Huawei Watch 4 Professional

Verdict

The Huawei Watch 4 Professional is now a little bit of a well being and sports activities monitoring powerhouse, however if you’d like one of the best smartwatch, we’d nonetheless say the Apple Watch reins for iPhone and it falls quick in some areas towards the Put on OS-powered Samsung Galaxy Watch.

Introduction

The Huawei Watch 4 Professional is the successor to the Watch 3 Professional, the high-end smartwatch Huawei launched again in 2021, as its military of wearables continues to develop in quantity.

In contrast to its GT sequence and the diving-centric Watch Final, the Watch 4 is a transparent nod to the Huawei Watches that after packed Google’s Put on OS and matched it up with basic watch styling.

These Put on OS are lengthy gone now as Huawei’s personal HarmonyOS represents the current and future for the corporate’s units, with new design parts and software program options, significantly on the well being entrance, that Huawei hopes will make the Watch 4 and Watch 4 Professional (which we examined) stand out from the gang.

Design and display

• Is available in Professional and non-Professional variations
• 1.5-inch LTPO color display
• Waterproof as much as 50 metres 

Similar to with the Huawei Watch 3 sequence, there are two variants within the type of the Watch 4 and the Watch 4 Professional, the latter of which is the main target right here.

The primary variations between the 2 lie with the case, strap and display supplies used. The Professional is a contact thicker than the usual Watch 4 (12.9mm vs 10.9mm) and heavier too, so if you’d like the slimmer and lighter possibility, it’s the non-Professional model you need.

I had the 48mm-sized Watch 4 Professional to check, which sees a bounce in case dimension and makes use of aerospace-grade titanium in its chassis, a detachable leather-based strap and a extra luxurious sapphire glass display. A few of these parts positively really feel nicer than others. The matte silver titanium case is a pleasant match for Huawei’s sizable 1.5-inch, LTPO AMOLED touchscreen show, although we discovered the leather-based strap connected to to not be as enticing because the case it’s connected to. There’s a titanium strap different if you’d like an all-metal look as effectively.

The star of the present is that display. It’s massive, sharp, colors actually pop on it and you may maintain the display set to always-on. It actually elevates what it’s prefer to look down on the Watch 4 Professional. What I might say although is that the viewing angles aren’t all the time nice in brighter out of doors gentle, whereas the bezel surrounding it might be a contact slimmer or not be there in any respect.

Huawei features a single bodily button that launches its new Fast bar software program characteristic, whereas the rotating crown additional provides a contact of sophistication to interacting with the onboard software program.

If you wish to go swimming with the Watch 4 Professional, you’ll be able to because it carries a 5ATM water score making it secure to be submerged in water as much as 50 metres. Along with that, it joins Huawei’s Watch Final in being appropriate for diving in depths as much as 30 metres.

Options and efficiency 

• Newest model of Concord OS
• Third get together apps
• New UI parts

Just like the earlier watch and all of Huawei’s newest watches, the Watch 4 Professional runs on HarmonyOS and on the time of this overview we’re as much as model 3.1. It’s suitable with each Android and iOS, however pairing with an iPhone gained’t get you the total expertise. You’ll be able to’t entry options like Huawei Music or Huawei’s cost help.

The expertise of utilizing HarmonyOS is fairly good total. It’s effectively optimised to that giant show; visually it appears very slick and it additionally runs easily. Huawei has added in some new UI parts like the flexibility to select from extra widgets, a fast bar to allow you to decide out of your most ceaselessly used options, and the floating activity ball which pops a operating app to the highest of the display whilst you work together with one other one. 

These additions do work within the confines of the watch’s show and doesn’t really feel prefer it’s making the world really feel too busy, making it a greater watch to multitask on. Crucially, it doesn’t see a drop in efficiency both.

By way of what it’s important to faucet into as a smartwatch, there’s loads right here. I’m an enormous fan of the brand new preloaded watch faces, which usefully point out the extent of energy they sap from the battery when in use. Whereas Huawei makes a giant deal about its planet-centric faces, I feel some love needs to be proven significantly to the Variforms watch face, which is likely to be among the finest examples of turning a watch face right into a time killer recreation. If you would like extra watch faces, you should purchase some by way of the Huawei Well being telephone app, however a few of these faces are as costly as £5, which appears a contact extreme.

Faces apart, you’ve bought all of the belongings you’d anticipate finding on a smartwatch and options that Huawei has beforehand achieved an excellent job with. I’m speaking climate updates, music playback controls, timers, establishing alarms and viewing and displaying notifications.

Huawei’s Celia assistant makes use of the onboard microphone, however is healthier suited to primary questions versus the extra contextual queries you’ll be able to ship at assistants just like the Google Assistant, or Alexa and Siri. There’s the flexibility to make use of the Watch 4 Professional as a standalone machine with an eSIM for if you’re away out of your telephone. Huawei claims there’s a wealth of third get together apps out there to obtain from its app retailer, however it doesn’t take lengthy to know that you simply’ll discover considerably extra excessive profile third get together apps in Apple and Google’s storefronts by comparability.

