The Huawei Band 6 Huawei offers an in-house alternative to the Honor Band 6. Here we have compared both fitness tracker with AMOLED display and SpO2 measurement.
The honor was part of the Huawei group for a long time but should be an independent company in the future. Hopefully, this will also mean when Huawei and Honor products were so similar that we can only find the differences in the details. The current Huawei Band 6 should have gone through a large part of the development before the separation from Honor because the new fitness tracker is still very similar to the Honor Band 6.
Honor has released a new fitness tracker with the Honor Band 6. It should succeed the Honor Band 5 and, if possible, take market share from Xiaomi and the Mi Band 5. We have the Honor Band 6 in the test and check to what extent the tracker differs from the previous model and whether it is worth buying a new one for an older Honor Band owner.
Pros and Cons
| Huawei Band 6 | Honor Band 6 |
| Comfy and lightweight | Lightweight design |
| Excellent battery life | 1.47 inch color screen |
| Solid fitness tracking | Solid fitness tracking |
| Straps non-removable | iOS compatibility issues |
| No GPS | GPS works on certain phones |
General
| Huawei Band 6 | Honor Band 6 | |
| $ | CHECK PRICE | CHECK PRICE |
| Brand | Huawei | Honor |
| Model | Huawei Band 6 | Honor Band 6 |
| Release date | April 3, 2021 | April 3, 2021 |
| Compatibility | Android + iOS | Android + iOS |
| Colors | Graphite Black, Forest Green, Amber Sunrise, Sakura Pink | Black, Blue and Dark Green |
| Box Contents | Fitness Band, User Manual, Warranty Card | Fitness Band, User Manual, Warranty Card |
Huawei Band 6
The packaging of the Huawei Band 6 does not differ from that of the Honor Band 6. A practical cardboard box contains the tracker, including an armband and a charging cable with a charging adapter and a quick start guide. The housing of the tracker is made of plastic, and the wristband is made of silicone. The charging adapter is almost the same as on the Honor model, but the pins on both trackers are different.
The Huawei Band 6 and Honor Band 6 take just as little use of the display as they do with the bracelet. Both devices have a 1.47 inch AMOLED touch display. As expected, the Huawei Band 6 cuts a perfect figure in terms of the display: The screen’s brightness is excellent, even when viewed from above or when there is a direct incidence of light. The silicone bracelet is functional, and the tracker itself does not make itself felt negative while sleeping.
Honor Band 6
The Honor Band 6 comes in a simple cardboard box. In addition to the tracker itself, it includes a quick start guide and a USB charging cable with a charging adapter. The design of the tracker’s display differs slightly from the previous model and is quite a bit larger than the Honor Band 5. Instead of 0.95 inches with OLED, you get a tracker with a 1.47-inch AMOLED display.
As with the previous model, the display itself is convincing. The touch surface reacts excellently, and the colors and the brightness of the screen score even indirect light (for example, outside under strong sunlight). The bracelet itself is similar to that of the Honor Band 5: It is a simple, black silicone bracelet that cuts slightly on the wrist due to its narrow width. This can be annoying when sleeping if, at some point, your hand becomes numb because you have been lying awkwardly on your own arm.
Technical Specifications
| Huawei Band 6 | Honor Band 6 | |
| Display | AMOLED | AMOLED |
| Touch Screen | Yes | Yes, Capacitive Touchscreen |
| Screen Resolution | 194 x 368 pixels | 194 x 368 pixels |
| Water Resistant | Yes | Yes |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth | Bluetooth |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, Gyro | Accelerometer |
| Battery | 14 days | 14 days |
| Dimensions | 43 x 25.4 x 10.99 mm | 43 x 17.2 x 11.5 mm |
| Weight | 25 grams | 22.7 g |
Activity Monitoring
| Huawei Band 6 | Honor Band 6 | |
| Step counter | Yes | Yes |
| Calories burned | Yes | Yes |
| Distance travelled | Yes | Yes |
| Raised floors | No | No |
| Sleep monitoring | Yes | Yes |
| Measuring stress levels | No | Yes |
| Heart rate measurement | Yes | Yes |
| Calorie intake | Yes | No |
| Hydration levels | No | No |
Huawei Band 6
Activity tracking is the hobbyhorse of the Huawei Band 6: the recording of steps taken is reliable and accurate. Shaking the device, swift arm movements, or moving quickly with aids did not affect the accuracy. The total of the steps counted per test day corresponded to our control device (Garmin Vivoactive 3) with one single-digit deviation.
