Huawei Watch Fit 2 — a great upgrade to an already great smartwatch
Huawei Watch Fit 2. Picture: Noel Campion.
The Huawei Watch Fit 2 is for those who love the convenience and size of a band but want the features of a smartwatch. It now features a speaker, unlike earlier models, making it simple for users to take Bluetooth calls without even picking up their smartphone.
The Huawei Watch Fit 2 doesn’t stray far from its predecessor's design language. It has a rectangular shape with a single side-mounted button and a slightly larger 1.74-inch AMOLED display than the 1.64-inch original version.
The Watch Fit 2 has several sensors on the rear of the case that reside inside a bulge that helps maintain contact with your skin to improve reliable measurements.
One of the many reasons users will choose a smartwatch or band like this is for its lightweight and at a mere 26 grams (Active Edition), the Watch Fit 2 never feels heavy or bulky.
My review unit was the black Active Edition with a black silicone strap. However, there’s a variety of colours and designs to select from, including soft and comfy silicone, exquisite leather and the trendy Milanese strap. Removing the strap is quick and easy with a simple press-to-release feature.
Charging the watch is still done via the same proprietary magnetic, two-pin charging cable — the same one that comes with the original Watch Fit and Huawei Watch Bands.
Like any of the recent Huawei smartwatches, the Watch Fit 2 comes with HarmonyOS 2.1, which is a light and powerful OS that never feels sluggish. The screen is bright and sharp with a responsive touch that makes using the watch seamless.
There’s a good selection of apps and features but there’s no option to download any extra apps either directly on the watch or via Huawei Health. However, a recent update added support for connecting to sports accessories such as heart rate straps, cycling cadence meters and power meters.
The watch contains a GPS sensor and Petal maps for navigation, but you can only use it to reflect the navigation on your phone when using the Petal maps app. You’ll get simple directions rather than a proper map display.
While you can receive notifications and messages on the watch, you can only respond with canned messages or emojis. To be fair, this is the same limitation with all of Hauwei's smartwatches including their latest flagship models.
Huawei Health app is where you’ll do a lot of the setup for the watch including downloading and installing new watch faces. There are hundreds to choose from, both free and paid for. You can also see a full analysis of your sleep, if you enable it, along with continuous monitoring of skin temperature, SpO2, stress and heart rate. You also get the full rundown on step count, calories and meters climbed.
New to the Watch Fit 2 is the speaker and mic that allows you to answer calls — it needs to be connected to your phone. This is an awesome feature and works really well and callers said my voice was crystal clear.
The Watch Fit 2 comes with most of the usual fitness features you’d expect from a more expensive Huawei smartwatch including 97 workout modes for everything from running and cycling, to weight training, dancing, ball games, winter sports and more. The watch can also be used for swimming since it comes with a 5ATM water resistance rating.
Additionally, there’s a built-in animated fitness coach for seven chosen modes that provides clear auditory prompts and demonstrations, as well as warm-up and cool-down exercises, making it easier to fit workouts into your schedules and monitor progress over time.
It also comes with Huawei’s Running Ability Index (RAI), which analyses a user’s height, age, weight, fitness and running experience to create a professional-level training plan. The data is then automatically analysed, and the training suggestions are adjusted, based on your progress.
Huawei has introduced support for medals that unlock when you accomplish specific milestones, for a game-like and far more fun experience for those intending to use the watch as motivation to improve their fitness.
The Watch Fit 2 has a claimed 10 days of use and I was easily able to get a full week out of a fully charged battery. However, this was with the always-on-display turned off and no GPS tracking. I was able to drain the battery in two days with several hours of GPS tracking during a few cycling trips and with the always-on display enabled.
I always had continuous heart rate monitoring, sleep monitoring and continuous SpO2 tracking enabled but I’m sure if you wanted to turn these off you would get closer to the claimed 10 days of battery life.
The Huawei Watch Fit 2 is an attractive smartwatch with a selection of designs watch strap styles and colours to choose from. It offers good battery life with excellent fitness and health features and comes highly recommended.
Priced from €149 (RRP) Huawei
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