TOZO S5 Smartwatch Review | Premium Built Under $60

Last year, TOZO (a brand known for earbuds and phones) released its first smartwatch, TOZO S5. Like TOZO NC7 and the company’s other earbuds, the watch is packed with countless smartwatch and health tracker features, probably the most for under $60. It’s one of the few smartwatches that offer a glorious 1.43-inch AMOLED screen, surpassing any other smartwatch under $60.

I will be reviewing the TOZO S5 smartwatch today and comparing it with other smart wearables around this price tag.

What this review covers:

• Built and Display
• Smartwatch features
• Health watch features and their accuracy
• Battery Life (minimum and maximum)

Unboxing

TOZO S5 comes inside a white colored box similar to its other products. On the front is the watch picture with the brand logo and the model name written. It looks quite similar to other premium brands like Apple, thanks to the minimal labeling.

The back of the box has a lot of detail about the product, along with certification, a product verification sticker.

Opening the top lid, we have the quick guide and TOZO’s contact card. It isn’t a good impression because usually one finds the papers at the bottom or in a separate section.

Taking all the papers out, we can finally have the first impression of the watch. There’s an apartment for everything, and each of them is labeled. I wonder why they didn’t put the card and quick guide in the user manual section. Overall, the arrangement and labelling look quite neat, given that most Chinese smartwatch brands don’t care much about it.

Here is the content of the box, which includes:

1. The main body
2. Strap
3. Quick guide
4. User manual
5. TOZO contact card
6. Precaution card

Design & Appearance

Moving to the design and appearance aspect of this review, TOZO S5 is a 46mm round dial watch with glossy black bezels with straight markings on it. This is probably the highlight of the design and the most noticeable thing about this watch, apart from the display. The bezels are also curved, giving it a smooth appearance with no edges. A 2.5D glass covers the entire top, including the bezels and display. We used this for a week, and the glass already has small scratches from small bumps to hard surfaces like the table and the wall. So it is recommended that a screen protector be put on it.

The main body is different from the top, which is completely made of aluminium alloy and powder-coated matte black with a slight gold tint.

With a dimension of 46.5mm x 46.5mm x 11.15mm, the watch weighs approximately 150 grams.

On the right side, we have a dialer and a button.

• Dialer: Press to open menu, press to go back, press to turn on display
• Button: Press to open modes, press to proceed

The back of the watch has two sensors, which are the optical HR sensor and the blood oxygen sensor. There’s also the charging terminal that can be attached to the magnetic charger given with the watch.

TOZO S5 smartwatch has a skin-friendly food-grade silicone strap. It has a buckle-pin design instead of a button one. This provides a firm grip and doesn’t loosen over time, unlike the button strap one (like those in Xiaomi bands).

Like the Huawei band series strap, this one also has a pin-lock system to attach to the main body. It takes a bit of hassle to attach the strap, but it is worth it, as this is the strongest type of attachment in smartwatches.

The main body is completely sealed and is IP68 certified, which means that it can be used in pools and under showers.

Overall, I think that despite the low price, this watch’s built quality and design certainly don’t feel like a $60 watch, but instead it’s similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Series. The curves are smooth, with no cheap CNC cutting with coarseness or irregular spacing as seen in most cheap Chinese smartwatches.

Screen & Display

Coming to another selling point, TOZO S5 features a vivid 1.43-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels. Since it is AMOLED, there’s no backlighting and a grey background. It’s true black. AMOLED displays also have good brightness, and the S5 is no exception, as it reaches a max brightness of 500 nits.

Watch	Brightness (nits)	Resolution
TOZO S5 ($60)	500	466 × 466 px
TOZO S6 ($40)	–	450 × 390 px
TOZO S7 ($40)	–	450 × 390 px
Xiaomi Redmi 5 Active ($30)	500	385 x 320 px
CMF Watch 2 Pro ($69)	620	466 × 466 px

You can set the watch’s and the app’s brightness to 5 levels.

The colors are truly incredible, as expected from an AMOLED display, and smooth scrolling is provided by the 60Hz refresh rate.

Sadly, there’s no ambient sensor in the watch to auto-adjust the brightness, but I think it is fair given the price category. However, we do have a lift wrist to turn the screen on feature, which is quite convenient. The only other wearables you can find an ambient sensor in are fitness bands like the Mi Band 9 and the Huawei Band 10.

Overall, this watch has one of the best displays under $60 in comparison to other watches like the TOZO S6 and S7, as well as those Apple watch copies, and even most watches from Xiaomi.

Hardwares & Features

TOZO S5 comes with:

• Acceleration sensor (3-axis)
• Optical heart rate sensor
• Optical blood oxygen sensor

Unlike the Huawei bands/watches and Xiaomi ones, this watch has a basic accelerometer to count steps and speed. Apart from this, the company doesn’t state a sensor like a gyroscope.

