Over the past couple of years, the rise of smart wearables has been pretty significant and they are now very valuable pieces of our everyday lives. It first started with smartwatches and smart fitness bands followed along afterwards.
In today’s fast paced world, checking up on notifications and keeping up with your health are among the most important things we do daily. And both of them can be easily achieved with a smart band.
While smartphones definitely have bigger and brighter screens, they don’t even come close to the integration feature of modern smart bands right now. In addition, people can access information at a glance just by twisting their wrist to wake up smart bands’ screen.
Today, we’re going to compare three of the most popular smart bands in the market — the Huawei Band 4, Fitbit Inspire, and Galaxy Fit E. Before we explain to you their features, check out this specs comparison table first to see how they stack up against each other
| Specs | Huawei Band 4 | Fitbit Inspire | Galaxy Fit E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | 0.96-inch TFT color screen 80 x 160 pixel resolution | OLED Screen | 0.74-inch Black & white PMOLED screen 128 x 64 pixel resolution |
| Controls | Touch screen, Home key | Touch screen | Non-touch screen, flip |
| Water resistance | 5 ATM | 5 ATM | 5 ATM |
| Sleep monitoring | TruSleep 2.0 | Common | Common |
| Heart rate monitoring | Trueseen 3.5, Continuous monitoring | N/A | Single measurement |
| Notifications support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Workout/Exercise modes | 9 modes (Walking, Running, Bicycling, Hiking, etc) | Walks, runs, swims, bike rides | Running/Hiking/Free exercise |
| Motion sensor | 3-axis sensor | 3-axis sensor | 3-axis sensor |
| Battery | Up to 9 dats | Up to 6 days | Up to 5 days |
Now, let’s start off with design. The Huawei Band 4 and the Galaxy Fit E share a lot of things in common when it comes to looks. They kinda have similar body, although the Band 4’s screen is a bit more flat. The bands look and feel the same, as they are both made of high plastic which is miles better than the quality of previous generation of Mi Bands. As for the Fitbit Inspire, its band and body design is reminiscent of other Fitbit products. It looks more expensive than the two, but that’s because it costs almost three times as much.
When using smart bands, it’s important to have a great screen because that’s what you’re going to see 99% of the same. While they don’t really have the size of smartphone screens, having a larger and more crisp display is still very valuable.
Among the three, the Huawei Band 4 offers the biggest 0.96 screen with a resolution of 80 x 160 pixels. The difference in screen size and resolution is pretty huge and you can really tell that its screen is sharper. And unlike the Galaxy Fit E and Fitbit Inspire, it’s not limited in colors as it’s fully colored. This means that you can get creative with its watch faces and there are over 100+ to choose from its app store. You can dress it up any way you want to suit your taste and personality.
In addition, Huawei Band 4 is capable of operating through the use of a home button and touch screen, while the Fitbit Inspire is only limited to touch screen controls. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Fit falls short as it can’t be operated easily by touch.
Smart bands are usually for the health and fitness concerned people, so it makes sense to equip them with all sorts of tracking and exercise modes available. With Huawei, there’s a total of 9 workout modes available and it can be syncronized with the Huawei Health app for better monitoring. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Fit E and Fitbit Inspire both support exercise modes with automatic tracking but they don’t have as many modes in their arsenal.
Another great feature of smart bands is their ability to track our heart rate. Unfortunately, the expensive Fitbit Inspire lacks it while the Galaxy Fit E only supports single measurement. The cheapest among the bunch, the Huawei Band 4, supports continuous heart rate monitoring all throughout the day with the help of TrueSeen3.5, which means that you can keep track of yourself and be alerted when there’s a problem.
Sleep tracking is also a primary feature of smart bands even years ago so it’s not surprising that these three products all have it. But with Huawei’s TruSleep 2.0, the Band 4 can monitor, evaluate, and offer improvements to help you get better sleep — on top of the common light and deep sleep tracking.
Wearables are usually worn 24/7 and sometimes even while swimming or taking a bath. To cater to that need, all these three smart bands offer water resistance of up to 5 ATM.
During the first wave of smartwatches, one of its main problems is the battery life. While it’s understandable that they have small batteries and they charge quite fast, it’s still a hassle for some as they have to keep it in check everyday to see if their smartwatch/smart band is out of charge. Thankfully, that’s finally out of the way as these devices now last more than a couple of days.
The Fitbit Inspire’s battery life can last for up to 5 days with basic use, while the Samsung Galaxy Fit E can squeeze in 6 days of usage on a single charge. With the Huawei Band 4, it can last for up to 9 days, which is almost twice as much as its competitors.
But what bugs me the most is the charging solution for these type of products. They usually come with a proprietary adapter which you need to attach to the device before you can plug it in for power. Not to mention they are so small that they can get lost so easily. The same solution is used for both the Galaxy Fit E and Fitbit Inspire. Fortunately, Huawei decided to do something about it and introduced the built-in USB interface. Now, you can simply detach it from the strap and plug in any USB to start charging.
All three smart bands offer a unique style and set of features, but the one that stands out the most is the Huawei Band 4. It has the biggest and more pixel-packed screen, better performance, and longest battery life compared to the Fitbit Inspire and Galaxy Fit E — basically all the most important features on a smart band. And to top it off, it’s even the most affordable.
The Huawei Band 4 only costs Php1,890 and it’s available in Sakura Pink, Black, and Amber Sunrise., It is significantly cheaper than the Fitbit Inspire’s Php4,590 SRP and Galaxy Fit E’s price of Php1,990. You can buy it through Huawei’s official online stores in Lazada, MemoXpress, Shopee and Abenson. You may visit the official Huawei website for the participating store list in malls and kiosks.