap watches tend to be packed only in a thin box, which can be damaged during transport.
The watch is placed in a box in a foam reinforcement and a protective foil with the main motif of the dial is glued on the display. Under the watch you will find only a charging cable with a magnetic tip and brief instructions for use.
As is customary with such watches, packaging is simple and compact.
Design, display quality and processing
As soon as we took the watch in our hands, we noticed that it was a bit thicker than we expected. The dial has a diameter of 45 mm and the thickness of the watch is 13 mm. For comparison, the Mibro Air watch is 9.2 mm thick or the Haylou Solar is 11.4 mm thick.
The body of the Imilab KW66 watch is made of metal and gives a really high-quality impression. Everything fits together perfectly and no parts creak. The strap is silicone and has dimensions of 262 × 22 mm. It can easily be disassembled and replaced with any other with the same width. The strap is subtly glossy, dark black.
There is one hardware button on the side, which is very elegant and protrudes only slightly from the body. There is no risk of any unwanted squeezing on the wrist. At the bottom is an optical heart rate sensor.
A small scarecrow can be the TFT display, which is used in almost every cheap smart watch. But the display here is very nice, despite the fact that it is TFT. We felt as if there was still a black foil on it, which emphasizes the black color, as it is the rendering of black that is a problem with such displays. But here, black is a little more black than usual.
Above the display is a 3D glass with a black frame around the perimeter. A slight negative is that this glass is not protected in any way, so in time there will definitely be scratches. If you run your hand somewhere, you will hit the top glass directly, which sometimes happened to us, but so far we do not see any damage. We have to say that 3D glass is literally a fingerprint catcher, so sometimes it is advisable to wipe it with a cloth.
The overall workmanship, design and quality are at a high level, which is already becoming common in this price category. A smaller negative is too shiny glass around the perimeter and a slightly lower brightness. Outdoors, the visibility on the display is good, but in direct sunlight, a slightly higher brightness would be obtained.
First turn on and pair with the application
The Imilab KW66 smart watch can be paired with the application glory fitwhich is available for Android and iOS. After running it, you need to register or log in to an existing account. In the next steps, we set the gender, our height, weight, month and year of birth, and the target, daily number of steps.
After successful registration and login, it is necessary to add the watch to the application. This process is just as, very simple. The app immediately searched for an Imilab KW66 watch nearby, then just confirm the pairing and the watch will appear in the app.
We managed the pairing in a few minutes, we praise the easy and fast access without unnecessary settings.
Smart watch features and environment
The Imilab KW66 watch does not offer many functions, but you will find all the basic functions of fitness bracelets here. To enter the main menu, swipe the display to the right. The menu is designed in the same style as we know it from the Amazfit GTR watch, where it moves between the individual items by sliding up and down in a slight semicircle.
The menu contains the following options: training, heart rate measurement, daily overview, sleep, stopwatch, messages and settings. As you can see, here are all the basic features you will find in a regular fitness bracelet.
The advantage is the availability of Czech for watches, but the translation sometimes lacks diacritics and the font style is different from the original, which is in English. Therefore, the text is harder to read.
The sports monitoring menu offers a choice of 13 sports, namely: running, walking, cycling, hiking, yoga, skipping rope, tennis, baseball, basketball, badminton, football, rugby and table tennis.
In addition to the current measurement, the heart rate measurement also displays all recorded values during the day in a clear graph, as well as its lowest and highest value.
The daily report contains the number of steps, the distance traveled and the calories burned for the current day. This screen is very well designed in terms of design and displays the individual parameters in color on the perimeter in circular strips.
The sleep screen is dominated by the length of the last sleep in hours and minutes. This data is always reset during lunch. You will find the length of hard sleep and wakefulness, but you will not find any historical data from previous days. These are only available in the application.
No stopwatch to describe, messages contain all notifications and settings are very modest. There's just a clock shutdown, reset, device information and a QR code to pair with the app.
There's also a quick access screen with a phone search feature that triggers your smartphone's ringtone. The brightness is set here in four levels, the night mode and you will also find the transition to the settings here. Some screens are also accessible outside the menu, by swiping your finger to the sides of the home screen. This way you can get, for example, to control the music on your smartphone, which you will not find in the main menu.
Dials and customization options
7 different dials are available in the watch. You can find more in the Glory Fit application. In total, there are up to 50 dials, which are very successful in design, so everyone can find their own here. For this, Imilab KW66 watches have a big plus, as watches in this price category usually have only a very limited number of dials.
