Honor Band 5i is a budget fitness tracker with a plethora of features.
People these days have started living much healthier lives than before. Tracking what they eat and how much they exercise. This has led to people investing in technologies that can track their workouts and daily lives. But not everyone can go out and spend over Rs 10,000 just to get a Fitbit.
This is what the new Honor Band 5i tackles. At Rs 1,999, it provides you with all of the basic fitness tracking features and then some. Honor Band 5i is a lighter version of the earlier launched Honor Band 4. It goes up against the recently launched Xiaomi Mi Band 3i. Though, it comes with comparatively more features than the Mi Band 3i, on paper. Is it the fitness band that you should purchase under Rs 2,000. Let’s find out.
Honor Band 5i Review: Design and display
Honor Band 5i looks quite similar to its elder sibling, the Honor Band 5, with a few small changes here and there. The first and the most noticeable change is that the Band 5i comes with a TFT display instead of a Super AMOLED one. This does make a huge difference in overall easiness to view the display in direct sunlight. While indoors the text and the icons are much sharper.
It features a coloured TFT display
The removable straps when taken off reveal the integrated USB slot, which makes it easier to charge and connect to a PC, because you do not need to carry a charging cradle with you at all times. Another reason this is beneficial is that you will never lose the charger, due to the long battery life.
Honor Band 5i Review: Performance
The first thing that I noticed about the band is that it was able to recognise all of the activities I was trying to perform at the gym. The step counter felt to be quite accurate for the price with just a few minor discrepancies. The watch is able to provide high-precision readings during the workout while keeping track of your heart rate with its 24x7 heart rate tracking feature. Thus helping you tune your workouts for much more effectiveness.
The company boasts, that its TruSleep technology is able to analyse a users sleep quality in real-time, identify their sleep habits and provide them with 200 personalised assessment and suggestions for better sleep. Putting this to test in real life, I found out that I was personally not having the best sleep patterns, which I am still trying to fix.
The one feature that excited me the most was the availability of a SpO2 monitor, which would allow users to track oxygen saturation levels in their blood, and also track as to how their body adapts during workouts. And the biggest letdown for me was that the feature is yet to be enabled inside of the band via a software update.
With the Band 5i, you will not need to carry a special cable for charging.
Other features work in a similar fashion to other smart bands currently available in the market. They include controlling music, acting as the camera shutter, find your phone, notifications, activity reminder and stopwatch. However, to use the watch to its fullest, you need to set it up with the company’s own Huawei Health app. The app is quite simple to get a hold-off and is quite easy to use.
Honor Band 5i Review: Battery
On the Honor Band 5i, I was able to get a battery life of around seven days on a single charge. This might look like a dwarf figure in front of the Xiaomi Mi Band 3i. However, you need to consider that it has a coloured display and provides users with constant heart rate tracking. To fully charge it from zero to 100, it takes around two hours via the USB port on the computer.
Honor Band 5i Review: Verdict
If you are on a tight budget but are committed to the fit life, then the Honor Band 5i is one of the best companions you can start your journey with. However, if you train much more religiously and want perfect tracking, this might not be the band you want to go with.
At Rs 1,999, the Honor Band 5i is quite a good product to start your fitness journey with and upgrade as time and your skill progresses. Also, it would double up as a great gift for someone you know is starting to live a healthy life.
