Huawei Band 6 released last year is still the most advanced smartband from Huawei, at least until a successor is released. It’s a very similar smartband to Honor Band 6. The band 6 is a very compact and lightweight device that is designed to help you stay fit and also manage notifications you receive from your phone. It has an AMOLED powered 1.47 inches display and a battery life of up to two weeks. I have used the Huawei Band 6 for about 8 months and in this post, I will be sharing with you everything you need to know about this smartband from its design to display, battery life, fitness tracking features and more.
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If there is one thing I really like about the Huawei Band 6 is its bold design that leaves with an easier to read display. I like that it has lots of fitness tracking features and I’m really impressed by its 2 weeks battery life. However, I’m disappointed that I can’t reply to messages and the connected GPS feature is very shabby. It’s a fine-looking smartband that will make a great choice for tracking indoor activities, but not a good choice for tracking outdoor activities.
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Pros
- Compact and very lightweight design.
- Impressive battery life, up to 14 days.
- A decent fitness tracker.
- Big display with an easy to use interface.
- Very cheap.
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Cons
- SpO2 feature is gimmicky.
- Connected GPS feature is also shabby.
- You can’t reply to notifications.
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Huawei Band 6 Review 2022
Meet the Huawei Health app – The Companion app of Huawei Band 6
Just like other wearable devices from different brands, the Huawei Band 6 requires the Huawei Health app to function. You need this app to setup the Huawei Band 6 the very first time you turn it on. And from the app, you can see tracked metrics like heart rate, sleep and more. You can also enable notifications, download watch faces and reset the device from the app. That’s to say that the Huawei Health app is the companion app for Huawei Band 6.
This app is compatible with both Android and iOS devices. It supports Android 6.0+ and iOS 9.0+ One thing you should know is that since the US banned Huawei, the companion app on both the Google Play Store and the iOS store has not been updated for a while. As a result, if you installed the app from the Google Play store or iOS store, it won’t function properly. You need to download the app from either the Huawei app gallery which comes by default with Huawei smartphones or simply head over to the official website to download the most updated version of the app for Android and iOS devices.
Design
Starting with the design, the Huawei Band 6 is very compact and lightweight. It has a 43 x 25.4 x 10.99 mm dimension and weighs just 18g (excluding straps). I can wear it all day long without feeling any need to remove it. Note that, if it’s too tight on your wrist, it might trap sweat under and this can irritate the skin.
The Huawei Band 6 is no doubt a durable device. It has a case made of polymer with straps made of silicone. The straps can be swapped if you wish to try out a different strap color or material. That’s to say that you can customize your look for the Huawei Band 6 with any compatible strap of your choice.
It is available in four colors; sakura pink, black, green and orange colors. It is also rated 5ATM which means it is swim-proof up to 50 meters. As a result, you can wear it to shower or even swim with it in the pool. Though, it’s not recommended for diving as this can subject the device to intense pressure which can cause malfunctioning.
How to Use The Huawei Band 6
The Huawei Band 6 has a touch-sensitive display with a flat button by the side for easy navigation.
- The side button allows you to go back to the homescreen from anywhere on the device. Also, the side button when pressed from the homescreen takes you to the app menu.
- Swiping left from anywhere on the device other than the homescreen, takes you back to a previous menu.
- Swiping down from the homescreen takes you to the quick panel section from where you can access the settings app, do not disturb mode, find my phone, alarm and screen wake time.
- From the settings menu, you can choose or customize your favorite apps which can easily be accessed by swiping left or right from the homescreen.
- When you swipe up, you get to see your notification messages.
In all, the Huawei Band 6 is very easy to navigate.
Display
The Huawei Band 6 has a 1.47 inches display size that is powered by AMOLED and this is one of the main highlights over its predecessor, Huawei Band 4. And it’s equally very bright and easy to read whether you’re indoors or outdoor.
There are lots of watch faces to choose from, and you can store up to 32 watch faces on the device which will allow you to easily switch between different watch faces. If you want more watch faces, you’ll have to go to the Huawei Health app. However, most of the available watch faces on the app are premium, you have to pay to get some watch faces you like.
The good thing here is that you can store and change the watch right on the device.
Fitness Tracking Features
When you hear a smartband, the first thing that comes to mind is its fitness tracking capability, and in this regard, Huawei Band 6 is fitness-focused. Its equipped with a heart rate sensor, accelerometer and a gyroscope. These sensors enable stress monitoring, step counting, Spo2 and many more activity tracking features.
Activity Tracking Accuracy Tests
It’s a norm for us to check the consistency of any wearable device’s activity tracking features. We do this by comparing it to that of other wearable devices. And in the case of the Huawei Band 6, I compared it to Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, Versa 3 and the Huawei Band 4 Pro.
Steps counting accuracy
I had to check the steps counting accuracy of Huawei Band 6 by comparing it to that of Band 4 Pro and Galaxy Watch 4. From my tests, the Huawei Band 6 is a consistent steps counter. It did count my steps accurately.
It counts your steps and shows the total calories burnt. It also features an activity ring that monitors total steps, active sections and heart rate pumping activities like a vigorous or moderate activity.
