Honor Band 6 review

Introduction

Honor is now an independent company, launching wearables on its own, but its latest wrist band was actually developed under Huawei ownership as it initially came out in China in November 2020. It only recently hit global markets, giving us a chance to spend some time with it and produce this review. It does bring a bunch of features to get enthusiastic about, and here’s what we found them to perform in real life.

The Honor Band 6 is not a smartwatch, although at this point the division lines are very blurry. It has a large display, a bunch of sensor and tracking for all sorts of sports and displays notifications.

After all the Huwaei Watch ES, which we reviewed a few months ago is similar in size and shape, has exactly the same software, but is called a smartwatch.

Design

We are not here to argue semantics but rather check the worthiness of the Band 6. It feels light on the wrist thanks to its weight of just 18 grams without the straps. Honor upgraded the AMOLED panel over its predecessor and now it is 1.47” in diagonal, compared to 0.95” on the Honor Band 5.

There is quite a huge black bezel around the screen which cheapens the appearance a little bit, and that’s really obvious in situations where the brightness is at max. The strap is long enough and can be adapted to all wrists. For design purposes, Honor also put holes on the short side, where the buckle is.

The charger for the Honor Band 6 is magnetic, with dual pogo pins. Not only is it proprietary but it's also different so if you are coming from the Band 5 you cannot use the old one. However the one from the Honor Watch ES works.

Features and battery life

Just like any other modern Honor wearable, this one tracks SpO2 (blood oxygen levels), stress through the heart rate sensor, and brings TruSleep 2.0 technology for a better understanding of sleep patterns. Sports-wise, there are 10 pre-loaded modes including running, swimming, or riding a bike, and you can even create a custom one.

The battery life of the Honor Band 6 is advertised as 14 days. It can be achieved, thanks to the efficient Kirin A1 chipset and the lightweight Lite OS.

The actual battery life we had is about 10 days, which is still a massive accomplishment - that includes TruSleep activated, constant heart rate tracking, recreational sports activities, and some notifications and alarms. The power cell on the inside is 180 mAh, and charges from 0 to 100% in under an hour.

Should you buy it?

The Honor Band 6 was introduced multiple times - first in China, then at CES 2021, and finally, it will hit the global scene this month. The price is set at €49.90 at which point it represents great value for money. However Honor often throws the occasional gift or two, meaning the band is often a proper steal.