Huawei Band 6 Hands-On and Initial Impressions
Since the Band 4, Huawei has finally made a follow up its popular smart band fitness tracker. And for some reason the Chinese tech giant is skipping the number 5 on its device naming and is going straight to the Huawei Band 6. Also, with this band's brand new look, it is now hard to identify at first glance if it's a smart band or a smart watch. Remember the Android-powered Huawei Watch Fit? If that smartwatch had a Lite version, this would be it, at least in terms of physical design and the interface.
This smart wearable is now available in the Philippines for pre-order until April the 29th, 2021. The price tag? It's offered for only Php2,599. So what you get from this Huawei Band 6 for that asking price? Read on and we will find out.
What's in the box?
Just like most of the smart bands around, the packaging of this Huawei Band 6 is pretty simple and straightforward. As you can see in the image above, the front face of the box shows the name of the device while right below it are its highlight features such as the all-day SpO2 monitoring, full-view display, and long battery life. And then of course, dominating the front is the image of the device itself, the Huawei Band 6.
On the back of the box are additional key features of the wearable which I am going to talk more about later down below.
Inside the box are just the Huawei Band 6, magnetic charging cable, and the quick start guide. That's all.
Meet the Huawei Band 6
The Huawei Band 6 sports a 1.47-inch AMOLED FullView Display. Compared to the previous generation, it now has a much bigger display. If you wonder, that's about 148% increase in display size. That size of a display on a smart band gives users more space to see their fitness data and progress and it also provides much easier navigation experience as the display is touch enabled. So even if they are on the move or doing their workout routines, viewing or navigating the screen is going to be a lot more convenient. The display quality is very nice as well, thanks to its AMOLED display technology.
Also, the screen of this device features a 2.5D glass panel which sports a subtle curvature around the edges giving it a more premium look and feel when you navigate on the screen. That curved edges also goes along very well with its body. Speaking of the body of the Huawei Band 6, it is made of fiberglass material, but to the touch, it feels like a metal chassis, which again another nice build that makes and feels it premium despite its very affordable price tag.
This fitness band does not have any other physical button except the one on the right side which allows users to turn the device on, access the menu and returning to the main screen.
Underneath the body are the charging pins and sensors. Speaking of sensors, the Band 6 is equipped with 6-axis IMU sensors which includes the likes of accelerometer, optical heart rate, gyroscope and others.
As for the Huawei Band 6's strap, it is made of silicon rubber material. It is very comfortable to wear and it fits almost every wrist size there is if not all, thanks to the 18 holes along the strap.
The unit that I got is in Forest Green, which I really like. Apart from this, users can also select the Graphite Black or Amber Sunrise color variants. I am just not sure if users can change the strap for other color or from third party vendors.
Features and Specs
Now for its features, apart from the usual activity monitors like indoor and outdoor walking, running, cycling, and rope skipping, Huawei included another 85 customized modes, making it to a total of 96 activity tracking modes.
In addition to the all-day heart rate, stress level, and sleep monitoring, the Huawei Band 6 also sports all-day SpO2 monitoring. This kind of a big deal though especially for users who would like or need to continuously monitor their blood oxygen level.
What is SpO2?
Blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) refers to the blood's concentration of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin relative to all hemoglobin. The degree of oxygenation is an important determinant in and indicator of a person's fitness levels. Sub 90% SpO2 is considered low and may cause a person to experience fatigue and a quickened pulse. Prolonged low SpO2 has long-term adverse health effects, so it is crucial to continuously monitor and analyze these readings.
This is actually not the first time Huawei has featured an SpO2 monitor on a smart wearable, the first one was in 2019. That enabled its users to determine their SpO2 level with a single reading, so that they can take action to mitigate potential risks. But this feature had to be manually enabled to work, well not anymore with this new Huawei Band 6.
This new innovation is made possible by the Huawei TruSeenTM 4.0 and new smart power saving algorithm. This means, users' health is monitored continuously 24/7 and will generate an alarm when the blood oxygen level is low, helping users to take swift action and manage health more proactively.
For female users, there is an additional monitoring feature that's exclusively made for them. This feature is called Menstrual Cycle tracker. The data generated and collected by this feature is useful for them to manage their food intake, pregnancy plan, fat burn, sleep, exercise, and stress.
Watch Faces
What makes this Huawei Band 6 even more exciting and fun to use is that users can access the Watch Face store through the Huawei Health app and select from more than 100 watch faces (as of writing) to set their mood and style with the Band 6.
Compatibility wise, this smart band can be paired with smartphones running at least Android 6 or iOS 9. So to fully take advantage of this Band 6's features and functions, users must download the Huawei Health app to their smartphones and sync the Band 6.
Another highlight of the Huawei Band 6 is found in the battery department. It packs 180mAh battery which according to Huawei can last up to 14 days on a single change under normal use. Now if a user is on a hurry and they are running low on power, Huawei said a 5-minute charge can give the device battery life for up to another 2 days.
Initial verdict
Huawei Band 6 specs:
- 1.47-inch AMOLED FullView Display
- 368 x 194 pixels
- Color screen
- Touch display
- Offers more than 100 watch faces
- Wrist band: Silicon rubber
- Bluetooth: 2.4 GHz, BT5.0, BLE
- Android 6 or later
- iOS 9.0 or later
- 6-axis IMU sensors
- Accelerometer
- Gyroscope
- Optical heart rate
- 5 ATM water resistant
- 18 grams
- Magnetic charging cable
- Graphite Black, Amber Sunrise, Forest Green
- 180mAh battery
- Php2,599
I hope you are doing great, cheers!