HONOR Band 6 review - a decent fitness bracelet with a couple of annoying bugs

Sales of a fitness tracker from the Chinese HONOR, the former Huawei brand, have started in Russia. The cost of the device is 4 490 rubles. The life hacker has already tested the gadget and is sharing his impressions.

Table of contents

• Specifications
• Design
• Screen
• application
• Interface
• Workouts
• Other functions
• Autonomy
• Outcomes

Specifications

Design

Outwardly, the device is very similar to its "big brother" - the HONOR Watch ES smart watch, although it is inferior to them in size. The body of the fitness bracelet is made of plastic and has rounded corners. On its left side there is an inscription HONOR, on the right side there is a single physical button.

On the back of the case there are charging connectors, a heart rate sensor and latches that hold the strap. To change it, you need to pick them up, but you should not do this with your nails: the elements sit tight.

The strap itself is made of silicone, has a plastic buckle and a trainer with the inscription HONOR. The holes are spaced very often, so it's easy to tighten the strap to the exact size of your wrist.

The fitness tracker is available in three colors: meteorite black, sand gray and coral pink. We got the first option.

The device has 5 ATM protection against water - you can swim with it, but you cannot dive. The screen turns off automatically if it gets a lot of splashes or when it is completely submerged under water. At the same time, due to the shape of the display, drops do not linger on it for a long time.

In general, the bracelet looks stylish, fits perfectly on the wrist and is pleasant to the touch.

Screen

The screen of the gadget has grown noticeably: 1.47 inches against 0.95 of the previous generation HONOR Band. Its area has increased by 148% and has become simply huge for a fitness bracelet. Display resolution - 368 × 194. At the same time, the pixel density remains the same - 283 dots per inch. The bezels of the screen are quite narrow and practically invisible in everyday use. AMOLED technology with its deep blacks provides decent picture clarity. To see the "grain", you need to try very hard. The picture is also distinguishable in the sun, at least if you look at it not from an angle.

The screen fits up to 108 characters, the text is read well. The display turns off after 5 seconds, but this length can be increased to 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes. After the screen has worked for the prescribed time, the function will turn off and must be activated again. HONOR Band 6 does not have a permanent display backlight feature. In the settings, you can choose one of five levels of brightness.

application

HONOR Band 6 works in conjunction with the Huawei Health mobile app. Through it, you can, for example, enable screen activation by raising your hand, set up a smart alarm clock or notifications. The program will also show additional information that is not displayed on the bracelet screen. For example, on it you can see only the number of steps taken for the current day, while the application has statistics for the previous days, weeks, months, years and for the entire time of using the tracker.

Theoretically, in Huawei Health, you can see data on climbed climbs. But this function flatly refused to work for us. Even after hiking to the 14th floor, the application continued to claim that the total height of the ascent per day was zero meters. This is strange, since the synchronization of the bracelet with a smartphone via Bluetooth 5.0 LE has always occurred almost instantly, and the iOS application "Health" regularly recorded the number of conquered per day floors.

Interface

The default watch face displays the time, day of the week, date, heart rate, battery level, as well as data for the last 24 hours on steps taken and calories burned. At the same time, the design of the main screen can be changed: eight more dials are available in the memory of the fitness bracelet. To choose between them, you need to press on the dial with your finger and hold it for a couple of seconds, or go to the settings, and then to the "Screen" section.

If you customize the interface through a mobile application, the list expands to 86 options. Different watch faces display different information. On some, only the time and date, on others there is a place for the air temperature or the number of kilometers traveled per day.

On any watch face, swiping to the right or left opens your favorites, to which you can add up to five pages. Swiping up opens notifications. Swipe down lowers the curtain. It contains the settings for a simple alarm clock, screen backlight and Do Not Disturb mode. Also, from this page, you can start a search for a smartphone and go to the bracelet settings.

Pressing a single physical button returns to the main screen, and when you are on it, opens a menu with the main functions of the device. The role of the "Back" button is performed by swiping to the right. In general, such management looks logical.

The vibration of the device is sufficient to wake you up. In the settings of the gadget, you can choose its intensity or turn it off altogether.

Workouts

The tracker, like its fifth generation predecessor, has the following sports modes:

1. Running on the street.
2. Treadmill.
3. Walking.
4. Walking on the street (in this mode, unlike the previous one, GPS works and your route is marked on the map).
5. Bicycling.
6. Exercise bike.
7. Swimming in the pool.
8. Ellipse.
9. Rowing machine.
10. Other (this mode can be turned on if your training type is not listed).

In each of these modes, the device calculates certain indicators. For example, for running on the street, the gadget records the distance covered, heart rate, workout duration, calorie consumption, average speed, maximum and average pace (the time it takes an athlete to cover a kilometer), the total number of steps, their number per minute and average length step.

The results of each workout are presented in the form of several graphs. In the "Other" mode, only the elapsed time, calorie consumption and heart rate are recorded. The statistics of your workouts can be viewed both in the menu of the gadget itself and in the mobile application.

