Honor Band 5 Review
Honor Band 5 Review - Introduction
Today’s modern lifestyle is one of the reasons why people get very little time for physical activities, especially when people sit before their laptops working from home. At times it has been noticed that a majority of health ailments come not from a poor diet but because of lack of proper exercise. It is of utmost importance that we spare at least 30 minutes from our busy schedule for our exercise. However, we seldom get the entire chunk of 30 minutes to keep ourselves fit because of our tight schedules. So, do we have a fix for this problem? Well, it looks like we do have a fix. Technological advancement is the reason for our decreased physical activities but at the same time, it is technological advancement itself that has given us a way to help us remain fit. Thus, we’re pleased to present to you a detailed review of one of the world’s most affordable fitness bands – The Honor Band 5. We hope that this Honor Band 5 Review would help you make a better purchase decision.
Honor Band 5 Review - Design
The Honor Band 5 comes with a curved fitness tracking device, which serves as the main body, plus a stylish strap that you can fall in love with almost instantly. The inquisitive learner did a small test of going out to people and asking them to guess the price of this fitness band – You’ll be pleased to know that the price guessed was on an average 3x times more than its actual price.
The band, just after the unboxing, was so pleasing to look at that it caught the attention of everyone around us instantly – be it a kid or a granny.
The face of the Honor Band 5 consists of a glossy outer cover that hosts an AMOLED full-color display and a home button. Talking about the specific materials used – the band is rubbery plastic, the lower body is hard plastic, and the face is glass.
The strap has a matte finish which ensures that even if the strap is rubbed against any material unintentionally, the strap doesn’t get noticeable scratches.
The dimensions of the Honor Band 5 are 1.69 x 0.68 x 0.45 inches and its weight is 22.7 grams. Even though the weight looks to be slightly on a heavier side, but in reality, the weight is just like a feather on wearing on the wrist, all thanks to its design!
Overall the Honor Band 5 is elegantly designed with fast response times on the display.
Honor Band 5 Review - Features
For you to be able to get a complete understanding, we’ve not only considered the technical features but have also given enough importance to the non-technical general features. Our list is as given below:
1. Breathability:
The strap of Honor Band 5 comes with holes in it which gives a classic look and ensures plenty of breathability to the pores of your wrist. Forget about sweaty wrists once you get this band!
2. Waterproof (Upto 50m):
We’ve tried taking shower wearing this smart band and to our surprise, it didn’t let us down. It is completely safe to swim with it or to even take a shower wearing it. Honor Band 5 is capable enough to automatically capture swim speed, swimming distance, and calories burnt.
3. Secure and reliable (Robustness):
Honor Band 5’s Strap has got a conventional wristwatch strap style which means it has got holes in it as discussed earlier. This ensures that the chances of losing your band reduce by 99.99%. Trust us we’ve been a victim of a poor strap grip earlier when we used Mi Band 2. We genuinely liked Honor Band 5 for the kind of secure grip it provides.
4. Multiple faces:
You can change the look of the face display easily. You’ve to log in to the app in order to have additional faces that have not come out of the box.
5. Alarm feature:
Like all fitbit these days, the Honor Band 5 doesn’t lack here too and provides the feature for you to be able to set alarms easily.
6. Battery Life:
We noticed that in regular usage the battery on Honor Band 5 lasted for 5-6 days as opposed to the companies claim of 20-Day long battery life. Again, it would depend upon your usage but 5-6 days of battery life is fair enough. We recommend you to charge it while sitting on your desk while studying/working.
7. No Irritation To The Skin (Band Material’s Sensitivity To The Skin):
In our earlier usage, Mi Band 2 caused irritation to the skin (but the battery life was slightly better). In terms of the skin irritation, Honor Band 5 is the clear winner as it doesn’t cause any sort of skin irritation whatsoever.
8. Outdoor Visibility:
We must certainly say that the outdoor visibility on the Honor Band 5 is, hands down, the best of all the fitness bands we’ve used so far. You don’t have to think twice on this point as the outdoor visibility on Honor Band 5 is just awesome!
9. Consistent Results:
The data reading results that are captured with Honor Band 5 are consistent. It’s NOT like you’re getting one data reading on Day1 and get a different reading on Day2 for exactly the same exercise.
