TOZO is not a new name for me as they have produced some pretty good products such as the OpenReal open-ear headphones. TOZO has some new products such as the S3 Smartwatch (US$50) and the T20 True Wireless earbuds (US$50) that we will check out. Both products retail for US$50 each, so they are in the budget friendly options which you can consider if you new to these product category.
S3 Smartwatch
TOZO S3 Smartwatch is available in only one colour: Black. For its US$50 price point, it was expected to see a plastic frame instead of a metal frame. You can’t really tell from far, but can feel it once you have the watch in your hands. The plastic frame has a matte finish.
The overall watch is lightweight. I don’t have any complaints when it comes to build quality. The single button located on the right side of the TOZO S3 Smartwatch is a little big, but has a good tactility and responsive. The rubber strap is soft and is comfortable on skin. The strap has abundance of loop points so you should be able to find a size that fits.
The strap slack is handled the same way as an Apple Watch, where you have to push the slack into the inside of the loop. But as the strap is quite soft, I sometimes found it a little hard to push the strap inside. As for water resistance, the TOZO S3 Smartwatch only has an IP68 rating so you can take it for water related activities such as swimming.
Screen
TOZO S3 Smartwatch has a 1.83″ TFT screen (240*284p). The colours are ok, nothing to spectacular to emphasise about. There isn’t an always-on display, so you have to rely on “raise to wake”, which takes a slightly longer than what I’m used to (Apple Watch), but it’s still usable.
There are large variety of watch faces that you can download from the Tozo Health app.
Performance and key features
TOZO S3 Smartwatch use its own operating system, which you can tune the settings via the Tozo Health app. To me, the TOZO S3 mainly serves as a low cost way to track exercise and health metrics, as well as sending notifications from your connected phone to the watch. User experience of TOZO S3 Smartwatch is decent. The UI navigation is not the smoothest, and it feels very basic. But I can’t really complain given its price point. Still, the UI is relatively simple to use.
The app drawer can be accessed from a press of the button, and you can scroll through the list of apps on the screen. You can see you notifications via a swipe from the top and, toggle quick settings through the “control center” via a swipe from the bottom. Swiping left/right on the home screen gets to you different Health app pages such as Heart rate and Activity.
There is 100+ sports mode that you can select from the Exercise app, and from there choose a maximum of 10 to display in the app. There isn’t GPS onboard the TOZO S3 Smartwatch so if you wish to track the accurate distance and route of your run, you have to bring your smartphone along. Also, you have to ensure that your app is running, with precise location tracking turned on so that they can use the GPS of your phone to track the distance covered. I forgot to do that for my run, and the distance tracked was quite inaccurate.
TOZO S3 offers few key apps for health monitoring, such as (1) continuous heart rate monitoring, (2) blood oxygen saturation monitoring, (3) sleep tracking, and (4) stress level measurement. Heart rate seems to be largely accurate, having just small deviations with Apple Watch readings. The only small bug I noticed is that watch marks a constant heart rate for the time period when I did not wear the watch. The rest I can’t really comment as I don’t have any professional tools to compare them.
TOZO S3 has a long battery life between 7-10 days depending on your usage. For me, I got about 7 days before the battery hit 20%. Charging the TOZO S3 is via the proprietary magnetic contact on the back of the watch.
At US$50, the TOZO S3 Smartwatch is decent option if you’re simply looking for a low cost digital companion to track some health metrics. If you’re keen on using this for exercise, you may want to consider paying a little more of a watch with built-in GPS so that you need not bring your phone with your runs.
T20 True Wireless Earbuds
The TOZO T20 are yet another pair of true wireless earbuds in the many existing earbuds in TOZO’s lineup, at a budget friendly price point of US$50, but is sits more in the mid-range option in TOZO’s offerings.
Despite the entry-level price, TOZO is quite generous to offer 6 pairs of ear tips.
- TOZO T20 True Wireless Earbuds
- Charging Case
- 6 pairs of Ear tips (XS/S/M/L/XL/XXL)
- USB Charging Cable
- Quick Guide & User Manual
Design and key functionalities
The design of the TOZO T20 is nothing new, it features the safe and much replicated shaped of Apple’ AirPods Pro. This means the earbuds has a stem and has an angled oval pill shape allow for a contoured fit in my ears. The earbuds are made of plastic and quality of them are pretty decent. They are lightweight and have a matte finish to it.
The TOZO T20 is rated at IPX8 water-resistance so it will be able to handle exposure to sweat and rain with no issues. The earbuds uses touch controls and they are quite responsive. Single taps may be prone to accidental touches when adjusting fit, but you can easily customise controls in the TOZO app.
The case has a simple design and is relatively small size to pocket. It has a matte finish as well. The unique part of the TOZO T20‘s case is that it has an LED digital display to show the battery percentage, a page taken out of the Golden X1, which I found to be very useful.
Battery life of the TOZO T20 is outstanding, rated at 10.5 hours on a single charge. You can get up to 48.5 hours together with the case. It is nice to see both wired and wireless charging supported at an entry-level price point.
Sound quality
As aforementioned, the ability to customise the EQ on the TOZO T20 allow for a different sounding profile, but the overall technical performance will largely remain. Bass on the TOZO T20 is thick and bloomy, providing occasional rumble. There is punch present but it isn’t the fastest. Midrange is fairly flat, those are who are used to more forward vocals and instruments may find the mids a little subdued. You can adjust the EQ to get a but more boost on the vocals. As for treble, the TOZO T20 are well-balanced with enough sparkle at times to lift the overall mix. For a more energetic sound signature, you might want to push up the mids and treble up a little.
Microphone quality
Microphone on the TOZO T20 is pretty good, with performance punching above its price point. In fact, I’d go as far to say that it is better than TOZO’s flagship Golden X1. Voice production is warm and forward, with good enough clarity. When tested in noisy conditions, TOZO T20 is able to remove a decent portion of the noise, with voice remaining clear enough for the other party.