Utilizing the Huawei Watch 4 Professional day-to-day as a smartwatch is okay for these core smartwatch options, however by way of issues like funds, app and good assistant help, it doesn’t actually greatest the competitors.

Health and well being monitoring 

• 100+ sports activities modes
• ECG sensor
• Well being Look mode and respiratory checks

Huawei has already achieved good work in making its watches extra helpful for monitoring your train and well being, and it’s the latter that it’s in search of to enhance with the Watch 4 Professional. We now have options like Well being Look, which grabs a number of well being metrics together with your coronary heart price, SpO2 and respiratory information from a single measurement. Each Amazfit and Garmin provide related options to this.

There’s additionally an ECG sensor to tackle the spot measurements if you place your finger on the electrodes baked into the flat bodily button. It might probably even detect when your coronary heart price is abnormally excessive or low, and there’s now the flexibility to measure for arterial stiffness which is expounded to hypertension or hypertension. Final up is a brand new respiratory verify that makes use of auditory sensors to take heed to your cough while in a quiet area to evaluate that your lungs are totally functioning.

In simply well being options alone, the Watch 4 Professional presents so much. The ECG readings appeared dependable towards the ECG capabilities of an Apple Watch and towards coronary heart price readings from a pulse oximeter. Pores and skin temperature readings felt extra dependable than it did on previous Huawei Watches and the Well being Look checks didn’t appear to throw up any odd types of information. The respiratory verify by coughing advised us it was regular, so fortunately no abnormalities to report right here. That information is viewable within the Huawei Well being app, neatly explaining what typical metrics needs to be.

An experimental characteristic that isn’t right here however is obtainable in China is the flexibility to evaluate blood sugar ranges. It’s nonetheless based mostly on a small analysis set, so it’s prone to be a characteristic we gained’t see for a while till it’s delivering a powerful sufficient degree of accuracy.

By way of monitoring your train and basic health, you’re effectively coated on that entrance. There’s over 100 exercise modes together with the diving modes from the pricier Watch Final, and it additionally contains the route again navigation mode Huawei not too long ago added to watches just like the GT Runner to enhance its usefulness open air. There are extra not too long ago launched operating metrics like Working Means, VO2 Max and beneficial restoration occasions for individuals who need a greater hit of stats. Huawei has redesigned its day by day exercise rings based mostly on the World Well being Group suggestions too, and it’ll observe your sleep whereas offering suggestions that can assist you enhance your sleep time.

As a health tracker, it’ll nudge you if you’ve not been energetic sufficient throughout the day and the new-look exercise rings do look so much nicer on that LTPO show. Every day step counts had been within the ballpark of Garmin’s step monitoring with a breakdown of your Transfer, Train and Stand rings viewable within the Well being app. Sleep monitoring carried out effectively too, and supplied related sleep length and sleep scores because the Oura Ring Gen 3.

For sports activities monitoring, I’ve run, rowed, jumped within the pool and on a treadmill with the Watch 4 Professional and it’s had its good and unhealthy moments. On out of doors runs, GPS monitoring carried out effectively and supplied up related metrics for information like common tempo. In a race nonetheless it struggled to select up a dependable GPS connection firstly and was effectively in need of the gap of the course. Coronary heart price information was good generally for regular paced exercises, and barely faltered for extra excessive depth exercises, however you’ll be able to pair an exterior coronary heart price monitor to enhance that accuracy.

We’ve been fairly impressed by what Huawei presents on the sports activities monitoring entrance and now it’s including richer well being insights into the combo to offer the Watch 4 Professional a a lot larger enchantment for individuals who don’t simply care about their subsequent marathon PB.

Battery life 

• As much as 4.5 days in typical use
• From 12-21 days in ultra-long battery mode
• Quick cost mode

When Huawei moved away from Put on OS it managed to push the battery efficiency on its watches in a extremely notable manner. The Huawei Watch 3 nonetheless felt like a step again because it solely managed 2-3 days in smartwatch mode. This time round Huawei has promised extra battery life in that mode and it has actually delivered.

That 2-3 day stint has now turn into 4.5 days in what it deems typical utilization. I managed to stand up to 5 days on this mode, however we’d say 4.5-5 days appears about proper. Will probably be much less with the show set to always-on as effectively. There’s additionally an ultra-long battery mode, which disables cellular and Wi-Fi connections. That may get you anyplace from 12-21 days relying on how a lot battery you presently have left to play with.

There’s even a helpful energy consumption mode to see what’s sucking up essentially the most battery, and an influence saving menu to be sure you’re not utilizing options that shortly drain the juice.

Whenever you do get low, there’s fast cost help to get you a day’s use from a 15-minute cost on Huawei’s white puck-shaped charging cradle.

Finally, Huawei has delivered extra battery and it’s the type of additional battery that has made the Watch 4 Professional much less irritating to make use of than the Watch 3.

Newest offers