Huawei Watch Fit 2 review

Huawei Watch Fit 2: One-minute review

Huawei Watch Fit 2 is an upgrade to the already good Huawei Watch Fit sees it adding more and more features to the watch, making it a good choice for more than just fitness uses. 

However, with the pricing that Huawei has put on this watch, it’s in an awkward position with competition from other brands that support third-party apps, and contactless payment- something the Huawei Watch Fit 2 doesn't do. 

That being said, the Huawei Watch Fit 2 is still a great choice with its lightweight and beautiful design, slew of sensors and diverse workout modes. It’s just no longer the affordable option you would think it would be.

Huawei Watch Fit 2 price and release date

The Huawei Watch Fit 2 is now available for purchase through Huawei’s official store for AED 599 with a silicone strap, or AED 699 for the more elegant version that comes with a leather strap.

The Watch Fit 2 is available in five variations presenting a slew of options for the users who can choose between three variations for a sporty look and two options for a classic elegant look.

Design and display

The Huawei Watch Fit 2 looks very similar to the previous version, coming with the same rectangular look accompanied by a single button on the side and a slightly bigger 1.74 inches AMOLED display compared to the 1.64 inch on the older model. The display boasts a pixel density of 336 pixels which comes out sharp and crispy in usage.

When it comes to design, Huawei hasn't deviated much, using the same polymer material on the frame that gives similar look and feel to metal as the previous model. The bottom of the watch also has a polymer material with a matte finish that doesn’t require much maintenance to keep it clean.

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The sensors on the Huawei Watch Fit 2 reside right in the middle of a protrusion that bites on the skin over prolonged usage sessions- especially if you prefer a tight strap. This can make the Watch Fit 2 feel a bit uncomfortable during long workout sessions. 

Weighing in at just 26 grams, the watch is fairly light and doesn’t cause fatigue wearing it for a long time.

The Huawei Watch Fit 2 comes with easily replaceable straps. The process of removing the straps through a single click is really neat and makes for an improvement over the previous design.

Performance and software

Slowly but surely Huawei is enhancing HarmonyOS making it amongst the best smartwatches operating systems out there. The watch’ has simple touch controls and a single button to navigate menus and exiting applications. This button can also bring up the voice assistant through a long-press- more on that later. Navigating through the system is fast and the animations are smooth.

The watch’s applications menu looks similar to the one in WatchOS though you can’t download third-party apps. There’s also no support for third-party fitness apps, so if that’s your thing you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Even though this watch has a GPS sensor and a Petal maps application, you can only use it as a mirror of the Petal maps navigation from your phone. It’s limited to showing simple directions and not the whole map.

The notifications on this watch are pretty decent and you can interact with them directly from your wrist with emojis or quick answers. Huawei still has some work to do here such as allowing your replies to be customized.

When it comes to controlling the watch and connecting it to your phone, you’ll need to download Huawei Health app through Huawei’s own store “App Gallery.” That might seem like a hurdle for non-Huawei phone owners, but you do have the option to download it as an APK.

Huawei Health app has seen some good updates over the years making it a great application and a centralized hub to follow up on all your activities and health metrics. The familiar tiles design on the application makes it fairly simple to navigate your way through it.

The marketplace for watch faces contains a good variety of watch faces you can choose from with paid and free varieties.

Huawei has added a speaker and mic to the Watch Fit 2 which makes it more functional and not limited as a simple fitness band. You can also use the embedded speaker to play music right from the watch using the internal storage- no phone required.

The Watch’s overall performance is snappy and we didn’t run into any problems with performance. Overall, Huawei has done a good job optimizing the performance of this watch.

Fitness Features

With close to a hundred workout modes, this fitness watch lives up to its name. Huawei has equipped the Watch Fit 2 with all the fitness modes you could possibly need along with heart rate and SpO2 sensors and GPS to offer real-time data monitoring while accurately mapping out your workouts.

Huawei has also added a healthy living function that lets you add customizable goals and the watch reminds you about these goals to help you keep on track. We tried this function and found it to work really well- sending us reminders for all the fitness tasks we had set it to.

Health plans are also a great addition that lets you make a customized running plan based on your health info by answering some questions about you.

To motivate you to workout, Huawei has added medals that unlock when you reach certain milestones making the app use a game-like and much more enjoyable experience.

Battery life

While coming in a small form factor compared to other smartwatches, the Huawei Watch Fit 2 has excellent battery life. Huawei claims the Watch Fit 2 battery lasts around 7 days under heavy use or 10 days under normal use. We found these claims to be true.

The watch lasted 7 days with continuous heart rate monitoring, continuous SpO2 tracking and with healthy living reminders turned on. A real testimony of the good battery life of this watch was when I left home early with only a 5% charge and returned at the end of the day with 2% left.

Charging the watch is fast enough to make it go from zero to full charge in under an hour but the bundled magnetic charger is a bit loose when charging and you’ll have to pay attention when connecting and making sure it stays steady as it can come off easily. We would have definitely preferred if the charger was USB Type-C thats included with some of the other Huawei Smartwatches.

Should you buy the Huawei Watch Fit 2?

Don't buy it if...