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The Huawei Watch 4 Pro launched earlier this year, and we managed to get our hands on a review unit not long ago. After using the watch for about two weeks, I’m ready to share my thoughts on it. There’s actually a lot to talk about here, even though the biggest difference between previous models lies in the software department, not the hardware. That’s not to say the hardware is not great here, because it is, but we’ll get to that soon.
The Watch 4 Pro is Huawei’s most powerful smartwatch to date. It’s the most powerful watch in Huawei’s new Watch 4 series, and it’s trying to cater to both camps, actually. When I say both camps I mean regular smartwatch users who want a watch that looks classy, and sporty users that want a ton of fitness data on their wrist. Does it succeed in that? Well, let’s talk about it, shall we.
Table of contents
– Hardware
– Display
– Performance
– Software
– Health/Fitness
– Battery
– Verdict
Huawei Watch 4 Pro Review: Hardware / Design
The Huawei Watch 4 and Watch 4 Pro do look basically identical, but… there’s a difference, of course. The Watch 4 Pro is slightly larger and thicker, while also being heavier. It does feature more premium materials, though. The Huawei Watch 4 Pro comes with a casing made out of titanium, not stainless steel. Also, on top of the display here lies “Spherical artificial sapphire glass”, which is not included on the regular model. Oh do I have thoughts on that glass, but we’ll talk more about that in the display section.
The watch is 5ATM rated
This watch is 5 ATM rated, so you can rest easy when you go swimming with it. There are two buttons on the right-hand side of the watch. The top one doubles as a rotating crown, and the experience of using it is great. It has great tactile feedback, and it’s well optimized for use on this particular watch. I prefer it over what the Huawei Watch Ultimate delivered, if I’m quite honest. The bottom button has a different shape, and there’s no way you’ll mix the two. They’re also angled differently. That button also has nice feedback.
It comes in three different variants
This watch actually comes in three variants. All three have the same built materials for the watch itself, and the watch is silver in two out of three iterations. The straps are different. The model we got has a titanium strap, like the watch case itself. That is the most expensive model. There are also models with a Blue Composite Strap and Dark Brown Leather Strap. The model with Blue Composite Strap also has a blue tint on the watch casing itself, while the other two models have a metallic silver casing. Do note that the watch weighs 65 grams without the strap. If you add a Titanium strap to it, it becomes quite hefty.
Huawei Watch 4 Pro Review: Display
The Huawei Watch 4 Pro has a 1.5-inch LTPO AMOLED panel on the front. That display has a resolution of 466 x 466, which comes down to 310 ppi. The fact this is an LTPO panel is a good thing, of course, as it allows the watch to tune down the refresh rate to save battery life. The display itself is really good. I’m used to that when it comes to Huawei watches. It’s more than sharp enough, the image is vivid, and the blacks are deep. The viewing angles are reasonably good considering there’s curved sapphire glass applied on top of it. That’s what I don’t like when it comes to this display, actually.
Sapphire glass protection is definitely a plus
The fact it’s sapphire glass is great, far from it. I haven’t had an issue at all, and I bumped it several times. There’s not a single scratch on it. That part is alright, the fact it’s curved, not so much. That glass is truly reflective, too reflective, in my opinion. When you’re outside, it makes the display less visible than on other Huawei watches I’ve tested in the last couple of years. It’s as if you’re looking at the display through a thick layer of glass, which is not the case. I, personally, was not a fan of this, but this glass does provide excellent protection, so… there you go.
Huawei Watch 4 Pro Review: Performance
I’m not sure what SoC Huawei used here, but the Kirin A1 has been the go-to processor for quite some time now. It’s possible it’s included here too, but regardless, the performance in general is great. Do note that I’m referring to general smoothness, opening apps, and so on. I did have a problem with the notifications side of things, which is something we’ll talk more about in the software section. Opening up apps, playing music, scrolling, and so on, everything is very smooth. Even multitasking, which is now a part of the watch, runs smoothly. That’s also something we’ll talk more about in the software section. As per usual when it comes to Huawei devices, lag is pretty much non-existent. Do note that eSIM functionality is also included here.
Huawei Watch 4 Pro Review: Software
The Huawei comes with HarmonyOS pre-installed. The thing is it comes with HarmonyOS 3.1, which is a considerable change compared to HarmonyOS 3.0. It’s the biggest change in quite some time, as far as HarmonyOS for wearables is concerned. Huawei changed up how the UI looks to a considerable degree. The notification cards now look different, and more polished, as they rely more on animations. You can now also use a keyboard to respond to messages. The quick toggles section also looks a bit different, as does the entire menu with shortcuts (screen to the left side of the home screen) aka Assistant TODAY. The company now also allows you to tag three shortcuts to the physical shortcut button on the right. Before, you could tag only one shortcut to it. Those are the most notable changes, though not all of them, of course.
