The best fitness bands from Honor in 2022

Among the many fitness bracelets available on the market, the latest Band 6 model from HONOR is more like a sports watch - the device has added a lot of functions that are accessible without an application. HONOR initially positioned the bracelet this way: as a model with advanced capabilities. The device has a 1.47″ AMOLED display with a resolution of 368x194 pixels, on which it is convenient to view graphs of recorded workouts. Also, HONOR Band 6 retained its light weight - 29 grams, and received serious moisture protection when diving - up to 50 m (5 atm). We will try to test the functionality and accuracy of the bracelet, as well as autonomy.

Appearance and features

HONOR Band 6 is somewhat larger in size than the usual fitness bracelet format: it looks more like a sports watch, although it retains a modest weight and dimensions - 41x24x10 mm. The case is plastic, with 2.5D glass rounded at the edges. Water protection allows you to dive to a depth of up to 50 meters/pressure 5 atm.

On the right side of the case there is a single mechanical button responsible for turning on and the options menu. On the left there is only the inscription HONOR. Since the case itself is not that long, the bracelet should fit well on any hand. Visually, the case seems slightly curved, but this illusion is created only by the design - the back surface of the case is absolutely flat.

The HONOR Band 6 has a silicone strap, which is as soft as possible when compared to its competitors. At the same time, the standard buckle (made of plastic) is retained, which may not appeal to everyone. Considering wearing the bracelet 24/7, it would be logical to see a more minimalist solution - for example, a clasp. However, the strap can be easily changed if desired.

It is fastened with a latch, which is closed by a cover.

In order to remove it, you first need to pick up and remove the pad, then the strap is simply removed from the case.

On the back of the HONOR Band 6 case there are two charging contacts and a sensor in the center with two LEDs.

Honor Band 3

• Display: 0.91 inches, PMOLED, 128*32, monochrome
• Autonomy: 30 days
• Size: 43*16.5*10.3mm
• Weight: 18 grams

Price: from 1,250 rubles.

Quite an old model, which due to its price and parameters is still relevant. For those who don’t want to spend a lot of money and are looking for a device that will let them know whether they need a fitness bracelet, Band 3 is a good option. It is waterproof up to 50 meters, constantly monitors heart rate and sleep, displays notifications about calls and SMS, counts calories, and understands up to 10 types of physical activity in training mode. Due to the black and white display, the device works for about a month without recharging. The straps are made of rubberized material. The bracelet fits perfectly on the hand and does not interfere with everyday wear. Synchronization is carried out via Bluetooth 4.2 with iOS 8.0 and Android 4.4 and higher.

Advantages:

• Waterproof.
• Convenient and simple synchronization.
• Necessary functionality for novice users.
• Good autonomy.

Flaws:

• The screen does not display large text messages.
• A smart alarm clock does not always work correctly.
• Can count a hand wave as steps.
• The strap is too big for a thin hand.

Display

HONOR Band 6 received a 1.47″ diagonal AMOLED display that is bright and large enough for a bracelet. The screen has touch control, resolution -194×368p. The width is quite enough to display an analog clock, and it is much more convenient to read information from a rectangular display than from a thin and elongated one.

The display has 2.5D rounded edges and an excellent oleophobic coating - there are practically no fingerprints left. Brightness is adjustable. There are 5 levels available, at maximum the bracelet can be used in sunny weather without any problems, readability is good. The backlight mode can also be set to auto - the screen lights up when a gesture is made, sleep - only when activated, or you can set the waiting time - from 5 to 20 minutes.

Interfaces

Control of HONOR Band 6 is based on the use of a touch screen and a single button on the side, which is responsible for an expanded menu of functions and settings, as well as for turning off (when held). Everything else can be done using the screen.

The main screen displays activity indicators interactively. Which ones exactly depend on the installed cover - they can be changed both through the application and directly using the bracelet menu.

Swiping to the right on the display opens a separate screen with activity counters (steps and calories) and a music control screen.

