HUAWEI WATCH 4 Review | Geek Lifestyle

New Respiratory Check Function and an eSIM slot? Way to start the year HUAWEI!

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This 2024, HUAWEI wants us all to re-focus on our health thanks to the Philippine release of the HUAWEI WATCH 4. The device has been released in various markets last year, around the time of the HUAWEI Watch Ultimate but it took quite a while for the watch to reach Philippine shores.

According to our discussion with key Huawei Philippines personnel, the reason for the delay isn’t because of the device scarcity but a technological infrastructure one. Back in 2023, while eSIMs have been slowly rolling out via our main telcos, the adoption rate isn’t as high yet. They project that 2024 is the year this kicks off and eSIMs become more prevalent – hence the perfect time for the HUAWEI WATCH 4 to enter the market.

One of the key stand-out points of the HUAWEI WATCH 4 is its eSIM capability rendering the smartwatch to act independently from your smartphone. Couple the fact that there are new and advanced heath tracker solutions on this device, and you’re looking at one amazing wrist-candy to help kickstart your year right.

Geek-stehtic

While the GT-series from HUAWEI focuses on crafting smartwatches with more traditional design ethos, the HUAWEI Watch 4 allowed the brand to be more adventurous –creatively speaking. According to the brand, the design inspiration for the HUAWEI WATCH 4 series is entrenched with the Fantasy of Future Space Travel. This approach lends to a rounder, more curved display screen than previous HUAWEI smartwatches. The proprietary watch faces for this series are indicative of this as you can choose between various planets as the main watch phase (or have them cycle if you so choose). Tinkering with the 3D rotating watch crown changes the rotation of the highlighted planet as well.

The dew-drop mirror polish on the lugs of the HUAWEI WATCH 4 adds to the more upscale minimalist design concept. The sheen on the lugs complement the rounded 3D curved glass display and the deep black rounded watch crown. This renders the bezels almost non-existent drumming it down to 0.9mm thin as compared to 3.59mm from previous iteration (HUAWEI WATCH 3).

Where I feel the series could have improved on is with the standard strap that comes out of the box. The Flouroelastomeric black strap is way too simple for my taste and seems out of place for such a bold watch design to have. But then, quiet luxury is a trend this 2023/2024, so maybe they’re playing into that. There are also official watch straps that you can purchase to change this, so it’s not so much of a deal breaker as it is.

Sports & Health

Gone are the days when smartwatches were only used to keep track of your steps. In today’s world, the more (and accurate) health sensors your watch has, the better it is for you – especially  during post-Pandemic times.

While the worst is (hopefully) over, navigating through a post-Pandemic world also means taking better care of your lungs. Back in 2020, spO2 or Blood Oxygen tracking is pretty much one of the only way smartwatches can help check if you should rush yourself to the hospital or not whenever you did get the dreaded virus. In just a span of a couple of years, the tech wizards at HUAWEI has launched the first smartwatch with Respiratory Check Function.

Yup, the HUAWEI WATCH 4 can actually check the condition of your lungs through a series of tests under the Health Glance Feature.

Health Glance is an all-around checking of your heart, pulmonary arteries via ECG, and overall lung health via the Lung Function Assessment. While not necessarily a substitute for a pulmonary specialist, this overall health check should give you some idea of your overall heart and lung health. In cases of lungs disease, early detection is key. The HUAWEI WATCH 4 can help you with that.

Combined with various notifications to help you manage stress, accurately track over 100 sports and exercises including free-dive and Mountain Hiking functions, and a very accurate TrueSleep™ 3.0 sleep monitoring tracker and you’ve got yourself a pretty robust watch that’s super concerned with your health.

Even if you’re not the sporty-type, the refreshed Activity Rings is a fun way to help set mini health goals throughout the day. Small wins make big changes, they say, so kudos for this handy tool from HUAWEI.

 

Everyday Reliability

While pairing your smartphone with your smartwatch is the conventional way to go, very rarely do we see the smartwatch stand alone on its own. Well, the HUAWEI WATCH 4 can do that (to an extent). Thanks to the eSIM capability of the smartwatch, the HUAWEI WATCH 4 can receive calls, notifications, answer messages, as well as accurately transfer and receive data outside the proximity of your paired smartphone.

The HUAWEI WATCH 4 can be paired with the same number as your smartphone OR have an independent number altogether giving users the much-needed tech flexibility to fit their lifestyle.

Aside from that, there are a bunch of quality-of-life improvements on the HUAWEI WATCH 4 that wasn’t available to other HUAWEI Smartwatches yet. Running on Harmony OS, the new refreshed UX provides easier navigation through the various apps.

You can easily toggle the Quick Bar via the adjacent button. It’s a quirky way to get quick access to your most used apps on the phone.

Speaking of which, let’s just circle back to the fact that you can actually type on the HUAWEI WATCH 4. While, sure the 1.5” LTPO AMOLED may pose quite a challenge to utilize the virtual keyboard, the mere fact that you can customize message replies is already pretty wild.

The HUAWEI WATCH 4 will also have the ability to utilize your eWallet like GCASH so it now quickly becomes another separate (but integrated) smart device system. We’re hoping that these updates trickle down to past smartwatch generations (like the HUAWEI WATCH ULTIMATE VOYAGE BLUE EDTION).

Lastly, the HUAWEI WATCH 4 should be able to keep up with you for days before the need to top-up again. Having a 530mAh battery with a quick-charge capabilities, the HUAWEI WATCH 4 runs from 3 days in Standard Mode to 14 days in Ultra-Long Battery life mode. Keep in mind that always enabling the eSIM and constant health monitoring will deplete your HUAWEI WATCH 4’s battery faster.

 

Geek Lifestyle Recommendation

The HUAWEI WATCH 4 comes from a proud lineage of smart wearables. Its predecessors are still quality devices that sport the premium quality one would expect from the HUAWEI brand. From premium quality to cutting-edge tech, HUAWEI has set the standard to what proper smart wearables should be – and the WATCH 4 is no exception.  From THE FIRST EVER ECG and Lung Function Assistant, to “the complete independent smart watch experience,” the HUAWEI WATCH 4 is an amazing offering to kickstart the year right.

The HUAWEI WATCH 4 retails for PHP 22,999 with promo offers including a free HUAWEI Sound Joy speaker worth PHP 6,999.

Interested in getting one? Check the link for more details: https://bit.ly/3UEIhB4

 

HUAWEI WATCH 4 Specs:

  • 46mm: 48.5 x 48.5 x 13mm
  • 5” LTPO AMOLED color screen (466×466) with 310 PPI, 74% Screen-to-body ratio
  • 48 g (excluding the strap)
  • Case: stainless steel
  • Strap: Black Fluoroelastomer Strap
  • 3D Curved Sapphire Glass Display
  • Sensors – Accelerometer sensor/ Gyroscope sensor/ Compass/ Optical heart rate sensor/ Ambient Light/ Barometer sensor/ Temperature Sensor/ (partial) ECG Sensor/ Depth Sensor/ (partial) Arterial Stiffness, (partial) Respiratory Check, SpO2, Stress sensor.
  • Two Buttons: Rotating Crown, Function Button
  • IP68 Rated (5 ATM Water Resist)
  • NFC/ Bluetooth (2.4 GHz, supports BT5.2 and BR + BLE), eSIM
  • 3-14 Days Battery Life (standard), 1-2 days with eSIM and AOD mode activated 24/7
  • SRP Php 22,999