If square smartwatches are your thing, HONOR has a new one to offer. The HONOR Watch 5 is its name, and I’m here to review it. I’ve been using this smartwatch for over two weeks at this point, and I do have quite a few opinions about it. Let’s get the obvious out of the way, as many of you will immediately compare this design to what Apple has to offer. Yes, it does resemble the Apple Watch. There’s nothing wrong with that, though, quite the contrary.

HONOR actually improved its software on wearables quite a bit, and I found this smartwatch to be quite compelling. Quite frankly I expected to like it less than I actually did, as I much prefer regular-looking round watches. In any case, this one may be worth checking out if you’re looking for a square smartwatch. Read on to find out more, I’ll do my best to share my experience thus far.

HONOR Watch 5 Review: Hardware / Design

First of all, the HONOR Watch 5 is made out of metal (6 series aluminum). Many similar-looking smartwatches were made out of plastic in the past, but I assure you, that’s not the case here. There’s also curved glass on top of the watch, though the display itself is flat. It does make swiping around the display quite enjoyable, as there’s no way your finger will get stuck on the edge or something. The glass is curved on all four sides. The watch itself is very light, actually. It weighs only 35 grams, which makes it lighter than most streamlined smartwatches. Its weight is measured without the strap, of course.

Its only button also rotates

There is a single button included on the right-hand side, and that button does rotate. It also has an embedded pattern into the metal, so it feels really nice to use. A speaker sits below that button, while there’s a microphone on the opposite side. Unfortunately, though, the strap on the watch is of a proprietary kind. You cannot use standard straps here, as there are no lugs or anything of the sort. The strap basically goes on the inside of the watch.

Only one color option has regular lugs for the watch band

What I did notice, however, is that the green model of the watch does include lugs on the outside. I doubt the design is different, perhaps that’s a proprietary addition to the watch, which has a proprietary connector to provide regular lugs on the outside. I’m not sure, but I didn’t get it with this watch, that’s for sure. A heart rate sensor sits at the bottom, of course, as do the pogo pins which you’ll need for charging here. More on that later.

The watch comes in three colors

The HONOR Watch 5 comes in Gold, Black, and Green colors. I wish I got the green one to review, as I simply love how it looks, but this black one is quite stealthy, and that’s what most people prefer. The watch arrived with a nice silicone band, it’s very soft, and the watch is very comfortable to wear. I’m used to wearing considerably heavier watches, so this one… well, I don’t even feel it on my hand. It’s immensely comfortable and I forget I even wear it until it starts vibrating.

The single button is quite tactile, and the watch is 5 ATM rated

The button on the watch is quite tactile, no complaints there, while the rotating function also works really well. The build quality seems to be really good, which is not surprising, HONOR has a lot of experience. It does not creak or anything of the sort. The connection between the metallic body of the watch and the display is seamless. I really have no objections when it comes to the design. This is one of the nicest square watches I’ve seen. Do note that it is both 5 ATM and IP68 rated. So not only is it water and dust resistant, but you can go diving with it up to 50 meters as well.

HONOR Watch 5 Review: Display

The HONOR Watch 5 features a 1.85-inch AMOLED display. This is a square display and it offers a resolution of 450 x 390 pixels, that’s a 322 PPI, in case you were wondering. That display has a 60Hz refresh rate, in case you were wondering. The bezels around the display are not exactly razor-thin, but they blend nicely with the background. They also serve as a transition point from the frame to the actual display. I didn’t mind them, not one bit, they’re not thick enough to bother you, in all honesty.

The colors are vibrant, but auto brightness needs tweaking

The display itself is also quite nice. It’s vibrant enough and has good viewing angles. The resolution is more than high enough, and the brightness outdoors was not a problem. This watch does get quite bright at the highest setting (5). There are 5 levels on offer. One thing to note is that I had some issues with auto brightness. The watch was a bit dimmer than I’d like when set to ‘Auto’, which was annoying, I can’t say it wasn’t. I didn’t want to switch between levels manually depending on the time of day, so ‘Auto’ was the only option.

That was basically my only issue here, and it’s easily fixable via an update. I’ve seen such problems before on watches, but OEMs usually fix them rather fast. The same was the case with one of the previous HONOR watches. So, I’m confident this will get resolved, as it is quite annoying at the moment.

HONOR Watch 5 Review: Performance

HONOR did not highlight what SoC is used here. So I cannot share that info. What I do know, however, is that the watch comes with 4GB of internal storage. RAM count was also not revealed as of yet. The bottom line is, the watch works really well. It’s as smooth as you’d want it to be, and that’s what matters. The UI follows what I tell it to do nicely, with nice animations. Everything is very responsive, so I have no complaints in that department. We’ll talk more about the software performance and health separately, but in the general sense, the watch is very smooth.

