HUAWEI has made some of the best hardware in the mobile space, and upon reading the features of the HUAWEI Watch 4, I can already tell we’re in for a treat.

In our full review of the HUAWEI Watch 4, we’re curious to know how its long specs list and features perform in real-world usage, how comfortable the design is, and also tackle the big elephant in the room: how will a HUAWEI product such as this pair on an Android or iOS smartphone. Let’s begin.

HUAWEI Watch 4 Specs

  • 1.5-inch LTPO AMOLED display, 466 x 466 pixel resolution, 310ppi
  • Ambient light sensor
  • Stainless Steel Case, Black Fluoroelastomer Strap
  • Rotating Crown / Home Button
  • Side Button
  • Built-in speaker and microphone
  • 5ATM water resistant (up to 30 meters)
  • Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass
  • Optical heart rate sensor, ECG, Barometer, Temperature sensor
  • NFC
  • Bluetooth 5.2, BR + BLE
  • Dimensions: 46.2 × 46.2 × 10.9 mm
  • Weight: 48g
  • Compatible with Android 6.0 or later and iOS 13 or later
  • Wireless fast charging

Design and Build Quality

The HUAWEI WATCH 4 has a clean and simple design that exudes elegance. The fancy metallic frame has been mirror-polished, while the 3D curved glass melts on the sides for a bezel-less look. HUAWEI made intricate improvements on the screen as the black bezels are now 21.6% smaller, increasing the screen-to-body ratio by 6.52%.

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It also has a pretty smooth back plate that makes it very comfortable for the skin. Wearing it all day is no problem.

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Other than the display, you’d interact with the interface using the digital crown. It has tactile ridges, high responsiveness, and accurate haptic feedback to make you feel like you’re rotating an actual, mechanical crown. There’s also a physical button, which has a sensor inside for the ECG feature.

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Another thing we liked is the quick-release and standard-size strap, so you can easily swap to a leather band, rubber, or anything that will match your style or activity.

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Despite its elegant looks, the frame is pretty robust. It has a 316L stainless steel case that has 5 ATM and IP6X water resistance, which can withstand accidental splashes and minor water sports.

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The HUAWEI Watch 4 weighs 48g. It has some weight to it, displaying that it is a feature-packed, well-built watch. Thickness is also not an issue at 10.9mm, which is about 2mm thinner than its predecessor.

Overall, the HUAWEI Watch 4 has the makings of an excellently designed smartwatch: elegant, light, feature-packed, and comfortable.

Mobile app

The HUAWEI Watch 4 pairs to your smartphone via the HUAWEI Health app. As you already know, it’s not available on the Google Play Store, which makes pairing with an Android device a bit challenging as it requires manual APK download, disabling limitations, and manual app updates.

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But if you’re a HUAWEI smartphone owner, the process is much easier as it’s available on the App Gallery. What surprised us is how it also worked well with iPhones as the HUAWEI Fitness app is available on the App Store.

The HUAWEI Health app looks comprehensive, detailed, and complete for managing your HUAWEI wearables and all the health data collected.

Upon opening the app, you’re greeted with all your health details. The Move, Exercise, and Stand data can be viewed in the traditional Rings style or HUAWEI’s cool layout called Health Clovers. Set your target goals and complete the clovers. You can also create exercise plans and start workouts from the app. Meanwhile, the Discover page shows you challenges you can join in, health tips, and more.

The Devices section lists all the devices linked to your HUAWEI Health app. You can then customize the settings for the Health Monitoring, ECG, alarms, and more. From here, you can also download different watch faces from a dedicated store.

HUAWEI has been one of the leaders in smart wearables, so it’s no surprise that it has polished the HUAWEI Health app as it serves as a hub for all their products.

Interface and features

The HUAWEI Watch 4’s interface is possibly one of the most comprehensive yet straightforward interfaces we’ve seen. It runs on HarmonyOS 4, so you know HUAWEI put their A-game here.

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HUAWEI has even designed advanced watch faces that not only show time and date, but also provide your location, sunset and moonset times, and more — all in an attractive and easily understandable layout. Tap-and-holding the watch face lets you scroll through different designs installed on your watch. There is even a Power Level icon that lets you know if that particular watch face eats too much or too little battery from a scale of 1 to 3.

Some faces let you use your personal photos. My favorites are the minimalistic designs with a classic watch look, which also has a power level rating of 1 for better battery efficiency.

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Swiping down from the Home Screen shows the Control Center, while swiping up shows the Notifications. Thanks to the large display, you can easily read incoming alerts and conveniently scroll through different alerts using the digital crown. Notifications also arrived with no noticeable delay.

The Control Center shows your battery status, any of the enabled features like NFC, and if you have an eSIM enabled, your network status and signal.

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The HUAWEI Watch 4 has two battery modes: Standard mode and Ultra-long Battery Life mode, which you can easily switch from on the Control Center. Switching between modes launches a dedicated animation as the process takes about a minute.

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Swiping right from the home screen gives you access to HUAWEI AI Voice assistant, and a couple of relevant cards stacked together like the weather, music control, and more. On the other hand, swiping right shows different widgets like activity targets, heart rate, and more. The layout can be customized on the app.

