• 

• 

Hey all here i am with Honor Band 4. One of the smart bands in demand due to its features & price range. You don’t find many devices in this range with such features.

UPDATE: Successor to Honor band 4 and MI band 3 were launched in 2nd half of 2019.
Link: Review of MI Band 4 & its comparison to Honor Band 5.

INITIAL VIEWS:

Honor Band 4 in hand feels just awesome. Sturdy build, premium sleek looks, colored AMOLED screen with glass front & whatnot. Wearing it is easy with watch-like strap & comfortable due to soft rubber.

Got it after lots of shift in b/w Honor Band 4 & MI Band 3. Want to know why? Check out the end section of the review.

I have tried to cover just everything honor band, to help you decide wisely on its purchase. Inside box, Pros, Cons, Issues, Setup, App, Band, Interface, Gestures, MI band 4 vs Honor Band 4, Battery backup, Notifications etc.

INSIDE BOX:

1. Smart band
2. Charging dock (with micro USB port for cable & pogo pins for the band )
3. Micro USB cable (White cable, a bit odd scheme, coz device & charging dock is black)
4. Quick Start Guide
5. Warranty booklet

ABOUT DEVICE:

1. Screen 10/10 (high-density AMOLED with awesome sunlight legibility)
2. Battery 9/10 (100 mah, backup details below)
3. Performance 9/10
4. Build 9/10
5. Sensors 9/10
6. BT Range 9/10 (approx 40-50 ft)

Overall: 9.2 which translates to 4.5 stars, so a 5-star device

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

PROS

1. A budget device with solid features inside.
2. Colored high-density AMOLED touch screen with 2.5D curved edges glass top (gestures detail below)
   
3. Extra touch button below the screen to work as back or home button in the interface (gestures detail below)
4. The device is responsive with fast touch & good performance overall.
5. Weight (22.7g only), compact & comfortable to wear. At times you even forget wearing it.
6. Very good visibility in direct sunlight (image attached)

• 

• 

• 

7. Decent battery life (details below).

8. Water-resistant up to 50 meter. Did initial water test by putting it in the water tray and no issues were there.

• 

• 

• 

9. Pretty decent feature set for an activity tracker. The step counter is fairly accurate. Manually counted 100 steps were counted by the band as 105.

10. 24 hours sleep tracking. 00:00 to 23:59. Some bands offer to track only during the night.

11. Fairly accurate heart rate sensor with continuous monitoring feature & alert at a set rate.
i) Took around 9.5 secs to display 1 st reading
ii) Around 50-60 secs to display final avg reading
iii) While in continuous tracking mode, it displays reading immediately

12. Easy to understand user interface. Not cluttered.

13. The software update frequency is good. I got two updates within an hour. One as soon as it was paired. Next one in an hour. (Details below)

14. Auto sync of data to Health app, whenever connected to the phone.

15. Compatible with both Android & iOS devices.

16. Idle alert to let you take a break & have a walk.

17. Strap with easy to remove clip lock is secure. (image attached)
i) We don’t need to remove it to charge band.
ii) Only required if the strap needs to be swapped.
iii) To remove, use nails via minor gap on one side of the clip, to pull it out

18. The replaceable strap is an add-on. You can choose your taste. But availability is an issue.

• 

• 

CONS

1. No power on button. Power off option is provided in settings, but to power on you need to connect it to charging dock. Not a big deal. It’s not meant to be switched off.
2. Camera remote shutter exclusive to honor mobiles, MIUI 8.1+
3. Outdoor cycling exclusive to honor mobiles
4. Proprietary charging dock with pogo pins. (pic below) Micro USB would have been better as its handy. But maybe water resistance ate it up.
5. Going through a message or notification or conversation is an issue. Its interface is very slow & it renders it almost useless (details below)
6. Only 3 watch faces. I hope to get more via updates. UPDATE: New constellation watch face added in update 1.0.10.30.
7. A very small USB cable. Only 7.5 inches long.
8. No dedicated website or store for getting genuine replacements or accessories. Others elsewhere are costly & have quality issues.
9. Inbuilt GPS support is not present
10. Music control option is not available
11. Step counter at times skip steps & real-time update of steps in the band is slow. Both things can be fixed via an update.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

FEATURES AS ACTIVITY TRACKER

1. Regular & detailed 24-hour sleep tracking including REM, deep sleep, light sleep, etc.
i) This screen has no sub screen & only displays 1-night sleep duration) Need to use the app to view rest of sleep data
ii) Activating tru sleep also includes REM sleep data. Rest if off, only light & deep sleep is recorded.

