Huawei Watch Fit Elegant Edition review
Introduction
The Huawei Watch Fit Elegant Edition smartwatch launched in late March for about £110/€130. Its internals are identical to those of the regular Watch Fit, while on the outside it got a luxurious makeover and two new variants.
We received the Frosty White version for a review that comes with a white strap and a golden-colored stainless steel frame on the body. The other Elegant variant is Midnight Black with a silver frame, but ours is definitely better looking.
The wearable looks and feels familiar, and that shouldn’t be a surprise – it is also selling under the name Honor Watch ES, which we reviewed back in September. But we’ll now examine in detail what this new Edition changes and if it’s worth the price premium.
Build quality
Huawei upgraded this Watch Fit with a fluoroelastomer strap – it is technically rubber but is more sturdy, sleek, and tolerates water in the long term better than a regular silicone band. Even with the stainless steel frame, the body weighs 27 grams (without the strap itself), which is extremely light and comfortable.
The display of the Huawei Watch Fit is a 1.64” AMOLED unit with a single button on the right side. This wearable is barely larger than a smart band, but thanks to the bright display, touchscreen capabilities, GPS, and SpO2, it qualifies as a smartwatch in this rather vague division.
The rectangular display is not obtrusive, with its width just 30mm. It might be slightly too long for smaller wrists, but we wouldn’t call it “a women’s watch” – it is a stylish, elegant addition to the outfit to anyone.
Since the band is not regular silicon, the watch holds nicely in extreme conditions like swimming, running (and the subsequent sweat) or even bathing in the tub with it. It doesn’t retain water and feels comfortable at all times. Also, thanks to its light weight, the Watch Fit is very comfortable to sleep with.
Fitness tracking
Huawei is sticking to its own Lite OS for a bunch of good reasons – it supports a wide range of sensors, allows for very long battery life and it even gained support for third-party apps recently although those are still in short supply. The watch comes complete with 12 animated quick workouts and 44 standard movement demonstrations – allowing it to serve as your coach for training even at home, which may well be the norm for a lot of people these days.
Additionally there’s support for tracking 11 sports modes like running, swimming, or cycling. There are 85 more custom workout modes, bringing the total up to 96, in all of which the Watch Fit Elegant Edition tracking your heart rate, calories and duration plus a few other metrics where applicable.
The Huawei Watch Fit Elegant Edition can measure blood oxygen levels (SpO2), heart rate and even calculate stress. The Huawei TruSleep 2.0 technology tracks sleep cycles and give personalized advice, depending on the your sleep patterns. The watch also has GPS, and we can confirm it works just as good as a smartphone’s, so there’s no need to take both devices for a run.
However Huawei data still can’t be transferred to other platforms – there’s no support for Garmin, Strava, Suunto, or other third-party GPX trackers and running apps.
Battery Life
Since there’s not much happening on display and the features are well optimized, battery life can go on for days. Huawei advertises a 10-day life of the Watch Fit Elegant Edition on a single charge, but that comes with conditions – basic sleep tracking, 30 minutes of workout per week and fewer interactions with the screen.
In actual use the Huawei Watch Fit Elegant Edition lasted us 7-8 days on a single charge, including running and swimming for hours, constant heart rate tracking and frequent SpO2 measurements, TruSleep 2.0 turned on all the time, and even some notifications popped up now and then.
More than a week is a lot better than most other watches in this price category with that kind of sensors, so we’re counting this as a win.
Charging from 0 to 100% takes about 65-70 minutes, and there is a proprietary charger with strong magnets that snap instantaneously to the back of the watch.
Verdict
The Huawei Watch Fit is not a new device on the market, but the Elegant Edition adds a bit of glamour to the active life. It does an excellent job for fitness tracking and an even better job at looking good, catering to those who prefer a more elegant style – a true fashion statement in the world of smartwatches.
The official price might be £110/€130 and we’d call that very good. However Huawei stores in Continental Europe add a Smart Scale 3 as a gift. The UK division also discounts many other smart wearable devices, making the Huawei Watch Fit Elegant Edition a proper steal.