I did not experience Bluetooth disconnects at all

The HONOR Watch 5 is equipped with Bluetooth 5.2 (LE/BR/EDR), and it supports both Android and iOS operating systems. Do note that you’ll need to be on Android 9.0 or higher to use it. In terms of iOS, you’ll need at least iOS 12.0. With that being said, I used the watch only in collaboration with Android, as that’s how it shows its full range of features. I did not have any problems with disconnects. The only times that it disconnected was when I went far away from it, which is to be expected, of course. The connection did not break on random or anything like that.

HONOR Watch 5 Review: Battery

A 480mAh battery sits inside the HONOR Watch 5. The company says that the device offers a 15-day battery life. This longevity is measured with specific conditions in place, shown below this paragraph. HONOR considers these terms ‘typical application scenarios’, and is supposed to simulate the usage of most people, kind of. I, of course, used the watch differently, and can only share my experience with the device.

Was I able to get 15 days’ worth of battery life from the watch? Well, no not quite, but my usage was a bit more intense than what is listed by HONOR. I was able to get between 12 and 14 days’ worth of battery life. I was using GPS more than HONOR did in its testing, plus I did get far more messages on the watch. Other aspects were different too. The point is, even if you’re using the watch quite a bit, you can get close to two weeks of battery life, which is very nice. The vast majority of competitors can only dream of such numbers.

A charging cradle is included, but wireless charging is not on offer

When it comes to charging, a charging puck is included in the retail box. Do note that it does not provide wireless charging, however, but most of you won’t even know the difference. Your watch will magnetize to the charging puck and start charging, but it won’t do so wirelessly, but via pogo pins included on both the charger and the watch. That will actually ensure faster charging than you’d get with wireless charging, but it’s still not blazing fast. Do note that the charger itself has a Type-A plug. The downside of pogo pins is that you may need to clean them from time to time to avoid connection issues, at least that was my experience with similar products.

HONOR Watch 5 Review: Software

The HONOR Watch 5 does not run Wear OS, not at all. It comes with HONOR’s proprietary OS which does remind us of what Huawei’s watches offer, but it’s still different. This software is actually one of the main reasons this watch is able to get such great battery life. If it ran Wear OS, things would be notably different. This does mean that you’ll get a different experience without heavy integration of Google services, but… that’s what many people prefer, including me (mainly due to the battery life, but that’s not the only reason), so… let’s talk about the software itself.

You’ll be right at home in terms of UI navigation

In terms of navigation, you’ll be right at home if you’ve used a modern Huawei or HONOR smartwatch. Well, truth be said watches from various other brands do things very similarly. Swiping up from the bottom up will show you your notifications while swiping down from the top will reveal quick toggles. Swiping from left to right shows you a dedicated space for… well, let’s say widgets, but vertically, while swiping right to left will reveal widgets too, but horizontal pages for widgets, separate ones. You can include only one widget per page. Tapping the only button on the watch will make sure you enter the app list.

Various watch faces are available, and you can add more

Those are the basics. It is worth noting that HONOR did make improvements compared to last year, that’s for sure. The UI looks more modern, and the performance is also smoother. The same goes for animations, which are very subtle here, but nice. You can easily switch between different watch faces by holding your finger on the home screen, and the watch faces are kind of interactive now too. For example, there is a watch face that shows you a red-letter icon for when you have an unread notification. If you tap it, you’ll jump straight to the notifications section. The watch faces can also be animated, and you can grab additional ones from HONOR’s store if you don’t like the default ones.

Most of my software-related complaints have to do with notifications

Now, the software in general works really well, but some things are still missing compared to what Huawei is offering. Most of my complaints are related to notifications. You still cannot get a full keyboard to type a reply to a message, nothing close to it. All you have is predefined replies. Also, if a person who’s messaging you has an emoticon in their name or message, you won’t be able to see it. Do note that HONOR did announce that a new update is on the way, and I’m not sure if that will change things, but for the time being, this is the situation.

An upcoming update could change things

In terms of notifications in general, they worked well. They were on time and showed enough message content not to feel too obstructed, even though longer messages didn’t come through. What managed to annoy me was the fact I couldn’t see emails, for example. Only subjects of email would show up for whatever reason. I’m talking about the Gmail app here, in particular. That upcoming update could change things, as I said, but… this is the way it works now. The notifications in general function similarly to what Huawei offers. If you dismiss a notification on the watch, it will still wait for you on the watch. That is actually how I prefer it to work, as I forget I received notifications otherwise, and I like to keep the notification queue on the watch empty. There is no way to change this, in case you’re wondering.