2. Continuous heart rate monitor with high rate alert or heart rate on demand

3. Multiple workout types: Walking, running (indoor & outdoor), cycling (indoor & outdoor), swimming (with swim stroke recognition via 6 axis sensor), free training.
i) all with targets & reminders in form of time, calories, distance or none & relevant data like calories, distance, heart rate, time duration etc while activated.
ii) you can pause activity using touch button or end it
iii) water-resistant up to 50 meters, so can easily be worn while swimming

4. Step counter with daily target covered (in %). Opening it, we have steps taken, calories burned, distance covered, time & no of times we got up from a chair (daily target is 12).
i) Its fairly accurate 2000 steps were counted as 2020.
ii) Sometimes it counts steps during the night, which is wrong. Once i had 49 steps, next night 0.
iii) It hangs sometimes & the watch’s interface is not updated instantly with step counts. Auto updated after a few mins.

5. Idle alert (setting accessible via app). Displays cool animation with a figure standing up & doing body warmup.

6. Detailed analysis, graphs & data etc on the mobile app

OTHER FEATURES

1. Incoming call notification with caller ID
2. Reject incoming calls
3. Notifications for SMS, social apps, events, mails, etc. Also, you can read messages.
4. Find your phone, which rings synced phone on tap
5. Phone camera remote control (exclusive to Honor phones)
6. Informative watch faces
7. Live analog clock watch face
8. Raise wrist or tap to light up display
9. Rotate wrist to switch screens
10. Stopwatch & timer
11. Weather report (in form of temperature in C or F on the watch face)
12. Screen brightness settings & night mode
13. Alarms & reminders on the band via the app
14. Do not disturb mode for band available via the app
15. Low battery mode at 10% & 0% to save battery (Details below) )

INITIAL SETUP

1. Connect the device to charging dock to switch it on
2. It asks to pair device after Honor logo
3. Download Huawei health app from the store & click on + sign to display device list
4. Click on the Smart band. It may need to connect to servers to download the latest device list. Allow it.
5. Select band & click on pair in next screen
6. Accept pairing request on Band. Bluetick.
7. “Paired” message is displayed on the app. If available, it will ask to update the firmware.
8. Just continue & configure notifications, band preferences, etc
9. Enjoy your device. It’s ready to use.

GENERAL GESTURES

TOUCH BUTTON
a) Go to the home screen
b) Wake band
c) Touch or touch & hold to perform on-screen actions like reject call, silent or dismiss alarm, etc

SCREEN SWIPE
a) Top to bottom to scroll downwards
b) Bottom to top to scroll upwards
c) Left to right on any sub screen to go back
d) Midway left to right in notification screen to scroll through bunched message/notification (more below)

SCREEN TOUCH & HOLD
a) On home screen for watch face change

BAND
a) Raise wrist to wake screen
b) Rotate wrist to switch screen

HEALTH APP & SYNC TO GOOGLE FIT

Health app by Huawei by quite detailed & developers have put in a lot of hard work in it.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

a) In the main screen, it shows steps & calories with options to get into details of sleep, heart rate, weight record, etc

b) Top right corner to access band-specific settings & regular steps, calorie, distance data with options to enable/disable True sleep, Idle Reminder, Heart Rate Monitoring, Alarm, DND, Notifications, Weather reports, BT disconnection reminder, Function Customization, Raise wrist to wake the screen, Rotate to Switch, Firmware specific settings

c) One useful feature is to be able to customize the sequence of what’s displayed in the band on scrolling via Function Customization.

d) Activity reminder or idle reminder every 1 hour is another useful feature

e) Next ones come, raise to wake screen & rotate to switch screen. Here some strong wrist movement is required in both. It was made that way to prevent accidental & frequent wakeups.

f) Sleep data provides detailed daily/weekly/monthly/yearly insights into your sleep pattern over day & night, with further bifurcation into deep, REM, light, sleep, etc.

g) Continuous heart rate monitor records data every 2 sec & you can check it by moving the pointer over the timeline. Nice way to keep track of your heart over day & night. Also, you can set a heart rate warning limit via setting icon in on top right & define other exercise-related parameters.

