Huawei’s latest wearable device coming to Europe is the Watch Fit, an Apple Watch-designed fitness tracker that is equipped with a number of virtual fitness workouts and tracking for a range of activities.
I spent time with the Huawei Watch Fit to see how it performs on a daily basis – tracking exercises, testing the built-in fitness programs, and seeing how reliable the sleep tracking and heart rate monitoring is.
Design and build
The Watch Fit’s metal outer case is available in black, silver, or rose gold, and the silicone strap is available in graphite black, mint green, cantaloupe orange, and sakura pink. The model I tested was the combination of rose gold and rose gold bracelet.
Weighing 21g (without the strap), this is a lightweight watch that sits thin on your wrist and is not intrusive like some larger wearable devices.
The design is reminiscent of the Apple Watch. It’s sleek and clean, and much less rugged than that of the Huawei Watch GT. Although primarily sportswear, this watch blends in easily with everyday wear.
The silicone strap on this watch isn’t the most premium thanks to its rubbery appearance, and unfortunately Huawei does not offer any in leather at the time of writing. However, it is durable and dirt is easily removed.
The Huawei Watch Fit features a 1.64-inch rectangular curved AMOLED display, with a resolution of 280 x 456 and a screen-to-body ratio of 70%. Its brilliant and the colors are vivid, with good contrast – although under direct sunlight you get a bit of glare.
For swimming, it is also waterproof to 5 ATM. I have used it in both outdoor and indoor pools and have not experienced any lag on the touchscreen even when it was wet.
To control the watch you get a manual button on the right side, while the rest is done by swiping over the face of the touchscreen. The digital face itself is customizable – you can tap the face for a different color scheme, or you can change the entire layout by browsing the library of watch faces on the companion smartphone app.
Software and Features
Like other Huawei watches, the Watch Fit runs on Lite OS. It’s easy to navigate and the features are clearly laid out, although the watch doesn’t offer any third-party app support, which may be a deciding factor for some.
You can sync your watch to receive phone notifications, incoming calls, alarms, and weather, and have the option to control music playback on your phone. However, despite the Watch Fit’s appearance, the limited number of features makes this wearable more of a fitness tracker than a dedicated smartwatch.
Out of the box, the watch offers 11 detailed integrated workout tracking options, including walking, running, swimming, cycling and elliptical training, plus the ability to add over 90 custom options. These include yoga, spinning, HIIT, and even belly dancing.
If you have not prepared a training plan, there are a number of onboard workouts that you can take which are illustrated using a virtual personal trainer. From five-minute exercises you can do while sitting at your desk, to full cardio blasts.
The on-screen animations are easy to follow, and the watch vibrates to let you know the start and end of each series of movements. Some of the longer workouts just repeat movements over a cycle. It would be nice to have more variety – but it’s something that could be changed in a software update.
The Watch Fit is also able to detect oxygen saturation. This is useful for activities such as hiking when your SpO2 may be low due to thinning air, or if you have a health condition that is affecting your breathing, then taking this can remind you to rest if needed. . Of course, this is not a medical grade device, so don’t expect the results to be as accurate as you would get from a doctor.
There’s also a Stress Tracking Algorithm, which uses heart rate monitoring to detect if stress is physically affecting your heart and, if so, suggests breathing exercises to help regulate your body – a longer version. simple stress-based features of the new Fitbit. Meaning.
Monitoring and performance
During walking sessions, the Huawei Fit’s GPS accurately tracks routes and provides you with your average pace, cadence, calories burned, and maximum heart rate throughout the workout.
I tested the watch during swimming sessions, and it was able to provide information on my most used stroke, as well as the number of laps I completed by programming the pool length into the watch. The watch also transmits the heart rate section of the wearer during training.
There are built-in auto-sensing workouts, which are supposed to automatically recognize if you are exercising but haven’t set a manual workout on the watch. It’s a bit unreliable though – one session, I was doing a brisk walk, and it only asked me to turn on the auto workout in about twenty minutes.
