Huawei Watch Fit ‘New’

Posted on by EskeRahn

Huawei Watch Fit, is a name easily causing confusion as it is used for numerous different devices: The original (in two variants), and with postfixes “new”, “2” (in three variants) and “mini”. So they do not make it easy…

The original and the “new” are so close, that I have not been able to distinguish what the actual differences are!! The “new” only exists in one variant, the original also had an “Elegant edition”
The “new” got an extra sport mode, that was later added to the original by an update AFAIK.

The “2” is a wider and newer version, with less curved display.
The “mini” is a Huawei Band 7 in a slightly different case with a different band attachment, and with some camera remote, as far as I have been able to find out(!)

They are all present on their homepage. Huawei Watch Fit, Huawei Watch Fit new, Huawei Watch Fit 2 and finally the Huawei Watch Fit mini.

Here is the release history (approximately)

  • 2020-08-31, Original, 1.64″
  • 2021-03-16, Elegant edition, 1.64″
  • 2021-09-27, new, 1.64″
  • 2021-09-27, mini, 1.47″
  • 2022-07-04, 2, 1.74″

The original is functionally close to their band 6, with extra functions, some available on Band 7.

  • Ambient light sensor
  • All day SpO2 (Like the band 7)
  • Optional Always-On-Display (Like the band 7)
  • Microphone and GPS
  • Larger (by a third).

 

Naming

Rather than repeating these horribly long names I will call the Huawei Watch Fit New HWFN below, and the original HWFO. And The Huawei Band 6/7 for HB6/HB7

 

Sizes

Here are the relevant display sizes, transformed to measurements

Diag. Pixels Asp.rat. Dimension Area PPI
1.47″ 194 × 368 1:1.90 17.23 mm × 33.03 mm 575 mm² 283
1.64″ 280 × 456 1:1.63 21.80 mm × 35.50 mm 774 mm² 326
1.74″ 336 × 480 1:1.43 25.34 mm × 36.21 mm 918 mm² 336

Note that the 46×33.5 mm base case of the HWF2 has the same 46mm height as the HWFO/HWFN (46×30 mm) despite the higher display.

The HB7 is 44.35mm long, so similar bezels lengthwise as the HWFN

I would personally have preferred something like 2:3, with more rounded corners, so the band of the HB7 could be reused. That is about a HWFO shrunken by 10% lengthwise. Here a quick mock-up compared to the Band7 and the HWFN:

Extending the table with something like this

1.52″ 280 × 410 1:1.46 21.80 mm × 31.95 mm 697 mm² 326

 

App for controlling, security.

Note that the Huawei Healt App is no longer officially supported in the Android Market!! (Still supported on aPple’s Ios though).
The app was here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.huawei.health, until recently (less than a month), but has been taken down, v10.1.1.312 was the last available, and that was a really old version (2020-07-15), not even fully supporting the HWFO, HWFN, nor their Band 6 – (You need a newer version to activate the all day SpO2 – all else seems to work).
The app was still certified 2022-10-29 according the web archive.
You can technically side-load a much newer version of the app directly from Huawei, but since many western governments shun Huawei, and ban them from their networks, it could not be considered wise to fetch it outside the officially Android Market security-wise. Obviously if you already took the risk and are using a Huawei phone, you are not less secure using their uncertified version of the app.

(Previously pointed out issues with app here)

 

Alternatives

With the same screen size I would suggest looking at the Oppo Watch Free (OWF), that got an (even) better transition between band and display, making it even more wearable. (I compared the OWF to a Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Pro here a few days ago)

Here a collage from some Milanese-band vendors OWF to the left, HWFN to the right (My bands for both are still in the mail from China…)

Since the band attachments go into the house on the HWFN, and are not hooked on some protrusion, you get better attachment on the HWFN. Though the bands for the OWF are slightly more flush with the display! But the difference in that aspect is marginal, none of them have the pill-box-on-a-string problems..

 

Related posts:

Band 6 versus Band 7 here.

Huawei band 6 versus Honor band 6 here.

Honor Watch ES versus Honor Band 5 and 6 here, note that the Honor Watch ES here is practically identical to the HWFO.

 

Update, Milanese bands

I got the Milanese band for it about four weeks later, and as expected, much more pleasant to wear than the rubber band.

Since the hooks of the bands go into the housing it has a tighter fit to the case than the HB6 though not as good as the HB7. Here a pair of images, with the HP6 and the HWFN

So despite being wider the HWFN gives a better fit on the arm, as it is shorter and the ‘arms’ connecting to the band much less. The fit is really close the HB7.
The Milanese bands for the HB7 are typically 16mm (14mm for the HB6), and for the HWFN 18mm. IMHO both the HB7 and HWFN band sizes are in harmony with the case, where it is slightly too narrow for the HB6, making the case seem clumsy, and the attachment parts even worse than they needed to be.

 

Conclusion

So despite the dubious support for Android, my personal preferences and usage pattern tilted in favour of the HWFN. And thus going almost full circle as I earlier have had the Honor Watch ES (almost identical to a HWFO), that I back then found too huge…. 😀

 

ADD: I ditched it, and am currently using the ultra thin “T8”, see this post.