Back in May, Justin and I were graciously invited to the launch event of Huawei’s newest fitness-focused smartwatches, the Watch Fit 4 and Fit 4 Pro. Over the past three weeks, I’ve been putting the latter through its paces, and it’s been quite the experience; every other day, I’d find myself going, ‘Oh, that’s neat.’ and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the clean design, impressive feature set, and even more stunning battery life. Here are my thoughts on the Huawei Fit 4 Pro smartwatch thus far.
Packaging
The unboxing experience was easy and clutter-free; inside the box, you have the watch itself, a charging puck (we’ll discuss further below), and some paperwork. We’ve got a fun blue/silver colourway; however you can opt for a matte black or a green/gold variant. Keep in mind the latter variant costs a bit more due to the woven sports strap rather than the fluoroelastomer one.
Design & Build Quality
The Fit 4 Pro is extremely well built and feels very premium, reminiscent of the Apple Watch Ultra; it’s encased in a 550 MPa aluminium body with a titanium bezel that weighs in at just 30.4 grams and 9.4mm thick. That’s less than half the weight of Apple’s own premium offering, making for a ‘set-and-forget’ experience that is admittedly rather refreshing. Like the Apple watches, a rotating crown makes an appearance that admittedly feels a little loose, but is nevertheless welcome and makes navigating through the menus a breeze. A programmable action button sits just below the crown that acts as a shortcut key for any of the modes (or apps) you use the most; I had it set to the heart-rate summary page. On the other side of the watch sits the speaker, which gets decently loud but won’t be audible in a crowded environment.
The Fit 4 Pro features a 1.82-inch AMOLED screen covered in (artificial) sapphire crystal glass and capable of boosting to 3000 nits of peak brightness. It also runs at a smooth 60Hz refresh rate — noticeably smoother than my daily driver Mi Band. Colours are vibrant, text and graphics are crisp, and the display holds up incredibly outdoors. The sapphire glass doesn’t just sound fancy either; after plenty of daily wear and being thrown around over the past month (albeit no drops), the screen is still flawless with zero scratches.
The IP6X and 40-meter dive rating on this watch mean you won’t have to worry about dirt, sand, or taking it with you in the pool. A large focus of the Fit 4 Pro is on its diving capabilities, reflected through the inclusion of a depth sensor and extensive software support for the sport, including apnea testing and tailored breathing guidance. Note that the screen won’t respond to touch controls properly when wet, however.
Both the black and blue colour variants of the Fit 4 Pro include a fluoroelastomer strap, which can be released via a push-release mechanism on the back of the watch. It feels high quality and is comfortable too, even throughout workouts and long periods of usage.
Notably, the vibration motors are surprisingly strong and well-tuned. Whether it’s a morning alarm or a silent notification during a workout, the haptics are sharp and impossible to miss without being jarring. It’s one of those things you don’t usually think about until it’s done right, and here, it absolutely is.
Performance & Software
I’ve been using the Fit 4 Pro practically non-stop over the past near-month throughout my university commutes, bi-weekly workout sessions, and during sleep. To sum up the entire experience in one word? Seamless.
First and foremost, the Fit 4 Pro is a smartwatch, not just a fitness tracker; I had no issues using it for screening phone notifications, controlling media playback, and checking my calendar for upcoming events. Even if you don’t engage with all the fitness features of the watch, it still excels as a companion for your smart devices.
The Fit 4 Pro is running HarmonyOS, as opposed to Wear OS found on the Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel smartwatches. Though this does limit third-party app support, it’s been a very intuitive and bug-free experience thus far. When it comes to digital watch faces, you’ve got a slew of designs available for download in the Huawei Health app. I will say, though, that the better-looking ones are paid options, which is a shame; however there’s enough variety in the free section to find something that works. Alternatively, you can design your own.
One noteworthy feature is the ability to download music or podcasts (.mp3 files) to your watch for offline listening; you can then connect your Bluetooth earbuds or headphones to the watch directly, bypassing your phone entirely. I didn’t find myself using this feature regularly, as my entire music catalogue resides in Spotify.
And unfortunately, it’s the absence of one specific feature that is a shame to see — as great a smartwatch as it is. No functional NFC (in Australia, at least). Whilst the Fit 4 Pro does technically support NFC payments, it doesn’t seem to support Apple Pay or Google Wallet, the standards in much of the Western market. This means no tap-and-go payments, which may seem a small omission to some, but this is a dealbreaker for me. I’m not always carrying my wallet around, and the idea of being able to pay with just a tap of the wrist is exactly the kind of convenience that would make this smartwatch almost complete. Without it, the Fit 4 Pro falls just shy of being my ideal daily driver. We imagine it’s probably down to the sanctions against Huawei in the US, which is unfortunate, but hopefully this changes soon.
App Experience
Admittedly, the initial setup experience was rather finicky and mightn’t come easy to those less tech-literate. To manage the watch and access the full suite of features, you’ll need two apps; firstly, the Huawei Health app available on the App Store or, for our fellow Android users, sideloaded from Huawei’s website. Once set up, the app offers a clean and intuitive interface, and pairing the watch is pretty quick. We also found the data syncing between the watch and app to be instant, so you’ll be able to quickly pull steps, heart rate, and sleep stats at any time. The other app is Huawei AppGallery, which you’ll use to update the Huawei Health app and to ‘download’ the additional features on the watch; for example, the Spotify Controller app which allows direct Spotify media controls on the Fit 4 Pro.