Heart rate tracking accuracy
I also compared the heart rate tracking accuracy of the Huawei Band 6 to the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and a manual heart rate tracker. From my tests, Huawei Band 6 was quite consistent most of the time in tracking my heart rate. It tracks your heart rate 24/7 and will show your heart rate range from low to high heart rate while also showing a graph history of your heart rate. You can also view more details of your heart rate history in the Huawei Health app.
Sleep tracking accuracy
When compared to Band 4 Pro, Versa 3 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, the Huawei Band 6 was not consistent in tracking my sleep. I was surprised, considering that the Band 4 Pro which I have used for over a year has been a very consistent sleep tracker just like it also performed exceptionally well in other areas of activity tracking. I figured out that you need to properly wear the Huawei Band 6 to get a more accurate sleep data. This isn’t the case with the Band 4 Pro which is always consistent irrespective of how I choose to wear it.
Stress tracking accuracy
I also tested the stress monitoring accuracy of the Huawei Band 6 to Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. It was consistent in monitoring my stress level. Moreover, it has a breathing app that can guide you through a breathing session when you are stressed.
Stress monitoring on Huawei Band 6 can be enabled from the app which guides you through a series of questions.
Spo2 Tracking accuracy
One of the new additions to the Huawei Band 6 is its Spo2 blood oxygen measurement feature which I also compared to that of the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, and I can’t really say if the Huawei Band 6 monitors blood oxygen accurately or not because it was always at the 100% mark most times which I found very suspicious. Nevertheless, it will measure your blood oxygen level 24/7. It will also show a history of your blood oxygen levels and can alert you when your blood oxygen level hits certain levels. This can be configured from the companion app.
Outdoor tracking accuracy
The Huawei Band 6 doesn’t have an inbuilt GPS, but it can track your outdoor routes and locations via your phone’s GPS. That is just as good as it sounds.
For You to track your routes and locations with Huawei Band 6, you must carry your phone along and you must enable the outdoor run from the health app. I found this to be very awkward. And that’s not all, when compared to Band 4 Pro which has inbuilt GPS and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, the Huawei Band 6 was not consistent in tracking my outdoor routes and location.
Unless this is corrected with future firmware updates, I won’t recommend Huawei Band 6 for tracking your routes and locations.
After an outdoor workout, you can see details of your activity in the Huawei Health app which includes pace, routes, locations, activity duration and more.
Preloaded Sport modes
Huawei Band 6 has a whooping 96 preset workout modes. That’s more than enough options to choose from. The good thing is that you can access all preset sport modes on the device. You can also choose your favorite sport modes so that you can easily access them.
Managing Notifications
One of the main functions of the Huawei Band 6 is to help you manage notifications you receive on your phone. You have to enable apps that you want to receive notifications from in the Huawei Health app. Once enabled, you will receive a vibration when you have a new message on your phone. It also shows incoming calls which you can end, but it cannot answer calls because it lacks a microphone and speaker.
You can access received messages by swiping up from the homescreen, and you can clear all read messages by tapping on clear at the bottom part of the display.
Other Features
Other features you will find on the Huawei Band 6 include the weather forecast app, alarm, timer, torchlight, remote camera control and find my phone.
With the weather forecast feature, the Huawei Band 6 syncs weather information from your phone allowing you to easily see what the weather would look like for the day.
The remote camera isn’t available as of the time of filing this report.
Another feature I found very helpful is the torchlight feature. The torchlight isn’t that bright, but it has come in handy a couple of times to help me illuminate small dark spaces. One thing to note though is that using the torchlight feature too often drastically affects the battery life.
The Huawei Band 6 also has the ability to control music playing on your phone. It has a music player app that can be accessed from the main menu by pressing the side button from the homescreen. You will need to enable music control from the Huawei Health app. Once enabled, you will be able to control any music playing on your phone irrespective of the app.
Battery Life – Up to 2 Weeks
Huawei says this Band can last up to 2 weeks, and from my experience, this is true with mixed usage. Note that usage differs with every user, as a result, battery life will differ with different users.
With brightness reduced to 3, notification enabled for 11 apps and daily usage, the Huawei Band 6 lasted up to 11 days. That’s very impressive, it goes to show that you can go long with this device from a single charge.
It also has fast charging. It takes just about 50 minutes to charge the Huawei Band 6. It comes with a magnetic charger that easily lets you charge the device.
Verdict
From my experience, I will say the Huawei Band 6 killed it with its durable and very lightweight design. It also has a very long battery life of up to 2 weeks which is awesome. The 1.47 inches display is also a win-win for me and the numerous activity tracking features makes a whole lot of sense. However, In terms of activity tracking accuracy, the Huawei Band 6 hasn’t been consistent in tracking my sleep and outdoor activities which is a big turnoff for me.
All these inconsistencies may be corrected with future firmware updates, but until then, I won’t recommend Huawei Band 6 for outdoor activity tracking unless you just want a pretty-looking device with a long battery life that can track your indoor activities and help you manage notifications from your phone.
Rather, the Huawei Band 4 Pro is a consistent tracker as far as sleep, heart rate, spo2 and outdoor activities tracking are concerned. It’s one of my favorite smartbands, and that’s why it’s still in my personal collections.