GOOGLE FIT: I had no issues syncing with this app, as was reported by some users. Only 4 steps. Me tab -> Data sharing -> Google fit -> Connect

-It records everything from Huawei health app & displays it as per its interface without any issue.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

NOTIFICATIONS & MESSAGE THREADS

There’s a way to VIEW ALL MESSAGES IN A THREAD, say 4 Whatsapp message by the same person

a) The band is able to displays individual & bunched notifications
b) But the interface gets very slow when notification count increases. Delay of up to 2 sec while opening any notification/msg.
c) In short notification/msg viewing is messed up here. It can be fixed in future updates. Till then, it may be goodbye to this feature.

i) Some users reported it is not possible. It’s possible but is slow & messed up. Sometimes it works & sometimes not.
ii) Swipe from midway screen to right to scroll through all msg in conversation one by one (can be done only once)
iii) Say you get 3 msg from XYZ person. In message option in the band. We have 4 entries. XYZ(4 messages), XYZ (3 messages), XYZ (2 messages), XYZ (1 message)
iv) Just open 1st one & scroll through it as explained above.

TIP: Be sure to clear off the message screen after checking it, as the device has a limited capacity & gets slower when count increases.
Also in social apps like Whatsapp, you need to mark all read, else, unlike SMS, with every new msg, all unread msgs will be pushed every time new msg arrives.

BLUETOOTH CONNECTION & ITS ISSUES

a) BT Pairing was as easy as 1,2,3
b) The range is quite good. It worked properly for up to 40-50 ft with a wall in b/w.
c) Once out of range it disconnects & bands BT goes to standby
d) Auto-connect won’t occur unless you unlock your phone & app is having sufficient privileges to run in the background. Don’t restrict it
e) Health app needs to be running in order for BT connection to work. If cleared of recent, it will close the connection.
f) I had no issues like frequent disconnections or any other related ones, as reported by some users.

BATTERY LIFE

There are various parameters affecting battery viz BT, Heart rate monitor, Tru sleep, Screen on time, etc. Each having its own impact wrt on/off. So backup can vary by large means depending on usage pattern.

But i will try to shorten it based on some criteria as detailed below.

Charging time (0 to 100%)
(Battery Capacity: 100 mah, Battery drained till auto-off after 0%)

5W / 10 W charger /
Laptop USB port: 1 hour 45 min (same time, that’s weird, checked 2 times)

COMPANY CLAIMS (Backup)

I) Scientific/Tru sleep off: 14 days
II) Scientific/Tru sleep on: 6 days

REAL WORLD USAGE (Backup)

i) 19 days 17 hours 50 min ( Tru Sleep & Heart rate monitor off )
a) Used till auto-off
b) Bt used once daily to sync data
c) Screen used less frequently, brightness 2, night mode on, raise to wake off
d) 5-10 min in workout mode daily
e) After 0 battery indicator, it worked with full functionality for ~30 hours till auto-off

ii) 10 days 10 hours 27 min ( Tru Sleep on & Heart rate monitor off )
a) The band was used till auto-off
b) Bt used once in morning & night to sync data
c) Screen used less frequently, brightness 2, night mode on, raise to wake off
d) Heart monitor used twice/thrice in a day
e) 10-15 min in workout mode daily
f) After 0 battery indicator, it worked with full functionality for ~13 hours till auto-off

iii) 4 days 3 hour 45 min ( Tru Sleep off & Heart rate monitor on )
a) The band was used till auto-off
b) BT was connected for 10% of time
c) Screen was used less frequently, Brightness Setting 1, Raise to wake off
d) The band was used in workout mode for ~36 min
e) After 0 battery indicator, it worked with full functionality for ~5 hours

iv) 3 days 1 hour 35 min ( Tru sleep & Cont. heart rate monitor on )
a) The band was used till auto-off
b) BT was connected for 40% of time
c) Screen was used quite frequently, Brightness Setting 1, Raise to wake on
d) The band was used in workout mode for ~50 min
e) After 0 battery indicator, it worked with full functionality for ~2 hours

GENERAL INSIGHTS & TIPS

a) With everything off viz true sleep, flick to wake, rotate to switch, heart rate sensor & not connected, as in you are using it as a watch & step counter. Though this defies its sole purpose, you get max battery life.

b) Switch off “Raise wrist to wake screen” to save battery. As it will light up screen unnecessarily every time you move your wrist in that way, even when you don’t desire to look at.

LOW BATTERY MODE

At 10%

1. No watch face initially on wake up. A low battery indicator is displayed. At times, partially for some time, all access is disabled via the band. This is restored to full band functionality after some time.
2. The band keeps on recording everything as per settings be it heart rate, steps, sleep, etc.
3. Rest access via the health app is as usual. You can disable heart rate & tru sleep to extend battery life further.

