diff --git a/py/objarray.c b/py/objarray.c
index 56038a7d6..bdef34135 100644
--- a/py/objarray.c
+++ b/py/objarray.c
@@ -175,7 +175,8 @@ STATIC mp_obj_t array_make_new(const mp_obj_type_t *type_in, size_t n_args, size
 #if MICROPY_PY_BUILTINS_BYTEARRAY
 STATIC mp_obj_t bytearray_make_new(const mp_obj_type_t *type_in, size_t n_args, size_t n_kw, const mp_obj_t *args) {
     (void)type_in;
-    mp_arg_check_num(n_args, n_kw, 0, 1, false);
+    // Can take 2nd/3rd arg if constructs from str
+    mp_arg_check_num(n_args, n_kw, 0, 3, false);
 
     if (n_args == 0) {
         // no args: construct an empty bytearray
diff --git a/tests/basics/bytearray_construct.py b/tests/basics/bytearray_construct.py
index 9c8f3adaa..75fdc4117 100644
--- a/tests/basics/bytearray_construct.py
+++ b/tests/basics/bytearray_construct.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # test construction of bytearray from different objects
 
-# bytes, tuple, list
 print(bytearray(b'123'))
+print(bytearray('1234', 'utf-8'))
+print(bytearray('12345', 'utf-8', 'strict'))
 print(bytearray((1, 2)))
 print(bytearray([1, 2]))