At the Honor All-Scenario New Product Conference on July 12, Honor released its new generation of wearable devices - the new Honor Watch 4, the new generation of Honor Watch is not only the first smart watch equipped with MagicOS, but also updates and adds eSIM technology, so that the watch has the ability to communicate independently from the mobile phone in terms of communication, greatly enriching the use scenarios of the watch.
So, what is the experience of using the new Honor watch? Is the Honor Watch 4, which introduces a lot of new elements in ID design, system and even functionality, worth buying? Below, please take a look at the detailed experience review report brought by I Love Audio.
Guided tours
Honor Watch 4 is Honor's authentic flagship watch, in order to fully and comprehensively appreciate the charm of Honor Watch 4, I Love Audio Network has tested according to the three major experience elements of smart wear: "unboxing", "appearance and wearing feeling" and "experience", and in each of the above three major items, a number of detailed tests have been carried out.
The main logical architecture of this review is as follows:
- Honor Watch 4 products unboxed
- Packaging & Accessories
- Contour and material
- Wristbands
- screen
- Weight and wearing feel
- experience
- Pairing and interaction with the phone
- Watch system interaction
- Health screening and exercise follow-up
- Charging and battery life
- I love audio.com summary
You can quickly find the section you want to see based on the size of the headings in the review text.
Honor Watch 4 products unboxed
Packaging & Accessories
Honor Watch 4 adopts a minimalist design in the packaging style, and the front of the product packaging is only marked with the product name "Honor Watch 4" and the watch OS "MagicOS" in text form, and there is no other logo, which is very concise and clear, quite like the feeling of traditional watch packaging.
The top of the box is printed with the "HONOR" brand logo in silver.
The back of the box is marked with product information. The label shows that the model number of the Honor Watch 4 is TMA-L19, and since the Honor Watch 4 supports eSIM TD-LTE cellular data connection, it is labeled with the "Network Access Trial" network access license.
In addition, the label also shows that the "Yunshui Blue" version of the review of I Love Audio Network this time, and the wristband type with it is "Yunshui Blue silicone strap".
In addition, in addition to "Cloud Blue", the Honor Watch 4 is also available in "Obsidian Black" and "Morning Gold".
The "Obsidian Black" version has a dark gray case, while the "Yunshui Blue" and "Morning Gold" have a brighter gold case, but there will be a difference in the color of the wristband.
The packaging box adopts the common heaven and earth box design, the damping feeling is not done, and all the contents are taken out after opening. The packaging list for the Honor Watch 4 includes the watch, charging cable, and paper manual.
In terms of cables, the Honor Watch 4 is equipped with a magnetic charger, which is connected to the corresponding position at the movement on the back of the case through two metal contacts, and can be magnetically attached to the back of the watch.
Contour and material
The gaze returns to the watch itself. In factory condition, the Honor Watch 4 is pre-installed with the corresponding color wristband.
The watch adopts a "rectangular" design, but the overall outline is a "super rectangle" with rounded corners and special treatment, which is very rounded.
The front of the watch body is at a glance. The front and back sides of the watch body are quick-release structures.
A side button is set on the right side of the watch body, and a speaker cutout is set.
On the left side of the watch body is a microphone cutout.
The back of the watch body is made of ceramic-like material, with sensors such as heart rate and blood oxygen, and metal contacts for charging.
Wristbands
The new generation of the Honor Band 4 is equipped with a silicone wristband that feels matte and skin-like, and feels very comfortable to the touch when worn on the wrist.
What is more special is that the strap of the "Yunshui Blue" color version of the Honor Band 4 we bought is based on sky blue, and the brand "HONOR GO BEYOND" is printed in gray, which looks very youthful and dynamic.
In terms of strap buckle, the official strap adopts a common single-breasted scheme, which is no different from the wearing style of traditional watches, and if you have the habit of wearing a watch, you can easily get started, and there is no need to worry about the stability of wearing.
In addition, in terms of wristband disassembly interface, the Honor Band 4 adopts a quick release structure, and the strap can be removed through a simple "buckle" action. However, due to its own design, the strap is not compatible with the general quick-release structure, so it is necessary to purchase a strap specially designed for it.
screen
Press and hold the side button and the Honor Watch 4 screen will light up. Under the "Used Watch" dial, the Honor Watch 4 looks like this.
In terms of screen, the Honor Watch 4 uses an AMOLED screen with a resolution of 390*450, and the overall effect of the screen is more delicate in common scenarios such as "raising the wrist to see the time".
The addition of OLED material screens also allows the screen of the watch to be "pure black" and "always bright". There is no noticeable color gap between the edge of the screen and the front panel of the watch, which enhances the sense of unity of the watch.
In terms of brightness, the official did not announce the specific brightness value of the watch screen. We set the brightness of the watch to "Auto" and tried to manually excite the watch's maximum excitation brightness, and found that the Honor Watch 4 has a maximum brightness level of about 800-1000 nits, which is clearly visible in indoor and outdoor cloudy scenes, and may need to look closer to see the screen content in strong sunny days, which is generally excellent.
Weight and wearing feel
After weighing the Honor Watch 4 using a high-precision scale, I found that under the official strap, the total weight of the watch was 48.7g, which was at the mainstream level of smart watches.
Wearing the Honor Watch 4 on your wrist looks like above. The overall wearing feeling of the Honor Watch 4 is similar to mainstream rectangular smart watches, such as the Apple Watch series, etc., if you have the habit of wearing a smart watch, you will soon be able to adapt to its wearing feeling.
