Pros
- Excellent battery life
- Bright AMOLED screen
- Good-looking sporty design
- 80+ workout modes
- Generally decent heart-rate tracking
- SpO₂, stress and sleep tracking
- Useful notifications and music controls
- Google Fit and Strava support
- Two-year manufacturer warranty for new products bought through authorized sellers
Cons
- Sleep tracking can be inaccurate
- Distance and calorie estimates are inconsistent
- Connected GPS instead of built-in GPS
- Reebok Connect app needs refinement
- Bluetooth calling functionality is confusing
- Not rated for swimming
- 52 g is fairly substantial for sleep tracking
- CA$169.99 MSRP faces very strong competition
The Reebok Pulse is surprisingly well equipped for a smartwatch from a brand most people associate with shoes rather than wearable technology. You get a sharp 1.43-inch AMOLED display, more than 80 workout modes, heart-rate and blood-oxygen monitoring, sleep and stress tracking, smartphone notifications and up to 10 days of advertised battery life.
The screen and battery are the strongest parts of the package. Independent testing found the display easy to see and highly customizable, while real-world battery life comfortably stretched beyond a week under normal use. That's particularly attractive if you're tired of charging a smartwatch every night or two.
Fitness tracking is where expectations need to come down. Heart-rate readings performed reasonably well in comparison testing, but calories, distance and pace were considerably less reliable. The Pulse also uses your phone for GPS rather than having proper standalone GPS built into the watch.
Sleep tracking isn't particularly convincing either. Independent testing found nights where results looked reasonable, followed by others where the watch recorded wildly incorrect sleep duration or stages. That makes the feature useful for general trends at best rather than something we'd rely on for detailed recovery analysis.
The Reebok Connect app also feels less mature than software from Garmin, Fitbit or Amazfit. You can review workouts and health metrics, customize the watch and sync certain data with services such as Google Fit, but the overall presentation and syncing experience still need refinement.
Then there's the price. At CA$169.99, the Pulse enters uncomfortable territory because something like the Amazfit Active 2 can cost less while adding proper built-in GPS, stronger water resistance and a more developed fitness platform.
That changes when the Reebok goes on sale. Costco has previously offered the Pulse substantially below its MSRP, and at around the CA$100 mark or below, its excellent battery, AMOLED display and broad feature set become much easier to justify.
Budget Alternative Fitness tracker: Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro Review: The Sweet Spot of the Lineup
Key data
Specifications
- Display
- 1.43-inch AMOLED
- Resolution
- 466 × 466
- Case
- Zinc alloy
- Size
- 49.5 × 45 × 12 mm
- Weight
- 52 g
- Battery
- 300 mAh
- Battery life
- Up to 10 days
- GPS
- Assisted/connected GPS
- Sports modes
- 80+
- Heart rate
- Yes
- SpO₂
- Yes
- Sleep tracking
- Yes
- Stress tracking
- Yes
- Calls
- Bluetooth calling
- Connectivity
- Bluetooth 5.3
- Water resistance
- IP68
- Compatibility
- iPhone and Android
- App
- Reebok Connect
