Today we are checking out another super affordable fitness tracker and this is basically the main competitor for the Xiaomi Mi Band 4.
This is called the Honor Band 5 and you can find these for as low as $24. That makes it a couple of dollars cheaper than Xiaomi Mi Band 4. In some ways, this is actually better than Xiaomi Mi Band 4 but let’s see the whole picture.
I have the Chinese version of this band and when you first get the box everything on the box is in Chinese. When you first power the band on and everything on the band is in Chinese. But as soon as you paired this to your phone it switches to English by itself so you don’t actually have to do anything. Even if you buy the Chinese version it will work anywhere you’re located.
The band itself is mostly made out of plastic well except for the screen because the screen is covered by glass. I feel that this looks a bit classier than Xiaomi Mi Band 4. That’s just my personal preference and you may actually prefer Xiaomi Mi Band 4. Personally, I prefer the look of this one over Xiaomi Mi Band 4.
The strap is made up of some type of rubberized plastic and it is extremely comfortable to wear for an extended period of time. I love the fact that you’re not going to be able to open it accidentally like you would on Xiaomi Mi Band 4. Honor Band 5 feels more like a watch than a fitness tracker and you can replace the straps, of course, you can get different colors for them.
The 0.95 inches screen is an AMOLED panel and in my opinion, the colors on the screen look more vivid than the colors that you’d get on Xiaomi Mi Band 4. Honor Band 5 screen actually gets a bit brighter than Mi Band 4 so it is easier to see Honor Band 5 in direct sunlight.
We also have that feature where the screen comes on every time you turn the arm towards you. It works every single time but I feel that feature is a bit slower on the Honor Band 5 than it is on Xiaomi Mi Band 4 so the Mi Band 4 does turn on a bit faster. I guess that matters in some situations.
There is “do not disturb” mode available. If you turn that on, the screen is now going to come on time we turn the arm towards you. The band is not going to receive any notifications from your phone and that’s useful mostly when you’re sleeping. Personally, I have it set between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. when the screen doesn’t come on and I don’t get any notifications on the band.
Of course like most fitness trackers and Honor Band 5 will track your sleep. In the morning you can see how many hours of deep sleep you had and how many hours of light sleep you had. Based on that you can kind of know how long the next day will be and how tired you’ll be.
Honor Band 5 can also monitor your heart rate 24/7 but of course, you can turn that off.
It can also measure the oxygen saturation in your blood, something that Xiaomi Mi Band 4 can not do. Whenever you are using the oxygen saturation measurement you have to hold your hands super steady. If you move a bit or something like that you’re not going to get the result and then you have to do it again. You always have to be super steady whenever you are measuring that.
Like most fitness trackers it will keep track of how many steps you do throughout the day, how many calories and the distance.
We also have a bunch of activities that the band can track: walking, running, outdoor and indoor cycling, swimming, etc. Honor Band 5 will track all that information then it will sync all that information on your phone. If you take the phone with you whenever you’re doing one of those sporting activities, for example, walking the band will save the phone’s GPS location in the app. So then you can see on the map exactly where you’ve been. If you don’t take the phone with you, there is no GPS unit inside the band so it will not track on your location. It’s better if you take the phone with you every time even if the phone is just sitting in your pocket.
One of the last things we are going to talk about is the battery life. Honor Band 5 charger attaches to the back of the band. It takes about an hour and 20 minutes to charge it from zero to 100.
- With Honor Band 5 you get between 10 to 14 days on one charge.
- With Xiaomi Mi Band 4 you get between 14 and 18 days.
Of course, it really depends on how you use bands, how many notifications you get, if you use the screen of the maximum brightness and so on. But I feel that Xiaomi Mi Band 4 gets better battery life by a couple of days. So that may be important for some people because you just don’t want to charge your fitness band every two weeks. You maybe want to go almost three weeks without charging it. So for battery life on Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is a bit better.
As for the app you can use a couple of apps, but me personally, I use the Huawei Health app because that was already pre-installed on my phone.
When you first pair the band through the app you’re going to notice that Honor Band 5 doesn’t actually exist in the app when you pair a new device. Just select Honor Band 4 — it will pair it and then it will show up as the Honor Band 5.
The app will also keep track of all your steps, your heart rate throughout the day and your sleep, etc. It will also push notifications on to the band. However, you cannot reply to any notifications from the band so the exact same thing as Xiaomi Mi Band 4. You can see the notifications but you cannot reply to them.
Conclusion
Is the honor pant 5 better than Xiaomi Mi Band 4? Yes and no. First of all, it is cheaper, it has a better screen and it can also measure the oxygen in your blood, something that Xiaomi Mi Band 4 cannot do. But Xiaomi Mi Band 4 has a better battery life, so it really depends what’s the most important thing for you.
Me personally I think I’m going to keep Honor Band 5 from now on. Because I just like how the screen looks better than Xiaomi Mi Band 4.
Check out the Honor Band 5 at Aliexpress: http://ali.ski/B8eaW or Gearbest: http://bit.ly/2z81Uqe or Amazon: https://geni.us/yGMc9
Check out the Mi Band 4 at Aliexpress: http://ali.ski/rYzqh or Banggood: http://bit.ly/30z7wWp or Amazon: https://geni.us/26tbg
Watch full review in video format:
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