▷Honor Band 5 review: the ultra-cheap smartband 🥇

Honor Band 5 was presented last week in Berlin, during an event that saw it divide the scene with the awaited Honor Vision smart TV and a series of interesting software innovations. A quick conference that dedicated only a few minutes to an object that could really conquer a good slice of the market. Such as? With a super aggressive price - only 29 euro - and few but useful functions.

We have been using it intensively for a few days and now we are ready to tell you about it pros and cons of this smartband.

Honor Band 5 review: elegant and invisible

In recent years I have tried several smartwatches, often united by one defect: the size. The wearables we have become accustomed to have never boasted a design that is particularly suitable for female wrists or lovers of aesthetics. A trend that has recently been running out to make room for elegant and compact products. There are two strands that ride the new trend and the evolution of technology: real smartwatches and the even more essential smartbands.

It belongs to the latter category Honor Band 5, which sets aside the complex and rich operating systems of smart watches to offer only what you really need: the time, real-time notifications and monitoring of our well-being.

All this in a very small body, flanked by a silicon strap, knurled, particularly long so as to adapt to even the most important wrists. On the other hand, I was not thrilled by the buckle, very cheap to the touch, while the weight is very appreciable: you will hardly notice that you are carrying it.

Little to report instead from the hardware point of view. The only real gem is il display AMOLED 0,95 inch with 240 × 120 pixel resolution. In fact, the screen offers excellent brightness, good color rendering and convincing touch sensitivity.

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The user experience

I confess: the first two days with Honor Band 5 did not impress me. In fact, the software was not particularly responsive and was full of inaccurate and often absent translations. Then the update. A small update not only solved the aforementioned problems but also brought with it a decidedly more modern graphics. From that moment on, I really started to like Honor Band 5.

In everyday life it turned out responsive, ready to notify everything I normally need and to track steps, sleep, workouts and heart rate. All counting on a menu reduced to the bone: just swipe down or up to switch between features.

The only real sore point is represented by the graphic rendering of the notifications: all are associated with the same icon - a light bulb - making it impossible to distinguish between one app and another.

Instead, the application promoted - Huawei Health - which offers everything you need without being ridiculously complex. The Home serves as an excellent summary of what was recorded by Honor Band 5, the Training screen is useful for those who want to do physical activity and the Personal tab shows the goals achieved, all connected devices and settings. The app also allows you to access the smartband menu, activating functions such as Huawei TruSleep - to monitor sleep quality and breathing in real time -, alarm clock, Activity Reminders and Continuous Heartbeat Monitoring. In short, in a few taps you can reach everything you need.

Finally, the battery is really satisfying. A full charge allows you to cover minimum 5/6 days of use, a little more if you disable continuous heart rate recording.

Honor Band 5 review: buy it or not?

It has a few small flaws but at 29 euros Honor Band 5 is a real bargain. Compact, light and intuitive, this wearable is perfect for practically anyone and yes, it could really give Xiaomi's Mi Band a hard time.