TranyaGO Smartwatch Review: Good For Budget But Lacks “Smart” Features

What makes a Smartwatch ‘smart’? The ability to make and receive calls from the watch, quickly respond to messages on the fly, and, more importantly, accurately track health data like heart rate and sleep. TranyaGO is a $90 budget “smartwatch” that checks most boxes but falls apart in some areas. Here’s our TranyaGO smartwatch review.

TranyaGO Smartwatch Review

Starting with the box contents, we get:

• TranyaGO smartwatch
• Proprietary charging connector
• User manual

The box of the smartwatch itself is pretty basic, nothing extraordinary, and the unboxing experience was somewhat muted.

Here are the watch’s specifications

Battery	200mAh
Charging connector	Proprietary
Charging time	90 minutes (Roughly)
Health Features	HR, Step Tracking, Sleep Tracking, Sports modes
Straps	TPU
Display Size	1.69 inches
Display Type	LCD

Build Quality & Design

Taking the smartwatch out of the box and peeling the sticker, the first thing you notice is how similar the watch looks to the Apple Watch, minus the rotating crown and good quality silicon straps. The body is made of plastic which I found to be of pretty good quality.

The quality of straps is one of my biggest complaints with the smartwatch. Even though my skin isn’t very sensitive, the straps felt very prickly and uncomfortable. The good news is, they are replaceable, but who would spend an extra ten bucks on the same.

Display

The display on the smartwatch is a 1.69-inch LCD. While it’s not in the league of OLED panels, the LCD is of good quality. The black levels are okay for an LCD panel and the smartwatch price.

The top and bottom bezels are thicker, the display’s outdoor visibility is average, and I had trouble using it under direct sunlight. Another downside of the display is that it’s not capped at 60Hz hence, navigating the UI is not very smooth.

Software and UI/UX

Good software experience and UI/UX elements aren’t given much importance in budget smartwatches, and the UI/UX on the TranyaGO is no different. While certain aspects of the software feel well thought out, the software experience doesn’t feel good.

However, navigating the watch UI is pretty straightforward. Swiping down from the home screen reveals quick settings, swiping left brings up the menu, swiping up brings up missed messages and notifications, and swiping right brings up your health data like HR, sleep tracking, steps tracking, and Weather data.

To pair the watch with your phone, you’ll need to install the Glory Fit app from the Play Store. The app, for the most part, is fine. It’s pretty basic and gets the job done. The UX on the same isn’t great, but it is what it is.

Battery

The battery size is 200mAh. The battery life is excellent, thanks to the lower resolution and a lower refresh rate display. With HR always on and with moderate to heavy usage, the watch easily got through the advertised time of seven days.

Charging happens via a proprietary magnetic cable that clings on pretty firmly to the watch. We could charge the watch in around an hour and a half, which isn’t bad.

Features Review

Starting with the fitness features, I compared the heart rate, steps tracking, and sleep tracking with my Galaxy Watch4, and here’s what I found.

Health Features

• The Step tracking is inaccurate. The watch counted false steps during my short commutes on bike. That said, my Watch4 also counts false steps but the difference in the step count, at the end of the day, was pretty significant (Almost 10-15%).
• The watch not only measures your heart rate but also of the surface it’s resting on. No, seriously. Pretty cool right? No? Okay.

• The watch didn’t record accurate sleep data sometimes. Comparing it to the results from the Galaxy Watch4, the data was pretty accurate 6 out of 10 times.

There are a total of six sports modes like Badminton, Swimming, Ping pong, etc. The watch also syncs weather data from the Glory Fit app on your phone.

Speaking of the app, for a budget smartwatch, it gets the job done. The interface could be pretty janky at times, and it’s not the best-looking app out there. Pretty much everything smartwatch settings like sedentary reminders, alarm, SMS reminders, and call reminders can be set using the app.

General Features

• Tap to wake functionality is missing which could be a deal breaker for many people.
• You cannot reply to messages but read them, which defeats the whole purpose of having a “smartwatch.”
• You can decline calls right from the watch but cannot answer them, which again, kills the whole purpose.
• Music controls work pretty well.
• The haptics are too unpolished. Every vibration from the watch feels too sharp and unrefined.
• There are only five preloaded watch faces to choose from. There’s no store from which you can download watch faces.
• Other features like Stopwatch and Find my phone work pretty well.
• The watch is IP68 water resistant.

Is The TranyaGO Worth The Price?

The watch, at the time of writing this article, is retailing for $89.99, which, to be fair, is a lot, but the watch is selling for $39.99 on Amazon with an additional 20% off coupon. For the Amazon price, it’s pretty mediocre as we still think that you’re not getting what you’re paying for. The Tranya TWS earbuds we reviewed earlier were also priced higher on the official website. So, Tranya, please fix the pricing on your website.

The TranyaGO is a smart band with a bigger display. Hence, if you find it appealing, it makes sense to go with a good smart band like the Amazfit Band 5. Or else, if you need a smartwatch that can do more, you could give Amazfit Bip U Pro a try by adding $10 to your budget.