As with the Honor Band 6 and previous models, we can set a step goal in the Huawei Health app. The tracker then informs us as soon as we have achieved this goal. We can call up more precise details on the total steps taken per day, week, month, and year (including a division into running, walking, and walking with an incline) via the app.
Also included is measuring the oxygen saturation in the blood, which works via the device’s optical sensor. That remains a nice but actually superfluous gimmick because the target group of the Huawei Band 6 does not really benefit from these values , and the meaningfulness of the measurement remains limited.
However, much more useful is the integrated music control, which we can easily playback music stored on our smartphones. The Huawei Band 6 does not have its own music memory since we need the smartphone for GPS tracking when we are out and about, but that does not matter.
The fitness tracker does not have its own GPS, which we do not necessarily expect in this price range. Instead, the tracker connects to the smartphone via Bluetooth and then uses its GPS function to measure the distance covered while running, walking, or cycling. Alternatively, we can do without GPS altogether and only have the route recorded using the motion sensor. As with the Honor Band 6, this worked pretty well in the test – the deviation of the measurement compared to our control device with GPS was 0.05 km over a total distance of 5 km.
In addition to walking, running, and cycling, the Huawei Band 6 also allows recording various other sports. 96 different training profiles are available, including various endurance sports, for example, strength training, yoga, boxing, archery, horse riding, or even tug of war. There is also automatic training recognition, which the Huawei Band 6 automatically recognizes when we start a sports session. This worked without any problems in the test, and we were then able to select the tracking for the respective sport directly.
The catch: if you want to record unusual sports with the Huawei Band 6, you may have to choose an alternative method for measuring your heart rate. Because while the measurement of the heart rate works very well and precisely in endurance sports with a largely constant pulse, the tracker has a few problems with rapid pulse changes. For example, those who frequently do Tabata units or strength training must accept significant deviations and inaccuracies when measuring their heart rate.
This then also affects the calculation of the calorie requirement of the individual sports units, where the Huawei Band 6, like the Honor Band 6, proceeds very conservatively. The differences on a run of 6.5 kilometers were around 50 kilocalories compared to the control device. In sports units during which the pulse measurement does not work accurately, this difference is correspondingly larger. Each user has to decide for himself whether such deviations are within an acceptable framework.
The alarm function of the Huawei Band 6 also works perfectly. We set different wake-up times via the alarm settings, and the device vibrates sufficiently strongly at the corresponding time so that people who are deeply asleep should wake up well.
Like the Honor Band 6, the Huawei Band 6 also has a stress feature. If you activate the automatic stress analysis in the Huawei Health app, you will receive information about the current and long-term stress status (day, week, month, year). We also have the option of doing a breathing exercise to reduce stress directly via the tracker. Both functions are a nice bonus but offer no real added value. Like sleep tracking, however, a long-term tendency or intermittent outliers can be read at least for the stress level, which can be helpful in individual cases.
Battery– Huawei does not provide any specific information on the capacity of the battery in the Huawei Band 6. But the manufacturer specifies the runtime as 14 days, so we assume that the same or at least a comparable battery as the Honor Band 6 with a capacity of 180 mAh is installed is. Like the Honor Band 6, the Huawei Band 6 has twice the battery life of its predecessor.
The Huawei Band 6 holds up to the promised 14 days with average use and five sports units per week. However, the same applies here to the Honor Band 6: We need the included charging adapter for charging. If this adapter is lost, we cannot simply use any other USB cable.
Honor Band 6
When it comes to activity tracking, the Honor Band 6 does exactly what it is supposed to do: It reliably records the steps taken without us having to pay particular attention to fast arm movements, shaking or the like in the test. The difference in the number of steps compared to our control device (Garmin Vivoactive 3) was in the low single-digit range.
If you like, you can set a step goal via the Health app. The tracker informs the user as soon as he has reached the goal. The app also shows us how many steps we have taken in a day, the past week, the past month, and the past year. It indicates an average number of steps per day and the total number of steps and calculates the percentage of steps accounted for by running, walking, and walking with an incline. If you want, you can analyze your own activity quite extensively and clearly.
The Honor Band 6 measures the oxygen saturation in the blood using an optical sensor. Nothing has changed here compared to the predecessor, so the feature remains a nice gimmick and only offers a rough orientation.
