the honor band 5 has been out for just over a year now and with the honor band 6 on the
horizon i thought i'd pick one up and do an updated review and unboxing for you i did
however buy this primarily to do a galaxy fit 2 comparison video and that video will drop later
on in the week so let's take a look at the good the bad and indeed the ugly with the honor band
5.
hello everyone welcome back to tech it easy so the honor band 5 is on the review table today and i've
got to say first impressions for a device that's a year behind the galaxy fit 2 i'm really really
impressed and pleasantly surprised first thing i'm noticing is that square sharper amoled display i
much prefer it to the likes of the galaxy fit 2 and the xiaomi mi band 5. you can actually
see the screen is actually curved slightly whilst the mi band 5 and galaxy fit 2 are flat and don't
really follow the curvature of your wrist quite as well next thing i'm noticing is the included strap
it has a really nice textured finish and again it feels much more sturdy than both the xiaomi
mi band 5 and the galaxy fit 2. but i'm going to save any more comparisons for another video
so make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on that so let's take a look at the honor band 5
and how it comes to you and jump into a quick unboxing so the packaging is pretty standard
it looks nice it's nothing premium though nor would i expect it to be for such a low price
of just 27.99 on amazon or roughly if you're in the us there will be links in the description to
check out the latest prices so as i mentioned at the start of the video first impressions of
the build quality were excellent it felt like a device that should cost a lot lot more but
then my heart sank as i pulled out the same charger i hated so much on the galaxy fit too
it's fiddly and it's not easy to attach and detach in a hurry so i'm hoping they'll switch that up
when the honor band 6 releases perhaps they could do something like xiaomi did on the mi band 5
which is actually one of the only things i particularly love about that fitness band anyway
other than the included charger and the underband 5 itself there really isn't much else inside the
box other than a few butlers there is however a super satisfying sticker to peel off the screen
so now the unboxing's out the way let's talk about some of the important specs the first stop being
the battery life now hawaii say that you will get 14 days of battery life out of the honor band 5
and i can definitely see that being true i've had this about a week didn't charge it all the way up
to 100 and it's lost roughly 30 admittedly there was a day and a half i wasn't wearing it but still
it's giving me a pretty good idea of what it's capable of now battery life will of course depend
on usage so if you're using it for sleep tracking continuous heart rate monitoring all day every day
with a screen brightness whacked all the way up to the max then don't expect the 14 days hawaii state
nonetheless if you were doing all those things i'd imagine you'd get a solid week out of it at the
absolute minimum which is still plenty for most next i want to quickly flip back to that display
now there's a lot to love about the honor band 5's display it's crisp it's vibrant and it feels
pretty big to be on a fitness band it is of course a touch screen which is where the honor band
5 does let itself down a little bit i found the touch sensitivity to be a little bit inconsistent
and you really have to exaggerate your swipes when browsing through the ui many times it's
recognized a swipe to be a tap and i've ended up going into the app i didn't really want to visit
not a huge drawback but it can be frustrating and more so when you're running or exercising
now the honor band 5 is not a smart watch but it does have some elements of smartwatch that people
have grown to love such as the ability to switch your watch face out it comes with a few different
options already installed as stock they're all pretty vibrant and complement the screen nicely
personalization is certainly a nice touch to have on a device like this next up we have calls
and text notifications again another really nice feature to have and something i've come to expect
from modern fitness trackers in 2020 and indeed 2021 it works well enough it does what you'd
expect it to do the honor band 5 has a built-in vibration motor so you shouldn't be missing
anything important you of course can't take calls on the band itself but you can swipe to answer and
indeed decline calls on your phone additionally to this we have a few other really useful features
such as the find my phone function as well as a camera shutter controller i love the features like
these usually seen on much more expensive smart watches are coming down to much more affordable
fitness trackers speaking of useful features let's talk about tracking and monitoring on the honor
band 5. first up heart rate tracking it works in a very similar way to most other fitness trackers
but i was wondering how accurate it actually was so i went ahead and took a few readings on both
the galaxy watch 3 and the honor band 5. each time there's only a few beats different which is fine
as it's perfectly normal for your heart rate to go up and down so compared to samsung's flagship
smartwatch it's looking pretty accurate now one huge feature that puts the honor band 5 above all
the rest is the spo2 monitoring or blood oxygen monitoring something both the xiaomi mi band 5
and galaxy fit 2 were lacking this is an excellent feature to have on a fitness tracker at this price
point as well as this there's also things like sleep tracking and steps counting which come as
standard on most fitness trackers these days just before we round things up i want to talk about the
workout section now unfortunately this is another area where the honor band 5 does fail it doesn't
have nearly as much toys as the xiaomi mi band 5 and the galaxy fit too but i'll go more in depth
on that in the upcoming comparison video so make sure you're subscribed it does have a few options
such as outdoor running indoor cycling swimming rowing and a few others but what it's lacking
is specifics and this is definitely something huawei can fix in the upcoming honor band 6.
so what is my overall opinion on the honor band 5. well to be honest i'm upset i didn't try this out
earlier it's actually really really impressed me i love the screen i love the overall build quality
i'm impressed that there's the sp02 monitoring and i'm a big fan of how budget friendly it is
it's actually tearing me away from the galaxy bit 2 a little but we will discuss that in a
future in-depth comparison video but it's not all singing and dancing for the honor band 5 though
it is lacking a few things such as a more detailed workout section and that touch display definitely
needs a little bit of attention overall though i'd highly recommend this over the xiaomi mi
band 5 at least and depending on the price of the honor band 6 on release it might even be worth
buying this still over that but is it still worth buying now absolutely although a year behind some
of its competitors it still puts up a good fight with some extremely impressive features for its
price bracket that being said though it wouldn't hurt to wait for the honor band 6 to be released
to see if there's any major changes or upgrades one last thing to mention just before we conclude
is that this band is actually waterproof up to a depth of 50 meters so you can of course take
it swimming with you and you'll obviously be okay if you get caught out in the rain
so that was the honor band 5. as always let me know in the comment section what you thought of it
and please do hit that like button if you enjoyed the video also if you are new around
here please do hit that subscribe button so you don't miss the galaxy fit 2 comparison
but for now thank you so much for watching and hopefully i'll see you in the next one
you