Huawei launched the Watch 4 sequence in early Could, and it is among the greatest smartwatches the corporate has ever launched, no less than on paper. We received a unit for evaluation early this month, and after testing all the brand new options HarmonyOS 3.0 introduced, we’re prepared with our full impressions.
We received the all-Titanium unit for evaluation 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 measurement, so that you may need to examine the way it sits in your explicit wrist earlier than ordering one.
The very first thing we seen was the completely different seems of the fashionable strap – the weather have a extra full design than earlier Huawei watches just like the Final or the three Professional. Having Sapphire Glass on prime is not new, however this one is spherical, making the gadget stand out.
Design and construct
The display 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 traditional deployant clasp; all different variants, Professional or not, have a pin buckle mechanism. Huawei supplied further parts within the retail field so the Watch 4 Professional might match on everybody’s wrist.
When firms 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 isn’t any single scratch on the display 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 way of menus a bit simpler.
There’s additionally the rotating crown button for fast navigation by way of menus when fingers are someway obstructed from touching, for instance, with gloves.
There’s additionally a second programmable button on the fitting aspect, 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 recent options, making the Watch 4 Professional much more interesting gadget to have in your wrist. Watchfaces can deliver extra particulars, there are over 100 widgets, and there’s 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 fitting. You’ll be able to have as much as seven completely different “common playing cards” that may be personalized with completely different mixtures of knowledge visualized; solely after we add third-party apps from AppGallery will the variety of widgets develop.
Huawei has at all times positioned Well being on the forefront of its ecosystem. The app supplies 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 accessible solely within the smartphone app. Fortunately, with the Watch 4 Professional and its widgets, all the info might 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 knowledge in the meanwhile. We advocate utilizing this characteristic and preserving the continual measurements off to protect the battery life, which appears to be getting shorter with each new era 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 wonderful job of placing by way of the newest notifications, and they’re completely readable on the display; among the apps even help replies with emojis and pre-recorded messages.
What we did not like was the sluggish communication between the smartphone and the smartwatch. There have been a number of ghost notifications; others repeatedly popped up regardless of the actual fact they had been already seen and faraway from the cellphone. This expertise is unquestionably smoother you probably have the Huawei Watch 4 Professional linked to a Huawei smartphone.
We did have a difficulty with the GPS as properly, but it surely was quite a distinct segment downside 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 workouts a couple of times within the gymnasium or within the park. We put it by way of a a lot more durable check, going to the mountains the place even cell protection is commonly lacking, and that is when the GPS received confused and began drawing longer routes, guesstimating the precise place of the wearable.
Fortunately, this reviewer knew his method out to civilization, however we might not advocate counting on the Watch 4 Professional location capabilities when happening 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 world wide. Finally, we came upon 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.
Completely different watch faces can drain the battery otherwise, and we opted for a medium choice in our first check. We received over 4 days of battery life on this first run.
The primary cost of the 780 mAh battery was alleged to take 90 minutes and Huawei recommends pairing the USB charger within the field with a Huawei adapter that helps no less than a 9V/2A charge.
In actuality, the charging time was extra like 100 minutes, which remains to be ok.
The second check was with the AOD turned on. HarmonyOS 3.0 and the brand new watch faces deliver essentially the most sophisticated 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, but it surely wasn’t so dangerous. We received a cushty 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 cell knowledge, Wi-Fi and all internet-related options. On this mode, we received 20 days of standard use. On the one hand, that is a tremendous characteristic, and we tip our hat to Huawei. On one other, in these 20 days, we had a wearable with an enormous 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 value of the all-Titanium Huawei Watch 4 Professional is €700 in Continental Europe and £600 in the UK. By the point this evaluation is out, we’re already seeing slight value reductions. The Blue and Leather-based variations are cheaper, costing €550/£500, whereas the vanilla Watch4 with its smaller battery, black stainless-steel physique and black fluoroelastomer strap is €450/£400.
Huawei normally bundles its wearables with a few of its different gadgets, typically free of charge. 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 consists of Freebuds 5i free of charge, whereas customers in Italy may even add a 3-month subscription to Well being+ free of charge.
Customers who already personal a Watch 3, Watch GT 3, or Watch Final gadget will discover it much less compelling to improve – the updates aren’t that main.
However for anybody else who wants a dependable, sturdy sensible watch that does every part, presents a protracted battery life and has some nice aesthetics coupled with nice scratch resistance, the Watch 4 Professional is a superb choice.
