Huawei Watch Fit Review: A melodramatic fitness tracker

Huawei Watch Fit is the manufacturer’s answer to the Fitbit. Focused primarily on health and fitness goals over the lifestyle functionality of other devices, the smart watch packs a solid collection of features into an affordable package. It's just a little extra sometimes. 

The device comes equipped with 100 exercise tracking modes, automatic stress tracking, heart rate monitoring and in-depth sleep analysis on the wrist and in the supporting app. While you can delve into the app for a more comprehensive breakdown of each of your activities, it’s superfluous to do so. Everything you need to know is available right there on your watch.

Thanks to the beautiful, crisp and detailed display you can easily see your metrics for the whole day without straining or (god forbid) picking up another device. If you want to look at weekly, or monthly benchmarks then you can’t do that directly on your wrist, but that’s perfectly fine in my books.

What isn’t perfectly fine however is some of the benchmarks for exercise metrics. For some reason Huawei seems to think that a heart rate of 80bpm when working out is extreme and does not shy away from telling you that. It also reckons that 170bpm is extreme though. What I think is extreme is the goddamn melodrama in that variance. Come on Huawei, my heart rate jumps to 120bpm when I think about soft cheeses - that is hardly an exertive activity.

In the app you can go so far as to toggle your heart rate zones, and I did just that. Yet despite having a very specific set of parameters for each exercise zone the watch would still yell extreme at me in silence.

Realistically, categorising 80bpm as exceedingly strenuous is just not good data. For many people smartwatches (especially those aimed at fitness) have become the tool we use to benchmark workouts. Personally I aim to maintain different zones during specific workouts, some are just an orange zone for endurance, other times I want that extreme exertion warning, but when it’s nothing but red it’s more tedious to track. Yeah of course, I could check my heart rate and do it that way but I’d just prefer to see more accurate representations in a fitness accessory.

Another fun little Easter egg is the stress test. Out of the box, automatic stress testing and sleep analysis are toggled off and you’ll need to go into the app to turn these on. If, on the other hand you choose not to do this you can do ad hoc stress tests to gauge where you’re at. To ascertain your level of tension you’ll need to go through a 12 question questionnaire while the watch tracks your heart rate. Doesn’t seem like much, until you read the questions…

1. I have nothing to look forward to.
   Yikes, I guess I have 11 more questions like this to look forward to?

2. When there is a problem, I can always look on the bright side.
   Just let me be pessimistic in peace.

3. Sometimes I get the shakes.
   Nah, too much dairy hurts my tummy.

4. I get irritated very easily.
   I’m getting there.

5. I can do things just as well as other people.
   More like I can do things better than other people… Strongly agree.

6. I feel that my heart rate is abnormal.
   Everything about me is abnormal.

7. I think that hardships have made me stronger.
   Anything that doesn’t kill you makes you emotionally fragile and ready to snap at any point.

8. I don’t see any meaning in life.
   Can a watch have you committed?

9. I can’t stand being interrupted when I’m working.
   I do say the words “I’m wearing headphones so that you don’t talk to me” quite a lot.

10. I feel happy with myself overall.
    Do I… do I have to answer this?

11. Sometimes I feel I am useless.
    I’m convinced that this is my psych in disguise.

12. I can achieve my goals even though there are obstacles.
    Well my goal was to finish this stress test without any additional stress, so I guess the answer to that one is NO!

After answering the questionnaire the app had the audacity to tell me that I was relaxed… The jury is out on the metrics of this one.

On a lighter note, even after enabling all the extra features the Huawei Fit still killed it on battery life. On average it goes through about 15% per day, giving you just under a week of full unfettered use per charge. Compared to device like the OPPO Watch and Apple Watch which are closer to a day and a half to two days with power-saving features enabled - it’s frankly outstanding.

While it is not flawless by any measure of the word, the Watch Fit's compatibility with devices outside of the Huawei family has made a marked improvement since the last Huawei smart watch we tested. When reviewing the GT 2e last year you were still required to side load the Huawei Health app on Android devices and while it was available on the App Store, iOS users had just a fraction of available features accessible to them. Which was a shame really, because the device itself was lovely but why spend money on something you can’t even use?

This has since been rectified with more comprehensive versions of the app available directly through Google Play and the App Store. In doing so, elevating the manufacturer’s products from a below-average intelligence watch, back to it’s intellectual standing and making the Huawei Fit worth spending your pennies on. You'll still miss out on features if you're an iPhone owner, however, so you'd really only want to consider the Watch Fit if you're in the Android world.

One lifestyle feature that is sadly lacking is NFC. Without NFC you can’t tap and pay with your watch and not having this is just annoying - especially when it’s something you’re used to now. The vast majority of smartwatches and fitness trackers (even around the $300 mark) are equipped with NFC so to see an otherwise great device without it is disappointing.

Another pet peeve, which is by no means a deal breaker comes with notifications. While they come in in a timely manner, I will get a preview of the message  but not who the message is from. Personally I use my smartwatch as a way to see if it is worth picking up my phone for every notification, and without any context for the body of the message I've been finding myself reaching for the phone as per usual. I'm not mad, just disappointed.

Finally, and least importantly is the watch design itself. Most smartwatches these days are either an Apple Watch knock off, sporting pillowy rectangular designs and silicone straps, or attempting to emulate a traditional round-faced watch of yester-year. Both are perfectly fine, but I am a fan of the off-kilt Huawei choices. Although it easily fits into the first category, the face itself is a longer, thinner rectangle than others in the market. This makes for an easier and more functional fit when you’re lifting weights or putting weight on your hands for push-ups for example.

Where larger rectangular designs can take up too much wrist real estate, making it uncomfortable to lift a barbell or do a push-up without accidently pressing a button - the thin design of the Fit alleviates these problems. It does have an old school buckle on the strap which I’m not particularly fond of but you can always sub out a different strap.

Huawei Watch Fit - Final thoughts

The Huawei Fit smartwatch has ironed out some of the bugs of its siblings, but it still has a little way to go. For a device with “Fit” in the name, you’d expect the exercise tracking to be accurate and reflect the app settings. Unfortunately due to the bug in the exertion zones this simply isn’t the case. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that a software update will fix this soon enough, but it’s a frustrating flaw which takes away from the drastic improvements Huawei has already made since the last unit we reviewed.

However, this shouldn’t deter you from investing in this device. On the whole this watch and the accompanying app give valuable insight into your health, and manage to do it in a sporty and intuitive way. You won’t be running back to the charger or feeling the need to rip an uncomfortable device from your wrist every day. All in all, the Huawei Fit is a great choice of fitness tracker and worth it for a price as low as $250.

Anula Wiwatowska

Offsite Editorial Lead | Instagram

Anula is the Off-Site Editorial Lead for WhistleOut Australia, and an award winning tech journalist. She has been writing about the Australian telco industry, and consumer technology for over five years, and has been known to tell her Uber driver which phone they should upgrade to next.

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