Better than expected: Doogee Anywise W1 Pro smartwatch ha…

No Wear OS, no problem? | This Doogee smartwatch is marketed as great for doing sports as well as exploring the outdoors. It comes with a wealth of features, including offline music playback and support for Bluetooth headphones, altitude and barometric pressu…

With usable inexpensive smartwatches and fitness trackers readily available for as low as $25, and products from big-name companies like Samsung priced starting from around $50 (the Galaxy Fit3 says Hi), one can't help but wonder where the Anywise W1 Pro (available for $129 on Aliexpress) falls and what exactly it aspires to be. First things first, this product is powered by a custom OS rather than Google's Wear OS meaning there are no third-party apps.

Want to play a game? No luck. Want to watch a video, no matter how low-resolution it is? No, not possible. Want to read a book? Nice of you, but no, not at this time. There is no Wi-Fi or 4G LTE modem onboard, either. And yet, dismissing this watch as an overpriced oddity would be a mistake. Here's why. The product is waterproof, with diving to a depth of 50 meters officially allowed, and is also said to be resistant do drops.

Two drops from a ~1-meter height on a rough concrete surface caused no visible damage indeed. The watch features 4 hardware buttons, with the ones on the right-hand side, Menu and Back, being far more useful than the remaining two. While all of them appear rotatable, rotating them in either direction does not seem to do anything. There is a dedicated LED flashlight on the Anywise W1 Pro's right-hand side, in addition to a software flashlight that simply makes the display glow white or red.

Neither is particularly bright but the latter takes a much more pronounced toll on battery life. More on that below. There is a built-in speaker here, too, which sounds rather well for its size, and a mic. The watch uses Bluetooth to exchange data with the user's phone. To transfer mp3 music files to the watch, and to copy the 16-kbps audio recordings that it produces to your PC, you can use the USB 2.0 charging cable found in the box.

Music transfer can be done through Bluetooth and the companion app, too, but is a lot faster via USB. Initial setup involves scanning a QR code with a smartphone. This sends the user to a basic-looking page with two app store links, one for iOS and one for Android. An affordable Motorola phone running Android 14 was used to carry out testing; the Doogee Fit app functions just fine on it. Please note the app requires a lot of permissions for most of its features to function properly.

While the watch does not have to be connected to the companion smartphone all the time, there are things that it won't be able to do unless you have your phone close nearby with Internet access enabled. For example, smart assistant and text translation features need both your phone and Internet access. Maps do work offline but you need to manually download data for your area first using the app. Several 20-km-diameter map patches can be saved for offline use, which should make most sportspeople happy but cyclists (and not just them) may find the number limiting.

Navigation is very accurate with the W1 Pro. The watch tracks minor route nuances, like passing close to a particular building, way better than expected. The Doogee Fit app is said to be compatible with iOS 13 and Android 5, or newer. The number of built-in features should make most customers happy. The software works but may not be as mature as what Apple and Google have to offer. Just as a quick example, there is no way to change the alarm sound – incidentally, alarms seem to be a weak spot of quite a few smartwatches – and, even funnier, an alarm that was removed and is nowhere to be found now when checking the app or the watch still keeps on ringing every Monday to Thursday which is what it was originally set to do.

The round AMOLED display is big, bright and vibrant enough. It may not be as brilliant as the 4,000-nit panels of certain phones, but it gets the job done and is no cause for complaints. One inconvenience worth mentioning is that there is no automatic brightness control sensor here. Performance seems more than decent. Inputs are always processed with no perceivable delays, and seeing any 2026 electronic device boot up in a matter of seconds is quite something, too.

When it comes to runtimes, the maker promises 8 to 12 days of daily use. This seems like a realistic figure; after 7 days of light day-to-day use (some listening to music via the W1 Pro's built-in speaker, a short walk with the corresponding workout mode selected, regularly checking time), the test unit still had around 50 % of charge left. That said, the 550-mAh battery is brought to its knees in just two hours when using its watch's AMOLED display to find your way in the dark.

The LED on the watch's right-hand side is much more humble, only taking the battery level indicator down by a couple % per hour. The W1 Pro is a good product. What is sure to make its life difficult is the price tag, because at $129, it directly competes with multiple smartwatches and fitness trackers from Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei and more. The selection of devices to be reviewed is made by our editorial team.

The test sample was given to the author by the manufacturer free of charge for the purposes of review. There was no third-party influence on this review, nor did the manufacturer receive a copy of this review before publication. There was no obligation to publish this review. As an independent media company, Notebookcheck is not subjected to the authority of manufacturers, retailers or publishers.

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