Honor has launched its Watch 4 in Europe, but it’s lost one of its best features in the transition to a global launch.
The Watch 4 launched in China with unique dual-eSIM capabilities, which meant it could be paired to two SIMs simultaneously. But the global launch sees eSIM capabilities canned altogether.
Cellular-connected smartwatches are commonplace in China, but less so in Europe and the US. And they rarely make it out of China.
The Watch 4 has been given a €149 price tag at the French Honor store but is available in black only.
That puts it alongside mid-range smartwatches such as the Amazfit GTS 4 and Huawei Watch GT 3 – so there’s some strong competition around.
The Honor Watch 4 is very much an Apple Watch clone and a big departure from Honor’s recent smartwatch efforts.
It comes with a square case and a generous 1.75-inch AMOLED screen. There’s a 450 x 390 pixel resolution and 60Hz refresh rate.
It packs 10 days of battery life (by Honor's own estimation) and the company claims three days of battery life when using LTE.
The Watch 4 comes with 12 'professional sports modes', with rich tracking for running, cycling, swimming, and others. There are also 85 other generic sports profiles. It has GPS built-in, and it boasts 5ATM water resistance.
Wareable says
We were hoping, perhaps naively, that Honor would bring its dual-eSIM technology to Europe. The adoption of LTE smartwatches is low, and it feels like the next big bridge that smartwatches need to cross.
Aside from that disappointment the Honor Watch 4 brings a fun-looking design and strong screen tech to the mid-range smartwatch market. But it’s a crowded space, and this does feel like a missed opportunity to really be aggressive.
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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.