What also remains the same compared to the Honor Band 5 in the latest model in the Tracker series is the music control. The Honor Band 6 does not have its own music memory, but we can play music via the smartphone and use the tracker’s control function while on the move. This worked consistently without any problems in the test and also during outdoor sports.
The Honor Band 6 does not have its own GPS but can use the GPS function of a connected smartphone via Bluetooth. But even without GPS, the Honor Band 6 records the distance covered relatively reliably based on the steps – so if you don’t take it to the last meter, you can take a relaxed run with the Honor Band 6 even without a smartphone.
The second reason why the Honor Band 6 is particularly suitable for endurance sports is related to selecting the sport profiles and the pulse measurement. We found that the pulse measurement works very well and precisely as long as our physical stress remains the same over a longer period of time. So if we run for half an hour at a similar pace with a steady pulse, the measurement works extremely well.
However, the Honor Band 6 copes less well with rapid changes in load. During which we alternated short periods of high stress with comparatively short periods of rest, the sports unit caused noticeable deviations from the chest strap when recording the heart rate. This is where many optical heart rate sensors struggle with comes to light: They cannot react quickly enough to rapid changes in heart rate. If you want to measure the pulse rate in “other” sports or interval training, you should add a chest strap to the Honor Band 6 in case of doubt.
What we also noticed: The Honor Band 6 calculates the calorie requirement for one day very conservatively. We can specify height and weight to get a more precise result, but the tracker was still quite a bit below the calorie values of the recording device. Here, users should be aware that calculating the calorie requirement depends on various individual factors and can only be roughly indicated by a tracker such as the Honor Band 6.
It remains to be seen how meaningful the sleep data of the tracker actually is. But the Honor Band 6 at least provides a reasonable and useful orientation to have nothing to complain about here, as with the predecessor.
In addition to the sleep tracking function, the Honor Band 6 also has a stress feature that records the user’s stress level. We have to activate this feature separately because it automatically measures the stress level at certain time intervals when the battery is charged. Those who feel stressed can also do a guided breathing exercise with the tracker, which can be started directly on display. We found both functions in the test similar, measuring the oxygen saturation as a nice bonus. They are not a reason to buy for us, but they work properly and can be useful as little helpers in everyday life for one or the other user.
Battery– Honor has gone one step further when it comes to the battery’s performance compared to the Honor Band 5: While the Honor Band 5 still had a battery with 100 mAh, the Honor Band 6 now delivers 180 mAh. Honor states that the battery lasts around two weeks with normal use and a good ten days with intensive use. With average usage, this corresponds to twice the runtime that the Honor Band 5 had. The Honor Band is slowly coming close to the Mi Band 5.
The battery lasted the promised two weeks with normal use with five sports units per week. The only drawback: As with the Honor Band 5, the battery is charged via its own charging cradle. If you lose it, you cannot simply use another USB cable or a corresponding connection as a replacement.
Smart Features
| Huawei Band 6 | Honor Band 6 | |
| Smartphone notifications | Yes (Apps, messages, notifications, calls and more) | Yes (Apps, messages, notifications, calls and more) |
| Wireless payments | No | Yes (Chinese version) |
| Music storage and playback | No | No |
| Streaming services | No | No |
| Virtual Assistant | No | No |
| Meteorology | Weather forecast | Weather forecast |
Conclusion!
Huawei Band 6
Anyone who has already read our review of the Honor Band 6 (review) should not be surprised by our test result for the Huawei Band 6: With this tracker, Huawei again delivers a perfect, inexpensive device, which, however, practically does not differ from the Honor Band 6 differs. The same applies here: A few small weaknesses remain, such as the rather mediocre pulse measurement.
But if you are looking for an inexpensive fitness tracker with long battery life and a pleasantly large display, which should mainly use for daily activity recording, you will definitely be happy with the Huawei Band 6. Because the Huawei Band 6 and the Honor Band 6 are almost the same devices, we recommend prospective buyers to compare prices and purchase the cheaper model.
Honor Band 6
With the Honor Band 6, Honor upgrades a solid, affordable fitness tracker onto the market, which can convince with useful improvements. Even if a few construction sites remain, such as the narrow bracelet or the sometimes imprecise heart rate measurement, the Honor Band 6 is the better device in every respect compared to the previous model.
Ultimately, each buyer has to decide whether the larger display and the longer battery life justify the surcharge compared to the Honor Band 5. We think, however, that the manufacturer has delivered a sensible upgrade for a perfect, affordable fitness tracker with the Honor Band 6, which fully meets the demands that average everyday users place on such a device.
