Huawei TalkBand B5

The Huawei TalkBand 5 is the fourth in a line of bluetooth headset and fitness band combos. It has a larger and brighter touch display than its predecessors and a broader feature set that sits in a slicker looking wristband. 

But how does Huawei’s latest proposition fare in a time where texting is preferred over phone calls and and dwindling headphone jacks see more people opting for a pair of bluetooth and microphone-enabled headphones instead of old-school bluetooth earpieces?

Pricing & Availability

The TalkBand B5 launched in August and is available at Huawei stores as well as select retailers across the UAE. It comes in two versions, the Sports Version with black silicon strap for AED 699 (US$ 189) and the Business Version which comes with a Mocha Brown leather strap and a snazzy gold housing for AED799 (US$ 219). 

It’s pricing puts it right up with the FitBit Charge 2, FitBit Versa, Garmin Vivosport and the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro which are great fitness bands teeming with features but alas can’t make or receive calls like the TalkBand B5.

Design & Hardware

The TalkBand B5 isn’t the most discreet looking fitness tracker out there but it sure has an elegant and sophisticated look thanks to a genuine brown leather strap and a casing made of gold-hued stainless steel with polished ceramic bezels. 

It feels like a premium band but is sturdy, durable and able to handle rigorous activity. It is also quite big at 13mm wide and 58mm long but doesn’t look too obtrusive even on smaller daintier wrists. 

It’s also quite light and comfortable when strapped on and you won’t notice it much while going about your day but it might not be something you’d want to wear when you go to sleep.

Popping the headset out from its casing and fitting it back in is a snappy and easy process. You just press two spring loaded buttons at the base of the housing and the headset ejects softly while the top stays safely in place via magnets alleviating any worries about the headset accidentally falling out. 

While the TalkBand B5 isn't waterproof, it is sweat and water resistant which means that it can handle a generous splash while washing up or a bout of rain. But if you go for the leather strap keep in mind that sweat and water can increase wear and tear and make the strap look dull. 

Display & Interface

The 1.13-inch AMOLED touch screen on the TalkBand B5 is bright, vibrant and punchy with decent viewing angles that allow you to get a clear reading even on sunny days with harsh glare. The band’s interface is intuitive and pleasant to use. 

You can flick through the menu carousel smoothly where you can see basics such as time weather and general activity stats including steps taken, sleep history, heart rate, workouts and call history. Tapping on a menu options allows you to delve deeper and view further information and going back is a simple flick to the right.

The settings menu is modest and offers general info about the band, a pairing option, a find-my-phone option that makes your phone emit a sound and a choice between four watch faces. Further settings are available on the phone app where you can manage notifications, enable raise to wake similar to Apple Watch and enable nifty rotate to switch screen feature.

The TalkBand B5’s highlight feature is its ability to receive and make phone calls and it handles that relatively well. You can detach the headset with a simple push of a button and place it in your ear where it sits not too snug but not too loose either, though not suitable for workouts. The band does come with a couple of different earbud sizes if you don’t like how the default earbud fits as well. 

The sound quality on both ends of a call are plenty adequate even in noisy places and we only had a couple of calls drop on us while ejecting the headset. Range on the TalkBand B5 is average for Bluetooth headsets- about 30ft which amounts to 8 or 9 medium stride steps. 

The headset outputs general phone audio from music and video apps which is okay for a quick listen but sound quality is egregious, so you might want to keep a pair of headphones around for prolonged media sessions because this headset is mainly meant for talking. 

Calling features on the headset itself are sparse. You can receive or decline a call by detaching the headset and swiping up or down. Making calls requires you to detach the band as well and uses a list of maximum ten contacts that have to be manually entered through the Huawei phone app. 

The band also stores a brief call history that you can tap on to initiate a call. But if your desired number isn’t in one of these two places you’ll have to use your phone.

Notifications are even more bare-bones, you get a mild buzz on your wrist each time a notification gets pushed from your phone. These can include SMS, third-party apps and email (only subject line) notifications. 