One could say that the workout recording function works great, if not for one thing. The device does not see a GPS signal intermittently. Because of this, the traversed route in modes such as walking, running on the street, cycling is not recorded on the map. And this is despite the fact that the device is connected via Bluetooth to a smartphone, on which GPS works normally. The HONOR Band 6 does not have a built-in GPS tracker.

Also, the bracelet has an automatic workout recognition function. She works with walking, running, elliptical and rowing machines. When tested with an ellipse, the system performed well. The device offered to start recording the workout only at the end of the fourth minute. But when we turned on the recording, data appeared on the bracelet screen that the exercise on the simulator had been going on for 3 minutes 40 seconds. The steps taken during this time and the calories burned were also reflected. That is, HONOR Band 6 determined the nature of the training literally 15 seconds after it began.

But the auto-complete recording option doesn't work as well. The offer to stop it appeared on the screen only after 2.5 minutes of rest, which, as a result, got into the training statistics. Because of this, the average speed recorded by the device turned out to be much lower than the real one. Therefore, at the end of classes, it is better to turn off the recording yourself.

Another interesting feature of the gadget: it notifies the owner if he sits in one position for more than an hour. An invitation to warm up appears on the screen.

Other functions

The HONOR Band 6 can measure blood oxygen levels (aka saturation, or SpO2). This indicator is as important as pulse and blood pressure. Monitoring it can be useful, for example, in the mountains to prevent altitude sickness. In addition, low oxygen levels can indicate a variety of medical conditions, including coronavirus infection. At the same time, manufacturers of all fitness trackers, including HONOR, warn: such gadgets cannot replace medical devices, so you should not rely on them completely.

Another function is level measurement stress. It is rated on a 100-point scale based on changes in heart rate. The device can track the indicator around the clock. If it is tall, the gadget gives the owner some simple advice in the spirit of: “Are you a little tired? Change your daily routine. "

Monitoring sleep - both nighttime and daytime - is very useful. Huawei TruSleep system measures all metrics correctly. These include the duration of deep, light and REM sleep, the number of awakenings and the quality of breathing. The gadget also offers users breathing exercises, weather display, flashlight, stopwatch, timer, smart and regular alarms. The fitness tracker also allows you to control music and track the female cycle, but these functions do not work on iOS.

The Chinese version of the device has an NFC chip that can be used for contactless payments, but the modification for the global market lacks this detail.

Autonomy

Compared to the previous generation of HONOR trackers, the battery capacity has increased from 100 to 180 mAh. The manufacturer promisesOfficial site of HONORthat a full charge of the battery will last for 14 days of normal use or 10 days of active use.

Apparently, the real figure is close to the declared one. We tested the device for 10 days at a fairly high intensity: every day we recorded various workouts, measured heart rate, stress and SpO2 levels, and monitored sleep. In addition, we cranked up the brightness to the maximum level and turned on the non-dying screen for 20 minutes. As a result, the gadget was discharged from 100 to 18%. Back to a hundred, the bracelet was charged in exactly one hour. Thus, a full charge takes approximately 75 minutes.

Unlike previous generations of the HONOR Band, the device has a convenient magnetic charging, consisting of only one wire. In previous generations, in addition to the cord, the charger also included a small docking station.

Outcomes

In the price segment up to 5,000 rubles, the HONOR Band 6 is a good fitness bracelet with a nice design, convenient controls, a large display and a decent set of functions, especially if you are an Android user. The overall positive picture is slightly overshadowed by the problems with calculating the climb and finding a GPS signal to track the route. If these functions are not essential for you, then the gadget can be considered for purchase. In addition, the bracelet has just been released - bugs will probably be fixed with the next updates.

Potential competitors of HONOR Band 6:

• Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6. Due to the elongated screen, the device looks more compact, and its pixel density is higher (326 PPI). It also boasts 30 sport modes.
• Huawei Band 6. Has the same characteristics as the HONOR Band 6 (screen size, pixel density, battery life). But the gadget supports 96 sports modes at once and has a more pleasant design. True, this tracker is not yet on sale in Russia, and when it appears, it will obviously be more expensive than its analog from HONOR.
• Samsung Galaxy Fit2. It has a smaller screen - 1.1 inches. Supports only five sports modes, no blood oxygen measurement and no smart alarm. But the battery life is up to 20 days. The device is already on sale at a price of 3,490 rubles.
• HONOR Watch ES. Older model in relation to HONOR Band 6. For 5,990 rubles, the user gets a 1.64-inch screen, 95 sport modes, the Smart Trainer function (12 animated programs workouts and 44 exercises), as well as a number of options that are not in the bracelet, for example, the ability to turn on the permanent display backlight. At the same time, the watch does not have a GPS module.

Buy

The author thanks HONOR for the device provided for testing. The company had no way of influencing its outcome.