RLQA Band2 Fitness Tracker Review: a cheap little watch that covers the basics (and a bit more)

I’ve been using this RLQA Band2 fitness tracker in Bordeaux for a bit now, swapping it in place of my usual brand-name tracker that costs about three times more. I wasn’t expecting much, because the brand is basically unknown and the specs list reads like every other cheap watch on Amazon: heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, sleep, notifications, waterproof, long battery, the whole bingo card. But I wanted something low-risk I could wear daily, including at work and at the gym, without worrying about scratching a pricey watch.

In practice, it behaves like a straightforward, no-drama fitness band. It syncs with the GloryFit app, hooks up to Android and iPhone over Bluetooth, and just quietly tracks steps, sleep, and heart rate in the background. I didn’t have to baby it much. Once it was set up, it just did its thing. That alone already puts it above some cheap trackers that constantly drop the connection or forget your settings.

Is it perfect? No. The health data is clearly more “rough estimate” than medical-grade, the strap feels a bit basic, and the interface is a bit less polished than the big brands. But for the price bracket it’s in, it holds up better than I expected. You’re not getting a premium smartwatch, you’re getting a simple fitness tracker that covers the main needs without overcomplicating anything.

If you want detailed training metrics, built-in GPS, or super accurate sleep analysis, this won’t be your dream watch. If you just want something cheap that counts steps, nudges you to move, gives you notifications, and survives showers and workouts, this one honestly gets the job done pretty well. That’s the mindset you need to have going in.

In terms of value for money, this is where the Band2 makes sense. It’s clearly positioned as a budget fitness tracker, and it behaves like one in the good and the less good ways. On the positive side, you get a bunch of useful features: 24/7 heart rate, step counting, sleep tracking, basic blood oxygen and blood pressure estimates, notifications, music and camera control, weather, menstrual tracking, and a long battery life. For the price, that’s a pretty solid bundle.

On the downside, you’re not getting top-tier accuracy, ultra-polished software, or premium materials. The strap feels a bit basic, the app is functional but not fancy, and the health metrics should be treated as rough guides, not exact numbers. If you compare it to something like a Fitbit or a big-brand smartwatch that costs several times more, you’ll notice the difference in polish and ecosystem. But those cost a lot more, and not everyone wants to drop that kind of cash just to count steps and get buzzed when WhatsApp pings.

Where it shines is for people who want a simple, low-risk device: kids, teens, anyone new to fitness trackers, or adults who just want to keep an eye on their daily activity without getting sucked into a whole platform. It’s also good as a “secondary” watch you don’t mind wearing to rough activities or at work where it might get banged up. The Amazon reviews around 4.8/5 line up with my feeling: it’s not fancy, but for what you pay, you get plenty.

If you’re expecting premium build, advanced training metrics, or rock-solid medical-grade tracking, you’ll be underwhelmed. If you go in expecting a budget fitness band that covers the essentials and behaves reliably most of the time, it’s good value. Just be honest with yourself about what you actually need versus what sounds cool on a spec sheet.

Visually, the Band2 sits somewhere between a slim smartwatch and a classic fitness band. The rectangular 1.47" screen with the Bordeaux strap looks fairly neutral. On the wrist it doesn’t shout “toy” like some very low-end models. It’s not a fashion piece either, but for daily wear to the office, gym, or just out and about, it blends in fine. The bezels around the screen are visible, but that’s standard at this price.

The watch body itself is lightweight plastic. That’s not glamorous, but it keeps the weight down and makes it comfortable to wear for long periods, including sleep. The Bordeaux color of the strap is actually a nice touch — a bit different from the endless black bands, without being flashy. There’s a standard 16 mm strap attachment, so you can swap it for other colors or materials if you want. I tried a generic 16 mm silicone strap I had lying around, and it fit without drama.

Button-wise, it’s minimal. You mainly interact via the touchscreen, plus a side area to wake/return. The touch response is decent: not ultra smooth like a high-end smartwatch, but no major lag or missed taps. The menus are basic icons with clear text. It feels like a practical tool more than a gadget trying too hard to look futuristic. That’s honestly fine for a watch in this price range.

On the wrist, it’s slim enough to not get caught under sleeves too much. I wore it with shirts and hoodies, and it slid under cuffs without snagging. For sports, the shape is good: it doesn’t dig into the wrist during push-ups or when bending the wrist, which can be an issue with bulkier smartwatches. Overall, the design is simple, a bit generic, but functional and discreet. If you want something flashy or premium-looking, this isn’t it. If you just want a normal-looking fitness watch, it does the job.

