Huawei Fit

Last year’s Android Wear-powered Huawei Watch didn't offer much in the way of fitness smarts, but it acts as the perfect segue to the Huawei Fit, marking the company’s first full step into the fitness tracker space. 

Or, is it more of a half-step?

The Huawei Fit looks and feels enough like a proper effort, with features like waterproofing, continuous heart rate monitoring, up to six days of battery life, and the training plan feature, which helps guide you along your fitness journeys. 

If those are your only needs, Huawei’s wearable will probably satisfy you - though it doesn't seem to do a whole lot else to justify its $129 price tag. It looks a lot like the Pebble Time Round, but it lacks the little things that work to set it apart, like its soulful interface, music playback and native app support.

And it doesn’t offer built-in GPS functionality, barometer, or a color AMOLED display found in the Samsung Gear Fit 2 for about $50 more.

With so many option available, is this tracker worth your cash? We’re currently digging deeper into the fitness functionality of the Huawei Fit, but stay tuned for a full review shortly.

Design

Huawei’s fitness tracker 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.

It’s clad in an aluminum enclosure, and capped on its top with a plastic-covered LCD touchscreen, which supports simple gestures, like tapping and multi-directional swiping. 

Surrounding the 208 x 208 monochromatic ambient-lit display, Huawei added a handy ring that shows the minute markers, which works in tandem with a few of the built-in watch faces to give you an analog-esque look at the time.

Flipped over, its heart rate sensor comes into view along along with the pogo pins used to charge the Fit on its included charging dock. Like other fitness trackers, Huawei’s uses photoplethysmography to track your heart rate. If you’re curious how it works, you can read more about that right here.

Lastly, the Fit supports any 18mm watch strap you may already have laying around. For us, this was the perfect opportunity to swap in the Mode bands we use on the Huawei Watch. This fitness tracker would also look great with a NATO strap.

Performance

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. What’s better is that it doesn’t require being removed before hopping into the shower, as it’s waterproof up to 5ATM.

Speaking on its interface, what’s here isn’t too different from most touch-based trackers. If you’ve used Android Wear, 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 swipe to the right to dig a little deeper. 

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

But how does it perform when it comes to tracking fitness? We’ve been spending time with Huawei’s beta software and the early results are rather promising. Step tracking appears to be accurate, as does the heart rate tracker - though gathering a steady reading may require you to wear the Fit a little tighter than you would a regular watch.

Currently, the Huawei Fit can track your walks, runs, as well as your time on a bicycle or treadmill. Huawei told us that swim tracking is coming soon, which would be a natural fit along with its waterproofing. 

If you’re curious about GPS functionality, this tracker doesn’t have native capability like the Samsung Gear Fit 2, but it can utilize your phone’s GPS signal.

While you’re working out, the Fit continues to track your heart rate and shows it right on the workout screen. We’re happy to see that users can pause an activity, not just stop it. This makes it easy to come back to a workout later on without having to start all over.

The Huawei Fit can track your sleep, though it only shows the metrics in the Huawei Wear app. Speaking of which, the iOS and Android-compatible companion app, which now acts as a home to all Huawei wearables, offers a clean user interface and makes it simple to check out your activity. 

Inside of the app, you can also set up a training plan for a distance and time-based goal, whether it be walking, running or cycling. Many fitness trackers just track what you do, so it’s a neat feature that the Fit can help you achieve your goals down the line.

We haven’t had the Fit unit long enough to exhaust its advertised six days of battery life, but it looks to be an accurate claim. Huawei states that the Fit’s 80mAh battery can last up to 30 days on standby mode.

Early verdict

Huawei’s Fit rocks a low profile and looks a lot like its Honor Band Z1, which we reviewed earlier in the year. 

Like that fitness tracker, this one also doesn’t appear to bring anything new to the wearables space, but it could end up being a pretty competent option for those with a particular desire for heart rate tracking, waterproofing, and a long battery life. 

However, there are a few missing elements that could keep it from achieving excellence amongst its skilled peers, namely the lack of media controls and native GPS, as well as its rather high asking price of $129. Stay tuned for the full review for our final verdict on the Huawei Fit.