Huawei Fit review

The Essential review

This is TechRadar’s review summary that gives you all the key information you need if you’re looking for quick buying advice in 30 seconds - our usual full, in-depth review follows. 

The Huawei Fit looks and feels like a proper effort. It's a simplistic, low-profile wearable that looks like a traditional timepiece. It even brings a few sought-after features along for the ride, like waterproofing, continuous heart rate monitoring, week-long battery life, and training plan, which helps to prep you for a marathon.

But there's something off. Considering the many great options available within– and just above–its price bracket, the Huawei Fit struggles to distinguish itself. There are too many missing elements here that keep it from achieving excellence amongst its more skilled and technically-superior peers, namely a responsive interface, the lack of media controls and native GPS.

There's still a lot about Huawei’s wearable that will probably satisfy you. But the skew on value is off here, so until it drastically drops in price, we suggest checking out one of the candidates for best fitness tracker in 2017.

Who's this for and should I buy it?

The Huawei Fit is an ideal option for those who want a low-profile wearable that can track a healthy amount of activities, ranging from walking and running to sleeping and swimming. It gets bonus points for blending into your wardrobe like a regular watch.

If you have a desire for heart rate tracking, waterproofing, and long-lasting battery life, you could do much worse than the Huawei Fit. But you can also do much better by exploring options like the Samsung Gear Fit 2 and Fitbit Charge 2, which sit close enough to its price bracket to consider.

Additionally, while the Fit beats the rest in terms of battery life and traditional style, it likely won't meet the needs of those looking for a smarter interface with features like music controls and built-in GPS.

Huawei Fit price

• Launch price (Nov 2016): $129 (not available outside of US)
• Current price (July 2017): about $110

All-star battery life and reliable, in-depth stats

• You won't need to charge the Fit every day or two (or six)
• Fitness and sleep data is reliable and easy to read

Huawei’s fitness tracker is an all-star in the battery department, lasting close to a week on a single charge. Given the Fit’s list of features, which includes a heart rate sensor, this is an fairly impressive feat.

It also rocks a circular face, which is no doubt a desirable design trait for those looking to replace their watch with something a little smarter, but no less traditional. While we’re on the topic of its design, the Fit supports any 18mm watch strap you may already have laying around. The default orange strap is pretty eye-opening and comfortable, though this fitness tracker would also look great with a NATO strap. 

For such a simple device, the stats displayed on its monochrome screen are in-depth, reliable and easy to digest. What’s more, the Fit can track your heart rate and your sleep patterns, too. All of these metrics feed into Huawei Wear, a slick companion app that compiles the information for a more topical view at your health.

The Huawei Fit is meant to be worn on a 24/7 basis and thankfully, it’s comfortable enough to make that an easy ask at the gym or in the office. What’s better is that it doesn’t require being removed before hopping into the shower or the pool, as it’s waterproof up to five atmospheres of pressure. Moreover, swimmers will enjoy that the Huawei Fit even has aquatic workout options.

We liked that activity tracking can be paused mid-workout so that you can resume at a time that works better for you. Too often, wearables force you to start from scratch if you have to stop. Though compared to its competitors, we wish that the Huawei Fit knew how to automatically start tracking your activity.

Speaking on its interface, what’s here isn’t too different from most touch-based trackers. If you’ve used a smartwatch before, you’ll be at a slight advantage when it comes to understanding the layout used here. To select an option on the screen, either tap it, or for certain options, swipe up or to the right to dig a little deeper. 

The built-in accelerometer and gyroscope allow for gestures: flick your wrist to the left or right to navigate up and down, a handy configuration if you’re mid-workout and don’t want to fiddle with a touchscreen.

Battery life

• This small 80mAh battery can last nearly a week under normal use
• If you don't test all of its sensors, it lasts for much longer
• On standby, the Fit will live for up to 30 days without a charge

The Huawei Fit performs on-par with its advertised six days of battery life while recording workouts and firing off all of its sensors, which is to say that we're impressed. 

As you might expect, the battery definitely does last longer the fewer activities you record with it. We’ve been able to log nearly a week of uptime with a quarter tank of gas left. That’s pretty stellar.

If you don’t use it at all, the Fit’s tiny 80mAh battery can last a surprising 30 days on standby mode. When it does zero-out, it takes about 40 minutes at most to fully charge the device.

Not convinced? Try these:

If you think the Huawei Fit isn’t for you, we’ve picked two excellent choices for you to consider instead. 

Samsung Gear Fit 2

Samsung's wearable is equal parts smartwatch and fitness tracker, bringing together a crisp AMOLED display and a slick user interface with fitness chops, a heart rate sensor and built-in GPS.

• Read our in-depth Samsung Gear Fit 2 review

Fitbit Charge 2

Fitbit's latest packs a bigger screen than its predecessor and the same breadth of fitness tracking. The lack of GPS and limited phone notifications might not jive with some.

• Read our in-depth Fitbit Charge 2 review