How many steps did you take yesterday? How many hours did you sleep? Do you know how many long your afternoon run was? With the HONOR Band 5, you are all able to track this, and more! With this smart band, you can track a lot of personal details and adjust your lifestyle to be healthier. HONOR made a very good performing smart band, interested? Read more below!

Introduction & Specifications

Looking at the specifications below, I’m again surprised by the price. There is a lot of data tracked, the battery is good, and the price is very reasonable. If I’m looking for a smart band, I want a long battery life, a lot of activities tracked, and some good working and easy navigatable software. Right now, the HONOR Band 5 looks like to be all that! Have a look at the specifications below and judge yourself:

Specifications
Brand:	HONOR
Model:	Band 5
Display Size:	0.95 inch
Display:	AMOLED
Display PPI:	282 PPI
Waterproof:	Yes, 50 meter
Heartrate:	Yes, continous
Accelerometer:	Yes, 6-axis
Sports:	Outdoor Running, Indoor Running, Outdoor Walking, Outdoor Cycling, Indoor Cycling, Swimming, Free Training, Indoor Walking, Rowing Machine, Elliptical Trainer
Bluetooth:	V4.2
Battery Life:	Up to 14 days
Weight:	22.7 gram
Software:	Huawei Health

Unboxing

At the front of the box, we see a picture of the HONOR Band 5, which looks great. The light blue color of the sides are calm and make it all look nice. The back of the box is filled with specifications and features. All is written in English which makes it easy to read and understand.

Inside, we find the HONOR Band 5 and the charging cable in a plastic casing. Underneath, we find the warranty card and the quick start guide.

Hardware & Design

Taking the HONOR Band 5 out of the case, I’m surprised by the high-quality feeling of the band and the materials used. The screen looks good and the button is clearly marked and cannot be missed when you want to press it. Actually, the HONOR Band 5 looks similar to the HONOR Band 4. Well, if the design is good and it works, don’t change it!

The HONOR Band 5 has a small thicker piece that keeps the band in place. Other brands have a loose ring that should keep the band in place, but that moves around all the time. HONOR made it that the ring can not move and locks in on the band and keeps it in place at all times. Genius!

Want the best available smart band? Click Here to buy your HONOR Band 5!

The Button

Well, you can’t miss the button. It is not a physical button, but it is marked on the watch as seen in the picture below. The button more or less functions as a home button and gets you back to your watch face, no matter where you are on the menu. You can use gestures and touch to navigate between the menu and use the button to get back to the beginning.

Display/Touchscreen

Using a 0.95 inch AMOLED screen, you get a clear and beautiful colored screen. On this screen, you are able to read the notifications, see your progress of the day in terms of steps, calories, and distance (depending on the watch face). It is easy to navigate between the menu and start activities on the watch without using your smartphone. The button is often used to go back to the watch face, see it as the home button on your smartphone.

Software

Using the HONOR Band 5, you need to download the Huawei Health app. (Click Here for Android, Click Here for iOS).

First, you need to download the Huawei Health app from the Google Playstore or the App Store. After the download, you need to register with your e-mail or phone number. I choose to make an account with an e-mail address. You might need to install another app called Huawei Mobile Services. This program is needed to run Huawei Health if you don’t have a Huawei phone.

After you registered and installed the app and possible the Huawei Mobile Services, you can add your HONOR Band 5. The guide is really easy and you just need to choose the right type of smart band.

Now, when the HONOR Band 5 is added, just play around on the app and learn more about the rich features and insights this app can give you. You can easily click on your heart rate, sleep, or weight overview. Start an exercise is easy via the Exercise tab at the bottom. If you want to change some settings to your profile or the HONOR Band 5, you need to click on the Me tab for profile settings and Devices tab for the HONOR Band 5 settings. Easy!

Want the best available smart band? Click Here to buy your HONOR Band 5!

Features

There is a lot of competition with smart bands but personally, the HONOR Band 5 stands out to me. The price compared to the quality and features you get is super high. I can not name another smart band that offers the same features and premium feeling for this price.

So, what are those features? For example, you can set the interval of the heartrate (also to continuous), it is waterproof to 50 meters, there are several sports activities, you get all different notifications, and you can easily change and select watch faces! What else do you want?!

Heartrate Monitoring

During your walks, runs, or cycle activities, you want to perform at your best. With the HONOR Band 5, you get an accurate reading of your heart rate. Using AI-driven algorithms for high-precision readings and infrared technology, TruSeen™ 3.0 offers continuous heart rate monitoring, so you stay in the fitness zone longer.

Waterproof

Don’t worry when you take a shower with the HONOR Band 5, dive in the sea, or just do the dishes. This smart band is waterproof up to 50 meters! Because the HONOR Band 5 has a 6-axis accelerometer, it has swimming stroke recognition. It will recognize up to four different strokes, freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. Besides the strokes, it will also record your speed, distance, and calories while swimming.

I used the HONOR Band 5 for a week now and I used it in the shower and I swam with it once and there was no issue at all afterward. The HONOR Band 5 functions just as before. Don’t be afraid to jump in the pool with the HONOR Band 5!

Notifications

On the 0.95 inch AMOLED screen of the HONOR Band 5, you can clearly see and read the incoming notifications. If you missed one, you can go back and select each incoming notification separately and read them again. Super handy and actually really easy to read back on older notifications. I couldn’t do that with Xiaomi on several watches or other brands.

In the Huawei Health app, you can select which applications can send their notifications to the HONOR Band 5 and via this way select what you will see on your wrist.

Want the best available smart band? Click Here to buy your HONOR Band 5!

Sport Activities

It doesn’t matter if you want to walk, run, or swim, with the HONOR Band 5 you can track it all. There are several indoor activities, like indoor walking, indoor running, and free training. If you are more an outside person, you can track your outdoor running session, outdoor walking, and outdoor cycling for example.

These are all the trackable activities: Outdoor Running, Indoor Running, Outdoor Walking, Outdoor Cycling, Indoor cycling, Swimming, Free Training, Indoor Walking, Rowing Machine, Elliptical Trainer.

So, how does it look if you want to see your activity afterward? Here is an example of a walk I did around Amsterdam:

Sleep Tracking

This is an essential feature for me. A good sleep tracker gives you so much insight into how you sleep and how you can improve it. Luckily, with the HUAWEI TruSleep feature enabled, you get a detailed overview of your night with the different stages of sleep. In this overview, you can see how many percentages of the night you spend in Deep Sleep, Light Sleep, or REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep. Super handy to get detailed insights. Here is an overview of a tracked night by me:

Battery Life

HONOR states on the box that the battery can last up to 14 days. This, of course, all depends on the settings of the HONOR Band 5. If you have a continuous heart rate, a lot of notifications, HUAWEI TruSleep enabled, and several activities per day, you are probably not going to make it. I managed, with everything enabled as described above, to get a week of battery life out of the HONOR Band 5. Personally, this is a great score and I like the results. Charging once per week is absolutely fine by me.

Conclusion

This HONOR Band 5 is a very good performing smart band at a very low price. Just around €30, you can get yourself a feature-rich smart band. The competition should be afraid of the HONOR Band 5 as this band offers it all. A wide range of activities, long battery life, accurate sleep/heart rate tracking, and 50 meters waterproof! Amazing. This is the smart band to recommend to the people you know.