Huawei Watch 5 Ultimate Review: Detailed Health Metrics in Only 60 Seconds

The Huawei Watch 5 is the company’s latest smartwatch, or should I say, smartwatches. This watch arrived in 42mm and 46mm variants. Huawei sent over the 42mm Watch 5 to us for review purposes, so that’s the variant that I’ve been using. In addition to these two Huawei Watch 5 models, the company also announced the Watch Fit 4 series, consisting of two models. I’ve recently reviewed the Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro as well, in case you’re more interested in a square smartwatch.

With that being said, the Huawei Watch 5 42mm is identical to the larger model in every way except the size. That automatically means its display is smaller, and it has a smaller battery. On top of that, the strap for the watch is thinner. With that in mind, let’s see what the Huawei Watch 5 has to offer, shall we?

Specs

Huawei Watch 5 Review: Hardware / Design

The Huawei Watch 5 design is exactly what you’d expect coming from the Watch 4 series. There is one notable addition to the body of the watch, and that’s the new X-Tap sensor on the right side of the body. It sits between the two physical buttons on the watch. We’ll talk more about that sensor in the fitness and health section of the review. That’s what immediately stands out as a new addition design-wise, though.

It’s made out of aerospace-grade titanium and 904L stainless steel

The watch’s shell is made out of aerospace-grade titanium and 904L stainless steel. In other words, Huawei did not really spare any expense here, as it wanted to make a quality and durable watch. Titanium and stainless steel always give me peace of mind. There is a circular display on the watch, which has a curved glass on top of it. The two physical buttons sit on the right-hand side. The top one is also a rotating crown, while the bottom one is a button that you can customize in the settings. The two buttons are completely different, and there’s no way to mistake them. Their position is also completely different.

42 and 46mm models have the same design

Regardless of what color variant of the watch you end up getting, the design is the same. The straps are different, however. The model that Huawei sent our way is the ‘Beige’ one. That model comes with a rubber band, or as Huawei calls it ‘Fluoroelastomer’ watch band. I have absolutely nothing against it, and actually prefer it. It’s very comfortable, and I can take showers with it on without a problem, it dries up very fast. In fact, I prefer this over any other band. This one does look fancier than most, with a different design up top, it actually looks like it’s stitched up. You can also get a leather or metal band, they come in other colors, but you can easily place it on this watch.

20mm watch bands are needed here

The Huawei Watch 5 does not have your standard-looking, open lugs on its ends. It has a closed one, but it’s still a standard one. So, you can technically use any 20mm watch band, as long as it’s not too thick/tall, so that it can fit in the openings on this watch. A heart rate sensor sits at the bottom of the watch. The Huawei Watch 5 was very comfortable to wear. It’s not really for me, as it’s the smaller model, I prefer Huawei’s 46mm variants. If you do have thinner wrists, it can work, sure, why not? Needless to say, this watch is more oriented towards women, but anyone can use it.

Huawei did a great job with build quality

All in all, it’s a well-built watch, and I really don’t have a single complaint when it comes to its design. Yes, I do have some other preferences regarding lugs, for example, but Huawei opted to go a different way, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s also worth noting that all you need to remove the straps is your fingernail, no additional tools. The watch is also not heavy at all, though it has some heft to it. It weighs 51 grams without a strap. The White and Green models are a bit lighter at 48 grams.

Huawei Watch 5 Review: Display

The 42mm Huawei Watch 5 has a 1.38-inch AMOLED display. It’s actually an LTPO 2.0 display, and it does have a 120Hz refresh rate. That’s not something many smartwatches can say for themselves. The resolution you’re getting here is 466 x 466, which means the PPI is even higher than on the 46mm model, as the resolution is the same, and this one has a slightly smaller display. The peak brightness this display can provide is 3,000 nits. The glass on top of the display is curved, and it does give you a sense of depth. The screen-to-body ratio is 82.5%, around 13% higher than what the Huawei Watch 4 offered.

The display is vivid, bright, and… reflective

Quite honestly, I have a single complaint about this display, how reflective it is outdoors, especially at an angle. Other than that, There’s really nothing to complain about. Considering the size of the watch, Huawei did a great job of including a rather good display size. The touch response is great, and the fact the glass is curved, the feeling of swiping across it is great too. The edges are also quite smooth. The resolution is also very high, the display is vivid, and yes, it does get plenty bright. Even if you’re using it under direct sunlight, it gets bright enough.

Sapphire glass will give you a peace of mind

I, of course, did not test the durability of the watch, but considering the materials that Huawei used, I’m guessing it’s quite good. I managed to leave a mark on the Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro after around 10 days of use, I don’t even know how. That didn’t happen on this watch, and chances are it won’t happen moving forward either. Even the glass on top of the display is supposed to be plenty tough, as it’s a sapphire glass protection. Overall, this is one of the best display packages in the smartwatch world.