If you scroll to the left, by default you will find yourself on screens with graphs of heart rate and stress for the day and can get to a detailed weather forecast. It is very convenient that so much information is displayed on the screen. Essentially, this reduces the need to log into the app on your smartphone every time.

Swiping up opens the quick settings menu: screen mode, alarm, vibration and options menu. Swiping down shows a list of recent messages from your smartphone. Long pressing the side button brings up the menu to turn off/restart the bracelet.

Among the screen settings in the Favorites menu, you can add what you want to see on the start screens. 5 positions available. From those not covered above, you can select more sleep indicators, however, only basic information will be displayed (time of last sleep without a schedule and details).

In the training settings, you can enable auto-detection - the bracelet itself will try to recognize the activity and offer to enable the desired mode.

There are only 8 main types available: outdoor running, treadmill, walking, outdoor walking, cycling, swimming, elliptical and rowing machine.

Among the other functions of HONOR Band 6 there is a more or less standard set for fitness bracelets: a flashlight (white screen), stopwatch, timer, breathing exercises, blood oxygen measurement SpO2 and general activity statistics.

Honor Band 6 review: smart bracelet with a large AMOLED screen

The sixth version of the Honor Band fitness bracelet was released more than a year and a half after the fifth - probably due to the pandemic and the difficulties associated with it. But the changes compared to the 2019 model are immediately visible: the screen has become significantly larger. In this regard, the new product is much closer to Honor Watch ES. There are also functional innovations, the main one of which is the appearance of a pulse oximeter (SpO2), which the Band 5 did not have, but which the Watch ES did. We have conducted detailed testing.

Let’s add that the Russian version of Honor Band 6 did not receive an NFC module, which, however, is practically useless for us, since you still won’t be able to pay with it.

Technical characteristics of Honor Band 6

• Screen: AMOLED, touch, color, 1.47″, 194×368
• Water protection: yes (5 atm)
• Strap: removable
• Compatibility: Android 4.4+ / iOS 8.0+ devices
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
• Sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate sensor, pulse oximeter
• No camera
• Internet: no
• Microphone: no
• Speaker: no
• Indication: vibration signal
• Battery: 180 mAh
• Dimensions: 43×25×11 mm
• Weight 29 g

The characteristics are quite standard and not much different from both previous generations of Honor Band and competitors. The main exception is the large AMOLED screen, the diagonal of which has increased by about one and a half times compared to Band 5. This is still smaller than that of the Watch ES, but still quite a lot. Well, since the volume of the case has also increased, it was possible to install a larger battery. Just don’t think that this automatically means an increase in battery life, because the screen now consumes more energy. Here we need to look at it in practice, which is what we will do.

Packaging and equipment

The bracelet came to us in a neutral box, mostly white, but with blue sides.

Inside there is the bracelet itself, a quick user guide, a warranty card and a charging cable.

Note that this cable is a bit short - about 60 cm. I would definitely like more, and it is not clear what the manufacturer is guided by. However, this is typical for many wearable devices; sometimes in the box you can find a very short “tail” 45 cm long.

Design

We can characterize the appearance of the bracelet as neutral. You can’t call it particularly stylish, but there’s nothing conspicuous, the bracelet is universal.

The first thing that attracts attention is, of course, the large display. It occupies almost the entire frontal surface. The frame around the image is quite narrow, and if you use a dial with a black background, it is not visible at all.

We also note the slight rounding of the edges of the glass - a solution known as 2.5D. It’s not that it’s very noticeable in this case, but when interacting with the bracelet, the rounding is felt.

The body is made of plastic. There are no metal inserts here, nor is there any attempt to disguise plastic as metal. And this, on the one hand, is honest - they are not trying to convince us that the device is made of more noble material. On the other hand, the overall look is rustic; you can hardly wear such a device with a jacket; it’s unpretentious casual.

On the right side of the device there is a single “Home” / “Menu” button, in the center of which there is a red stripe (apparently to make it more visible). And on the left side there is a large Honor inscription. For what? To be proud, of course.