Honor Watch 4 Experience
Pairing and interaction with the phone
As a smart wearable product under Honor, the Honor Watch 4 needs to be used with Honor's wearable app. In Honor MagicOS mobile phones, you can start pairing by opening the built-in "Sports and Health" app, and in other Android or iOS phones, you can also download and install "Honor Sports Health" from the app store to use.
After testing the experience, I found that the overall pairing process of the Honor Watch 4 is very fast and convenient.
However, we found a small pain point after conducting pairing tests on multiple mobile phones - when we paired with an iPhone with an iOS system, the Honor Watch 4 had a chance to enter the "data reception" page that could not be skipped, and the waiting time was quite long.
Therefore, we recommend allowing enough time when pairing your Honor Watch 4 out of the box to allow the watch to complete data transfer, system version upgrades, etc.
After the pairing is completed, you can see the battery level, today's steps/calories, setting details and other information in the "Device" page of "(Glory) Sports Health" in the mobile phone, and you can also set further settings such as weather push, alarm clock, and message push in the app.
In addition, there are a large number of additional watch faces to choose from in the App's "Watch Face Market". The rectangular screen makes the dial still excellent in richness and diversity.
Finally, one of the biggest features of this generation of Honor Watch 4, "eSIM Independent Call", can also be set in the app. After testing, I Love Audio Network found that even if used with the iOS system, the Honor Watch 4 can normally add an eSIM to achieve independent calls, meeting the communication needs of scenarios such as going out to exercise and not wanting to bring a mobile phone, and children cannot bring a mobile phone to school.
Watch system interaction
In terms of watch system, unlike Honor's previous bracelets and watch products, Honor Watch 4 is equipped with Honor's new MagicOS watch operating system, which is a watch system between full smart watches and smart bracelets, although it does not open the support of third-party apps, but it has relatively rich built-in App functions, pursuing both function and power consumption.
In terms of operation logic, the overall system operation logic of the Honor Watch 4 equipped with MagicOS is similar to other smart wearable products under Honor.
Under the home screen interface (watch face), swipe left and right to switch between utility widgets, slide down to the notification center, swipe up to the control center, press the side button to enter the App menu, and swipe from the left side of the watch mirror to the right to be the global return operation of the system, which is easier to use overall.
In addition, MagicOS also makes the Honor Watch 4 excellent performance in system smoothness. Throughout our testing experience, the system interface of the Honor Watch 4 can be maintained at 60 frames throughout, and most interface jumps have rich cutscenes, making the entire operation process "silky", surpassing many wearable products in this basic experience.
Health screening and exercise follow-up
In terms of health detection and sports follow-up, the Honor Watch 4 supports a variety of sports health monitoring. Under the default setting, common indoor running, outdoor running, cycling and other aerobic exercises are included, if you are a fat loss person or a user with regular aerobic habits, it can basically fully cover the follow-up needs of daily training.
Strength training, such as "lifting" (weightlifting), confrontational sports such as basketball, badminton, ball games, etc., the watch also supports follow-up, but it is stored in the "Custom" option, if you want to monitor this type of sport, you can select "Add" in the "Custom" option to add.
In addition, in terms of sports, the Honor Watch 4 is more distinctive in that there are also two categories of "running courses" and "fitness courses" in the "Exercise" app, including "endurance running", "fat burning running" and "abs tearing" and other courses, which are more practical for users with systematic training needs.
In terms of health monitoring, the detection items of the Honor Watch 4 include common heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and also cover sleep, stress, physiological cycle and other newer items, which can meet the basic health detection needs of most users.
At the same time, Honor Watch 4 also has the blessing of Honor Heart Health Research, with the cooperation of the App, it can achieve a more complete detection of the heart state, and warn of potential problems such as suspected atrial fibrillation, premature beats, and irregular heart rate, which is quite practical for middle-aged and elderly users.
Overall, the health monitoring and sports follow-up test of the Honor Watch 4 are at the mainstream level in smart watches, which can meet the sports and health follow-up needs of most users.
Charging and battery life
In terms of battery life, with the Honor mobile phone and in eSIM mode, the Honor Watch 4 supports up to 10 days of ultra-long battery life, if eSIM is not used, the battery life will be longer, basically can meet the needs of "one charge a week", daily use will not have much power anxiety.
IN TERMS OF CHARGING, I LOVE AUDIO NETWORK USED THE PROFESSIONAL TESTER CHARGERLAB POWER-Z TO CHARGE THE HONOR WATCH 4 AND FOUND THAT THE HONOR WATCH 4 MAGNETIC CHARGING RATE IS 1.8W, WHICH IS THE MAINSTREAM LEVEL IN WATCHES AND BRACELET PRODUCTS.
I love audio.com summary
As the fourth generation of Honor's smart watch products, Honor Watch 4 adopts a new rectangular design and is also equipped with eSIM independent communication functions, allowing users to "connect with the world" through the watch at any time without their mobile phones.
In terms of sports and health, the Honor Watch 4 supports a wide variety of sports and monitorable health data, which can meet the sports health function needs of most users.
In terms of functional experience, the addition of eSIM has greatly enhanced the communication capabilities of the watch, and the typical battery life of up to 10 days also allows users to say goodbye to "battery life anxiety".
Overall, Honor Watch 4 is a mainstream price segment of health, sports, calls and other smart watch main experience have achieved an excellent level of "bucket" products, if you are using Honor mobile phone, and want to start a smart watch in the thousand-yuan price segment to facilitate life and monitor health, then Honor Watch 4 can start with confidence.