A competitive and powerful fitness tracker with SpO2 monitoring function works very well “Huawei Band 6” .
Fitness tracker is a great alternative to smart watches, it provides a simple way to get all the necessary data people need from exercise. Enter the Huawei Band 6, which is an interesting addition to the fitness tracker market, which brings smart watch functions to a slimmer and simpler design. But should you buy it ( Check Latest price at Amazon. ) ?
Huawei Band 6 Hardware
When it comes to the design and hardware of the Huawei Band 6, Huawei made a fitness watch that looks and generally feels much more premium than its price. The Band 6 is made of a polymer casing and has a two-tone build. The plastic portion at the bottom isn’t the best quality, but for what it’s worth, it’s on par with the feel and quality of most other fitness trackers at this price range.
The polymer casing is one of the parts of this device that shines above other fitness trackers at this price range; it has an Apple-esque feel to it, replicating the general look of the aluminum Space Grey Apple Watches.
You’ll find the power button on the right side, which doubles as a back button and a menu selector. It’s also the only physical mode of interaction of this fitness tracker. This button is tactile and offers a similar use case to Huawei’s Watches like GT 2 Pro.
The Huawei Band 6 comes in 4 color variants: Graphite Black, Forest Green, Amber Sunrise, and Sakura Pink. The colors refer to that of the straps, not the color of the Band 6 itself. The casing of the Band 6 comes in either black or gold.
The silicone strap of the Huawei Band 6 is quite decent; it’s just shy of the quality of Samsung’s entry-level Galaxy Watches. The straps are also user-removable, so if you wish to change up the look, you’ll be able to swap out your current strap for a new one.
The main star of Huawei’s Band 6 has to be its 1.47-inch AMOLED screen. The screen has a resolution of 194 x 368, and it surprisingly operates very well. The screen is just a beat slower than the screens on my smartwatches, and it’s great to see a proper colored AMOLED panel on a device this cheap.
While the vibration motor on the Band 6 is not up to speed with Huawei’s more expensive offerings, it still does a good job at giving you haptic feedback for workouts, alarms and notifications.
The Huawei Band 6 is essentially a rebranded Honor Band 6, which of course, is also owned by Huawei. That said, the company did an excellent job with the material choice, making the device feel more expensive.
Huawei Band 6 Battery Life
When it comes to battery life, the Huawei Band 6 is just insanely good. This device claims to have a battery life of 2 weeks without needing to charge, and little to my surprise, it achieves that consistently without fail. I’ve reviewed Huawei’s beefy Watch GT 2 Pro, and even with my skepticism of its claim to have 2-weeks of battery life, that device achieved it quite easily. It’s even more surprising on a much smaller, more comfortably-sized wearable.
During my entire review period, I enabled 24/7 heart monitoring of the Huawei Band 6 and never felt the need to charge the device during this period. Band 6 charges via the magnetic charging cable in the box and typically takes less than an hour to fully charge.
Overall, I was once again impressed by Huawei’s excellent battery life in its wearable technology. If you want a device that can continuously monitor your heart rate without sacrificing battery life, then the Band 6 may be the best on the market.
Health Monitoring and Sensors
Through health monitoring, Huawei Band 6 provides considerable versatility for such a small and affordable tracker. On the one hand, you can get 96 different training modes, including swimming, etc., because the device is waterproof to 5 ATM. This means you can descend to 50 meters.
The most impressive feature of Huawei Band 6 is that it can monitor blood oxygen saturation and heart rate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For a device at this price, SpO2 tracking is a good addition, allowing you to check your blood oxygen level at a glance. Most dials contain heart rate elements. This is very convenient when you can’t access a specific app to measure your heart rate, but you still want to get metrics there for reference.
I also tested the stress monitoring on the device, but like GT 2 Pro, it is based on your survey in the Huawei Health app and is by no means an accurate basis for the stress level readings. However, applying breathing exercises is a good supplement to counteract the feeling of stress.
Accuracy
Speaking of the accuracy of these sensors, I found that it can be compared with Huawei’s more expensive Watch GT 2 Pro, that is to say, you will get a lot of accuracy. The SpO2 and heart rate monitors of these devices gave similar results, but differed in a few points. The best part is that Band 6 still maintains its impressive 2-week battery life, and these sensors are active 24/7.
The only sensor in Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro that Band 6 does not have is the electrocardiogram or ECG sensor. However, this can only be found in the newer version of GT 2 Pro, and is not common in the price of Huawei Band 6.
I also tested the Huawei Band 6 against GT 2 Pro and Samsung Galaxy Watch to verify the accuracy of sleep tracking. In general, Band 6 does a good job of monitoring, the only thing to note is that it does not consider sleep interruption, just like on the more expensive GT 2 Pro and Galaxy Watch. In addition, Band 6 is as accurate as other portable devices.
Overall, Huawei Band 6 provides excellent health monitoring and fitness tracking options for such an affordable device. This is probably the cheapest portable device you will find, and it supports continuous SpO2 monitoring.
Software Experience
One of the only factors that makes this tracker different from other fitness trackers is the software experience. Huawei Band 6 has some minor software related issues, these minor issues will affect the entire experience, mainly due to lack of app support.
The Huawei Health app is a great complement to track your exercises and record sensor logs. However, you cannot download it from the Google Play store, so you have to download the APK from the Huawei website, which requires several attempts to connect and pair with my band.
As for the app itself, its layout is very neat and all the information you need is clear at a glance, such as your steps, sleep time, and current heart rate.
The main problem with Huawei’s health app is the lack of compatibility with third-party apps, which can be accessed by many other trackers, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Fit. The only market you’ll find is Huawei’s watch face library, which allows you to download different watch faces for your bracelet.
Another problem with this device is how to handle notifications. Band 6 follows Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro practice. It gives you an introduction including some notifications, and you can’t click any more for more information. In a text message, you cannot reply from your wrist, you can only turn off the notification.
Since there is no microphone or speaker on this device, the device will notify me every time I receive a call, which annoys me a bit. All you can do is see who’s calling and then hang up; you can’t continue the call on your wrist like you can on a dedicated smartwatch.
In addition to these minor annoyances, the device is surprisingly nimble and quick to enter different menus and access features such as SpO2 monitoring, exercise modes, and other applications.
Should You Buy the Huawei Band 6?
Overall, the Huawei Band 6 is an excellent device that can start to monitor indicators such as heart rate, sleep, and fitness; The device is stylish and compact, and it can provide you with most of the main functions of the latest smartwatch, such as SpO2 Tracking. Check Latest price at Amazon.
If you are trying a portable device on the market for the first time, but you don’t want to spend more than $150 to buy one, I highly recommend this device.
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