Another great feature is the ability to create your own dial design. You know how to choose your own image to use as a background and font color. However, we would appreciate more tools for customizing the design, such as choosing a font style and placing individual elements such as time, number of steps, and date. However, this may come with the next application update.
Accuracy of measuring heart rate, sports activity and sleep
As in other reviews on smart watches, we compared the measurement of sports activity, heart rate and sleep with other watches. This time we made a comparison with the smart watch Hayla LS02, as the Imilab KW66 are functionally closest to these and are in a similar price range.
We did the tests by always placing both watches on the same hand and starting to monitor the activity with step measurement, then we measured the heart rate on both watches several times and finally slept with both watches on the hand one night.
Let's start with sleep. We were very surprised here, as both watches measured exactly the same sleep time, which has never happened to us when comparing watches. The duration of sleep on both was 8 hours and 52 minutes. Haylou L02 measured deep sleep 5 h 30 m, light sleep 3 h 14 m and wakefulness 8 m. Imilab KW66 measured almost identical values with a difference of one minute, deep sleep equally 5 h 30 m, light sleep 3 h 13 m and wakefulness 9 m.
The heart rate measurement was also very similar with a maximum difference of 5 bpm. The Imilab KW66 was able to measure heart rate a bit faster than the Haylou LS02.
When watching sports activities, specifically walking, we also turned on the activity on the smarfon. Since it also has GPS, distance measurement should be accurate here. The results are as follows:
- Imilab KW66: 1.24 km, 1639 steps, 55 kcal
- Haylou LS02: 1.3 km, 1703 steps, 83 kcal
- Samsung Galaxy S9 + smartphone: 1.28 km, 1737 steps, 78 kcal
As you can see, the values are quite similar. The only significant difference is in the calories burned. Pace information was unavailable on the Imilab KW66 watch for an unknown reason.
Application and notifications
As already mentioned, the Imilab KW66 watch works with the Glory Fit application. It is very simple, but clear, with a few exceptions. The home screen displays data for the current day, such as the number of steps, the daily goal in steps, the distance traveled in kilometers, and the number of calories burned. You will also find a graph with measured heart rate values and data on the length of sleep for the last night.
Clicking on the current number of steps will display a detailed report where you can switch between daily, weekly, and monthly views. The daily report is the most detailed. Summary and average values are displayed in the weekly and monthly.
From the daily report, you can access the saved records from watching sports activities. This placement is slightly unfortunate, and it took us a while to find this information. They deserve a separate item in the application menu.
It is also possible to start watching sports activities from the application, as well as from a watch. Next, you will find your own profile with brief settings and the device itself (watch) that you have added to the application.
Here is the option to change and create dials, set up automatic heart rate measurement, settings for incoming calls, SMS notifications and notifications. You will also find settings for notifying too long a session, an alarm, silent mode, turning on or off the display light function when moving your hands, deleting data, the ability to check the firmware update and general settings.
Among the general settings is an interesting application for the camera, in which it is possible to take a photo by moving your hand with the watch. The menu also includes a clock search, setting of units, language, time and how long the display should remain active after it lights up.
Notifications from the apps worked correctly, but we have one reservation. As with the Haylou watch, the Imilab KW66 quite often displays a notification of active platoon headers from the Messenger application. This notification is completely unnecessary and we would like it to be possible to filter it out. This information is irrelevant to us, and notifications of active platoon headers become annoying.
Endurance and charging
The manufacturer states the endurance in daily use for 10 days. During the testing, we got to 7 days of daily use with automatic heart rate measurement turned on. Here we must mention one peculiarity. The watch shows the remaining battery capacity only in leaps and bounds, namely 100, 75, 50 and 25%, which is a relatively unconventional and not a very happy solution. If the battery drops to 25%, you don't know how long it will last until it is completely discharged.
We charged the watch from full discharge to full capacity. It took about 2 hours.
Final evaluation
Imilab KW66 are very decent and cheap smart watches. Although they do not offer any breakthrough functions, almost everything worked properly on them. We only have reservations about displaying the percentage of the battery and annoying notifications about active platoon headers from Messenger.
Were it not for these ailments, the watch would, in our view, be ideal for an undemanding user. They will be pleased with the quality workmanship and the number of available dials with the possibility of creating their own. We were satisfied with the endurance of the battery for one charge and the processing of the menu in the watch, which is very nimble and successful in design. The big advantage is the availability of Czech.
Did It Really Last 30 Days?
Hello, do they also work with Viber? Because I encounter the fact that not all of them know how to announce the receipt of a message from Viber.
Unfortunately, we cannot confirm this, but they should.