The product page talks about up to 40 days of battery life with its 250 mAh battery. In real life, that’s only realistic if you turn almost everything off: limited notifications, no continuous heart rate, no frequent screen wake, etc. I used it in a normal way: continuous heart rate on, sleep tracking every night, a few workouts per week with GPS via phone, notifications for calls and a handful of apps. With that setup, I was getting roughly 8–12 days on a full charge, which is still pretty solid.

After three days of normal use, the battery had dropped by around 25–30%. After a full week, I was usually sitting around 40–50% remaining. That’s enough that you don’t have to think about charging it every night, unlike a lot of full smartwatches that barely last 1–2 days. For me, plugging it in every week or so is perfectly acceptable and actually one of the reasons I prefer these simple trackers over heavy smartwatches.

Charging is done with a small magnetic cable included in the box. It clips onto the back of the watch. The magnets are okay; you just need to make sure it’s aligned properly and not half attached. From low battery to full, it took around 1.5–2 hours in my tests, which matches the specs. I usually just put it on charge while working at my desk or during a shower and some downtime, and it was ready to go again.

If you really push it — max brightness, tons of notifications, lots of workouts with frequent screen checks — you’ll probably be closer to 5–7 days. If you use it lightly (no continuous heart rate, only basic notifications), you might get close to the advertised longer figures. Either way, battery life is one of the strong points here. It’s not magic, but it definitely beats constantly babysitting a watch charger.

Comfort is actually one of the strong points here. The watch is very light, so you forget it’s on your wrist after a while. I wore it pretty much 24/7 for several days in a row: at work, running, weight training, showering, and sleeping. No rubbing, no weird pressure points, and no red marks on the skin. For a cheap tracker, that matters more to me than fancy materials. If it’s annoying to wear, you just stop using it, no matter how good the features are.

The silicone strap itself is soft and flexible, so it wraps around the wrist easily. Ventilation is average: there are no big holes like some sports bands, but I didn’t get major sweat build-up either, even during runs. I did clean under the band every couple of days, which is normal with any silicone strap. The buckle is a standard pin buckle. One Amazon review mentioned the strap can “ping off” if you’re not careful. I didn’t have it fully pop off, but I can see how if you catch it on something, the free loop could slip and loosen it.

At night, I usually hate sleeping with watches, but this one is light enough that I left it on without being irritated. The low weight plus the slim case means it doesn’t dig into the side of your wrist when you roll over. I did turn the screen raise-to-wake sensitivity down so it wouldn’t light up every time I moved, and that helped a lot. If you plan to track sleep every night, this one is manageable.

For small wrists and kids, it also works. One review mentioned a 10-year-old using it and being happy, and I believe it. I tried it on a thinner wrist, and the strap has enough adjustment holes to tighten properly. For larger wrists, you might be close to the end of the strap, but it should still fit most adults. So comfort-wise: pretty solid, especially given the price. The only real weak point is that the strap feels a bit basic and not super rugged, but you can replace it if it annoys you.

Durability-wise, for a plastic-bodied, budget tracker, it held up better than I expected. The IP68 rating means it’s fine for showers, rain, sweat, and even swimming up to around 1.5 meters. I wore it in the shower several times and during sweaty workouts; no fogging under the screen, no weird behavior, and the strap didn’t get sticky or gross. Just rinse it from time to time, and it’s fine. I wouldn’t take it for serious diving, but for normal pool use or beach splashes, it should cope.

The screen is TFT, not covered by fancy sapphire or anything, so you still need to be a bit careful. I bumped it against doorframes and gym machines a couple of times. So far, only tiny hairline marks that you can only see when the screen is off and you look closely under the light. If you’re rough with your gear, a cheap screen protector might be worth it, but I didn’t feel it was mandatory.

The strap is the more questionable part for long-term durability. The material is okay, but it feels a bit thin, and the keeper loop could be stronger. I didn’t break it, but I can see it being the first thing to wear out if you constantly pull it on and off aggressively or catch it on equipment. The good news is that it’s a standard 16 mm width, so replacing it with a stronger third-party strap is easy and cheap.

The watch has a one-year limited warranty, which is pretty standard at this price. Given the build and my short-term use, I’d say it’s realistic to expect it to last at least that long with normal wear. If you treat your stuff reasonably, it should go beyond that. If you’re the type who destroys watches regularly, spend a bit extra on a tougher model or plan for a replacement strap down the line.

Day-to-day performance is pretty straightforward. The interface is simple, swipes respond most of the time without delay, and I didn’t have random crashes or freezes. There’s a bit of stutter here and there, but nothing that stops you from using it. For a 64 MB memory device at this price, that’s about what I expected. Once you get used to the menu structure, jumping between steps, heart rate, workouts, and settings is quick.

