Honor Watch 5 Ultra Offers Impressive Hardware That Deserves Wear OS
Overview of the Honor Watch 5 Ultra
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra is a striking smartwatch that captivates with its design and build quality. However, user experience can be hampered by software issues.
Design and Build Quality
Sleek Appearance
At first glance, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra impresses with its beautiful design. It features a sturdy titanium frame that is both stylish and durable. The combination of matte and glossy finishes gives it a modern touch. The watch has a rounded display that fits comfortably within a 46mm case.
Comfortable Bands
You can choose from a 22mm black fluorelastomer band or a dark brown leather strap. Both options provide comfort and style, making it suitable for various occasions, whether you’re working out or dressing up for a meeting.
Display Features
The watch is equipped with a 1.5-inch AMOLED display, which offers vibrant colors and sharp images. Additionally, this smartwatch offers 5ATM/IP68 water resistance, meaning it can handle splashes and submersion in water, making it a good choice for swim enthusiasts.
Functional Buttons
The watch has two buttons: one customizable shortcut button and a rotating crown for easy navigation.
Health and Fitness Features
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra comes with several health sensors to track various fitness metrics. You can monitor your heart rate, sleep quality, and other important health statistics. Also, the watch supports wireless charging, so you won’t have to deal with messy cables.
Software Experience
Custom Operating System
Although the hardware of the Honor Watch 5 Ultra is impressive, the software feels lacking. The watch runs on a custom operating system that, while fast, lacks the flexibility and app variety found in other systems like Wear OS.
Limited Apps and Features
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra offers a limited range of applications, which may frustrate users looking for specific functionalities. For example, there’s no support for mobile payments, which is a feature many people expect from modern smartwatches.
Fewer Watch Face Options
The built-in watch faces are also quite limited. Users will find that most of the available face options are analog, with very few customizable features. Attempting to download additional watch faces from Honor’s “Watch Face Market” has proven to be a hassle, with many users reporting issues getting the app to function properly.
Notifications and Messaging
Inconsistent Notification Management
An important aspect of any smartwatch is how it handles notifications. Unfortunately, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra falls short in this area.
- Unhelpful Previews: When you receive notifications, you only get previews. This means that you can’t interact with messages straight from the watch and must pull out your phone to do so.
- Messy Group Chats: If you’re part of a group chat, the watch often displays the same initial notification repeatedly, making it difficult to keep up with conversations. This lack of synchronization leads to a frustrating user experience.
Good Battery Life
Despite its software drawbacks, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra boasts impressive battery life. Many users report not needing to charge the watch for over a week. However, it’s questionable whether this long battery life is worth the trade-off in software functionality and user experience.
Room for Improvement
With a price tag of €279, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra is on the higher end for smartwatches. Users deserve more comprehensive features and a smoother experience for this price.
Potential for Wear OS
It may be beneficial if Honor considered using a version of Wear OS instead of its custom OS. By doing so, it could provide a broader range of app options and improve user experience. Wear OS has robust APIs for app developers and can integrate seamlessly with Google’s services, making it more appealing for users who rely on their smartwatches for daily tasks.
Competing Smartwatches
There are cheaper smartwatches with similar battery life and features available on the market. Users seeking an all-around better smartwatch experience might want to explore alternatives to the Honor Watch 5 Ultra.
Final Thoughts
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra is a stunning piece of technology with significant potential. However, the software drags down the overall experience, leaving users looking for something more thoughtful and integrated. With the right software enhancements, Honor could truly elevate this smartwatch to be a leading choice in the market.
