Huawei launched the Watch 4 sequence in early Might, and it is without doubt one of the finest smartwatches the corporate has ever launched, at the least on paper. We bought a unit for overview early this month, and after testing all the brand new options HarmonyOS 3.0 introduced, we’re prepared with our full impressions.
We bought the all-Titanium unit for overview with an aerospace-grade titanium case and an analogous strap. If you do not have a lot expertise with watch face sizes, the 48mm of this one means it is on the bigger dimension, so that you would possibly need to examine the way it sits in your specific wrist earlier than ordering one.
The very first thing we observed was the totally different appears to be like of the trendy strap – the weather have a extra full design than earlier Huawei watches just like the Final or the three Professional. Having Sapphire Glass on high is not new, however this one is spherical, making the gadget stand out.
Design and construct
The display screen is 1.5″ LTPO AMOLED, which we already noticed within the Watch Final. Nonetheless, the brand new domed glass design and unintrusive bezel make the watch much more pleasing to the attention.
The Titanium strap is the one one within the Watch 4 household with a basic deployant clasp; all different variants, Professional or not, have a pin buckle mechanism. Huawei offered further components within the retail field so the Watch 4 Professional might match on everybody’s wrist.
When corporations put sapphire glass on their smartwatches, they promise full scratch resistance. That is precisely what we skilled in our time with the watch – after a number of actions, together with an ultra-marathon within the mountains with shoulder-high grass and bushes, there is no such thing as a single scratch on the display screen or the physique.
As a result of the glass is domed, it will increase the floor space ever so barely, which additionally makes navigation by menus a bit simpler.
There may be additionally the rotating crown button for fast navigation by menus when fingers are by some means obstructed from touching, for instance, with gloves.
There may be additionally a second programmable button on the suitable facet, and it’s from a conductive materials for health-related options.
Software program
Huawei ships the Watch 4 sequence with Concord OS 3.0. There are a handful of latest options, making the Watch 4 Professional much more interesting gadget to have in your wrist. Watchfaces can convey extra particulars, there are over 100 widgets, and there may be even fundamental multitasking.
The variety of widgets is a bit deceptive as a result of, in actuality, you’re restricted by the variety of playing cards showing with a swipe to the suitable. You may have as much as seven totally different “common playing cards” that may be personalized with totally different combos of information visualized; solely after we add third-party apps from AppGallery will the variety of widgets develop.
Huawei has all the time positioned Well being on the forefront of its ecosystem. The app offers particulars on sleep schedule, pores and skin temperature, blood oxygen ranges, coronary heart charge, lately added ECG and arterial stiffness. All these sounded nice, however they had been out there solely within the smartphone app. Fortunately, with the Watch 4 Professional and its widgets, all the information will be gathered in a single card referred to as Well being Look, together with data on the air high quality and dawn and sundown occasions.
The brand new watch additionally has a separate app, referred to as Well being Look, that does all of the measurements in a row to supply correct and dependable information in the mean time. We advocate utilizing this function and conserving the continual measurements off to protect the battery life, which appears to be getting shorter with each new technology of Huawei smartwatches.
The wearable comes with an eSIM module, however we did not use it in our testing. It additionally has Wi-Fi and GPS, in addition to Bluetooth, however we discovered minor points with all three strategies of connectivity. The wi-fi connectivity is simply 802.11 b/g/n and the connection typically dropped unexpectedly.
Bluetooth does a positive job of placing by the newest notifications, and they’re completely readable on the display screen; a number of the apps even help replies with emojis and pre-recorded messages.
What we did not like was the gradual communication between the smartphone and the smartwatch. There have been a number of ghost notifications; others repeatedly popped up regardless of the very fact they had been already seen and faraway from the telephone. This expertise is unquestionably smoother if in case you have the Huawei Watch 4 Professional linked to a Huawei smartphone.
We did have a problem with the GPS as nicely, nevertheless it was reasonably a distinct segment drawback which may have an effect on solely a handful of customers. We might guess the Watch 4 Professional is designed to be an adjunct for the subtle gentleman who workout routines a few times within the gymnasium or within the park. We put it by a a lot more durable check, going to the mountains the place even cell protection is commonly lacking, and that is when the GPS bought confused and began drawing longer routes, guesstimating the precise place of the wearable.
Fortunately, this reviewer knew his approach out to civilization, however we’d not advocate counting on the Watch 4 Professional location capabilities when occurring an journey.
Battery life
Huawei stopped revealing the battery capability of its wearables a very long time in the past, saying the quantity will not be as necessary because the precise battery life, which is examined in Huawei Labs all over the world. Finally, we discovered it’s 780 mAh within the Professional and 530 mAh within the vanilla variant. The promised battery life is 4.5 days of standard use, which incorporates some notifications, sleep monitoring, one to 2 actions per week and no AOD.
Totally different watch faces can drain the battery in a different way, and we opted for a medium possibility in our first check. We bought over 4 days of battery life on this first run.
The primary cost of the 780 mAh battery was presupposed to take 90 minutes and Huawei recommends pairing the USB charger within the field with a Huawei adapter that helps at the least a 9V/2A charge.
In actuality, the charging time was extra like 100 minutes, which continues to be adequate.
The second check was with the AOD turned on. HarmonyOS 3.0 and the brand new watch faces convey essentially the most difficult shows we have now ever seen on a Huawei wearable. Most of them embody colours and fancy exercise, which isn’t real-time; it’s gathered from the Huawei Well being app by way of Bluetooth when the watch “wakes up”. There’s a warning that AOD would halve the battery life, nevertheless it wasn’t so unhealthy. We bought a snug three-day battery life out of this subsequent cost.
Huawei Watch 4 Professional watch face and its similarly-designed AOD
The Titanium strap doesn’t permit the watch to be simply charged on each wi-fi charger, so for the subsequent charging, we once more used the provided magnetic charger plate however plugged it right into a fundamental USB port as a substitute. On this worst-case situation, it takes 150 minutes for the battery to go from 0 to 100%.
The Huawei Watch 4 Professional additionally has an Extremely-long Battery Life mode, which turns off cellular information, Wi-Fi and all internet-related options. On this mode, we bought 20 days of standard use. On the one hand, that is a tremendous function, and we tip our hat to Huawei. On one other, in these 20 days, we had a wearable with a large battery and top-tier {hardware} that was not utilized. We advocate utilizing this mode solely in emergencies; in any other case, you would be utilizing a €700 smartwatch with the performance of a €200 оne just like the Watch GT 3 SE.
Verdict
The beginning worth of the all-Titanium Huawei Watch 4 Professional is €700 in Continental Europe and £600 in the UK. By the point this overview is out, we’re already seeing slight worth reductions. The Blue and Leather-based variations are cheaper, costing €550/£500, whereas the vanilla Watch4 with its smaller battery, black chrome steel physique and black fluoroelastomer strap is €450/£400.
Huawei often bundles its wearables with a few of its different gadgets, typically at no cost. A purchase order of the Watch 4 Professional in Germany comes with a Scale 3 for simply €9.99 (offered individually for €69). The bundle in France contains Freebuds 5i at no cost, whereas customers in Italy may even add a 3-month subscription to Well being+ at no cost.
Customers who already personal a Watch 3, Watch GT 3, or Watch Final gadget will discover it much less compelling to improve – the updates should not that main.
However for anybody else who wants a dependable, sturdy sensible watch that does every thing, gives a protracted battery life and has some nice aesthetics coupled with nice scratch resistance, the Watch 4 Professional is a good possibility.
