The current generation model from honor, which is a subsidiary of huawei, sells for under two hundred dollars, can sometimes be on sale for less than that and so it’s, a competitor to the likes of say, samsung, galaxy smartwatches as well as amazefits gtr series of smart watches. Like the gtr 2, which is pretty neck to neck, when it comes to price point, as well as functions that it can support, so it’s mainly going to be a difference in terms of the aesthetics and the design, as well as the ecosystem that these smart watches Are offered as so taking a closer look at the design, it does have a very substantial build since the body here is constructed out of stainless steel. Despite being a very slim, smart watch compared to say something like a android wear powered kickwatch pro. As you can see there, it is a lot heavier and denser than you’ll think just by looking at the size alone, in fact, compared to a very similar dimensions of the amazefit gtr2. This thing is significantly more hefty as you’re picking it up. The screen is perfectly round and measures 1.4 inches diagonally and the amoled gives it very punchy and saturated looking colors as expected compared to the competition, and we do have a microphone as well as a speaker built on in which allows you to answer phone calls as Well, as listen to music using the speaker as well, there is around four gigs of built in offline storage, which means you can use it like an mp3 player.
You can drag some songs onto this thing and then use it when you’re running outside, without even connecting it to a phone, then on the rear. We have. A very familiar array of sensors allows us to both charge. The smart watch using this magnetic cradle that it comes with the bands of course, can also be removed and swapped for different designs. If you prefer feels quite comfortable. The buckle here, which says honor is also constructed out of aluminum. Overall, it is built very well in terms of the crown keys there’s, two of them just like with the mazefit gtr2, so this can allow us to go through different controls, such as opening up our list of full applications, as well as checking out different sports activities. That we can begin tracking now there is kind of markings deliberately on the sides or bezels of the screen. That gives it more of a slightly more rugged appearance, plenty of fine details going on and so from a design perspective. I do think the hardware might be a tad stronger on the magic watch too, compared to a maze fits gtr to, although it is down to personal taste at the end of the day, the portion covering up the circular screen here is actually completely flat, but it Curves off at the edges downwards, towards the sides of the bezels, as you can see there, so it has almost a chamfer to the glass that is being made compared to the amazefit gtr series that has more of a bubble like appearance that is kind of curved Upwards, so the main screen portion also has a slight taper versus on here.
The screen part is flat, but the sides here has a slight chamfered small difference, it’s hard to notice. Unless you pick it up and try it out so now moving into the software experience again, the smart watch here is powered by the same os that we’ve seen on other huawei and honor wearables in the past, it’s not android wear. So it is a bit more light and doesn’t have quite as much customization in terms of apps, but you are able to track your basic sports and activities at a quick glance, and it is quite simple and easy to use at the end of the day. Feeling. Overall, responsive enough to navigate without really any problems, i can swipe down to access some quick shortcuts things like a do not disturb mode setting up different alarms, as well as jumping into more advanced settings, swiping up to take a look at notifications and missed messages. Although you aren’t able to reply back to those messages, there is no keyboard to do that. So that is one thing to keep in mind now. Otherwise, we can swipe into this carousel to take a look at my resting heart rate continuously tracked in a day, as well as stress monitoring. That can also be tracked once more to take a look at your current weather in your location. That is also nicely showing up with a visualization. As you can see there, you can also tap over again to take a look at music, both offline music, so the content that is stored directly on the watch or i can also connect to my phone and use it like a remote let’s play a quick demo Of a song using the speaker here and turn up the volume, this is stored on the built in memory of the watch at the moment, Music, and you can also send the music to playback on the phone or also over wireless buds or headphones.
You can connect bluetooth headphones, for example, using bluetooth to the watch again, making it a mp3 player. If you want to Music, so takeaway is the quality using the speaker is okay for a smart watch. Of course, it doesn’t pack too much in terms of bass, but for something so small it is to be expected, does actually get louder than i thought, though, which is a nice surprise, definitely good enough for some occasional songs and using it as a speaker phone as An alarm things like that over one more panel takes you into your daily activity in terms of steps number of times that you’ve been active over a 12 hour period, things like that and then it just cycles back in this carousel view. We can also take a look back at some workout records that we have performed on the smartwatch and that allows us to take a quick look at stats, such as number of steps we’ve taken altitude using the barometer there’s, also heart rate continuously in terms of different Zones that we were in during the activity can all be viewed back directly from the watch itself, which is pretty neat, although one thing that you aren’t able to see from the watch is the gps path that you’ve taken for that information. The watch does save, but you can only see it on your phone and it will just be synced over again. There is a real built in gps chip, which means that it will track your route as you’re outdoors other metrics on the full list of applications include the sbo2 sensor.
Sleep also tells you again a number of hours that you’ve slept during the night, and sleep tracking has traditionally been one of the strengths of honor and huawei, smart watches and bands, and it remains true here. Total duration slept as well as all the stages of sleep. Like deep versus light versus number of times, you were a week and it also automatically tracks your naps during the day as well. So if i fall asleep right now, it will count that as a nap time automatically without need to even press on anything there’s. Also, some breathing exercises to tell you to calm down, breathing in and out with the visuals on the display, pretty simple stuff and also call log which is again taking advantage of the microphone and speaker. If you want to answer calls directly from this device, it is possible if you are connected to your phone using bluetooth and then finally, other things here include a basic barometer can also be viewed back air pressure, as well as a compass, simple and straightforward, but works Well enough, swiping, over on the edge here to exit out and other things like a stopwatch. A countdown timer are both just very simple, so working as expected here, without really any problems. Overall interaction again for the device is still pretty fluid and also the customization of some of the keys, including this button here. If you want to remap it to open up something else by default again, it’s opening up my workouts and sports that i can begin tracking.