Like the Honor Band 4 and Band 5, the strap of the new product has a standard “watch” type clasp. The strap itself is silicone and detachable from the case. The problem is that, firstly, it is very difficult to detach, you cannot do without improvised means, and secondly, since the mount is proprietary, it is impossible to buy universal straps from third-party manufacturers and use them with Band 6.

On the back of the case there are contacts for connecting a charger and optical sensors for heart rate and the amount of oxygen in the blood.

The overall impression of the design is neither good nor bad, rather normal. The most interesting thing about the device is the screen. It's the first thing that catches your eye, so we'll test it in detail.

Screen

As already noted, the main feature of the bracelet is a fairly large, by the standards of this form factor, AMOLED screen with a diagonal of 1.47″ and a resolution of 194×368. Therefore, we paid special attention to its testing. Below is the conclusion of Alexey Kudryavtsev.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, noticeably better than that of Google Nexus 7 (2013)), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a lower speed than in the case of regular glass. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than those of the Google Nexus 7 2013 screen. For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected when the screens are turned off:

The screen on the bracelet is only slightly lighter (brightness according to photographs is 107 versus 105 for the Nexus 7) and does not have a pronounced tint. The reflection ghosting is weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. In the settings there is a brightness adjustment (5 steps). When the white field was displayed in full screen, the maximum value (5 on the scale) of brightness was 450 cd/m², the minimum (1 on the scale) was 70 cd/m². Taking into account the good anti-glare properties, such a maximum brightness will allow you to see the image on the watch screen in conditions of strong illumination (a clear day outside). In flashlight mode, the screen brightness increases to 470 cd/m².

On the graphs of brightness (vertical axis) versus time (horizontal axis) there is significant modulation, but the minimum brightness value does not decrease to 0:

During rapid eye movement or in the test for the stroboscopic effect, flickering is visible, and the brightness clearly decreases to 0; apparently, the modulation phase is distributed over zones, and several zones fall into the field of view of the sensor. However, it is unlikely that such flickering will lead to increased fatigue, especially considering the fact that there is no particular point in looking at this screen for a long time.

This screen uses an AMOLED matrix - active matrix organic light-emitting diodes. A full-color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B) in equal numbers, as confirmed by a fragment of a microphotograph:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

The spectra are typical for OLED - the primary color areas are well separated and appear as relatively narrow peaks:

Accordingly, the coverage is noticeably wider than sRGB. Note that the colors of regular images optimized for devices with sRGB screens appear unnaturally saturated on screens with a wide color gamut without appropriate correction:

Pay attention to the tomatoes and the shade of the girl's face. The color temperature of the white and gray fields is approximately 7500 K, and the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) varies from 3 to 5 units depending on the brightness. The color balance, at least on the white field, is good. Black is just black from any angle. It is so black that the contrast setting is not applicable in this case. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the white field is excellent. True, when the white color deviates even at small angles, it acquires a slight blue-green tint. The screen has excellent viewing angles with a much smaller drop in brightness when looking at the screen at an angle compared to LCD screens. In general, the quality of the screen can be considered very high.

Software and features

Let's see what the bracelet is capable of. To work, it must be connected to the Huawei Health mobile application, which is familiar to us from other devices from the manufacturer.

There are no surprises here, so we will not dwell in detail on general descriptions, but will move straight to the most interesting - training, measuring blood oxygen levels, sleep and working with dials.

Workout

Honor Band 6 has the same 10 training modes as in Honor Band 5. Except that they may be called a little differently: for example, here it’s not “walking indoors”, but simply “walking”, not “free training”, but “ different." Here's the full list:

• running outside
• treadmill
• walking outside
• a ride on the bicycle
• exercise bike
• swimming in the pool
• walking
• rowing machine
• ellipse
• other

As before, in most of them you can track your heart rate, including setting threshold values, the achievement of which the bracelet should signal.

However, the number itself - 10 modes - seems very modest by today's standards.

In addition, we were criticized for the work of outdoor training using the GPS of a smartphone (the bracelet does not have its own GPS receiver). Let's say you start cycling and see this picture.