Unfortunately, the whole experience is rather confusing; you’ll use Huawei Health to download the apps onto the watch, and then Huawei AppGallery to download the companion apps onto your phone. Notably, many of the apps, such as Spotify Controller, are paid; not all are though, such as the popular notes app TickTick. As handy as it would have been to merge the Health and AppGallery together, this wouldn’t make much sense as AppGallery is an entire app store in itself. Many of the setup woes can be mitigated if Huawei offers both apps on the Google Play Store and App Store.
Battery Life
The Fit 4 Pro promises up to 10 days of battery life; to put this into perspective, the latest Apple Watch Series 10 lasts a measly 18 hours. The multi-week battery life is certainly a (welcome) far cry from the daily top-ups you’d have to do with any of the Apple or Galaxy watches on the market. During our testing, with all the features enabled but SpO2 tracking and the always-on display mode, the Fit 4 Pro lasted us a whopping 11 days; mind you, this was with more conservative use. With more active use (including increased fitness tracking and watch screen-on time), the Fit 4 Pro netted around 10 days or so, a truly superb result nonetheless.
To make sure I’ve gotten the point across, you’d be charging the Fit 4 Pro 10x less often than if you were to purchase a Galaxy or Apple watch. And no, the Fit 4 Pro isn’t any less capable than its mainstream competitors; this combination of capability and battery life has seriously positioned the Fit 4 Pro as one of the best smart watches out there.
The 2nd Gen Huawei Watch Wireless Supercharger (the charging puck included in the box) is magnetised and doesn’t use any pogo pins of any kind, meaning you can just drop the watch onto the charger without finagling around. It’s also extremely well built, having a metal base that has some heft to it, so it won’t be sliding around everywhere on your bedside drawer. My only complaint would be that the puck’s cable is non-detachable, so if it ever starts to fray or is too short for your needs, you’ll need to purchase a whole new puck.
Other Features
This article would become too long if we discussed all the features of the Fit 4 Pro, so I’ll go over the most noteworthy and the ones that saw the most use.
Fitness tracking performance on the Fit 4 Pro is excellent. Of course, from the 100+ different sport modes available, I only really used a few — namely the Strength and Outdoor Walk modes. After a workout, you’ll receive a quick summary of your vitals during the session on the watch itself; most importantly, the data will sync with Huawei Health and provide users a full overview in the app. The Fit 4 Pro will track the usuals: BPM, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), skin temperature, and step count, though notably it’ll be tracking ECG signals too, allowing for a more in-depth look at your heart activity.
The Fit 4 Pro hosts a range of in-built fitness courses and plans, such as stretching routines and suggested running courses. It’s incredibly well executed, providing nifty animations and instructions that make it an actually viable alternative to just searching up routines on YouTube. The Fit 4 Pro is especially useful for avid golf players out there, as you’ll have access to over 15,000 global golf course 3D models on the watch itself, providing advanced metrics and advice to better your swing. Extensive diving support is present too, as discussed earlier.
Sleep monitoring is another feature I admittedly didn’t think I’d care much about — until I started using it. Using a combination of sensor data, including heart rate, heart rate variability, and body movement data, the Fit 4 Pro will do the rest, identifying deep from light sleep, REM sleep, and times woken up. It seems to be quite accurate too, where sleep interruptions (such as the dog deciding that barking at 4AM is a good idea) and subsequent sleep were tracked without issue. Huawei Health does a good job providing the data in a way that is easily interpretable and actionable for users.
The Fit 4 Pro also comes with built-in GPS, meaning you can head out for a run or bike ride without needing to bring your phone along. Huawei claims its ‘Sunflower Positioning System’ technology offers 30 percent more accurate GPS coordination, and in our testing, it never got confused or lost itself in the urban jungles of Sydney. The Fit 4 Pro is capable of displaying your real-time position on the watch itself, however this function is only limited to tracking outdoor walks and runs, not for navigation.
I did have some fun using the watch to answer phone calls. The built-in speaker gets plenty loud for casual use and delivers voices with good clarity, even in slightly noisy settings. The microphone also holds its own, especially for a smartwatch — people couldn’t tell I was speaking through a watch, even though I’m pretty sure I looked as ridiculous as it sounds. It’s not something I’d use for long conversations or a business meeting, but for quick calls when my phone isn’t in my immediate vicinity, it works quite well.
Conclusion
The Fit 4 Pro enters a well-established smartwatch market predominantly occupied by Apple and Samsung; yet, Huawei’s newest offering distinguishes itself with a truly unmatched combination of functionality, battery life, and value. The Fit 4 Pro’s superb build quality, (actually useful) feature set and competitive price tag mean it should be atop the list for anyone in the market for a new smartwatch, regardless of smartphone OS. It’s a largely polished experience, both hardware and software wise, and I very much enjoyed my time with it. Coming in at RRP of $469, or even cheaper with the initial promotional offering, the 4 Fit Pro is a true no-brainer to recommend.
The only points of contention lie in the lack of functional NFC (won’t be a concern for some) and the rather convoluted Huawei Health app and AppGallery experience; also, if you’re already using other fitness apps such as Google Health or Apple Health, you will have to ‘start clean’ with Huawei Health.
We would like to thank Huawei for loaning this review unit.
The Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro is available to purchase at RRP $469 from Amazon and JB Hi-Fi online or in store. A bonus $100 AUD JB Hi-Fi gift card or Amazon credit will be issued upon purchase of the Fit 4 Pro until 02/07/2025 23:59 AEST. For more information about the watch, see here.
