Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro review: An Apple Watch Ultra for Android users

The Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro lands as an amped up version of the Watch Fit 4, aiming to offer an upgraded smartwatch design and plenty of extra smarts to make it an even better buy than its predecessor, the Watch Fit 3.

There’s big gains for both outdoor lovers and those who want to closely monitor their health, with Huawei’s HarmonyOS sewing things all together to give you that feel of using one of Huawei’s pricier smartwatches.

We were big fans of the Watch Fit 3 and with a little more money to spend on the pro model of the Fit 4, it feels like that extra spend, at £249, will be worth it for some.

Design & Build

• Two case size options
• Available in steel or titanium
• New side-mounted sensor

The Watch Fit 4 Pro comes in green, blue or black colours, so that’s fewer colour options available for the Watch Fit 3.

You now have your option of a fluoroelastomer or woven nylon bands and with titanium and aluminium both in play in the case department. Put those parts all together and it’s a smartwatch design that’s ticking a lot of boxes yet also giving us something we’ve seen before.

Mike Sawh

From the case shape to the rotating crown and button on the side, the Fit 4 Pro looks like an Apple Watch Ultra 2 clone. A nice clone, mind you, but definitely doesn’t try to do things too differently here.

If you can deal with people asking you if you’ve got an Apple Watch Ultra on (maybe you want that), you are getting a very nicely-made smartwatch that’s now slimmer than the Fit 3 and the Fit 4, and at just over 30g sits pretty light on your wrist too.

Another thing it has in common with Apple’s smartwatch is that it’s suitable for recreational diving up to 40 metres depth. That’s to go with a 5ATM rating, which means you can keep it on in the shower and for swims.

I’ve been wearing the Fit 4 Pro for a couple of weeks now and whether it’s been for exercise, swimming, sitting at a desk or taking it to sleep, it’s been a very comfortable smartwatch to strap on.

Screen & Audio 

• New sapphire glass
• Improved screen brightness
• Speaker and microphone included

The display on the Watch Fit 4 Pro is the same size and resolution as the one featured on the Fit 3 and is also the same one included on the cheaper Fit 4. The notable upgrade here is the addition of sapphire glass to offer the kind of protection against scratches offered on more expensive watches and smartwatches.

Mike Sawh

That 1.82-inch, 480 x 408 resolution display is now a brighter one as Huawei notches up the peak brightness. It’s up to 3,000 on the Pro, which is double what we got on the Watch Fit 3 and an extra 1,000 nits over the non-Pro Fit 4.

There’s no change on the cellular connectivity front in that it still doesn’t have it. If you do want it on a Huawei smartwatch, you’ll need to grab the Huawei Watch 5. What you can still do is use the onboard speaker and microphone to take calls over Bluetooth and the speaker volume and mic clarity is good enough to intercept a call from your wrist.

Software & Features 

• Some micro apps available
• Petal Maps mapping 
• Custom watch faces 

The Watch Fit series has evolved to become more smartwatch than fitness tracker and smartwatch hybrid, though you won’t get any major additions to bring it closer to fully-featured Huawei smartwatches like its Watch GT and Watch series.

As already mentioned, you can use it to make calls over Bluetooth as well as view notifications, add transport cards to it and there are both music controls and music player modes. The latter is once again off limits to iPhone users. You have access to Huawei’s Petal Maps and the screen is big and bright enough to make using it to get around worthwhile.

Mike Sawh

There’s a good collection of watch faces, where you can see which of those faces suck the most power with the new ability to add stickers and emojis to watch faces. It’s good to see the Fit 4 Pro showing a more playful side.

Inevitably, there are things you will miss out on the Watch Fit 4 Pro that you will find on more expensive Huawei smartwatches. The biggest one is the more limited access you have to Huawei AppGallery apps. It’s a more scaled-back affair with just a bunch available.

Fitness & Tracking 

• Added ECG app
• Offline maps and point-to-point navigation
• Altitude barometer now included

Huawei makes some pretty sizeable upgrades from the Fit 3 when it’s time to take it for a run or you want to spend the day hiking with it. It’s now moved from a single-band GNSS system to a dual-band GNSS to give outdoor tracking a boost.