“Move to an open area outdoors to receive a GPS signal and repeat,” the message reads. The photographs clearly show that we are located right on the street (and there were no awnings or other interference with the signal from the satellite). Trying to click on the checkbox, start the workout again, and even rebooting the device did not help. Only about 10-15 minutes after the next attempt, the watch suddenly agreed to start training.

There is an assumption that for some reason the bracelet cannot connect to the smartphone and, therefore, access GPS data. If you unlock your smartphone before training and synchronize the bracelet with the application, then immediately after that the training starts.

It is curious that if you choose to walk outside, although the problem with GPS will remain, the device will offer to start a workout without it, only warning that it will not be able to build a track. Why this option is not offered in the case of a bicycle ride is unclear.

One last thing: we noticed one strange thing in the statistics. Look at the screenshot below.

This is information on cycling speed. Basically, everything is correct and accurate, but for some reason, at the very end of the journey, the bracelet decided that the author had suddenly accelerated to 42 km/h. This is, to put it mildly, unlikely. Another failure in transmitting GPS data from your smartphone? If you look at the world optimistically, then you can assume that the manufacturer will fix this in future firmware versions.

Sleep tracking

The bracelet automatically tracks sleep, and does it quite correctly. After using the device for more than a week, we did not notice a single case where the results were radically different from reality. However, we note that he notices awakenings only during serious activity. Let’s say if you woke up in the middle of the night, checked the time (by pressing a button on the bracelet), and fell asleep again, then Honor Band 6 may not recognize this as an awakening - it simply records it as a “rapid sleep”. It’s another matter if you got out of bed, went to the toilet or poured a glass of water. Then yes, it will be noted.

What’s also interesting is that the device’s sleep advice can sometimes be unrealistic and overly demanding. For example, the bracelet considers the normal time for going to bed and waking up to be 22:00 and 6:00, respectively. This is, of course, very true from the point of view of a healthy lifestyle, but difficult to achieve from the point of view of the lifestyle available to most of us. If you went to bed at 11 pm, let alone after midnight, the app the next day will say it's too late.

Of course, the device and app also criticize you for not getting enough sleep. But if, on the contrary, you sleep too much, you will also read persistent advice (“This is more than the recommended amount”).

Measuring blood oxygen levels

Like many other wearable devices in 2020-2021, Honor Band 6 can measure the amount of oxygen in the blood (SpO2). And, I must admit, the results demonstrated by it caused us fewer complaints than in the case of the vast majority of other devices. Let us remind you of our testing method: we simply take measurements several times in a row, following all the recommendations for fit, screen orientation, etc. And we look at how many measurements were successful (for many devices this figure is around 50%) and what the spread of results was ( there is also a lot of inconsistency here).

So, five measurements in a row using the Honor Band 6 - all successful - gave the following results: 98%, 96%, 98%, 100%, 99%. In principle, with a norm of 95%-98% this is very plausible. Unless 100% is a bit of an overkill. As a rule, we encounter much more critical jumps between dimensions. So we consider the test successful.

However, you should remember: Honor Band 6 is not a medical device, the bracelet is not intended for the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of diseases, and the measurement results can only be used for personal reference purposes.

Other features

Of course, the bracelet can display notifications. Even quite long. However, if they are too long, there is no way you will be able to watch them all. In addition, the sender's name is almost always not shown in full. The icon of the application that sent it is displayed at the top of the notification.

Honor Band 6 can also track stress. It is clear that all this is done, first of all, based on heart rate data. But we checked - yes, the result is quite true. Those moments when there were some important and exciting events, the device marks with orange stripes as an average stress level. However, we never managed to reach a high level (despite a trip to another city by plane, two speeches at conferences, a couple of forced runs, etc.). In general, the device here is much less strict than in relation to sleep.

Finally, we note the impressive selection of dials (at the time of testing there were 85 of them), as well as the ability to use an arbitrary image as the basis for a dial. It is very easy to download it from your smartphone.

True, there is a possibility that the light selected picture will consume more battery than standard dials with a predominantly black background - this is a feature of AMOLED screen technology.

