Huawei Watch Fit: A downright steal of a fitness smartwatch at $148

Toss a metaphorical rock in any electronics store and it would probably land on an activity tracker of some sort. The state of fitness wearables these days is a crowded scene — though one could argue that it’s a good thing, considering health and wellness is a very 2020 thing to pay close attention to. 

The new Huawei Watch Fit walks between two worlds, in which it could pass off as both sporty fitness band (a la Fitbit) and sophisticated smartwatch (ala Apple). But it’s not trying to emulate either brand; Huawei certainly has some interesting, unique ideas on what a fitness-focused smartwatch can be. The kicker? It costs less than $150.

Take an Apple Watch, stretch it out, give it a slight curve, and what you get is the Huawei Watch Fit’s screen. At 1.64-inches, the large display makes for easy reading, even for quick glances. Watch face options are aplenty, and you can customise how organised or cluttered you want the main screen to be. 

Huawei is no slouch at OLED screens on their phones, and they brought that same excellence to the watch. The vivid colours really pop on this screen, and brightness levels are strong enough to cause some discomfort in darkness. 

The review unit we got came with an olive-green strap — which we’re not a big fan of, but there are other colours to pick from. We’re also not that big on the strap’s material, which is some kind of stiff rubber composite that made fitting it on the wrist a bit of a struggle. Hopefully, there’ll be some alternative straps for the watch soon. 

Another unexpected struggle: sudden loss of connection with a smartphone. The initial pairing process (with a Google Pixel 3) was actually pretty seamless and it synced instantly with the app. I didn’t wear the watch to sleep and left it in the living room one night, and the next morning, it just wasn’t able to reconnect to the app. Multiple failed attempts to pair forced me to reset the watch, causing me to lose three days of data. Thankfully, it hasn’t happened again since then. 

Other than that little hiccup, the experience was smooth. Huawei’s user interface is pretty seamless, and everything remained sharp and responsive with every swipe and tap. I’ve never used Huawei’s Lite OS before, so it took some time to get used to but I didn’t face any difficulties adapting to it all. 

There’s just a single button at the side, which acts as the home screen button and the app picker, where I could get easy access to things like blood oxygen monitoring, timers, alarms and the such. Unfortunately, there’s no speaker, so you can’t hear audio notifications or entertain calls on this one. 

But let’s talk about the main function. As its name suggests, the Huawei Watch Fit covers all things fitness, with all the usual features like heart rate monitoring and GPS tracking. A mind-boggling 96 workout modes are easily accessible at a few quick taps on the watch. 

I have to say, I’m impressed by the ridiculous level of accuracy afforded by this watch. Apparently, I’ve been short-changing myself during my runs — the Huawei Watch Fit offered a more concise overview of the distances I’ve been running, more so than any other fitness trackers or apps. At one point, it even knew that I was pushing myself too hard during a workout. 

Huawei Health is the app that you have to download for the watch, and it’s been really informative and helpful for post-workout analyses. The amount of metrics and comprehensive data might be overwhelming even, but ultimately useful. Guides are in place and all the jargon explained at every level, with detailed steps on how you can achieve your fitness goals. 

What I’ve never seen built into a fitness wearable is something called Private Trainer — a virtual personal trainer that lives on the Huawei Watch Fit to provide visually animated workout demonstrations on your wrist. As kooky as it might sound, the fitness courses run by the little guy can actually get pretty ruthless. I didn’t realise at first that there were difficulty levels (denoted by green, blue and red colours) so I jumped on a hard fitness course from the get-go. Let’s just say that I survived it. Barely. 

One of the biggest claims made by Huawei is that this watch can last up to 10 whole days without charging. Unbelievable as it may be, Huawei ain’t lying. In real-world testing, the watch lasted a grand total of nine days, even after tracking six outdoor run sessions (with the GPS on), one Private Trainer workout and nightly sleep monitoring. As for charging speed through the proprietary charger, the battery percentage went from four per cent to full in the span of an hour. Truly, it’s impressive. 

But what really should be admired is the fact that Huawei brings all the above-mentioned features to the table at just $148 — a far cheaper alternative when compared to decent fitness trackers and smartwatches like the Fitbit Charge 4, the Oppo Watch or the Apple Watch Series 6.  Regardless if you’re an Android or iOS user (it works on both), the Huawei Watch Fit is a downright steal, and a no-brainer buy if you’re going all-in into the expanding Huawei ecosystem. 

ilyas@asiaone.com