But there appears to be a character limit in place and notifications that surpass a certain length get truncated causing you to pick your phone up to view the message in its entirety. 

iOS users can only have limited notifications that show up on their panel pushed to the band whereas Android users can choose which apps’ notifications get pushed through and avoid being unnecessarily nudged by trivial alerts. 

Where the TalkBand B5 really comes to its own is fitness tracking. It offers the usual features found on mid-range fitness bands such as daily step tracking with a fixed goal of 10,000 steps that you can’t change. Results were accurate for the most part with the band’s pedometer adding just a few steps to the actual total. 

You also get activity reminders in the form of vibrations throughout the day if you’ve been sedentary for a certain amount of time. The band also keeps track of how many minutes and/or hours of standing and moderate-intensity exercises you’ve done that day.

Unfortunately the band can’t automatically detect when you start a workout, a feature present in several fitness bands. Thus you have to manually scroll through the menu and select one of the seven activity modes which include indoor and outdoor running, cycling and walking. 

Based on your chosen workout you can set custom goals like duration, calories burned and distance traveled in miles. If you’re into running you’ll find a few pre-set training plans on the Huawei Health App and use the band in tandem to track your progress but there’s no built-in GPS for location tracking so you’ll have to take your phone with you if you’re planning to exercise outdoors.

All other workouts fall under the free training category which can be a little vague especially when it comes to HIIT workouts and weight training. These workouts usually require different methods of tracking and hence yield results which aren’t always accurate.

Another useful feature on the TalkBand B5 is the ability to see your heart rate in real time while you’re working out, making it easier to maintain an optimal heart beat. You can set the band to either take a heart rate reading when you ask for it or leave it on constant monitoring which can strain battery life. 

On the Huawei Health App you’ll find general advice on target heart rates based on physical activity and set targets for minimum and maximum heart rate levels which then causes the band to buzz when you’re about to reach those limits. 

The band also features an alarm function that vibrates the band at a given time. It is a useful feature especially if you’re a light sleeper but the buzz isn’t too prominent and heavy sleepers are more likely to sleep through it.

Huawei Health app

The Huawei Health app is compatible on devices with Android 4.4 and iOS 9 above which covers any phone released over the past three years or so. It is simple to use for the most part but not as detailed and polished as the FitBit app. 

It manages to gives you a basic overview of your fitness stats in a clear fashion although it would’ve been nice to delve deeper into certain stats, create custom workouts and there’s certainly room for improvement when it comes to data visualization. 

The app also lets you know of your sleeping patterns . The TalkBand B5 features TruSleep technology which Huawei claims can track your sleep very accurately throughout the night and presents you with a chart highlighting deep sleep, light sleep and moments when you were up. 

There’s no easy way to certify whether the results are accurate but it does give you a nifty snapshot of your sleeping habits and possible motivate you to start taking steps to improve them.

On paired Huawei and Honor phones, opening the camera app also lets you use the TalkBand B5 as a remote clicker for taking selfies and photos from afar. There’s also news of voice assistant features coming soon to the device but no word on release. 

Huawei claims that TalkBand B5’s 108 mAh battery can last 3 and half days on a single charge which we found to be true when using the device modestly and, without continuous heart rate monitoring.

With more extensive use such as lengthy phone calls, getting tons of notifications, and enabling options such as TruSleep and continuous heart rate monitoring enabled, the band would usually give up on the second day. It’s not the best battery life in a fitness tracker but thankfully, going from zero to full charge only takes an hour and a half.

Verdict

The Huawei TalkBand B5 is an odd hybrid product that could appeal to active callers who also wish to keep track of fitness activity. It has a slick design that looks good on any wrist.

Bluetooth headsets are losing popularity with millennials and are generally only used by professionals whose jobs rely on talking for most part of the day. Such people can appreciate the Huawei TalkBand B5, especially since it helps them track their health and level of activity.

However, we couldn't quite got accustomed to the whole process of popping out the headset to accept calls and hardly ever found ourselves reaching for it to make calls either. It just didn’t come naturally.  For us, a pair of good wireless headphones along with a fitness tracker such as the FitBit Charge 2 is a better, albeit more expensive solution.