A year and a half after his predecessor Honor Band 6 is now on the market, the latest economic smartband of the Chinese company born as a rib of Huawei, and sold in November 2020 to Shenzen Zhixin New Information Technology.
We have tested for you this wearable that aims atambitious goal of serving as a complete system for monitoring the activities and health of those who wear it on the wrist, at a very competitive price, a feature common to all Honor products.
However, before providing you with our impressions, arising from a few days (and night, non-random specification) of the smartband test, let’s discover the technical characteristics of Honor Band 6, launched in China last November and available in Italy from the end of March.
And let’s also delve into the many features of this wearable device.
Honor Band 6: the technical characteristics
In the Honor Band 6 box you will find, in addition to the smartband, an essential instruction booklet and the magnetic charger.
First of all, the display stands out, with AMOLED technology, from 1.47 inches. The resolution is 194 x 368 pixels and the brightness is excellent. The display dial is also customizable with the many options available in the Watch Face Store.
The company name is stamped on the left side, while on the right there is the on-off and command button, to be used together with the touch screen.
Honor Band 6 measures 43 × 25.4 × 11.45mm and weighs 18 grams excluding the proprietary strap (evidently to prevent it from being used for smart bands of other brands, or on the contrary to inhibit its replacement with pieces of other brands). This strap is also available in three colors: meteorite black, sandstone gray and coral pink.
Connection to devices is ensured by Bluetooth 5.0. Honor Band 6 has an accelerometer, a gyroscope, an optical sensor for monitoring the heart rate on the wrist and an SpO2 sensor for monitoring the level of oxygen in the blood. Water resistance is 5ATM.
As for the battery, a charge is completed in about 80 minutes, and the estimated duration is 14 days for normal use and 10 for intensive use. With just 10 minutes of charging you get three days of use.
Finally, the price: Honor Band 6, launched in Italy on 28 March last, is on sale at 49.90 euros.
Honor Band 6: activity monitoring
Honor Band 6 has so many features that, to extricate yourself, it is worth dedicating a paragraph to those specific to sport and well-being, and the next to further functions.
The smart band ensures continuous monitoring of heart rate (and detects abnormal frequencies), the level of stress (complete with breathing exercises), the quantity and quality of sleep. Here it should be added that the wearable also detects the most common problems related to unsatisfactory sleep, and provides advice to improve it.
It is also possible to detect the level of oxygen in the blood thanks to an SpO2 sensor. In addition to monitoring the menstrual cycle, identifying the next fertile period.
And then, physical activity. There are ten sporting disciplines loaded on the device, for which you can set a goal, as well as check your heart rate during training. Honor Band 6 automatically recognizes walking, running, elliptical and rowing machine, and when the intensity of effort changes, it suggests starting or ending the workout.
The other functions
Honor Band 6 receives notifications from the phone (if desired, from any installed app), can control music playback (only on Android) and act on the camera shutter. It has stopwatch, alarm, timer, flashlight and phone finder functions. It also provides live basic weather information.
You can set different reminders, choose the intensity of the vibration and schedule the shutdown.
He tests
Honor Band 6’s design is simple and elegant. And certainly the width and brightness of the display are a step ahead of the average smartband currently on the market.
The Huawei Health app is as simple to install as it is intuitive. The notifications appear in an essential way, but it is perhaps impossible to expect more from a wearable of economic range.
We were particularly impressed by the accuracy of sleep quality monitoring, with the indication of its various intensities depending on the time, the reporting of any problems and possible resolutions.
The only limit, but here talking is a somewhat demanding runner, concerns the aspect of sports. We leave out monitoring heart rate and blood oxygen level from the wrist, which are still immature technologies even in the most advanced sports watches.
The functionalities regarding the ten loaded physical activities are really reduced to the bone (for which it is also necessary to always have the smartphone with you, since Honor Band 6 is not equipped with GPS).
Conclusions
Honor Band 6 turned out to be a excellent cheap wearable, great for monitoring your health data and for receiving notifications.
It is perhaps not highly recommended for those who want to practice sports with a certain care and frequency. But on the other hand, you cannot ask a smartband that costs less than 50 euros to behave like a watch for medium-high level sportsmen, whose price is at least five times as much.