I did experience issues with notifications
Almost every single change that Huawei made here is for the better, basically. It would be awesome if everything worked as intended, but I did have some issues with notifications. Unfortunately, those issues were considerable. First of all, the notifications were often late to sync with the phone, coming an hour later or something like that. On top of that, notifications that I’ve removed end up appearing for a second when I enter the notification section when swiping from the bottom up. I also experienced short-span screen freezing in that menu. Another notification-related problem comes down to the keyboard. 9 out of 10 times the messages were sent without a problem, but that 1 time they did not, and the watch didn’t inform me of that.
The keyboard is a great addition, but it needs polish
That keyboard that Huawei now allows us to use can be immensely useful for quick responses from your wrist. The thing is, it doesn’t work with all apps. It worked perfectly fine with Viber and Facebook Messenger, for example, but not with Google Messages. I don’t even get an option to use it with Google Messages, actually.
New watch faces are far nicer and more useful
Another HarmonyOS 3.1 change I wanted to go over has to do with watch faces. Huawei considerably upgraded the experience. They’re much more useful now, not only do they have hotspots for launching different menus, which is a feature many of you are used to, but we now have access to video watch faces, and those with interactive backgrounds. You can basically tap on the backgrounds of some watch faces to change them, or scroll the rotating crown in order to achieve a similar effect.
The most useful watch face I’ve found even allows me to know when an unread notification is present on the watch. A small icon appears on the watch face itself. I’ve been wanting to have access to that feature for a long time, so I’m glad it’s finally here. It would be great if we could include that on any watch face, though. I do hope Huawei will continue in that direction, and allow us to customize watch faces as we feel like. That would truly make the experience unique and great at the same time.
More changes are present in the UI, of course, but I went over the most important ones. Do note that I was using the latest software available at the time of the review, HarmonyOS 3.1.0.138. A new update is on the horizon, though, and has already been rolled out in China. It should arrive to the global variant in a couple of weeks. That is a rather large update, of around 600MB, and it will hopefully fix the notification situation. I’m not used to seeing such bugs on Huawei watches, so I was a bit surprised, but chances are Huawei will fix things rather fast, at least based on my past experiences with Huawei Watch models.
Huawei Watch 4 Pro Review: Health/Fitness
The Huawei Watch 4 Pro is well-equipped in the fitness/health department. It has a heart rate sensor, as you’d expect. In addition to that, it can also track your sleep, while it has a skin temperature sensor too. It can keep track of your blood oxygen levels, while ECG and arterial stiffness features have also been added here. Do note that you’ll need the Huawei Health app to use all of those features properly, but you can get all the data on your watch too, thanks to the Health Glance widget, which is immensely useful.
There is also an app called Health Glance included on the watch. All the health features mentioned here worked as you’d expect them to, well, most of them did, as we were unable to properly compare them all. The heart rate sensor was quite useful, and accurate, while sleep tracking was hit and miss, as it is on basically every smartwatch I’ve used. Do note that this watch cannot replace medical equipment, that goes for basically every smartwatch.
There are tons of workout modes pre-installed here, as we’re used to when it comes to Huawei smartwatches. Ranging from indoor and outdoor running to swimming, cycling, and more. One thing to note, the GPS worked fine during my run and cycling, but when I went on a hike, it had issues keeping up. Do note that this is not a watch for your ultimate adventures, but it does the job really well overall, in terms of fitness features.
Huawei Watch 4 Pro Review: Battery
There is a 780mAh battery included inside of this watch, and the battery life is really good. Now, don’t expect crazy battery life longevity, as some other Huawei watches offer, though. Compared to most of the competition, however, this is great. If you use most of the tracking features on the watch, but without AOD, you can get 4-6 days’ worth of battery life. In the second cycle, we turned off some health-tracking features we didn’t find useful, and still managed to squeeze out 4 days’ worth of battery life. If you, however, keep them on, along with AOD, and use eSIM, you’ll get closer to two days. That’s considerably less than some other Huawei watches, but still good overall.
Getting a full charge will take you between 90 & 100 minutes
It will take you somewhere between 90 and 100 minutes to fully charge this smartwatch, by using the included magnetic charger. This is not a small battery for a smartwatch, so that is to be expected.
Huawei Watch 4 Pro: Should you buy it?
Should you buy the Huawei Watch 4 Pro? Well, it all depends on what you’re looking for in a watch. Huawei smartwatches have always been my go-to on Android. I’m not looking for many apps for my smartwatches, but I do want great battery life and for the basics to work just right. That’s what Huawei was always able to provide, along with many health and fitness features. This time around, I spotted a series of bugs in the notification system, which was very frustrating, but I’m hoping that a fix is coming. Huawei managed to keep their watches relatively bug-free, so I’m hoping this will be fixed soon. The watch is quite capable in a number of ways, despite some shortcomings. It is quite pricey, though, so… think twice before you go for it.
You should buy the Huawei Watch 4 Pro if you:
– want a sturdy watch built from titanium
– appreciate a sharp and vivid display on your watch
– want plenty of health and fitness features
– need a very good rotating bezel
– need wireless magnetic charging
– have been waiting for more UI changes on Huawei watches
You shouldn’t buy the Huawei Watch 4 Pro if you:
– want easy access to contactless payments
– need plenty of well-known apps on your watch
– go hiking often