The Huawei Watch Fit, launched last year, was a fantastic fitness tracker that doubles up as a competent smartwatch at a very affordable price of $148.
Last month, Huawei added a new elegant edition into the series with, well, Huawei Watch Fit Elegant ($168).
SPECS
PRICE: $168 (available in Lazada and Shopee)
DISPLAY: 1.64 inches, AMOLED, 456 x 280 pixels
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth
COMPATIBILITY: Android 6.0 or later; iOS 9.0 or later
WATER RESISTANCE: 50m
WEIGHT: 27g (without strap)
DESIGN
For that extra $20, you get a gold polished stainless steel watch frame compared to polymer fibre frame of the original. It comes with a white silicone strap to finish the elegant looks.
As a result, it is a wee bit heavier to the original Fit Watch by 6g. While you probably can’t feel the difference in weight, you can see and feel the difference in looks and “premium-ness”.
FOR
+ Premium feel
+ Very affordable
+ Very accurate step and sleep tracking
+ Long battery life
AGAINST
– Built-in GPS not as accurate
– Does not work well with an iPhone
But apart from the material and aesthetic differences, this Elegant version is essentially the same as its predecessor in terms of features and functions.
It has the same 1.64-inch AMOLED touchscreen display with one side button like its predecessors. It also has all the features, including 12 animated fitness courses, sleep tracking, all-day heart rate and SpO2 (bloody oxygen) monitoring.
The fitness smartwatch features built-in GPS, so you can run without your smartphone. It uses Huawei’s Lite OS mobile operating system. This means it is compatible with both Android and iOS devices via the Huawei Health app.
Out of the box, the Watch Fit Elegant comes with a gold and black watch face that complements the golden frame. But you can download other watch faces in the app to change it.
PERFORMANCE
In terms of fitness tracking, the Watch Fit Elegant performed superbly. For tracking of steps, its readings were only 3 per cent off from the readings of my calibrated Apple Watch Series 4.
Using its built-in GPS to track runs without a smartphone, the Fit Watch Elegant was 600m off in their distance measurement of my usual 5km jogging route. Not too accurate.
But when I ran the same route paired with a smartphone, it was only slightly off by 100m or so.
I am most impressed with its sleep tracking capability. It is right up there with Fitbit in terms of accuracy. It correctly pinpointed the time I went to sleep and woke up. It is also pretty comprehensive. There are sleep cycle graphs that break your sleep patterns into deep sleep, light sleep and rapid eye movement sleep.
The Huawei Health app also provides insights into deep sleep continuity and your breathing quality during sleep.
In addition, the 12 preloaded fitness courses offer free workout lessons for those without budget to go to gyms. It has workouts like with Ab toning, exercise at work and even just a full-body stretch. These courses offer nice animations with repetition count to show you the moves that you can promptly follow.
On the downside, like all the Huawei wearables, you need to have a Huawei or an Android smartphone to get the full features of Watch Fit Elegant. For example, music controls of the fitness watch will not work when paired with iPhone, and the remote shutter only works with paired to a Huawei smartphone.
BATTERY LIFE
This fitness smartwatch has a rated battery life of 10 days with daily sleep tracking and heart rate monitoring.
But during my tests, I found the battery life to be around 8 days with two 5km runs clocked and daily sleep tracking. In other words, you probably can charge this every Sunday night before you start your week.
VERDICT
The Huawei Watch Fit Elegant is a superb fitness smartwatch to get with its super affordable price tag and competent fitness tracking. Unless you are using an iPhone…
RATING
FEATURES: 9/10
DESIGN: 9/10
PERFORMANCE: 8/10
BATTERY LIFE: 9/10
VALUE FOR MONEY: 9/10
OVERALL: 9/10
