Huawei Watch Fit Review: Great Affordable Smartwatch

Huawei Watch Fit Review: Great Affordable Smartwatch

Verdict: The Huawei Watch Fit is one of the best, cheap smartwatches you can get in the market, bar none. While you’re losing small options like interchangeable straps, the vastly lower price and robust features more than make up for it. It still has most, if not all, of the tracking and health features that its more expensive brothers have, so you’re not really missing out despite the lower price point.

The Huawei Watch Fit retails for Php 4,999. Pre-orders start today, and people who pre-order (Sept. 18) till the 22nd get freebies worth Php 2,380, which includes a Huawei Band 4e as well as a Nova Speaker.

Pros

  • Very affordable for a smartwatch
  • AMOLED display is bright and readable even under the sun
  • More or less the same features you get from Huawei’s more expensive smartwatches
  • Incredible battery life

Cons

  • Lite OS is light on features
  • GPS takes a few minutes to lock on
  • Watch straps are not replaceable

Huawei has been strengthening their wearable product line this 2020, releasing newer, more affordable smartwatch models based on its Lite OS. Each new release has been more affordable than the last, and their latest model, the Watch Fit, is the most affordable of them all. Despite the lower price, there hasn’t been a lot of compromises made when it comes to features or usability, making it a solid choice for people looking for a feature-packed smartwatch for not a lot of money.

Design and display

Take the Apple Watch and squish it sideways – that’s essentially what you’re getting with the design of the Huawei Watch Fit. The display is nice and square, featuring tapered 2.5D glass on all sides. There’s a single button on the right side of the watch which brings up the main menu.

The watch’s sensors are all located on the bottom, along with two charging contacts. The straps are one-size-fits-all and are replaceable. They’re pretty much matched to the color of the watch you get, so choose accordingly.

The watch is very compact and light, at just 21 grams, and you really barely feel it on your arm. The overall design is pretty unisex, though it does look better on a woman’s wrist than a big, 5’11 dude.

Just like Huawei’s other smartwatches, the Watch Fit uses an AMOLED display. The size for the display is at 1.64-inches and combined with the 280 x 456 resolution it manages to produce a 326ppi, which is plenty sharp.

One thing we like about smartwatches that use AMOLED panels VS LCD is the fact that the watch face is still perfectly readable even under direct sunlight. It’s so bright in fact that you can use it as an emergency flashlight if you need one. You’ll also want to keep the brightness of the watch on automatic, or at least keep the display below 3 lest you blind yourself when the sun goes down.

Software and tracking

Just like every other Huawei smartwatch, the Watch Fit uses Huawei’s Lite OS. It’s a relatively lightweight OS that doesn’t have the same robust feature set like WearOS does so that means no installation of apps aside from the ones that are already included, but the flip side here is that it sips, rather than gulps, power which allows the watch to enjoy incredible battery life.

Pairing is easy and is done via the Huawei Health app, using a Samsung Galaxy S20+. While Huawei Health is compatible with iOS devices, I’ve seen iPhone users have trouble syncing and pairing with Huawei’s wearables, so you’ll have to consider that if you’re thinking of picking this up.

Navigating through the watch is pretty easy. Swiping left or right shows you your fitness stats, swiping down shows you the settings while swiping up shows notifications. Pressing the side button shows you workouts, workout records, status, and other features of the Watch Fit.

More detailed activity tracking is done via the Huawei Health app that you need to install to use the Watch Fit, and gives you a more detailed view of your stats as well as manage all the watch faces you’ve selected for it.

There’s plenty of activities that the Watch Fit can track and handle, including popular ones like biking, swimming, running, swimming, and rowing. The watch has a built-in GPS module so you don’t have to bring your phone with you when you run, though it doesn’t have a way to store music, so you’ll have to run in silence if you do go this route.

Interestingly the watch has a SpO2 sensor in it, which incidentally is one of the main highlight features that the far more expensive Apple Watch Series 6 offer.

Sp02 levels can detect potential issues like sleep apnea, and companies are now looking into ways to tap it to help detect COVID-19 as well.

The watch also retains the stress tracking feature of Huawei’s more expensive watches, which is an added bonus.

Step and sleep tracking were all reasonably accurate, though we did notice that the GPS was a little slow to lock on, taking around 5 minutes or so to get a solid fix on our position.

Battery life and charging

One thing you can expect from Huawei’s wearables is battery life you measure in days, not hours, and the Huawei Watch Fit is no exception.

Huawei quotes endurance of 10 days on a single charge, but that’s not taking to account other factors like frequent GPS use, use of the always-on watch face, and so on and so forth. Obviously using more of the features of the watch will use up more battery which will require a sooner top-up.

As for my case, I haven’t had to charge the watch since I got it last on the 11th, with the watch currently at 30% as I type this review. That’s with a few rounds of walking around using the GPS, which is pretty good, all things considered.

The Huawei Watch Fit uses magnetic pins on the bottom of the watch to attach to the charger, and I like the fact that Huawei has transitioned to a charging solution that’s a single piece, rather than the two-piece solution that they used with their previous products. A single piece charging solution helps immensely in keeping you from losing cables or the charging disc which happened to me a few times in the past.

Wrap up and conclusions:

Huawei has managed to offer many of the same features of their more expensive wearable lineup in a much package that’s easier in the pocket with the Watch Fit. The long battery life, expansive list of features, and sub-Php 5K price tag make it one of the best smartwatches that you can buy on a budget

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