Your New Companion? My 10-day Review Of The Huawei Watch Fit 4 Series

I am a firm believer that health is a luxury, so why spend less when it comes to it? When the opportunity came to do a fitness watch review I jumped at it, higher than Micheal Jordan. 10 days with the the Huawei Watch Fit 4 series' and when I opened the box, I was smitten and intrigued by the display. It was my second time using a smartwatch, and I subconsciously expected it to be the same as the Y68 smartwatch, but the Fit 4 series was different. From advanced GPS to offline terrain maps and real-time navigation to sleep mode, I can definitely say the Huawei Watch Fit 4 Series was better than I expected, here is my review of the Fit 4 series.

Features I Enjoyed Using

I'm pretty much active, I do strength training and outdoor running 5 times a week. I wore and used the watch when training and on my rest days. One feature that was exciting to me was when working out, every 10 minutes, I would get a set break that calculates my overall burnt calories, my heart rate, especially with this one, I liked this feature because it would track when I'm still warming up, all the way to the burning calories status bar. I first noticed this, then tried it out on my rest day with light workouts, the ones I don’t need to sweat for, to test out how the status bar reacts, and if it is accurate, and to my satisfaction, the bar only stayed on the warm-up bar.

The sleep mode tracking was fascinating. Forget the reminders I’d get to head to bed, I was impressed by its tracking. Tracking REM sleep, times awake, light sleep and how many hours you’ve slept. I experimented to see if it would automatically pick up if I'm sleeping and awake without setting it to sleep mode, and it did exactly that. When it senses a drop in your heart rate and less movement, it can tell you are asleep. I was blown away by this because I even tried tricking it by just sitting and being mindful of my breathing while reading a book to see if it could tell the differences, and the only reminder and notification I got was to move around a little, that I’ve been sitting for too long. Although it surpassed most of my expectations, I still had my likes and dislikes.

Likes	Dislikes
Looks goods, its magnetic wrist it appealing, and adjustable to people’s wrists	Watch voice for me sounded obviously AI. I would have preferred a realistic voice
Accurate sleep tracker	I didn’t have a wake-up touch for a smartwatch; I thought that would be ideal
Additional emotional well-being feature	Wristband concern in the long run if the magnet is durable and can actually still stick two years from now
Variation of workouts and even an option to add your own
Battery longevity

What makes the Huawei Watch Fit 4 Series

What I found unique about the Fit 4 series is what sets it apart in today’s market, especially if you are like me, an active South African. Other smartwatches track your day, the Huawei Watch Fit 4 series tracks adventures, which makes it preferably better match for an outdoor-oriented lifestyle. Here are my favourite top 4 things about it.

1. Battery life longevity

Unlike other smartwatches that struggle to last beyond a day or so, the Fit 4 series offers multi-day battery endurance, which I enjoyed, letting you go further without hugging a charger.

2. Lightweight comfort

Some rugged smartwatches are bulky. This one stays sleek, barely felt when put on and comfortable; it is literally built for long hikes or paddles, whereas heavy wrist gear becomes annoying. I enjoyed this very much during my workouts, not too fussy or causing irritation when I would sweat. My only concern as a first-time user of the Huawei smartwatches is the wrists longevity after a long time, especially since it sticks.

3. Offline Freedom

Most smartwatches still rely heavily on your phone. With navigation and mapping on the watch, the fit 4 series reduces phone dependency, perfect for “leaving the phone behind” kind of adventures. I tried this on my outdoor walk, and I was impressed by how it could still pick up my location and how automatically it could pick up my heart rate and movement to start my workout.

4. Advance Health tracking

The health tracking isn’t counting steps only, it is built for full-body wellness, with my two favourites being sleep analysis and advanced heart rate monitoring. All of which helped me train smarter, recover better, and understand my body far beyond calories. My reminder always to stand after a few hours of sitting just imprinted a habit that I still do even now to move a little and stretch.

Price, is it worth it

The standard Watch Fit 4 typically sells at R3 000. The Pro with more advanced features is listed at R5 000. For a smartwatch with all these features, I believe it is an attractive price. Many competing devices at a similar or slightly higher prices may skip some features. Like the GPS plus outdoor-ready functionality, the battery life and decent health sensors. The Fit 4 manages a good balance.

Overall Supriority and comparison

This was my favourite, the multi-day battery compared to the Apple watch’s 1 or 2 days. Excellent visibility even when I was outside with direct sunlight. The Fit 4 Series offers many features that feel premium at a mid-range price. The drawbacks I’ve seen using the Fit 4 is the organised apps that may feel clunky compared with Apple. There is also fewer downloadable apps compared with Apple W, atchOS or WearOS.

Final thoughts

Although I was not using a Huawei phone or an Android phone, I was able to connect with my iPhone through the Huawei Health Global app. To emphasise its growing likeness in the market, I asked my family members with smartwatches which one they are using, and both my siblings use the Huawei Watch Fit Pro 3, and looking to upgrade to the Fit 4 series in the near future. Both using an iPhone 14 Pro, they still highly recommend the Huawei smartwatch rather than any Apple Watch or other brands in the market.

If you want to monitor your health and perform better throughout the day, like the little reminders, your sleep patterns, and movement throughout the day and your well-being status then The Huawei Watch Fit 4 series might just be for you. This new companion loves keeping you healthy and reminding you of what your body needs to perform at its best. It is your all-in-one workout app that you use to monitor your vitals in a small automatically and accurate way without you needing to record or input data, and who doesn't want that.