Huawei Watch Fit initial review
My Casio W-753 watch has been my running buddy for 8 years and it still works fine, but recently I have become curious enough for a fitness tracker.
I wanted something small like Garmin Vivosmart 4, Xiao Mi Band 5, Fitbit Inspire 2 or Fitbit Charge 4. I tried each of them on my wrist, but in the end I ended up buying the bigger Huawei Watch Fit for overall fit on the wrist and legibility. It happens to look good, too.
Lesson learned: Online shopping is all the rage indeed, but physical store presence helps a lot.
The Watch Fit's dial / face can be changed in the setting (and it is also possible to download more styles). The physical button on the right side opens up the menu system and the rest is handled on-screen. The screen is touch sensitive with the user interface focused around swiping, scrolling, and tapping the on-screen button. While exercising, the screen responds decently to sweaty finger swiping to see different modes, if needed.
It tracks heart rate, SpO2, stress, menstrual cycle, sleep, etc. Despite being feature rich, I think the user interface is decent.
I have only used it for one 10K run. The GPS measurement came out different from what I once tracked on my phone. A run route that my phone said 2.1 km registered only about 2 km on the Watch Fit. Not sure if the on-board GPS can / should be tuned using the phone first.
One nitpick: This being my first fitness tracker, I was dismayed that I must download the Huawei Health app onto my phone and pair it with the Watch Fit, before I could set it up to use it. The store staff told me that I could disconnect and delete the app afterward.
I wanted a fitness tracker so I could conveniently understand my heart rate while running, so I was not planning to connect it to Huawei server. I could not see any technical reason why a registration is a technical pre-requisite to operate the tracker. The company just wants to get data. Unfortunately, there was no way around it, so I downloaded the Huawei Health app and connected the device. (Huawei provides options in the setting to turn a few things off.)
And the app is decent. For fitness tracker users, the data analytics out of the app is what gives the benefit. I am still a newbie at this; maybe I can warm up to this concept slowly. So I have not deleted the app, yet.
So far, so good! Overall, there is a lot to like in the Huawei Watch Fit.
Update 1: I found out that the app shows the map of the run route and the map looks correct. And on my second run, I ran my usual 1 km loop that I know well and the distance on the Watch Fit seems to be correct.
Update 2: Third run – I retraced my 2.1 km route and the Watch Fit indicated that it is indeed around 2.1 km. I suppose that is good, but I do not know what I did to have improved its accuracy, other than keep using it.
