Huawei spin-off Honor has announced a global release for its Honor Band 6 fitness tracker, which launched in China back in November.
The smartwatch/fitness tracker hybrid, will cost and will put pressure on more traditional bands such as the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 and Amazfit Band 5.
Outside of China, the Honor Band 6 is heading to Europe first, although we have seen it on US resellers. Honor and Huawei devices have been slow to land in the US since the trade dispute, and there's no timescale on when it might appear Stateside officially.
This article was originally published in January 2021. It was updated in March 2021 with pricing and availability information.
Honor Band 6 specs
It features a 1.47-inch, 194 x 368 resolution AMOLED touchscreen display – which is pretty impressive for a fitness tracker. It goes head-to-head with the likes of the Huawei Watch Fit, which offers a bigger screen than traditional trackers like the Fitbit Charge 4.
- Read more: Mi Band 6 full details
It's also water resistant up to 50 metres making it suitable for swimming and showering.
In terms of tracking and biometrics there’s Huawei's TruSeen 4.0 optical heart rate monitor to take care of continuous monitoring and tracking during exercise with 10 sports modes supported.
There's no GPS which is a downside, but that's not necessarily huge for everyone.
It will also be able to take blood oxygen measurements via the built in SpO2 sensor, and it has accelerometer and gyroscope motion sensors on board to track activity.
With such a big build and case, we’re expecting decent battery life from the 180mAh battery. Honor says the Band 6 will offer 14 days battery life with 10 days “heavy use” which seems pretty impressive.
The lines between smartwatches and fitness trackers have been blurring, and this is another example. The Huawei Watch Fit offers a similar design, with a 1.67-inch AMOLED display, for those that want the fitness tracking experience with a more luxe display.
Honor Band 6 release date and price
We've known that the Honor Band 6 is set for a global launch since January, but as of March 2021 we now know it's heading to Europe.
The price looks set for , putting it head-to-head with fitness bands such as the Amazfit Band 5 and Xiaomi Mi Band 5. Of course, you're getting a completely different type of experience at that price.
It will be available on Aliexpress (available at a USD price of ~$50) but we've also seen it on Amazon.
It also sits alongside the Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite and Amazfit Bip U – and that's where it becomes harder to recommend.
Both of those devices offer more features, built-in GPS, better ecosystems and similar battery life – at the same price. And that makes it hard for the Honor Band 6.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.