Finally, we will simply list other applications that do not require detailed explanations: “Weather”, “Timer”, “Stopwatch”, “Alarm clock”, “Phone search”, “Breathing exercises”, “Flashlight” (a white field is displayed on the screen, the brightness rises to the maximum).

Some functions only work in conjunction with Honor smartphones running Magic UI 2.0 or higher: remote camera control and female cycle tracking. And music control works on any Android smartphone, but does not work with iOS. It is not entirely clear what is so specific about these features and why they cannot be implemented on all platforms.

Autonomous operation

We tested the bracelet with the screen brightness set to maximum, heart rate and sleep were measured automatically, in addition there were several SpO2 checks and several workouts totaling about an hour. In this mode, Honor Band 6 worked for a little over eight days.

The manufacturer promises 14 days of “standard use” and 10 days of “intensive use.” Our regime roughly corresponded to what is meant by “intensive”. Probably, if you reduce the screen brightness to medium, the result will be exactly as stated. Another thing is that 60 minutes of training per week, which is exactly how much is expected in the “intensive” mode, is still very little. Even a couple of bike rides is more. Or two lessons in the pool. We'd say an hour of exercise per week is less than average. Accordingly, be prepared for the fact that if this indicator is exceeded, the battery life will also significantly decrease.

As a plus, we note that the battery discharges evenly, that is, 4-5 days after a full charge you have 50% left, and over the same period the charge level drops to zero. We regularly observe a different situation when testing wearable devices: from 100% to 50% the battery takes a long time to discharge, and then much faster. So we can praise the manufacturer for this result.

Honor Band 6 has another big advantage. The bracelet charges quickly even from a regular one-amp charger. Having connected it to the network when 5% of the charge remained, after 15 minutes we saw 60%, and after another 15 minutes - 90%. Thus, we can say that it is enough to charge the bracelet for only half an hour to then actively use it for a whole week. But from 90% to 100% the charge takes longer to replenish. However, fully charging the bracelet takes less than an hour, and this is an excellent result.

conclusions

Honor Band 6 will go on sale in Russia on May 4 at a price of 4,490 rubles, but if you pre-order through the Honor website, you can get a 1,000 ruble discount. Is it a lot or a little?

The new product has two indisputable advantages: firstly, a fairly large AMOLED screen (in this regard, it’s especially nice that you can put any photo as the background of the dial), secondly, more than a week of operation on a single charge, even with active use and rapid recharging. In addition, the blood oxygen levels of this device were much more reliable than most other models that have passed through our hands.

We liked the design less, as well as the work of the training - I want to believe that the manufacturer will solve the problem with receiving GPS data in future firmware.

Returning to the question of price, it is worth comparing the new product with Honor Band 5 and Honor Watch ES, since in terms of functionality they are close. The first costs about 2,500 rubles, the second can be bought for about 8,000 rubles. It turns out that Honor Band 6 is approximately in the middle, but if you take into account the 1000 rubles discount, then it is much closer to Band 5. And then this offer turns out to be very attractive, since Band 6 is distinguished not only by a significantly larger screen than that of Band 5, but and better autonomy, surpassing even the Honor Watch ES in this parameter, since with a smaller screen area it has the same battery as the Honor Watch ES.

Software and functionality

To control HONOR Band 6 from your smartphone, you will need to install the Huawei Health application. Perhaps this is one of the most sophisticated and convenient applications on this topic.

The main screen displays all the main functions and data from the bracelet. The workout recording menu stores very detailed data for each session. What is captivating is that they are all presented in the form of graphs or visual graphics.

For example, graphs of heart rate, cadence and speed are available, as well as pace and separately detailed data. This allows you to look at the training from the outside and correctly calculate, for example, the required heart rate zones.

The application also contains detailed information on heart rate (TruSeen 4.0), stress level and blood oxygen saturation. TruSleep 2.0 sleep quality monitoring technology is very well implemented: very detailed visualization on the graph, as well as all the main points are perfectly described and explained, advice is given for each indicator.

