Huawei Band 4e Review: An Affordable Fitness Companion!

It’s pretty much impossible to stay true to your diet play nowadays. With new menus and restaurants popping up in every corner, how can we remain fit? Well, exercising of course and maybe a new fitness buddy might seal the deal. And well, your friend may not be as enthusiastic as you so we’ve got you the perfect fitness companion this time.

Huawei’s Band 4e is a fitness band that’s been launched in the market for a price of Rs 3,400 is here. We’ve just managed to get our hands on the band and this is my experience with the Band 4e.

Ok, starting with the features,

The Huawei Band 4e is the modest version of the Huawei Band 4. So, it’s kind of obvious that both of these devices are quite similar to one another.

The Huawei Band 4e is a lot less boxy and a bit rounder. The strap carrying the actual hardware is made up of recycled material and is actually light-weighted; just 15 grams.

But the strap is a little bit annoying at times. Since you have to scale it in order to get a comfortable position. Nonetheless, once you have it fit, it’s pretty much invisible. Meaning that it doesn’t feel that heavy and quickly blends into your lifestyle.

What’s innovative about the device, is its dual wearing modes. The creative design aspect of the apparently allows you to switch between a wrist mode and a foot mode. A foot mood, you say? Well, unlike any other band, the 4e comes in with an extra buckle for the shoes. Just lodge in the oval design framework into the buckle and that’s it. You’re in foot mode! But, why exactly would you require a foot mode?

Here’s where the Basketball Performance kicks in!

Something that comes along with the Band 4e is the ability to monitor your basketball performance. The basketball mode provides detailed data to help you get better by checking your data.

For Basketball performance, all you need to do is a lodge in your tracker into your foot and then connect it to your phone. Then the tracker does all the rest on its own. It can offer users a comprehensive running statistic, as it has a six-axis motion sensor that enables it to provide accurate data tracking such as a foot strike pattern, landing impact, ground contact time, cadence, and more.

Using all the compiled data, you can focus on improving the aspects that affect your game.

Minimalistic Characteristics

For display, the Huawei band 4e features a 0.5” PMOLED screen with a round touch button for navigational controls. As for communications, the band features a Bluetooth 4.2 and it supports smartphones that have Android 4.4 or later/ iOS 9.0 or later. And obviously, there’s an app too. But it’s a little bit clumsy; which I shall elaborate in just a while.

The usual set of features: time, steps, distance, calories, sleep tracking, alarm clock, phone search are all here too. All these features are not included right off the bat. You need to configure which features you require in the health app itself. Initially, you have access to time, steps, distance, calories, and sleep tracking. You can switch navigate in between them using the capacitance home button.

Since the tracker is pretty small, in-depth details aren’t provided. And well, basically it just updates the data as you go on with your daily activities. Nonetheless, they are pretty accurate and to the point; which I really enjoyed about the device. Oh, and one small detail that’s pretty neat, the phone advises you to exercise once in every while after you’ve been in the chair for too long.

The App is a little Clumsy Though!

Well, whatever do I mean by that? The Band uses a Huawei Health app that acts as a bridge between the user and the tracker. And obviously, since it’s a Huawei product, it works well with Huawei’s smartphones but the same isn’t for every other phone. You see, in order to actually use the tracker, initially you need to connect it to your phone.

So, I’m using the Redmi K20 right now, and strangely the app on my current phone right now doesn’t recognize the Band 4e at all. It doesn’t detect the device so I haven’t been able to connect the band to my phone currently. But I did try it on another phone, the Realme 5i and surprisingly it worked perfectly.

The configuring part of the phone itself can be a little bit annoying. If you’re using a particularly fresh device, you need to have Huawei Mobile Services installed. And even after that, there’s a guarantee that the watch will be configured. So, that’s something to be aware of.

But after you’ve configured everything properly, the app isn’t all that bad. It gives you a proper layout of all the features that can be easily accessed through a single touch. Each and every block has a comprehensive statistic of all the features the band provides.

Portability Reimagined

The battery capacity for the Huawei Band 4e is 77mAh. As per Huawei, the Band 4e provides 2 weeks of battery with regular use. On standby mode, they’ve claimed that it goes all the way up to 21 days! And to tell you the truth, this is one particular section that I absolutely agree with. I’ve had the band for like 2 weeks now and you know what? It’s been running on a single charge all this time.

For charging, it comes in with a direct USB charger to which you can simply wedge the watch into the charger and plug it straight into the power brick. A complete charge requires about 1 and a half hours and that should inevitably last you for more than a week.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention. It has water resistance up to 5 ATM as well. So, whether you take it for workouts or wear it to the shower or even take it for swim sessions, it’ll still be your fitness buddy!

Verdict: Should You Trust This Tracker?

The Band 4e is a stylish fitness tracker that has a lot to offer. Its minimalistic outlook is deceiving but it’s a solid device whatsoever, except for the elastic strap though. Besides the elastic strap, the band also lacks a heart rate monitor, which is a bummer really.

It’s mostly designed while keeping runners and basketball players in general and for them, I say it’s worth considering. For them, Huawei loaded in a bunch of relevant features that can be quite useful. Not just them, but even for the general public, if you’re on a tight budget and still are in need of a good tracker, the Band 4e is quite considerable.

If you can spend a little more, going for the Honor Band 5 might seem more reasonable. It’s got a better strap, a wide variety of functionalities, and it features a more accurate sleep tracking alongside 24-hour continuous heart rate monitoring. Well, that’s it for this review.