These days, a lot of users consider buying a smartwatch over a fitness band as they offer a bigger, broader display and even act as a regular timepiece. Typically, fitness bands have a pill-shaped design with big bezels and a smaller display. Huawei has tried to change that with its latest Band 6 tracker by offering a larger display and an attractive design.
It comes with continuous heart rate tracking, SpO2, sleep monitoring, 96 workout modes, to name some of the top features. It is priced under Rs 5,000 and is seen competing against Xiaomi’s popular Mi band series. Here’s our detailed review of Huawei Band 6.
Huawei Band 6 review: What is good?
The latest wearable from Huawei has a better design and display than most of the affordable fitness bands in the market. The device has a big 1.47-inch screen with slim bezels around it, which is just great as you don’t usually get to see this in the lower segment. The screen is not at all dull and renders vibrant colours – all thanks to its AMOLED screen. The touch-sensitive display is so good that by just seeing the band, some of the users might buy it.
The Huawei Band 6 has a good enough build quality. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image)
The smart band has a polycarbonate body. It is water-resistant up to 5ATM, and it can be submerged in up to 50 metres of water. Huawei claims that the Band 6 ships with UV-treated and dirt-resistant silicone straps.
Huawei offers attractive watch faces, which you can choose from the company’s Health app. There is an auto-screen feature on the smartwatch, which lets you keep the screen on for 5 minutes. Though, it doesn’t always work. This is also the case with the raise to wake up feature. Huawei isn’t offering the Always-on-Display (AoD) feature.
The overall experience is just seamless and I had no issues while navigating throughout the UI. The user interface is simple and you will be able to access most of the features very quickly. The touch response was also good.
However, there is no built-in GPS support on the Huawei Band 6, so the device tracks the distance with the help of your smartphone. As per our testing, the smartwatch can offer you almost accurate distance data, which is better than most budget watches.
The app offers data on heart rate, pace, cadence with a graph. It shows calories, average speed, steps and the route on the map. This is impressive as you usually don’t get all this data on the budget smart bands. I liked the fact that Huawei displays a disclaimer on the app, which says “there may be slight inaccuracies in this data due to hardware limitations.”
The Huawei Band 6 has a vibrant display. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image)
Huawei also lets you control music by just swiping left on the band, which a lot of brands should offer as it becomes a bit annoying to not have quick access to music during a workout.
It can continuously monitor your heart rate and the readings seemed fine. However, the band didn’t send high or low heart rate alerts, which is usually the case with most budget wearable trackers. I had set the alerts to 50 (low) and 100 (high) to check whether the band will warn me. The device also occasionally showed oddly low readings, which is a bit strange and concerning as well. I would like to mention that the app doesn’t show sleep’s heart rate data in the sleep section and you will see it in a separate section.
The SpO2 tracking was also close to accurate when compared to an oximeter. It was a bit difficult to manually check SpO2 on the Huawei Band 6 as it occasionally showed errors while checking blood oxygen levels even when I was not moving my hand.
Huawei’s health app explains every feature in detail to offer users a better understanding of the data that is being drawn from the activities. The app has a sleep section, where it not only displays sleeping patterns but also explains each one of them in detail, including why sleep is important, what you should do and more. You won’t see these on most of the budget wearables. Huawei’s Health app also gives points for “Deep sleep” and “breathing quality,” and categorises them as Normal, Low or High.
A look at the sleep data provided by the company’s Health app. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image)
The app also tells you if the quality of your sleep was okay, the ideal time to sleep, how one can improve sleep quality, daily sleep quality scores, what can help promote deep sleep and more. You get a proper weekly analysis as well. All this is impressive as the level of data and guidance that you are getting at a budget price is commendable. During my usage period, the smartwatch registered accurate sleep data.
The Huawei Band 6 can track your stress levels too. It is good to see that brands have started offering this feature at a budget price. I have tested this feature on a few devices and they haven’t really offered reliable data. But, the Huawei Band 6 seemed to offer close to accurate data in terms of stress levels, during my usage period.
The fitness band can continuously measure your stress levels, which is a good thing as you won’t be required to manually check stress levels every 30 minutes. The company does give an option to disable continuous tracking if users want to save the battery. You do get the option to manually check for stress via the app. If needed, one can also do breathing exercises with the help of the band.
The Huawei Band 6 is currently selling for Rs 3,990 on Amazon. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image)
The Huawei Band 6 comes with around 96 different workouts, which is impressive as you will hardly find wearables in this price range with so many modes. But the step tracking is not very accurate and there was a jump of around 20 steps per 100 steps.
Huawei has also added an auto-lock feature on the band. Once enabled, the band will automatically lock the screen when you are not wearing it. Huawei has added this feature to offer users privacy as we receive all message notifications on the band too.
The company claims that this band will deliver up to two weeks of battery life, but our unit lasted for around four days with moderate usage. This includes continuous heart rate, stress, sleep and SpO2. I used the band for tracking one hour of my daily activity as well as for notifications.
The Huawei Band 6 can show all the notifications of your smartphone. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image)
Huawei Band 6 review: What is not good?
The disappointing part is the straps of the Huawei Band 6 are not removable. Brands usually offer this option to users, but Huawei has taken a bold decision as this could be the very reason for users to avoid this band. So, if the straps get damaged, then one will have to buy a new wearable.
There is also menstrual cycle tracking, which is a good feature to get period reminders. Though, the app failed to send reminders. But, this is something that Huawei can fix with a software update.
Huawei Band 6 review: Should you buy it?
Huawei Band 6 is a good fitness wearable that you can get under the Rs 5,000 price segment. The smart band offers several workout modes, important health tracking features, and a great display with vibrant colours. Those who don’t like wearables that have a very compact form factor and a small screen should go with the Huawei Band 6 as it features a perfect display size.
The Huawei Band 6 is a good smart band for tracking health. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image) 
The Huawei Band 6 has a good enough build quality. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image)
The Huawei Band 6 has a vibrant display. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image)
A look at the sleep data provided by the company’s Health app. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image)
The Huawei Band 6 is currently selling for Rs 3,990 on Amazon. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image)
The Huawei Band 6 can show all the notifications of your smartphone. (Photo credit: Ankita Garg/ Express image)
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