At 0%

1. The default watch face is only displayed every time you wake it. Any access to the band interface is disabled. You try to scroll, it displays a low battery indicator.
2. The band keeps on recording things as per settings, be it heart rate, steps, sleep, etc.
3. You won’t have band interface access till its charged.
4. Rest access via the Health app is there with full functions available. You can disable heart rate & tru sleep to extend battery life further.

FIRMWARE UPDATE

Since the device is newly launched, the team is working a lot to provide regular updates.

a) 1.0.0.80: Device came with this one

b) 1.0.10.20: Upon pairing it got an update (changelog screenshot below)

c) 1.0.10.24: In an hour only, another update (changelog screenshot below)

d) 1.0.10.30: Touch optimization, New watch face, Wechat red packet reminder (change log screenshot below)

e) 1.0.10.40: Optimization of push function for iOS, red packet usage, success rate of scanning bar code.

f) 1.0.10.42: Optimization of BT transmission, night screen brightness, swimsuit experience, pool length custom range

g) 1.0.10.58: Optimization of workouts, swimming-related issue, 3 new watch faces

The update is generally in the range of 3-5 MB. First, it’s downloaded in-app, then sent to the band. (screenshot attached)
It took around 15 min to transfer the file from the health app to band via BT and another 3-4 minutes for the device to upgrade fw.

HONOR BAND 4 VS MI BAND 3 DEBATE

See i don’t have mi band 3 right now, but it was in my purchase list along with the Honor band. So here you will find the reasons why i did go for Honor Band 4, despite being MI fan. This will help you to decide which one to go for.

Departments where Honor Band 4 is better:

1. Sunlight or outdoor performance of Honor Band 4 is far far better than MI band 3 (MOST IMP)
2. Color display of Honor Band, which looks cool & UI thus looks easy to use & understand, while MI band has a grayscale display.
3. Higher resolution display at 240×120 px. So reading out things is easy. MI Band has low resolution 128×80 px.
4. Heart rate sensor of Honor is much faster than MI band (almost instantly displays rate while MI band takes more than few secs to display heart rate, the takeaway from several side by side reviews)
5. The honor band is rich in features. MI band misses out a lot of things like several workout modes in Honor while few in MI. Proper sleep tracking, day time sleep tracking, live watch face, brightness setting unavailable in MI Band.
6. Honor looks better with a slim look profile. (Personal taste, some may prefer MI bands curvy looks)
7. Screen of MI band is curved on all sides & projected. So more prone to scratches & applying screen guard on it is another typical job.
8. Battery issue in MI band as reported by many users, that not getting proper backup & got replacements
9. Camera remote feature in Honor Band(though only available for Honor mobiles)
10. Health app of Honor Band is feature-rich & detailed compared to MI fit app.
11. Strap design is better here. Secure lock pins hold both straps in place, unlike in MI Band, where its a single piece & the main module is snap-fit. So there are chances to lose it, as reported by some users who lost it without any hint while strap was on hand.
12. UI of Band is also feature-rich with proper in band settings
13. 24-hour sleep tracking with REM sleep & breathing data also available. These 3 are unavailable in MI Band.

Departments where MI Band 3 is better:

1. Comparatively soft & comfortable band strap
2. Better spare strap availability due to MI’s own store.
3. Better battery backup due to grayscale display, unlike colored in Honor Band.
4. No features that are MI phone specific. Seriously Honor should take up this point & make all its features universal in future updates.
5. Cheaper

FINAL VERDICT

For now, the Honor band looks well, performs well & is the best buck for the price bracket. Its a nice & beautiful device with a color AMOLED screen. The company has put in a lot of effort to deliver good device & companion app. Some hiccups can be easily rectified by the company via updates. You won’t regret buying it.

To be honest, the departments where Honor band 4 excels or is better compared to similar bands can’t be ignored & are worth the extra money invested. Minor issues there can be fixed in future firmware updates. So at the end of the day, i went on for Honor Band 4.

Should you purchase it?

a) If your budget is low & you can ignore the things discussed above, go for MI band 3. It best in the class device in its price bracket. Remember you cant get everything in 2k range.

b) But if you can extend your budget by a few hundred, then definitely go for Honor Band 4 without any second thought.

c) And if you are looking for serious activity tracking, then extend your budget further by 1000’s. Remember these devices are budget devices, & expect similar features & performance from them. Just don’t expect wonders & get disappointed to rate them low.

Rest i will frequently update review based on usage as it will take a few weeks to completely judge this band wrt battery life & accuracy in various modes.

Get it now from Amazon: Click Here