Is the Watch ES from Honor a fitness tracker or a smartwatch? It is actually both. It seems to be a mix between the company’s range of smartwatches Honor Magic Watch and Honor Band line of fitness trackers in terms of price and design.

The wearable shares with the Huawei Watch Fit many things in common. Huawei is actually the parent company of Honor. So it is understandable that wearables from these two brands share some similarities. Even so, there are still some remarkably few differences between the Watch ES and the Watch Fit with the latter having a built-in GPS, a single extra exercise mode and a higher price.

The Honor Watch ES has so many in-depth workout and fitness modes that aren't always featured in devices of its price point.

Honor Watch ES Release Date & Price

The smartwatch was launched alongside the Watch GS Pro in August. Soon after its launching event, it went on sale. The price of Honor Watch ES is around $130, which is surprisingly low.

For comparison, one of its biggest competitors, the Fitbit Charge 4, costs $149.95. Another competitor is the Garmin Vivosmart 4 and its price is $129.99.

Honor Watch Design & Display

The Honor Watch ES comes with a body and straps. The straps are made using breathable material. There are plenty of holes so that wearers’ can find a comfortable fit. However, there is only one loop to secure the excess strap.

The body is an elongated rectangle. When you put it on your wrist, it will cover pretty much the top of your wrist. The appearance of the smartwatch is a bit utilitarian for a “Fitness Fashion Watch.”

On the right edge is a button. Since it does not stick out much, pressing the button is a bit difficult. On the back are a magnetic charging pin and a heart rate monitor.

The smartwatch from Honor is pretty lightweight at only 21g. This is about the same weight as an average fitness tracker and is less than that of an average smartwatch.

Thanks to its weight, wearers can forget that they are wearing it on their wrists occasionally. But it got caught on the sleeve due to its long body now and then.

The screen of the Honor Watch ES has a resolution of 456 x 280 and measures 1.64 inches. With AMOLED tech, the display looks punchy, making custom watch faces look good.

The screen has minimal physical bezel so it is easy to swipe from the sides. The display, in general, feels very responsive. If you like, you can turn the always-on feature on. But this will surely reduce the watch’s battery life.

There is one minor issue though. The display doesn’t cover the whole front of the body. There is a quite prominent black screen bezel that goes around it. It doesn’t affect how you use the smartwatch but most will prefer a higher screen-to-body ratio.

Honor Watch Performance & Software

The Watch ES uses Huawei’s operating system, LiteOS that has plenty of health and fitness features. But beyond that, there aren’t many lifestyle apps. For example, the smartwatch doesn’t have messaging, music, or third-party fitness apps. You can’t download extra apps either.

You can view your notifications but you can’t respond to them. You can choose which apps you want to receive notifications from. However, some notifications were repeatedly sent to the watch.

LiteOS is a fairly standard operating system for smartwatches. It has some helpful features such as a music player linked to Spotify, weather reports, timers, and alarms.

You can customize the watch faces, choosing those from the Huawei Health app or your own photos.

From the homepage, swiping right will take you to a heart rate chart, a stress chart, weather, music player, etc. In the menu, you will find workout, records for workout, SpO2, acitivity, sleep, stress, etc.

The Huawei Health app is pretty useful. For instance, sleep stats are broken down into different types of sleep. There is one small issue is that when you move too far away from your smartphone, the smartwatch would disconnect. You will then have to reconnect it manually.

Honor Watch Fitness

The highlight of the smartwatch is its new Fitness course feature. The Honor Watch has a total of 12 guided workouts with a digital personal assistant who will show you moves and help you count through reps. You can easily follow these Fitness courses.

Besides this, the smartwatch offers 95 different exercise modes, from Indoor cycle and Outdoor run to Jazz dance and Free sparring. The list is so vast that it can almost rival the Google Fit app.

GPS is supported. Most of the metrics provided by the Honor Watch ES are accurate. Some people might not like the stress-tracking mode as they have to answer some personal questions. Considering how Huawei handles the data of its users, some may feel hesitant to share information.

Honor Watch Battery Life

According to Honor, the Watch ES can last 10 days with one full single charge. If you use it slightly, that is certainly possible. But eight days would be more appropriate. That includes 15 minutes of exercising, a half hour run one to two times a week, constant heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, notification handling, etc. If you don’t need constant tracking, 10 days would be a feasible figure. It is important to note that the battery life of the Honor Watch ES is great.