With a clear leap forward compared to the previous model, Honor Band 6 is a hybrid between a smartband and a smartwatch.
Generous display, lots of features and a very attractive price. On paper, the premises are all there, let's see how it behaves in our review!
HONOR BAND 6: Unboxing
Honor Band 6 arrives in a beautiful and compact cardboard box, which shows the device in the foreground, and the classic specifications on the back.
The content is also the traditional one that is expected from a mid-range smartband: device with strap already installed, warranty and various documents, and the magnetic cable for charging, without wall adapter.
Positive mention for the charging cable: once positioned it remains firmly in the Honor Band 6, and is long enough to be placed on a desk having the power socket at the bottom (something not taken for granted lately, with many manufacturers inserting more and more cables short).
THE DEVICE
As anticipated Honor Band 6 is positioned exactly halfway between smartwatch and smartband, tracing in fact what could be the path that many other manufacturers of wearables dedicated to fitness will follow.
The 43mm case, made of plastic, houses an excellent 1.47-inch AMOLED display, which we will discuss later in more detail.
The lower part is also made of plastic, which houses the sensors and magnetic pins for charging.
Below we also find the two matching plates, which hold the strap to the body of Honor Band 6, and which must be removed with a simple pressure with the fingernail in case you want to change the strap.
Speaking of the strap, I really appreciated the build quality and especially the small size. The strap in fact shrinks in the part in contact with the wrist, making it very comfortable to wear both during sports (I tried the band on walking and cycling), and while working on the PC. Excellent adjustment scale, which makes it really suitable for any type of wrist and makes the strap even more breathable. The tested version is Coral Pink, but Honor Band 6 is also available in black and gray.
Returning to the device, on the left side we find the Honor logo engraved in the case, while on the right the only physical button owned by the device, equipped with a very pleasant red line. In short, whether it is to play sports or to wear it daily, Honor Band 6 always makes a good impression on the wrist. The weight of only 18g makes the device very comfortable to wear, almost to the point of not feeling it on the wrist.
DISPLAY
The display on board the Honor Band 6 is undoubtedly the main feature. We are talking about an excellent 1.47-inch AMOLED panel, with a resolution of 194 × 368 pixels and 282PPI, with 2.5D curved glass. Personally I love the AMOLED panels on smartwatches: the absolute blacks make the gap between the frames and the display practically nil, obviously if you use the right watchfaces, giving a unique style to the device.
Despite the lack of a brightness sensor, the Honor Band 6 display is always well readable even under the sun, by setting the maximum brightness, and has an excellent contrast. In practice, you will have no problem reading all the info during your workouts. For indoor use, even medium brightness is sufficient. Personalization is maximum, with dozens and dozens of watchfaces available, to be downloaded from the Health app or already on board the device.
In addition to the physical button, to interact with Honor Band 6 we will have the classic gestures available: with the swipe up and down we will access notifications and settings, while the swipe to the right and left allows you to access features such as heartbeat, stress and weather.
SOFTWARE & HARDWARE
The software is proprietary to Honor, with all the functions expected from this type of smartband. Excellent reactivity, completely free of lag or jamming. On the hardware side, some features such as GPS and NFC are missing, which do not affect the overall user experience in a very negative way. The Bluetooth 5.0 does its job very well, especially on the battery side, while the various sensors on board are always accurate and precise, as we will see shortly.
The battery on board the Honor Band 6 keeps its promises: with average use and some training I have easily managed to overcome ten days of use, while fast charging will allow you to get 3 days of autonomy with a 10-minute charge.
Let's start with the basic functions of Honor Band 6: on board we will find the classic 10 sports modes pre-installed, with the possibility of starting an automatic monitoring that records data for any other type of sport.
During sporting activity, the counting of steps is always very precise, even when compared with manual pedometers. Very good measurements of the heartbeat, which allow to keep under control the frequency, even at rest and, if desired, 24 hours out of 24. The system TrueSeen 4.0 aboard Honor Band 6 is able to instantly detect the heartbeat anomalies and warn in real time, a really excellent feature and on which Honor has decided to focus a lot.
On board we also find an excellent sleep monitoring system, TrueSleep 2.0, able to accurately record the duration and stages of sleep, providing personalized advice on how to improve its quality and alerting if sleep-related problems are detected.
The picture is completed by the monitoring of stress and that of the level of oxygen in the SpO2 blood pressure, which is not active 24 hours a day, but can be activated manually.
The proprietary software, already seen on other Honor products, is packed with features, including: Workout, Workout Logs, Heart Rate, SpO2, Activity Logs, Sleep, Stress, Breathing Exercises, Notifications, Weather, Stopwatch, Timer, Alarm, Flashlight, Find phone and Settings.
HUAWEI HEALTH
Although Honor is now a separate company from Huawei, it is still necessary to use the Health app for the moment. A proprietary app should be on the way soon.
Through the app we have total control of the device, with all the summary info of sports activities, settings and updates of the case. As always, it is a pleasure to navigate the various menus of the app, always clean and intuitive, full of graphics and information. Also through the app we will also be able to have access to the watch faces store, with dozens of additional watch faces to fully customize Honor Band 6.
Given the lack of GPS, if we start our workouts from the app, Honor Band 6 will rely on the GPS of the smartphone, making the measurement more complete.
CONCLUSIONS
Honor Band 6 is truly a complete and balanced product, excellent both for those looking for a smart band to keep track of their workouts, and for those who want a comfortable product to wear every day and that is able to offer basic monitoring.
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