The $79 Kospet Pulse 2 is a surprisingly affordable alternative to nearly any other smart watch
It's rugged, it's cool, and it has great battery life.
Rugged smartwatches tend to fall into two camps. You either get a cheap fitness watch that looks tough but feels disposable, or you spend several hundred dollars on something built for serious outdoor use. Or, barring that, you spring for an Apple Watch or Google Pixel device that does way too much for way too much money.
The Kospet Pulse 2 sits smack in the middle.
Priced at $79.99 on Amazon, it is clearly aimed at people who want a watch they can wear hiking, running, camping, swimming, or working outside without worrying about every bump and scrape. It is not trying to compete with a high-end Garmin or Apple Watch Ultra. Instead, it gives you a lot of the features people actually use outdoors at a much lower price.
The hardware is the first thing that stands out. Kospet uses a zinc alloy bezel, a polymer body, and Gorilla Glass over the 1.96-inch AMOLED display with a claimed peak brightness of 1,000 nits. The watch has also been tested against 12 MIL-STD-810H standards, along with 5 ATM water resistance and an IP69 rating for water and dust. These ratings mean it should be comfortable dealing with rain, sweat, dirt, swimming, and the usual abuse that comes with wearing a watch outdoors.
The more interesting feature is its GPS system. The Pulse 2 supports dual-band L1 and L5 positioning across six satellite systems, something that is still unusual on a smartwatch this cheap. There are also more than 170 sports modes, including 13 modes with more detailed tracking. An upgraded optical sensor handles heart rate, blood oxygen, stress, and sleep monitoring, with the data collected and managed through Kospet’s Apexmove app.
Kospet has also added a few features you don’t normally see on an inexpensive fitness watch. There’s an LED flashlight built directly into the watch with five brightness settings, along with a short-range walkie-talkie system that supports groups of up to four people. The flashlight can run for up to seven hours, according to KOSPET, which makes it potentially useful for camping, late-night walks, or simply finding something in the dark without pulling out your phone. It could also be used for emergency signaling, especially given its long life.
Finally, there’s the battery. The 450 mAh cell is rated for up to 15 days of normal use, 11 days of heavier use, five days with the always-on display enabled, or 23 hours of continuous GPS tracking. I was able to charge the watch and let it set for almost two weeks and it still hasn’t fallen to 35 percent usage. In short, the battery is amazing.
Those figures will obviously depend on how you use the watch, but even a fraction less would put the Pulse 2 well ahead of many mainstream smartwatches. At $79.99, you’re getting a bright AMOLED screen, dual-band GPS, long battery life, solid water resistance, and some genuinely useful outdoor features without paying several hundred dollars for them.
There are also quite a few outdoor tools built in. You get a compass, weather information, sunrise and sunset data, moon phases, tide information, and environmental alerts. These all depend on a smartphone connection to at least set the time and date but except for the weather and notifications you can use this watch without a phone for most outdoor activities.
Health and fitness tracking runs through KOSPET’s Apexmove app. The watch tracks heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep, stress, and mood, along with more than 170 workout modes. That is more sports modes than anyone realistically needs, but the broader point is that the Pulse 2 covers the usual fitness basics.
That makes the Pulse 2 especially interesting for travel and weekend trips. You can throw it in a bag, use GPS for a few hikes, track workouts, and probably get home before you need to think about the charger.
There are obvious limits. This is still a $80 smartwatch. The software, sensors, app, and long-term support are not going to match what you get from Apple, Garmin, Samsung, or Google. Instead, you get a useful and interesting alternative to a Casio G-Shock fitness watch or similar rugged smartwatch. In fact, I’d argue that Kospet has done more and better work with the Pulse 2 by adding great features, a nice screen, and excellent battery to a family of timepieces that rarely receives that level of attention.
In short, the Kospet Pulse 2 is interesting because it covers the features most people want from an outdoor watch without asking them to spend several hundred dollars. You get a bright AMOLED display, dual-band GPS, strong water resistance, a tough case, long battery life, and enough health tracking to cover everyday workouts.
For hikers, runners, campers, travellers, or anyone who is hard on watches, it makes a strong case for itself. At this price, you can actually wear it outside without treating your wrist like you’re wearing a smartphone. Instead, you’re carrying a nicely designed, inexpensive tool watch that just happens to mimic all of the best parts of the smartphone and stays alive longer than even the best traditional smart watch.
