Willful SW021

The Willful SW021 is a sports focused smartwatch released in January 2020. This is a generic Chinese watch sold under a multitude of brand names:

• Willful SW021
• Yamay SW021
• Letsfit ID205L
• Makibes ID205L
• Ninkear ID205L
• Lintelek ID205L

All of the above watches are identical. The manufacturer of this watch is a Chinese company named Shenzhen DO Intelligent Technology and the actual model number is ID205L. Shenzhen DO essentially sells this watch to any company who is willing to purchase 10,000 units and they will customize logos, packaging and graphics.

The SW021 is using a Nordic NRF52840 processor. This processor is found on some other low cost smartwatches such as the Kospet Magic 3 and Kospet Rock. Overall performance is adequate but there is the occasional lack of responsiveness with some screen inputs.

This watch is using a proprietary operating system and there are only a handful of available apps on the watch. You do not have access to a large 3rd party app store such as the Google Play Store. This is a significant disadvantage and is common drawback for any smartwatch using a proprietary operating system but given the low price of the SW021, it is not a deal breaker.

Design

The Willful SW021 has a rectangular watch face design with a plastic case and looks similar to an Apple watch. The watch is available in black, gray, green and gold cases with 6 different band colors to choose from. Avoid the pink band due to discoloration issues.

This smartwatch is not too big at 38.1 x 33.0 x 9.5 mm and weighs 39g. The watch is slim with a thickness of 9.5mm.

The Willful SW021 comes with a 22mm silicone interchangeable strap. The silicone strap is low quality and there have been many complaints that the strap causes rashes or the strap breaks.

You can interact with the watch using the touchscreen and 1 physical button. The touchscreen is adequate but not always responsive. While navigation is easy, the fonts, menus and icons are not the most modern looking.

The Willful SW021 is supposed to have an IP68 rating. Given the low price point of this watch and no swimming mode included, we suspect this is exaggerated. If you get the watch wet, make sure to dry it quickly.

Screen

The Willful SW021 screen is below average. The 1.3″ TFT Touchscreen comes with 240 x 240 pixels and is usable indoors but not the easiest to read outdoors on a sunny day. An additional problem is that the usable screen area is significantly smaller than the watch face as can be seen in the following photo.

Willful does not indicate what screen protection is provided which is disappointing. There have been numerous complaints of the screen getting scratched so we recommend purchasing a screen protector for this watch.

• 

• 

• 

Unfortunately, the watch does not have an always on screen option and does not allow for any custom watchfaces. In fact there are only 4 watch faces to choose from, one of which strangely includes a deer. Before purchasing this watch make sure you can live with 1 of the 4 watch faces available.

Battery

The SW021 comes with a 210 mAh battery. Willful claims that typical usage battery life is 10 days and watch mode battery life is 30 days. Real world battery life is approximately 5-6 days, which is actually good considering this pricepoint.

Connectivity Features

From a connectivity perspective, the Willful SW021 can only receive notifications and there is no ability to respond to notifications from the watch. Emojis are not supported. Some people have had trouble getting notifications to work when paired with their smartphone. Given the budget nature of the watch, there is a risk that it will not interact well with your smartphone.

Unfortunately the SW021 does not have any other connectivity features:

• No speaker
• No microphone
• No ability to answer or place calls via bluetooth
• No camera
• No cellular connectivity
• No GPS
• No Near Field Communication (NFC) for payments

Health and Fitness Features

The SW021 comes with 3 sensors: Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Heart Rate Monitor (HRM). These only cover a few fitness and health areas. These sensors allow you to track the following 6 metrics: Calories, Distance, Heart Rate, Menstrual Cycle, Sleep, Steps.

Sensor accuracy is not the best. Steps can be off by about 10% and heart rate accuracy is inconsistent especially when doing strenuous activities. Sleep tracking is also quite poor and will often track sleep while moving around. While the watch does track 9 different sports modes, health and fitness tracking is not impressive.

VeryFitPro App

The Willful SW021 uses the VeryFitPro app, which is quite basic but does cover the required tracking for this watch. The app is easy to use but not the most refined. Some owners complain of connectivity issues between the app and the watch. You can see how the VeryFitPro app ranks on our Smartwatch Apps Page.

Internal Photos

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Known Issues

Wrist Rash / Burn

There have been quite a few reports that this watch causes a rash on the wrist or a burn. The company is aware of this problem and they recommend to clean the watch regularly, not wear it too tight and do not wear it for a long time.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Broken Strap Connector

There have been many complaints regarding the strap connector for this watch breaking rendering the watch useless. This is due to the poor quality materials used in this watch.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Band Discoloration

We suggest avoiding the pink band since it is known to discolor with black and bluish spots being common.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Amazon Best Seller?

The Willful SW021 is one of the best selling smartwatches on Amazon. It appears to outsell watches from market leaders like Apple, Samsung, Fitbit and Garmin. While it does have a low price, the Amazon ranking is surprising given the poor quality and limited functionality.

We suspect that the $18 Amazon gift card provided in exchange for reviews is causing the review rating to be artificially inflated. The process works like this:

1. Buyer registers for an extended warranty offer found on card in the package
2. Once registered, the buyer receives an email to post a review in exchange for a $18 Amazon Gift Card
3. Once the buyer sends proof of the review, the Amazon Gift Card will be sent

You can see the screen shots below.

Not a very ethical practice to exchange gift cards worth over 50% of the product price for reviews.

Verdict

The Willful SW021 is a very popular generic Chinese smartwatch on Amazon. Popularity is due to low price and gift cards in exchange for reviews. However overall build quality is below average, the screen is not great and the watch has limited features. In this price range a fitness band from a known brand (Mi Band, Honor Band) are much better buys.

Specifications

Published: April 27, 2021