I compared my Huawei Band 7 to check the steps, HR, and O2. Band 7 is notorious for putting in some extra steps while walking. In comparison to that, TOZO S5 is more accurate.

However, the Huawei Band series always leads in Heart rate and O2 measure under the $60 segment. I have noticed how TOZO S5 was unable to measure my peak heart rate while running or playing table tennis. On Band 7, it reached around 140 bpm, while on TOZO S5, it just showed 110 bpm. Also, there was a bit delay in the measurement as well.

Huawei Band 7 can measure HR every 1 minute gap, while the minimum option for S5 was only 5 5-minute gaps.

However, the good thing is that this watch supports the latest Bluetooth v5.3 module, and the range is around 10m.

Health Features

Includes:

1. Pedometer (Steps, Distance) – Accuracy (8 out of 10)
2. HR monitor (on demand and 24 h dynamic) – Accuracy (5 out of 10)
3. O2 monitor – Accuracy (6 out of 10)
4. Exercise modes (100 modes) – only basic and no auto sports mode detection – Accuracy (6 out of 10)
5. Female health
6. Activity log
7. Sedentary reminder
8. Sleep monitor – Accuracy (5 out of 10)
9. Water intake reminder

Smartwatch Features

The section where this watch shines. Includes:

1. Bluetooth calling (answering and making calls) – really good speaker volume and microphone
2. Contacts log
3. Notifications: App notifications as well as custom ones (show complete notification)
4. Music Player: Control music
5. Weather – Need to connect to the phone to update
6. Alarm Clock
7. Flashlight
8. Stopwatch
9. Timer
10. Find My Phone

It’s one of the few original watches that have this many smartwatch features under the $60 range. Unlike the smart bands I have used over the years, none of them had Bluetooth calling along with dialing. If only there were a way to reply to the messages, that would have made this an ultimate $60 smartwatch. Anyways, with this on my wrist, I barely have to check my phone, and while driving, listening and answering the calls is so convenient.

Overall, you can rely on the TOZO S5 if you want most smartwatch features inside a wearable in this budget-friendly price range. All health features are there, and some are accurate, like the pedometer. However, HR readings are a bit delayed and never reach peak HR during sessions. Sleep monitor is just accurate for checking when you slept and woke along with any wake ups between the sleep.

A smartwatch should make you completely independent of your phone, and that’s what this watch does.

App

TOZO S5 has an app available on Play Store and App Store by the name ‘TOZO Wear’. So far there are not much complaints about the connectivity issues between the watch and app like most cheap Chinese watches have.

You can also scan the qr on the watch on the first start to download the app.

The UI is absolutely gorgeous, and it feels like Huawei Health on dark mode. I love how each stat has this small card displayed on a single page, and then you click each card to go into the details.

There are plenty of clock faces as well, including analogue, digital, and custom. Since it’s the first watch from TOZO, we are missing dynamic clock faces.

Battery & Charging

TOZO S5 is powered by a 300mAh battery, which provides a backup of up to 10 days with the default automatic health tracking. I was able to get around a week with these settings, which are probably the best settings for this watch.

1. Turn the display off after 10 seconds
2. Turn on the Lift wrist to turn the display on
3. Dynamic HR set to 5-minute interval
4. Turn on every other health feature
5. Turn on notifications from the app

I don’t use custom notifications or alarms, but they barely affect battery life.

The standby time of the watch is around 30 days. The watch charges with a USB magnetic charging cable with two charging points. The magnetism is quite strong, so the watch doesn’t move even a little bit to disrupt the charging. Do clean those terminals on the watch with a cotton bud once a month so that dirt doesn’t stick there and disrupt the charging.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Aluminium Build
• Simple yet Elegant Design with High Finishing
• Big AMOLED display with the highest resolution at this price
• Can put your pics as a clock face
• Complete Bluetooth calling feature with answering, calling, and dialing
• Custom notifications and reminders
• Good App Design
• Good battery life

Cons

• HR readings aren’t that accurate
• Sport modes are quite basic
• No mention of gyroscope
• App asks to set the time you sleep, so I don’t think it will measure any daytime naps

The Verdict

TOZO S5 is certainly a watch that gives a premium, high-end smartwatch feel like those Galaxy Watches with a metal body and 2.5D curved glass, and black bezels. The display is the best you can get under $60.

Health features aren’t that advanced when compared to Huawei, Samsung, and Xiaomi, but unlike most bands and watches, this watch has complete Bluetooth dialing and comes with a speaker and mic integrated. So if you want a watch with basic health features and don’t want to take out your phone to call or check notifications, TOZO S5 does the job.

You can buy this watch from their official site and get a $10 coupon (total price $49) if you apply this coupon code:

6WV3NHH8