Huawei Watch 5 Review: Performance

In terms of sheer performance, as in the fluidity of use, the Huawei Watch 5 is sublime. That is the case with pretty much every Huawei smartwatch that I’ve used in recent years. We’re not sure what processor this watch is fueled by, or how much RAM it has. Huawei has stopped sharing such information, but in all honesty, it doesn’t really matter. Even a couple of years after the release of their previous watches, they still offer outstanding performance. The chip could still be the Kirin A1, which was used ages ago, but that’s just one option.

UI animations are great

In any case, the fluidity is outstanding, and Huawei has also improved the animations. I haven’t noticed any lag in my two-week use, and based on other Huawei watches I’ve used, it won’t become a problem anytime soon. Everything from simple navigation around the UI, to opening apps and using HarmonyOS’ widgets… it all goes without a hitch. Even more complicated watch faces are not a problem, not at all.

The watch offers outstanding performance

The animations, on the other hand, are present, but they’re fast and sleek. I speed up animations on pretty much any phone, and on some, I disable them. That actually tells you how fast and nice animations are on this watch, as I didn’t mind them at all. They fit nicely with the UI interaction, and work great, without slowing down your usage or anything of the sort. The Huawei Watch 5 offers great performance, there’s no doubt about it.

Huawei Watch 5 Review: Battery

Huawei did not disclose the battery capacity hidden inside either of the two Huawei Watch 5 smartwatches. What the company did share, however, is the expected battery life. For the 42mm variant, that we’re talking about here, the company projected 3 days of ‘typical use’ and 2 days with AOD (Always-On Display) on. If you turn on the Battery saver mode (which I did not do at any point, as there’s no need to do it), you can allegedly get 7 days of ‘max battery life’ and 5 days of ‘typical usage’. Do note that connecting the watch with an iPhone is expected to offer worse battery life (2 days of typical use). I conducted a review while the watch was being paired with the OPPO Find N5, an Android phone, just to be clear.

4-5 days of regular use on a single charge is easily doable

Those are Huawei’s projections. What’s the battery life actually like? Well, in all honesty, the watch did even better than Huawei said it will. Well, at least with my usage, and it was quite considerable at first as I was testing all sorts of features. I managed to get it to 4 days of use, while using the watch quite considerably and everything it has to offer. With my regular usage, it managed to go for over 5-6 days, almost a week. There are all sorts of parameters included here, of course, so… your mileage could vary quite a bit.

Proper wireless charging is on board

What about charging? The Huawei Watch 5 supports 10W wireless charging. Yes, proper wireless charging, none of that business with POGO pins. The watch does take a little bit over an hour to fully charge, which is not bad at all. Yes, a charging dock is included in the retail box, so you don’t have to get one on the side. The watch is compatible with standard Qi chargers as well, in case you’re wondering.

Huawei Watch 5 Review: Software

The Huawei Watch 5 software will be very familiar if you’ve used a more modern variant of HarmonyOS. Well, quite honestly, it’ll feel familiar if you’ve used HarmonyOS in general. It sticks to general practices for smartwatch software, at least as far as navigation is concerned. With that being said, the experience has been great. Huawei makes little, but useful, tweaks every generation, and this time is no different. Improved animations are welcomed, along with other experience-tweaking changes.

HarmonyOS is actually kind of great now

I already mentioned that the watch runs like a dream in the performance section. Well, software optimization has a lot to do with it. With HarmonyOS, you’ll be mostly relying on first-party apps, as there are no many third-party ones. There are some, but not a lot. In any case, you do have everything you need here, pretty much, and it works great. Ranging from various built-in health features, to navigation via Petal Maps, all the way to a built-in media control app that does the job.

In regard to navigation, the main display is where your watch face sits. There are some pre-installed ones available, but the magic lies within Huawei Health, the company’s app you’ll need to sideload in order to get this watch running. Via that application, you can grab tons of different watch faces, both free and paid ones. They’re sorted in a number of categories, there’s something for everyone. It doesn’t really matter if you’re a minimalist or you like having a ton of information and actions available on your watch face all the time. I’m kind of both, and even I found a number of solid options.

UI navigation will feel familiar if you’ve used a smartwatch thus far

If you swipe from the top down, you’ll get to quick actions/toggles, while doing the opposite will get you to your notifications. More on that soon. Swiping from left to right will let you access a vertical widget list of sorts. Weather and a media player are placed there by default, but you can play around with that. Swiping from right to left will let you scroll between your main widgets, which you can edit as you please. There are quite a few available. All of this works really well, including refresh rates on widgets.

Notifications worked great, just the way I set them up, and they were always prompt. Do note that on HarmonyOS, the sync is one-sided. What do I mean by that? Well, when you swipe away a notification from your notifications list on the watch, it will not disappear from the notification shade on your phone. That’s actually the way I personally prefer it, but just keep that in mind. Huawei also fixed one specific issue with notifications that has been bothering me on the Huawei Watch GT 5. On the Huawei Watch 5, all emojis are visible in contact names when you receive a notification.

New gestures are very useful, actually

There is one new feature that I was looking forward to testing. Huawei stuffed the Huawei Watch 5 with new gesture capabilities. The company refers to this as ‘Gesture Control’, and it gives you a chance to use gestures by hand movements with the hand that the watch is on. These are finger gestures, actually, and there are two of them. The Double Slide and Double Tap. Thanks to these gestures, you can, for example, answer a call with one hand and also jump between music tracks, for example.