But i might be able to change that into something else, like my spo2 or heart rate, if i use those functions more commonly as far as the watch faces are concerned, there’s plenty of customization that you can find using the companion, app and download and save them Over to change the look of the watch, in fact, there’s new watch faces populated every day, with a growing selection and that’s, one of the benefits of having a slightly more mature smartwatch ecosystem that huawei and honor has been developing for a while. Now you can also change some of the widgets that are showing up inside of a watch face as well. So, for example, if i don’t want to use the weather, i can change that to heart rate, for instance, there’s plenty of different attractive, looking ones that you can pick between, including ones for different holidays and occasions, here’s a few ones. I really like, including a doodle themed, one that is super animated and colorful. Some of these are a little bit more power intensive than others, and it will tell you that as well when you are changing between those other ones. Try to imitate more of a black and white or monochrome, look and gives you more of a throwback vibe. Also pretty effective some which are a bit more artistic and just attractive, looking designs overall, a bit more moody again, the list just really goes on and on again i’m satisfied with the overall fluidity of the smartwatch.
I didn’t really have any frustrating use cases and it feels good enough now, one of the specialties of the magic watch 2 from honor and also huawei smart watches in general versus amaze fits is. It does have slightly better sports tracking in the sense that it’s a bit more actively managed. It can actually tell you things as you are performing the sport so, for example, if i’m running and i’ve completed one kilometer, it will also tell me that using the speakers, it will say, congratulations. You’Ve completed one kilometer, keep up the work or, if i’m falling behind my goal, it will say that such as try to run faster so it’s a bit more intelligent in terms of giving you active recommendations, as you are performing an activity using the loudspeaker or if You’Re wearing headphones, it will just come out privately onto your years, so this is kind of interesting, so this is inclusive of some of the running courses here, basically hit the target of what the exercise and the course is telling you to do so. These active courses is something that you won’t find on the amaze fit, which only tells you your heart rate and how long you’ve been performing that activity. But, of course, aside from these, active courses there’s also a bit more passive ones, which are similar to other smart watches. These are just tracking your steps, as well as your path, your heart rate, without telling you anything as you are doing it.
So this includes running and outdoor walking cycling swimming as well. It can also be tracked there’s plenty of options that you can find here with a growing list. Even karate and fencing can be found as well. So a very exhaustive list in terms of other elements like the battery life overall, the magic watch 2 is also excellent. I was able to get on average about two weeks of usage before i needed to recharge it again and that is with sporadic gps tracking. I find that to be very good, especially compared to an apple watch or android. Wear watch that you may have to charge every day or two it’s going to be a huge benefit. As for the accuracy and performance, the pedometer of the smartwatch is also excellent. I found the accuracy to be pretty much on par with what i got when compared to an apple watch, so very good accuracy in terms of the calibration of the accelerometers for the number of steps. Heart rate is also pretty much on point with every single other wearable. I tried even the gps, which is working quite well when you’re in an outdoor open environment. As long as there’s, not too much say buildings in the area, it will get a lock, usually within a minute of you. Stepping outdoors and i was able to remain connected missing. Sensors per se here would be perhaps a body temperature monitor, which some of the newer smart watches are bringing out as a response to say, kovid, but overall that’s still not going to be really medical grade on any of the other competitors either.
So i wouldn’t say you’re missing out on too much. You can already get kind of a sense using the spo2 as a gauge of if you’re, breathing, properly or not. The app here is called huawei health and if you have a huawei, smartphone or tablet, it actually is pre installed already on the device, but you can always find it for free on the app store, ios or android. If you don’t currently have it. It is quite simple and it works with all of their smart bands and smart watches that they have. You simply drag down basically to refresh the data and it connects and syncs very quickly, using bluetooth with some additional statistics which are abbreviated if you’re looking at it. From only the smartphone can now be accessed on the companion, app and just viewed back with more detail again sleep tracking. You can see the full results after you jump into the app telling you your different stages of sleep, your nap as well as the sleep score, and this is pretty much identical now to what we also get from the other competitors in the price range and performance. Here, though, is still very accurate and giving you quite a few details that you can analyze reminding you to sleep earlier or how to get better sleeping habits or certain stages of sleep to improve your score compared to the population. You can also send over music onto the watches, built in memory from the app as well, and other things include.
Turning on certain functions like how long you wanted to take a measurement of your heart rate during the day overall, again it’s, a simple app that works. Quite well for storing your data and then viewing them back without really any problems, so that’s more or less it. As far as our hands on review of the huawei honor magic watch 2., it still remains an excellent smart watch. I think for the price range there’s plenty to like here, including the beautiful display, as well as the solid construction made out of stainless steel. Just feels more expensive than the pricier would imply very good battery life and endurance. Great tracking capabilities in terms of lots of sports and actively managed courses that gives you recommendations built in gps, as well as local storage for music. Pretty much all the functions that you would want from a sports watch in a stylish and well built package. You can check out more details if you’re interested in the links down below but for now that’s been our video thanks for watching here.hlT4i2sDZeQ