That improved route tracking now also extends to water sports, while the added barometer means it can be more valuable when tackling high altitudes. You’re now getting access to free offline maps for activities like trail running, and it’s also getting some of Huawei’s more advanced golf smarts, including access to over 15,000 course maps. 

Mike Sawh

The sports tracking experience is strong for a watch at this price and in many ways much better than many more expensive smartwatches. You’re getting a GPS performance that’s been solid in our testing.

Even for indoor workouts, it performed strongly. Having offline mapping as well as turn-by-turn navigation is great to see and is slickly presented on the Fit 4 Pro’s display. Tracking heart rate during workouts from Huawei’s latest TruSense optical sensor has performed well, if still a little sketchy during higher-intensity workouts. 

Mike Sawh

The surprising big upgrades don’t end there either as Huawei manages to squeeze in an ECG sensor, making the Fit 4 Pro one of the most affordable routes to tracking your heart rate more reliably by placing your finger on the electrode for a 30-second measurement – similar to the Huawei Watch 5.

The readings matched up to similar ECG readings on an Apple Watch Series 10 and are stored inside of the heart section of the Huawei Health app alongside daily heart rate readings and the new arterial stiffness detection measurements.

Battery Life & Charging

• 7-10 day battery life
• 4 days with always-on display
• Fast charging available

The Watch Fit 4 Pro aims to give you over a week of battery life in between charges and actually promises the same 7 days as the Watch Fit 4 and the older Watch Fit 3 in what Huawei deems typical usage.

That jumps to 10 days when using Huawei’s battery saver mode and drops to 4 days when you keep the screen awake at all times.

Mike Sawh

If you want a smartwatch that can last a week and you’re not too fussed about having the screen on continuously, the chances of getting a week are strong. The daily battery drop, even when using features like fitness tracking, sleep monitoring and viewing notifications, isn’t too severe.

When I ran with the Fit 4 Pro for an hour, the battery dropped by 5%. Overnight, the battery drop was roughly 6-7%. It might not be a huge leap in pure battery numbers compared to the Fit 3, but it certainly hasn’t got worse.

When you do run out of battery, you need to grab the circular proprietary charging cable and even just 10-minutes of charge time will get you enough for a day’s play if you’re not going heavy on your usage.

If you’re charging from 0%, it takes an hour to get up to full capacity, so it’s nice and snappy to power it up again.

Price & Availability

The Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro is available now in the UK and Europe, with no sign of a US launch. If things go the same way as the Huawei Watch Fit 3 launch, then its chances of going on sale will be slim.

The launch price is £249, so that’s over £100 more expensive than the Watch Fit 3 – which didn’t have Pro model. If you need something cheaper, then the regular Watch Fit 4 is £149.

You can buy it from Huawei as well as various retailers including Argos, Currys and Amazon.

If you look at that price in the context of Huawei’s own smartwatch family, the Huawei Watch GT 5 costs from £229, while the Huawei Watch 5 pricing starts from £399.

Outside of Huawei’s range, that £249 price puts it in and around the Apple Watch SE 2 (from £219) and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 (£289). So it’s going up against some pretty big-name smartwatches.

Check out our list of the best budget smartwatches for more options.

Mike Sawh

Should you buy the Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro?

The Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro may not give you the best that Huawei has to offer in smartwatch features, but if you’re looking for the one in its rapidly growing collection that offers the best value for money, the Watch Fit 4 Pro is a no-brainer.

It’s especially good news for Android users that have been seeking out an Apple Watch Ultra-like alternative and are not quite sold on something like the impressive and well-priced Amazfit T-Rex 3.

While it can’t absolutely match Apple’s Ultra and other Ultra-type smartwatches like the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra for tracking and features like app support, it still gets plenty right to make it worth buying.

While Huawei might be bringing new innovation to its more expensive smartwatches, the Fit 4 Pro sucks up features that make it extremely capable at a great price.

Specs

• Aluminium and titanium alloy
• 1.82-inch, 480 x 408 AMOLED display
• 3,000 nits maximum brightness
• Dual-band GPS
• ECG sensor
• Depth sensor
• 5 ATM water resistant
• Dive-proof up to 40 metres
• Android and iOS
• 7-10 day battery life