HONOR Watch 5 Review: Health & Fitness

The HONOR Watch 5 is well-equipped in the fitness/health department. First of all, do note that your regular array of sensors is included here. That, of course, includes an optical heart rate sensor. A GPS is also included here. In fact, the HONOR AccuTrack Positioning does boost GPS performance, and I did notice a difference compared to last gen model. It was actually quite accurate. The watch does offer continuous heart rate tracking and can track your blood oxygen levels too. On top of that, sleep tracking is also a part of the package.

The ‘Health Scan’ feature sure is useful

This watch also comes with a new feature called ‘Health Scan’. With just a tap of your finger, the HONOR Watch 5 can grab your health data and provide you with a ton of information in a single place. It includes an average heart rate, blood oxygen level, stress levels, and so on. In terms of sleep tracking, the HONOR Watch 5 can actually provide you with a personalized sleep plan to improve your sleep habits. Well, in addition to tracking your sleep.

How well does all this work, though? Well, quite well, actually. The GPS accuracy is still not the best I’ve experienced, but it’s up there, especially when it comes to watches in this price bracket. Health Scan turned out to be a very useful feature. I showed it to a couple of people, and they seemed interested, as it makes things a lot simpler on their end. That gives me hope regular users will appreciate it.

Sleep tracking needs work

I’ve had the least luck with sleep tracking, but that’s usually the case when it comes to smartwatches. Why? Well, it is never spot on. For example, I tend to go through a ton of news when I wake up every day, and even though I do move my hand during that time, to a degree, it almost never picks up when I’m wake up. Things like that make me not want to use sleep tracking in general.

No matter what your workout type is, chances are this watch has you covered

As you’d expect, there are a ton of workout options here. Regardless of what our poison is, this watch has you covered. If you like to run outdoors or ride a bike, you’re all good. If you prefer indoor workouts like running on a treadmill, no problem. You’d be surprised at how many different indoor and outdoor workouts are included, so no matter how odd your workout is, chances are this watch will be able to keep track of it, at least to a degree. It’s impossible to test all the workouts on offer, as there are tons of them, I tested a couple. Bike riding outdoors, and a treadmill in the gym. The watch did a good job, that’s also where I tested its GPS. it did lose connection at one point but it quickly reconnected. That was an isolated incident, though.

HONOR Watch 5 Review: Audio

The HONOR Watch 5 does have a speaker on the right side, below the physical key. Its microphone is located on the opposite side, on the left. I always managed my expectations when it comes to audio a speaker on a watch can provide, and you should too. Quite honestly, I literally never use it after I’m done testing it. If you do, however, as some people love to take calls on a watch, you’ll be glad to know that it’s… usable. It’s not the worst I’ve seen on a watch, nor the best. It cannot be compared to a speaker(s) on a phone, though. If you have a quiet place to take calls, you’ll be just fine.

You can use this watch for phone calls, but don’t do it in loud(er) environments

In regards to that microphone, it seems to work well. Just make sure to pull the watch close-ish to your mouth when you’re talking, and try to make sure it’s at least somewhat quiet around you. When I talked to people in quiet or semi-quiet environments, it was all fine. However, when I did it from a busy road, they had problems hearing me. I always do these test in those three environments, just to get an idea of what we’re dealing with. All in all, taking calls on this watch is doable and works fine.

HONOR Watch 5: Should you buy it?

HONOR did provide us with a review unit of the Watch 5 quite early. Its global price tag was not announced at launch, nor was it announced at the time of this review. One thing is for sure, though, this is the company’s most compelling smartwatch to date. I’ve had the chance to use most of the watches HONOR announced, and this one worked the best. The UI is much improved compared to all the previous versions, and the build quality is great.

If you’re interested in square smartwatches, this one is worth considering, without a doubt. It comes with improved GPS accuracy, while it’s well-equipped in the fitness department. The performance is smooth, and the only major complaint I had is with notifications, but that is something HONOR can fix via an update rather easily. It’s hard to make a final judgment without the price tag, but I’m sure HONOR won’t go overboard in this regard. So, as long as that price tag fits your options, the Watch 5 is not difficult to recommend.

You should buy the HONOR Watch 5 if you:

…like square smartwatches
…want a very light smartwatch
…battery life is very important to you
…like casual workout & sleep tracking
…want a screen that is actually visible outdoors
…like to make phone calls via your watch

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

…get easily annoyed by misfunctioning auto brightness
…use your smartwatch primarily for notifications