10. Number of Exercise Modes:
There are a total of 10 exercise modes that Honor Band 5 has got to offer, they are:
Outdoor Running
Indoor Running
Outdoor Walking
Indoor Walking
Indoor Cycling
Outdoor Cycling
Cross Trainer
Rover
Indoor Swimming
Free Training
11. Heart Rate Monitor:
There’s a feature of a continuous heart rate monitor on this device which can be turned on or off depending upon your preference. Turning on this feature would obviously cause your band’s battery to drain faster. Thus, we recommend not to turn the continuous heart rate monitoring always on. Honor Band 5 accurately monitors your heart rate continuously when you workout irrespective of whether the continuous heart rate monitoring is on or off. This feature is available on the Huawei Health app which you need to integrate with your Honor Band 5.
The Heart Rate Monitor can also send you alerts when your heart rate is high or low for more than 10 minutes.
12. SpO2:
SpO2 means Saturation of peripheral Oxygen. It is the amount of arterial oxygenated hemoglobin in the blood. A healthy SpO2 reading should be between 95% to 100%. To help you keep a proper check of your SpO2 levels, Honor Band 5 provides you with a feature to measure the SpO2 in your blood. Generally speaking, your SpO2 reading shouldn’t fall below 88%. Thus, you’d know when should you see your doctor or take precautionary measures, if you use this feature of the Honor Band 5.
13. Sleep Tracker:
Honor Band 5 tracks four different stages of sleep which are waking, REM sleep, light sleep, and deep sleep. This feature derives its power from the TruSleep technology which gives quite an accurate sleep track reading. TruSleep is powered by a heart rate sensor and a 3 axis accelerometer. The data collected is presented to you in the Huawei Health app on your cell phone.
14. Timer:
Now you can wear Honor Band 5 and time your sprint runs with the timer feature. This feature and the next one are self-explanatory but we thought we should add value to your reading with the example in the first sentence of this feature.
15. Stopwatch:
Imagine you’re participating in a swimming contest. Wouldn’t it be great if your wearable device can eliminate the need of keeping a person busy to time your swim laps? With Honor Band 5 you can do just that! Yes, it is 50m water-resistant so you can even use your Honor Band 5 for your swimming practice.
16. Find My Phone:
This feature has been one of our personal favorites. It helps immensely when you’ve kept your phone somewhere at home but you’re unable to locate it. The ‘Find My Phone’ feature helps you locate your cell phone when it’s away from your eyes. Please note that this feature works only when the Bluetooth connection between your phone and Honor Band 5 is turned on and the range of the phone detection would be the range of your Bluetooth connection.
17. Notification Assistant:
This wearable device can also act as your phone’s notification assistant. There’s no need to keep checking your phone for every notification; you can simply check your phone notifications on Honor Band 5. To enable notifications, you need to go to the Notification center under Settings on your phone, find the app for which you need notifications on Honor Band 5, and then all you need to do is to enable ‘Allow Notifications’ and ‘Priority Display’. You might also need to restart your phone once this is done.
18. Display:
The Honor Band 5 comes with an AMOLED display screen. The Screen On-Time is adjustable. The brightness level is adjustable too, of course. The display is colored and not monochromatic.
Honor Band 5 Review - Specifications
Product Brand | Honor |
Dimensions | 4.3 cm x 1.72 cm x 1.15 cm |
Weight | 22.7 g |
Display Resolution | 240×120 |
Compatibility | Smartphones |
Out Of The Box Hardware | Smart Band, Charging Cradle, Charging Cable |
Batteries | 1 Li ion battery |
Batteries Included | Yes |
Batteries Required | Yes |
Connection | Bluetooth |
Touch Button | Yes |
Manufacturer | GOERTEK INC |
Honor Band 5 Review - Benefits
1. Helps Increase Health Accountability
2. Data Tracking
3. Less Smart Phone Addiction – Every time your phone rings, you don’t have to reach out to your phone
4. Helps Keep Your Body Fit
5. Increases Your Style Quotient
6. Helps Change Peer Group Mindset Towards Health
Honor Band 5 Review - Pros & Cons (Advantages & Disadvantages)
1. Pros or Advantages:
a. Comfortable Fit
b. Activity Reminder
c. Calls and Notifications Viewing
d. Monitors Sleep At Any Time & Not Just At Night (Even Small Day Time Naps)
e. Almost Weightless
f. Choice of which notifications to show
2. Cons or Disadvantages:
a. Battery life lasts for 2-3 days when all notifications/features are turned on.
b. Band won’t connect to the phone when location is off (once the band is connected location can be turned off)
We recommend turning off unnecessary notifications which would not only improve Honor Band’s 5 battery life but will also keep you away from distractions.