It’s worth noting that the music control works incredibly well, with the digital crown letting you accurately adjust the volume — providing that nostalgic feeling of turning volume dials in old stereo players.

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The app drawer looks reminiscent of what the Apple Watch has and you can use the crown to zoom in or out of the apps list.

HUAWEI AppGallery is also here, and you can search the app via the keyboard. Since it has small keys, expect a lot of typos when using the keyboard. However, we were able to type better after a few days of using the watch.

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We also have a couple of useful built-in features like a timer, voice recorder for memos, alarm, stopwatch, and more.

I also like how useful Petal Maps is, especially if you’re going places with a motorcycle or bicycle. It can show you nearby restaurants, malls, and other places and provides turn-by-turn navigation with a voice-over.

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Installing an eSIM is really fast and convenient. Unfortunately, the option to use “one number, two devices” isn’t available in the Philippines yet. So, to test it, we had to get a new eSIM.

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We tried making a call without the smartphone connected and it did great. We were able to access existing contacts or type a new number with the keypad. The call quality was fine. Volume is enough so only you can hear it and not everyone around you, while the built-in microphone picked up our voice well.

We also managed to access the internet even without the phone thanks to mobile data from the eSIM. This allowed us to search for places on the Petal Map, start workouts, download apps from the AppGallery, and more. Pretty useful if you don’t like carrying your phone all the time, especially if you’re out for a run.

The HUAWEI Watch 4 is a premium wearable, and the feature-packed, stable interface shows that.

Health, fitness, sleep tracking

The HUAWEI Watch 4 has A LOT of sensors to track your health and workouts. There’s the ECG sensor, an advanced 8-channel optical heart rate sensor, a third-gen SPO2 sensor, and even a temperature sensor. We first tested the Skin Temperature sensor, and it worked fine and fast. You can enable continuous skin temperature measurement on the app, which can be useful if you’re running a fever.

Same goes for the SpO2 sensor. You can open the feature on the watch if you want to check your current oxygen saturation or enable continuous SpO2 scanning on the app so you get an alert if your SpO2 drops a set value while awake.

In addition, you can run an ECG test by putting your finger on the button on the left. You have to sit still for 30 seconds until the test finishes. Once done, you can open the app to see a detailed look at your sinus rhythm.

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Also onboard is the Automatic Stress Test which can notify you if you’re stressed out and need to chill for a while. A calibration feature is available for more accurate results. You can also input your current and target weight, so you know if you need to push further or slow down.

The smartphone app can also show you a detailed blood pressure record and if it detects any irregularities within the day. The sleep analysis is pretty detailed and gives a straightforward indicator of whether your light or deep sleep is normal, high, or low.

Of course, you can see a detailed look at your activity rings in the app. It would even offer suggestions to close rings and achieve your activity goals.

For tracking exercises, the HUAWEI Watch 4 has over 100 workout modes. Thanks to all of its body sensors, built-in GPS, and robust build, the watch can track and record workouts ranging from indoor activities like jump rope, the gym, watersports like diving, and even outdoors like running, walking, biking, hiking, golf, triathlon, and more. You can even set courses and route plans for running. The app can also show you recovery time.

Being a biker, we tried the Outdoor Cycling mode. The interface is easy to read and shows you your real-time heart rate, intensity, speed, distance, and time. There’s even a strong voiceover that tells you if have a weak GPS signal, riding too fast, etc.

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Swipe left and you an control music to keep you pumped up when working out, see the sunrise and sunset hour, and even show your current location on the map.

Once done, you can open the app to see a detailed look of your last and other past workouts.

Battery life and charging

According to HUAWEI, the HUAWEI Watch 4 can last up to 3 days under normal mode and up to 14 days in Ultra-long Battery Life mode. In our test, it lasted for four days before dropping to 10% from 100%, but that’s with heavy use.

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During that time, I wore the watch for the whole day, even at night to capture my sleep data. Also, I went for a day trip where I walked and toured all day, putting a huge dent in the battery as it tracked my steps all day and kept feeding me notifications.

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One key feature of the HUAWEI Watch 4 is its fast charging via the traditional magnetic puck we see on other rounded smartwatches. A full charge took about an hour, which is impressive.

Overall, while we do find the battery good enough, we wish it lasted longer as the company claims.

Conclusion

The HUAWEI Watch 4 is easily one of the best smartwatches you can get for the price. It pretty much has everything: a premium design if you’re using watches as a fashion statement, a snappy and feature-packed interface, a plethora of health and activity tracking, and if you’re looking for an alternative to the Apple Watch, you’d be glad to know that it also works well on iOS devices.

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But if you’re an Android user, we’re sad to report that installing and updating the mobile app is still a hassle. If you can get pass that, then you’re in for a treat with the HUAWEI Watch 4.

HUAWEI Watch 4 price and availability

The HUAWEI Watch 4 has a price of Php22,999 in the Philippines and is available in physical stores and authorized retailers nationwide and online via Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop.

Pros

  • Premium, comfortable design
  • Large, high-quality display
  • Robust health and activity tracking features
  • Feature-packed system
  • Works well on Android and iOS

Cons

  • Battery life could be improved
  • A bit pricey

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