The sweet spot in Huawei’s range

Introduction

The Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro sees Huawei commit to offering its most affordable smartwatch in a version that gets you a few more features for a bit more cash. The best way to think of this smartwatch is Huawei’s cut-price answer to the Apple Watch Ultra or Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra.

For the Fit 5 Pro, Huawei has added a bigger and brighter screen alongside new fitness and smartwatch smarts that should appeal to those not just looking for an outdoor adventure companion.

I was a fan of the Watch Fit 4 Pro, so I hoped Huawei didn’t undo the good work it did with its predecessor. I’m happy to say that the Watch Fit 5 Pro is still a mid-range smartwatch with plenty to like.

Design and screen

• Features a larger AMOLED screen
• Screen is now brighter than Watch Fit 4 Pro 
• Suitable for recreational diving up to 40 metres

Huawei has opted to stick to largely the same design as the last Pro, and that means another smartwatch with an Apple Watch-aping design. I’d say it’s different enough to make it live a little differently on your wrist.

You’ll be glancing down at a 44.5m case made from aluminium, matched up with a titanium bezel. Huawei has also launched a ceramic version, which gets you more in the way of protection against general wear and scratches.

Whichever model you go for, you’ll find two physical buttons on the right side of the case. The twisting crown lets you scroll through data and menu screens when you don’t want to swipe on the display to do it instead.

It’s mainly the display where things have changed. Huawei has moved from a 1.82-inch display to a larger 1.92-inch display with 480 x 408 resolution. While it’s technically bigger, it doesn’t actually dramatically impact the size of the watch. This is good news for anyone who liked the size of the Fit 4 Pro and was worried the Fit 5 Pro might be too big for smaller wrists.

It’s a very sharp, crisp display to look at, with a glossy finish that helps features like watch faces really pop on screen. The peak brightness is the same 3,000 nits as the 4 Pro, with sapphire glass in place to offer some premium protection against scratches.

That case is partnered up with a woven strap that’s been very comfortable to wear. Huawei states it’s a very breathable strap, and I’d be inclined to agree. Removing it is also easily done thanks to a lug-style connector. It’s much less fiddly than the daintier pin mechanisms you find on other Huawei smartwatches.

One of the biggest differences between the Fit 5 Pro and standard Fit 5 is around waterproofing. The Pro carries both a 5ATM rating and complies with the EN13319 standard for diving accessories. The former makes it suitable for activities like swimming, and the latter for recreational dives up to 40 meters. It’s rare to find that level of protection on a smartwatch that sits below £250.

Performance and software

• Compatible with Android and iOS
• Some features missing for iPhone users
• Added NFC payments through Curve Pay

One of the biggest compromises you’ll need to make with wearing the Fit 5 Pro is that you’re not going to get everything that Huawei offers in its higher-end smartwatches. It doesn’t support LTE connectivity, while iPhone users miss out on the ability to act on notifications or access the full Huawei AppGallery store to download all available apps.

This is a smartwatch that Android users will get the most out of. That’s not to say using an iPhone with it is severely limited; you can still make use of the added NFC payment support for instance, once you’ve also downloaded the Curve Pay phone app to get things all set up. You can also add music to the Pro’s storage to listen to offline when you don’t want to stream music from your phone. There’s still plenty you can do.

Some of the more staple smartwatch features impress, like the array of watch faces you have to choose from. That includes some more fun animated ones you can interact with or slap virtual stickers onto. It’s a great watch to view detailed weather forecasts on, and there’s a useful voice recorder feature included among other basic yet useful features.

As I said, you don’t get the best Huawei has to offer. What you do get is slick software on the watch, and maybe not so much off it in the bloatware-riddled Huawei Health app. There’s enough that’s included to ensure the Fit 5 Pro does a solid job when you’re not putting its health and fitness tracking features to use.

Tracking and features

• New mini-workouts
• Richer tracking for cycling, golf and swimming
• New Workout Service to boost third-party app support

This smartwatch has “Fit” in its name, and that’s what it mainly wants to do: keep you fit and healthy. It’s promising to do that in a variety of ways, whether that’s simple ways like keeping on top of daily step goals, tracking workouts, helping you warm up or letting you keep a close eye on your heart health.

The biggest updates on this front lie first with Huawei’s new mini-workouts. These can be found in the courses and plans section of the watch, and also activated through a very cute panda watch face. This watch face springs to life when you’ve been inactive for a period, prompting you to tackle bite-sized workouts that involve simple movements like side stretches or doing some seated dips.

It’s a really well put-together feature that won’t necessarily only appeal to users looking for simple ways to stay active. It also serves as a great reminder to keep moving in different ways throughout the day when you’ve been sitting for a long time.

If you’re already pretty active and looking for a watch that can track a multitude of activities and sports, this watch can do that as well. Huawei has looked to bolster support for core sports like golf, swimming and cycling. Cyclists can now benefit from features Huawei recently added to its Watch GT 6 Pro, including virtual cycling power estimates and FTP (Functional Threshold Power) measurements for assessing cycling fitness. 

It’s good to see swimming support get upgraded with extra insights into training load and recovery. Like the Fit 4 Pro, it’s a pretty accomplished watch for sports tracking. Whether it’s the dual-band GPS performance, the breadth of sports supported or the fact you get features like free offline maps, it’s got the performance to back up the impressive array of features.

You’re also getting a pretty rich suite of health tracking features as well. Along with measuring heart rate and SpO2 levels continuously, there’s also the ability to use the onboard ECG sensor to check for signs of atrial fibrillation. You can also monitor for signs of arterial stiffness and use the optical heart rate sensor to analyse and detect arrhythmia.

These features have regulatory clearance in a host of countries and territories, making those measurements capable of clinical-grade accuracy. When I tried the ECG measurements, it provided similar readings to those from a pulse oximeter and the ECG-packing Apple Watch Ultra 3.

For support like daily activity tracking and sleep monitoring, the Fit 5 Pro does a good job on that front. I’ve been wearing it alongside an Oura Ring 4 to see how sleep data compares. For metrics like sleep duration, sleep stage breakdowns and recognising times I’d fallen asleep and woken up, the Fit 5 Pro generally posted similar data. It’s a similar story for daily step counts. You also get to see some nice animations when you hit or whizz past your goal on the watch.

• Up to 10 days of battery life 
• Up to 4 days in always-on display mode
• 25 hours of GPS battery life

Huawei has changed things on the battery technology front. It’s added a high-silicon one, where the chief benefits lie in the battery you’ll enjoy when using the onboard GPS.

That’s because general battery numbers remain the same as the Watch Fit 4 Pro. That’s up to 10 days of battery life, which drops to 7 days when using more of the health and fitness monitoring support. If you keep the screen on at all times, that number drops to 4 days.

I’d say those numbers pretty much ring true of my time. This watch can comfortably last a week if you’re not keeping the screen on and don’t have it set very bright. I found that, in general, daily battery drop was around 10% and just a few percent overnight. 

In terms of GPS battery life, Huawei claims the Fit 5 Pro can deliver up to 25 hours. I found that an hour of GPS use saw the battery drop by 5%. That works out to around 20 hours. So that’s short of those claims, but still not a bad showing.

Charging is done via a proprietary charging cradle, which can charge the Fit 5 Pro fully in an hour. Like the Fit 4 Pro, you can drop it onto that charger for 10 minutes, and it’ll get you enough battery to get you through a day of usual smartwatch use. It wasn’t a watch I got frustrated with, as far as the battery performance is concerned.

Should you buy it?

FAQs