Lenovo is a great company. They make a lot of products and for what I know, the products are pretty good! I own a laptop and a smartphone (Lenovo P2) and I couldn’t be happier with them. The new addition to the Lenovo family is the Lenovo HW01. A simple and affordable smarttracker. But is this smarttracker able to compete with the rest? There are numerous cheap smarttrackers, like the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 or the No.1 F3 for example. But maybe Lenovo put in some of their magic…

I love the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 (and hoping they will release the Mi Band 3 soon). I will compair the results with the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 for now. Later I will also include the results of the No.1 F3 smartwatch which should arrive this week. Lenovo is already standing out with the price, under 20 Euro’s you can get yourself the Lenovo HW01, but is it worth it?

You can find the YouTube review here!

Introduction and Specs

The specs of the Lenovo HW01 are good, but not outstanding. They will get you the information you want, but I think they are a little behind if we compare it with the Xiaomi Mi Band 2. But maybe the preformance are way better. I’m not saying that the specs are bad, they will get your heartrate, steps taken and sleep hours, which is all I want to know.

Hardware
• Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth 4.2
• Waterproof: Yes
• IP rating: IP65

Features
• Notification: Yes
• Alert type: Vibration
• Notifications: Phone calls and messaging
• Health tracker: Heart rate monitor,Pedometer,Sedentary reminder,Sleep monitor
• Remote control function: Remote Camera,Remote music
• Compatible OS: Android,IOS
• Compatability: Android 4.4 / iOS 8.0 and above systems
• Available Color: Black,Red

Screen
• Screen: OLED
• Screen resolution: 128 x 32
• Screen size: 0.91 inch
• Operating mode: Touch Screen
• Shape of the dial: Rectangle

Battery
• Type of battery: Lithium-ion polymer battery
• Battery Capacity: 85mAh
• Standby time: 7 days

Band
• Case material: ABS
• Band material: Silicone

Weight and Size
• Dial size: 4 x 1.2 x 1 cm
• Band size: 23.5 x 1.2 cm
• Product size (L x W x H): 23.50 x 1.20 x 1.00 cm
• Package size (L x W x H): 10.20 x 5.50 x 7.00 cm
• Product weight: 0.0220 kg
• Package weight: 0.1200 kg

You can use the Lenovo HW01 with your Apple iPhone or with an Android device. That is no problem at all. The battery should last you a week, which I think is the minimal a simple smarttracker should last. The size of the watch is great, it is not to big or bulky, even if you have to wear it with a suit, it doesn’t really stand out.

right now I’m using the Lenovo HW01 with my Xiaomi Mi Band 2 (at the same time) and it works really well! It let me see what I want and the software with it looks great, but later more about the software!

Unboxing

The box itself looks simple and elegant. It looks a bit like the box from the bluboo s8. Inside the box is nothing more then normal. You first see the Lenovo HW01, it is in a small bag to protect it. If you remove the Lenovo HW01, you will find 2 small papers with information about the product and some information about the warranty. Luckily for us, it is available in English!

Lenovo HW01 hardware

The Lenovo HW01 is not the biggest smarttracker there is, but there is enough to talk about!

As you can see at the back there is the heartrate monitor, which is in the same position is almost all smarttrackers. Xiaomi, Apple, Sony, everybody has the same spot for the heartrate monitor. Lenovo has a different way of charging the HW01, which I don’t like at all. Above the logo there is a small plug that you have to open to charge it. First of all it is not easy to open, second if it breaks the Lenovo HW01 is not waterproof anymore and last but not least it is just a weird way of charging it. If we compare this with Xiaomi or the Apple Watch, those are way more user friendly to charge. I think Lenovo missed it there and should have implented a different way of charging it.

The display is nice in size, it shows all the information you want in just a glimp. You can see the time, the date and the battery level when you “unlock” the display. The more information on the first screen, the better, right? Now you don’t have to touch the display multiple times to get the information you want, which is the case with the Xiaomi Mi Band 2. There is also a downside of the bigger display, the battery. It will drain the battery faster if the display is bigger ofcourse. But, even with the bigger display, the runtime is still around a week. Which, for me, the minimum what a smarttracker (with basic features) should last.

How does it feel?

The band feels really nice, it is made out of silicone. It does not hurt the skin when you move it on your arm and leave a red mark. The way the band closes, like a classic watch, is really good. I prefer this methode over the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 way. This is a really good feature of the product, it just fits and feels good on your arm.

Software (App)

There is a special app where you can see all the information. The app, Lenovo Health, looks good. It is simple but all the information is shown clear and clean. You can enable or disable some features of the Lenovo HW01 (all those features are listed below). This will make it a really personal device. Do you listen to music a lot? Enable “Music Control”. Don’t want the heart rate monitor? Disable it! Really make it your own and get the information you want and control everything you need and want.

Features

The Lenovo HW01 has some great features as you can see on the picture above. It will do everything you expect form a smarttracker. For this price and brand it is an really good smarttracker which has a lot to offer for the basic user.

It will track the steps you take each day. Automatically calculte the calories burned and the distance coved with it. When you are sleeping, it will show you your deep sleep, your light sleep and time awake and ofcourse the total hours of sleep you got. When you want to know your heartrate, you can start it by going to the heartrate screen on the Lenovo HW01 and it will start in 3 seconds.

I’m currently wearing the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 and the Lenovo HW01 to compare the results, but I noticed that the Lenovo HW01 didn’t get my sleep for 2 days in a row while the Xiaomi registered the sleep like it should. This could be an incident ofcourse, but it is weird that it happens 2 days in a row.

When you go out for a run, you can start an activity tracker on the smarttracker itself. If you hold down the “button” for 3-5 seconds, it will come with a menu where you can navigate with the touch of the “button”. If you select the running man, it will start the activity. Easy to start when you are outside and ready to start a run.

In the settings of the App, Lenovo Health, you can also enable some really cool features. (This will cost you battery life!) For example you can enable: Control music, Find Phone, Anti-lost, Rise to wake, Heart rate monitor, Smart reminders (for calls, SMS or WhatsApp), Sedentary reminders (if there is no activity, the Lenovo HW01 will vibrate), take photo, locate band and set an Alarm.

This shows, that the Lenovo HW01 has a rich feature set, but it will drain the battery! Then you might last for 4-5 days if everything is enabled.

Waterproof?

If we have to believe the specs, the Lenovo HW01 should be waterproof. Normally I would test it and show the results but due to the poor choose of the charging port, I decided not to test it. I think it is too risky and try it. I don’t want to destroy the device.

I won’t advice anyone with the Lenovo HW01 to test the waterproof abilities.

Battery

The battery life, as mentioned before, is the minimum I expect from a basic smarttracker. It will last around a week, if the continuous heartrate monitor function is disabled. This is acceptable, but I expected a basic smarttracker to last longer then this. For example the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 is lasting around a month with the same features.

With my settings, heartrate monitor disabled, I’m able to last a week with the battery.

Conclusion

The Lenovo HW01 is a great smarttracker IF you want to know the basic information like sleep monitoring, steps taken, calories burned and distance covered. There are other models where you can change the functions like pausing the music or editing the looks. If you just want to know the information, this product is great.

It will take a week before you need to charge it and in the meantime it will measure all the details you care about. The Lenovo HW01 looks great and feels good on your skin. For the price, 25 Euro, it is a real bargain.

Want to read more information about SmartWatches? Reviews.com did some really interesting research on SmartWatches, which you can read here: Click!