Sleep tracking provides analyzes of your light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep, as well as analyzes of your breathing via the SpO2 sensor and bedtime. It was pretty accurate, although there was one occasion during the night I woke up, and the watch didn’t detect it – instead, it marked it as light sleeper.
The data recorded from the Watch Fit is stored in the Huawei Health companion app. The software interface is clearly laid out and informative, with the exercise logs providing three pages of data, including an overview of your stats, segmented breakdowns of your workout, and graphs on your heart rate.
There are, however, some improvements to be made in the Health app. Huawei’s built-in fitness workouts are not saved in the app’s exercise records – although they are in the watch’s history. Additionally, competitors such as Withings provide links to accredited medical pages to save their fitness advice, as well as integration with food planning apps such as MyFitnessPal – areas Huawei does not currently cover.
I also noticed a difference between what is recorded directly on the watch and what appears in the app when it comes to heart rate monitoring. There are many “zones” where your BPM is during exercise. While swimming, on the watch my heart was recorded in the “ extreme ” zone of the watch during the entire workout, while the app listed it in the “ warm-up ” zone for All the time.
In fact, my heart rate was probably fluctuating between many zones. Huawei says heart monitoring may be inaccurate in water and wear the watch closely to prevent this. I did this but still got the same results.
Battery life
Huawei claims an average ten-day battery life from the 180mAh cell, and I’ve largely found that to be true. By keeping the brightness on auto and using the workout feature about three times a week (and the sleep tracker twice a week), he managed to hit that mark. Of course, increasing the brightness and working more regularly drains the cell faster.
Within 30 minutes I managed to charge the watch to 98%. This means that even a few minutes will be more than enough to charge it for a full day.
The magnetic charger itself is a bit tricky to attach to the watch, and I usually had to check to make sure it was charging properly. There were also occasions when, after loading flat, the date on the screen would change from English to Mandarin. Restarting it a few times fixed the problem, but that’s obviously a nuisance – although hopefully a fix is easy to fix.
Value for money
The Huawei Watch Fit is now available in the UK and sells for £ 119.99. You can currently buy it direct from Huawei or Amazon UK, Currys, John Lewis and Argos.
There is no denying that this is competitively priced in the fitness tracker market. If you wanted to go for a premium Apple Watch, even the cheapest model (the SE) will cost you more than double, costing around £ 269.
For something similar in design and performance, we recommend the Amazfit GTS. It costs the same as the Watch Fit at £ 119, with a slightly better battery life that provides 12 days of use on average. However, the Amazfit does not include the virtual personal trainer that Huawei’s Watch Fit does.
The Huawei Watch Fit is currently not available in America. However, you might be able to import it from sites like GearBest, where it currently costs around $ 150.
You can also check out our full lists of the best fitness trackers and smartwatches to see what your rivals are capable of.
Verdict
The Huawei Watch Fit is a sleek and durable wearable with strong fitness tracking capabilities and great battery life, and the built-in virtual personal trainer helps this watch stand out from the crowd.
It’s not perfect – auto-sensing workouts don’t perform well and heart rate monitoring is uncertain when used in water. Additionally, the app might need some improvements and additional resources to help users understand what data the watch is tracking.
However, for a watch priced under £ 125, it’s still a great buy to consider compared to other high-end rivals.
Specifications
Huawei Watch Fit: Specifications
- 46 × 30 × 10.7 mm
- 21g
- Polymer fiber
- Pink, orange, green or black silicone strap
- 1.64 inch AMOLED touchscreen
- 456 x 280
- 4GB
- 6-axis IMU sensor
- Optical heart rate sensor
- Capacitive sensor
- Ambient light detector
- Android 5.0 or later
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iOS 9.0 or later
- 5 ATM water resistant
- Bluetooth 5.0
- 2.4 GHz
- Magnetic charge
- Typical battery life of 10 days
- 180mAh battery