What’s convenient is that all indicators can be viewed in different time frames. For example, it's easy to look at how much sleep you averaged per day in the past month or even year and compare it to your current level. Thus, the bracelet will help you adjust your schedule and lead a healthier lifestyle by monitoring your habits and maintaining the necessary activity.

For some reason, some workouts, such as cycling, can only be started from the application. Perhaps this has something to do with the use of GPS, which in the case of cycling training cannot be turned off.

New screen covers can be downloaded through the app, and there are many free options available. It’s nice that you can load many covers into the bracelet’s memory at once, and then change them only using the bracelet itself. It is also possible to set your own image of your choice as the background.

Operation and training

The first thing worth noting is that the bracelet is almost not felt on the hand, despite its slightly increased dimensions. A very soft silicone strap, hypoallergenic and non-irritating to the skin, also helps with this. When turning the hand, the body also does not rest against it, which does not interfere, for example, with doing push-ups while wearing a bracelet (many fitness watches cause discomfort during such exercises).

HONOR Band 6 measures heart rate quite accurately. In training mode, you can easily rely on its readings to understand what heart rate zone you are in. It is very convenient that when you start any workout, the display displays a separate screen displaying heart rate, distance and heart rate zones with bright color differentiation.

There are 5 stages: warm-up, fat burning, aerobic, anaerobic and critical - all limits can be adjusted in the application. In addition, the training time is calculated.

The bracelet also has an auto-detection function for training. It usually kicks in after 20-30 minutes of walking or other activity, so it may be useful in a limited number of cases.

At the same time, training records are available from the bracelet itself, with graphs and almost all the same information as from a smartphone.

All that remains is to say a special thank you to the developers for such detail, especially for the graphs on the bracelet display and the breakdown of the workout over time in different heart rate zones. It’s very convenient to find out after a run how well you did it. Also, for example, when jogging, the bracelet reacts with vibration for each kilometer covered and shows the pace for it.

The distance is not always displayed correctly if the workout does not use GPS, but when it is completed, the bracelet prompts you to adjust the final distance so that you can achieve acceptable accuracy.

The only difficulties when using the HONOR Band 6 arose during the “bicycle” type of training with GPS: the bracelet tries to determine the location for a very long time and it does not always succeed. As a result, you can’t count on building a normal track or you’ll have to wait a long time for weather by the sea. Perhaps the problem is in the current firmware or interaction with a specific smartphone with old Android 5.2.

The autonomy of HONOR Band 6 is quite decent - in practice, the bracelet lasts about 10-12 days of use in active mode. Since the display is AMOLED, light images will consume more power, so economical covers have a black background.

The battery is charged using a magnetic connector through contacts on the case. Interestingly, the bracelet supports fast charging. It charges up to 50% in literally 10-15 minutes and in about an hour - up to 100%.

Honor Band 4 Running

• Display: 0.5 inches, OLED, 48*88, monochrome
• Autonomy: 14 days
• Size: 40.5*14.8*11.2mm
• Weight: 20 grams

Price: from 1,050 rubles.

Band 4 Running, as is easy to understand from the name, was created for those who run. The model has two mounting options - on the laces of sneakers and on the hand. The bracelet will automatically switch to the desired mode based on the way it is worn. Being on your hand, it functions as a watch, a pedometer, analyzes sleep and acts as a smart alarm clock, reminds you to move, helps you find your smartphone, notifies you of a message or call, and tells you about calories burned. By fixing it on the leg, the user will receive an analysis of the workout based on 7 key parameters. The bracelet strap is made of elastic, breathable material and is available in two colors – red and green. The device is waterproof up to 50 meters, so you can leave it in the shower, pool, and when washing your hands.

Advantages:

• Accurate pedometer.
• Convenient fastening mechanism.
• Easy.
• Excellent analysis of running training.
• Good autonomy.
• Convenient charging.

Flaws:

• The smart alarm clock works mediocre.
• The display is not readable in the sun.
• Not very sensitive vibration.