Honor Band 5 Review - Buyer's Guide
Based on all features discussed above, here’s a curated list of points that we believe are the most essential to make a purchase decision on any smart band/ smartwatch/ fitness band:
• Battery Life
• Outdoor Visibility
• Robustness
• Band Material’s Sensitivity To The Skin (comfortable and no irritations to the skin)
• Consistent results
• Number of Exercise Modes
• Waterproof
• Color Display vs Monochrome Display
P.S.: You may also like to read about a powerful budget friendly laptop and its perfect sleeve.
Honor Band 5 Review - Precautions/Suggestions
- Take care of your smart band against scratches.
- Honor Band 5 requires an email registration for using it with the Huawei Health app. We suggest that you register via a disposable email if you’ve got privacy concerns.
- Take care of the charger because it doesn’t require frequent charging and you might end up losing or misplacing the charging cradle.
- Best time to charge your smart band/ smartwatch: While studying or working at your desk. Typically, any time during which you’ll be sitting for a long duration can be utilized for charging Honor Band 5 as there would be minimal physical activity during this time.
Honor Band 5 Review - Inquisitive Learner's Opinion
After pulling off this extensive review for you all, it’s time for the Inquisitive Learner’s final opinion on this smart wrist band:
“Honor Band 5 – By far the best fitness band at a pocket friendly price!”
Honor Band 5 Review - FAQs
Q1. Should I buy Honor Band 5?
A1. If you’re looking for a value-for-money fitness tracker, Honor Band 5 is the perfect match. When compared to its nearest competitor, Mi Band 4, the Honor Band 5 is known to have the SpO2 feature along with better battery life. Its price is also lesser than Mi Band 4 and the current price on Amazon can be seen by clicking the button in the section above.
Q2. Does Honor Band 5 show accurate readings? What is the error percentage while using Honor Band 5?
A2. The Honor Band 5 is quite accurate. We found percentage error of a mere 1 percent on testing the Honor Band 5 on a test of 10000 walking steps.
Q3. Can I take a shower wearing the Honor Band 5?
A3. Yes, absolutely. You can take a shower, walk in the rain or even swim wearing the Honor Band 5. For more details on its features, see the detailed article above.
Q4. Can I use Honor Band 5 without a phone?
A4. Yes, the Honor Band 5 can be used without connecting it with a phone. If you use Honor Band 5 without connecting to a phone, your stats would be available only from the current day. This might help save you some battery too. Though we recommend that you connect it with a phone to get the benefit of all its features plus the stats history.
Q5. Can I answer calls on Honor Band 5?
A5. You can only pick up and reject calls using Honor Band 5. You can’t use it as a speaker though. If your phone is connected to a Bluetooth headset, then you can pick up the call using Honor Band 5 and can speak via the Bluetooth headset.
Q6. Can I use Honor Band 5 with iPhone?
A6. Yes, Honor Band 5 is compatible with both Android and iOS phones.
Q7. Is the strap on Honor Band 5 Removable?
A7. Yes, the strap can be removed. If you like a different color of the strap, get the new strap and replace the old strap with the new strap.
Q8. How long does it take to charge Honor Band 5?
A8. It takes approximately 90 minutes for a full charge.
Q9. Can I use Honor Band 5 in clicking photographs?
A9. If you’ve placed your phone away from you for a perfect shot, then you can use the Honor Band 5 as a shutter button for clicking your photos from a distance. This is an amazing feature.
Q10. How can I locate my phone using Honor Band 5?
A10. You can use the ‘Find My Phone’ feature to locate your phone if it’s in the range of the Bluetooth connection.
