Honor Band 4: review after a month of use. Comparison with Mi Band 3

For several weeks now, the new Honor Band 4 fitness bracelet is on my wrist. This is the third in a row.

"Smart" watches that I test in reallife, I feel and test for strength. First there was Lenovo Watch 9 (detailed review), then Xiaomi Mi Band 3 (review), now Honor Band 4. Many users have a question of choosing between the last two gadgets: which one is better to buy - Mi Band 3 or Honor Band 4. I decided to share your impressions that may be useful to you.

Feedback on Honor Band 4

I will begin as always in the external component, sinceIt is of prime importance to many. It is not for nothing that they say they meet on clothes ... I use the black version of the watch. The design is quite stylish, the screen is directly inscribed in the strap. But there are some nuances. For example, I like the strap less here than on the Mi Band 3. First, it is longer. And since my wrist is very narrow, there is a part of the strap that sticks out. Secondly, the holes in the strap for fastening do not look so aesthetically pleasing. Very striking, as too wide. Because of this, on the inside of the wrist, the accessory looks overly sporty. The clasp itself is a classic one here, to be honest, I liked the Mi Band more. But here is a textured cover strap that looks very cool.

Display

I really liked the screen from the first acquaintance. Bright, big. And most importantly - it is colored! The display here contains all relevant information: current time, battery charge, weather, Bluetooth connection status icon, date, day of the week, weather outside the window and even the number of steps completed. The information is placed on the display is very comfortable, there is no feeling of porridge. By the way, in the settings there are several options for dials.

At night, I asked the automatic inclusion of the modeDo Not Disturb, otherwise the display glows very strongly and interferes. I would also note a beautiful touch button on the screen in a silver bezel, which resembles a fingerprint scanner.

Notifications

Notifications about not only come to the braceletcalls, but also from other applications. In the settings of the application on the phone, you can adjust this moment, remove unnecessary ones, so that the bracelet will not disturb you once again. When the message arrives, the bracelet vibrates with a slight delay of 1-2 seconds. When you raise your wrist, the screen lights up and the text of the message appears in front of your eyes. In general, there is nothing fundamentally new here. But there are also some points worth mentioning.

In memory of the bracelet can hang much morenotifications. But when their number reaches 10, for example, the clock opens a menu with a 1-2 second delay. This is not critical, but noticeable to me. You just need to clean the notification folder and do not accumulate them.

Management and functions

I will talk a little about bracelet management. To activate the bracelet, you need to press the touch button. Or just lift the wrist (this option is adjustable in the settings). Access to the menu is a vertical swipe across the screen. By making the swipe up and down, you can navigate through the menu sections. By the way, their location can also be adjusted in the settings in the application on the mobile phone. Unnecessary in general can be removed. When you select the desired menu item, you need to click on the display to start it. If you want to return to the main screen, simply press the touch button on the display. By and large this is all control. Nothing complicated, but after Mi Band 3 I got used to it for 1-2 days.

Of the extra features, I like it here.Sleep monitoring option and activity analysis. For some reason I didn’t use these settings on the Mi Band, but here I constantly watch my activity. Pulse measurement here is more accurate. There are various fitness modes, but I have not had time to test them yet. I do not think that it will play a big role in the selection.

Battery

For a month of use I already charged a bracelettwice. It does not bother me, given that it constantly vibrates from incoming notifications. On average, with constant activity, it lasts for a week, with moderate activity - for a couple of weeks. The charger is not very pretty, for some reason the cable is white, and everything else is black. It is not clear what the manufacturer thought when packing a white wire in a box that does not fit into the general style at all. But this is not the main thing ... Yes, and the charging station itself is somehow uncomfortable, it is constantly falling.

Problems and Errors

The first problem I encountered duringusing Band 4 - the inability to update the software. As soon as I synchronized the bracelet with the phone, I was immediately offered to do it. But there was always a failure to update, or it was allegedly installed, but in fact there was a previous version of the software. Here I sin not on a bracelet, but on my phone OnePlus 5T, bought in China. Because after pairing the bracelet with the iPhone, I was immediately able to install new software without problems.

The second problem is frequent breaks in connections.via Bluetooth with the phone. Again, maybe my phone is to blame, but not sure for sure. It happens that through the application I create the pairing with the bracelet myself, and it does not connect for 10-15 minutes, even rebooting of both does not help. But if you leave the clock alone and the phone, after 10 minutes they will connect themselves. Otherwise, no complaints.

The NFC module in Russia does not work, so far it’s impossible to pay with it in our country, just like with the help of Mi Band 3.

Comparison with Xiaomi Mi Band 3

Feels like a strong difference between the twoI did not notice the bracelets. The weight of the watch is about the same. Under the strap of the Honor Band 4, the hand sweats for some reason more often, sometimes I even take it off. It upsets that the new watch can not change the straps, as in the Mi Band 3. Outwardly, they look different. Mi Band 3 is more streamlined, some space, and Honor Band 4 - more angular and strict.

The main difference I see in the display. On Honor Band 4, it is noticeably larger and brighter. If you put two bracelets side by side, the differences in screen brightness are very noticeable. Viewing notifications and messages on Honor Band 4 is much more convenient using vertical scrolling than on Xiaomi Mi Band 3 horizontal swipes.

The battery life of the clock is also different. Xiaomi bracelet could last a month without recharging. In Honor Band 4, I’m unlikely to achieve such a life span: the color display, which consumes more energy, is to blame for everything. But for me it is not critical to put the bracelet on charge for an hour and a half.

Also note that the new Honor Band 4 reacts better to raising the wrist. At Xiaomi, sometimes you had to actively pull your hand to activate the screen.

Of the other notable differences, the brighter.pronounced vibration on Honor Band 4, because of this, I wake up abruptly and quickly from the alarm clock, I want to turn it off right away so as not to wake the others. The charging station at the Mi Band 3 is much more convenient than the Honor. But the latter menu is more convenient and the ability to store incoming messages is not so limited.

On the bracelet from Xiaomi, I quickly scratched the screen - a few scuffs. Let's see what happens with Honor.

If I had a choice, what to buy -Honor Band 4 or Xiaomi Mi Band 3, I would focus on the exterior design, what a bracelet looks like on a hand. By the way, about the price ... I bought one and the other in China at discounts that are not already there now. But according to the official price tag of Honor Band 4 now costs 4490 on the manufacturer’s website, and Xiaomi Mi Band 3 costs 2,990 rubles. The difference is quite tangible - in 1500 rubles. Below, I also compiled a table of the pros and cons of each bracelet.

Honor Band 4
Xiaomi Mi Band 3

pros
Large color display
You can change the straps

More notifications are stored in memory.
Longer hold charge

Accurate pulse measurement
Low price

Convenient view messages
Convenient charging

Lungs
Convenient buckle strap

Minuses
Quickly discharged
Few notifications in memory

NFC does not work
NFC does not work