Huawei has clear tutorials for these gestures, so it will teach you the basics. I managed to hit the Double Tap gestures basically every time, it was quite reliable, while the Double Slide took some getting used to. I realized that I need to close my index finger a bit closer to the main part of the first in order for it to work well. Once I got the hang of it, well, it worked really well. In all honesty, I used one gesture the most, the Double Slide one, to jump between songs while I was out and about. It’s a really nice addition, in my opinion, more a useful feature, and less a gimmick, but… I’m sure some people will disagree.

It is compatible with both Android and iOS

All in all, HarmonyOS is very capable, and it’s compatible with Android 9.0 or later and iOS 13.0 or later versions of their respective mobile operating systems. Do note that it works better with Android, though, and drains less battery too.

Huawei Watch 5 Review: Health & Fitness

The Huawei Watch 5 has plenty of health and fitness features. The one that Huawei has been heavily promoting is a new one, the so-called X-TAP Technology. In its full name, it’s the multi-sensing X-TAP Technology, which uses the sensor on the right side of the watch to grab your metrics. That sensor is placed between the two physical buttons on the right side, and the Watch 5 series watches are the first watches to include this sensor. There’s plenty of tech built into that sensor. It includes a pressure sensor, an ECG Electrode, and a Fingertip PPG sensor. It also has enhanced pressure sensitivity (X-Level+).

You’ll appreciate Health Glance

That sensor on the right is expected to read your metrics and provide you with a Health Glance. It measures your ECG, provides you with real-time fingertip SpO2 monitoring, it conducts Arterial Stiffness Detection, and provides you with a ton of information once it’s done. It’s a rather quick process, and the watch will guide you what to do while you’re holding your finger on the sensor. In order to complete all the steps and for them to be as accurate as possible, you’ll be required to sit normally and be in a quiet environment, so keep that in mind.

I realized that this is a rather convenient way to get a quick health scan. Now, the One-Tap Health Glance does provide you with a ton of information. You’re getting average heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), SpO2, skin temperature, stress level, ECG, arterial stiffness detection, respiratory overview, and sleep breathing awareness. It’s worth noting that Huawei highlights that arterial stiffness detection and respiratory overview are non-medical results, so keep that in mind. From what we could tell, the watch was quite accurate in its readings. All in all, it takes you 60 seconds aka 1 minute, to measure 11 health indicators and get a detailed report.

Personalized health analysis is available and boosted by X-TAP tech

The watch will conduct a health analysis that is personalized for every user. Huawei calls this Intelligent Health Analysis. It will also try to help you develop better habits in order to improve your health. There’s a ton of information this watch provides, and it can be really helpful if you allow it to be. It won’t pester you if you don’t, though, so don’t worry about that. It’s there if you need it, but it will stay out of your way if you’d prefer it that way.

Now, in addition to a ton of health features, there are also a ton of sports activities the Huawei Watch 5 can track. A ton of them are pre-installed, and while the watch can detect some of them, for most, you’ll need to fire up exercise tracking manually. There are all sorts of activities included here, ranging from indoor and outdoor running and cycling to skipping rope and playing golf. The range of activities is truly overwhelming. I went for a brief run during my testing, while I also did some cycling and walking. The watch did a great job in terms of tracking, while the GPS was very accurate. I had no issues whatsoever.

Huawei Watch 5 Review: Audio

I feel like I do repeat myself a lot when it comes to audio on Huawei watches, and there’s a reason for it. I feel like it has been very similar for a couple of years now. This watch does include a speaker on the left side, while it also has a microphone in case you’d like to conduct calls via the watch. That’s something that I simply hate doing, in all honesty, and I haven’t seen many people doing. However, if you want to do it, you can.

If you’re not in a loud environment, it’s doable, and you can clear the other side without a problem. If you’re next to a busy road, it will not be a good experience in general. The other side says that they could hear me fine, but the sound was “odd” compared to when I talk via the phone. That is to be expected, of course. Either way, it’s doable, that’s for sure. The speaker was actually just fine for calls… considering it’s a watch speaker.

Huawei Watch 5 Review: Should you buy it?

The Huawei Watch 5 is an outstanding smartwatch. I had high expectations going into this review, and this watch did not disappoint. If you prefer smartwatches that are not gigantic, this is a great option, that’s for sure. It’s very comfortable and packed with great health and fitness features. The performance is top-notch, while the battery life is also good. Wireless charging is on board, and so on. If you can afford it, the Huawei Watch 5 is easy to recommend.

You should buy the Huawei Watch 5 if you:

• Prefer smaller watches
• Like round smartwatches that look like regular watches
• Want top-notch health-tracking features
• Want to get the best Huawei has to offer
• Delve into various different sports and want to track your progress
• Don’t want to charge your smartwatch frequently

You shouldn’t buy the Huawei Watch 5 if you:

• Like using a lot of third-party apps
• Don’t want to sideload Huawei’s Health app