Bluetooth connection to the phone (I tried it with Android; others reported good iPhone pairing) was mostly stable. I had one or two random disconnects over several days, but the watch reconnected on its own after a few seconds or when I opened the GloryFit app. Notifications arrived reliably for calls, texts, and a few apps I selected. You can’t reply from the watch, but you can at least see who’s pinging you and decide if it’s worth grabbing the phone.

The sports modes are a bit overkill on paper (123+), but in practice you’ll probably use a handful: walking, running, cycling, maybe indoor workouts. Starting an activity is simple: pick the mode, hit start, and it records duration, steps, heart rate, and estimated calories. With GPS via smartphone, outdoor routes show up in the app. The GPS accuracy depends more on your phone than on the watch, and in my case it was decent enough for casual use.

The GloryFit app is functional but not fancy. You get daily/weekly summaries, graphs for steps, heart rate, and sleep, and you can tweak watch faces and settings. Some translations are a bit rough in places, but everything is understandable. Sync is usually quick when you open the app. If you’re used to polished ecosystems like Garmin or Fitbit, this will feel basic. If you just want your numbers and a few graphs, it’s fine. Overall, performance is “good enough” for everyday use, with minor quirks that you get used to after a couple of days.

On paper, this RLQA Band2 is packed: 24/7 heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, sleep tracking (with REM/light/deep), 123+ sports modes, IP68 waterproof, notifications, music and camera control, weather, menstrual tracking, GPS via smartphone, and a claimed battery life up to 40 days. That sounds huge, but in real life you’re not going to use half the modes, and the 40 days is clearly under very light use. Still, as a basic activity tracker plus notification relay, it’s fairly complete.

The screen is a 1.47" TFT color touchscreen. It’s not high-end AMOLED or anything, but it’s bright enough indoors and still readable outside if you bump the brightness. You can pick from 200+ watch faces in the GloryFit app or just use your own photo, which is what I ended up doing. The interface is simple: swipe up/down/left/right to go through steps, heart rate, workouts, sleep, weather, etc. No learning curve really, you get it in a few minutes.

On the health side, it measures heart rate all day and lets you trigger spot checks for blood oxygen and blood pressure. I tested it against a home blood pressure monitor and a fingertip SpO2 sensor. The results were generally in the ballpark but not exact. For trends, it’s fine; for real medical tracking, I wouldn’t rely on it. Same for sleep: it picks up bed and wake times reasonably well, but the breakdown between light/deep/REM feels a bit generous some nights.

Notification-wise, it buzzes for calls, messages, and app alerts once you’ve set that up in the app. You can’t respond from the watch, you just see who’s calling or a short preview of the message. For me, that’s enough. It also has small extras like find my phone, sedentary reminders, alarms, and remote camera shutter. Nothing fancy, but it covers the core stuff most people actually use instead of just bragging about features they never touch.

In terms of effectiveness, you have to be clear about what you want. As a tool to get you moving a bit more and keep an eye on your general activity, it works well. As a precise instrument for detailed training analysis or medical monitoring, it’s not that. I used it side by side with a more expensive watch and my phone during walks and runs. Step counts were usually within a few hundred steps of my main watch over a full day, which is fine. Distance during outdoor walks, using the phone GPS, was close enough that I didn’t care about the small differences.

Heart rate tracking during steady activities like walking or easy runs was decent. It followed the general curve of my other device: resting, warm-up, peak, cool-down. During interval training or quick changes in intensity, it lagged a bit and sometimes missed short spikes. For casual fitness, that’s acceptable. For serious training where you base intervals strictly on heart rate zones, I’d stick with a more advanced watch or a chest strap.

For sleep, it caught bed and wake times reasonably well. If I got up in the middle of the night to grab water, it sometimes still counted that as light sleep, but that’s common with wrist trackers. The breakdown into REM/light/deep is more “for info” than something I’d base life decisions on. What I found useful was simply seeing total sleep time and rough consistency from night to night. That’s enough to nudge you into going to bed earlier if you see a bunch of 5-hour nights in a row.

The health metrics like blood pressure and SpO2 feel more like curiosity features. When I compared them to proper devices, they were usually in the same ballpark but not tight enough to treat as accurate measurements. Fine if you just want to see if you’re broadly okay, but definitely not for diagnosing anything. Overall, as a daily motivator and rough tracking tool, it’s effective. If you’re very picky about data accuracy, you’ll probably see its limits pretty fast.