Since the days of COVID-19 lockdowns (seems like an eternity ago right?), health and fitness has been high in terms of priority areas for people to pay attention to. This has made smartwatches as well as fitness trackers a lot more common with mainstream users, and the value-laden Watch Fit SE from HUAWEI is no exception.
Its polymer frame measures in at 46 × 30 × 10.7 mm while weighing a barely noticeable 21 g (sans the straps of course). Speaking of which, you can swap out the standard issue silicone straps for new ones using a small screwdriver (goes for R190 on retailers like Takealot) if you feel like new colours etc. Our review unit came in Starry Black, but the device is also available in Nebula Pink or Forest Green.
The interface is easy and snappy to navigate via its 1.64″ AMOLED colour screen which packs nice colours and really good detail thanks to its 456 × 280 pixels resolution that gives it a psi count of 326. Where we would like to see improvement though regarding the display is the brightness levels since it works very well indoors but lacks brightness to be perfectly viewable outdoors in direct sunlight.
Battery life is great compared to conventional (non-Garmin) smartwatches since you get more than a working week, with HUAWEI claiming around 9 days of maximum usage based on a few parameters such as
Heart rate monitoring is always on, TruSleep monitoring is on every night, 30 minutes of workouts per week, as well as message notifications are constantly on and the screen turns on 200 times per day. Having been power users ourselves we tended to exercise a lot more than 30 minutes per week, walking or jogging around 8.25 km three times per week for instance, while also having automatic SpO₂ monitoring turned on. This meant that we got around 6 days of usage rather than nine which is still quite impressive.
You can quickly charge it via the included Magnetic charging thimble that takes less than 30 minutes.
Additional features include working with both Android as well as iOS devices, but for Android at least you must download the HUAWEI AppGallery first on your device and then install HUAWEI’s Health app from there as you cannot get the updated version of this app via Google Play. Swim fans will appreciate the fact that this activity is part of the over 100 tracked exercises and that the device complies with the 5ATM-rated water resistance rating allowing for a depth of 50 meters under ISO standard 22810:2010. This means that you may use it during shallow-water activities like swimming in a pool or ocean, but not for activities like scuba diving, waterskiing, or other activities involving high-velocity water or submersion far below a shallower depth.
It is also worth noting that NFC is not supported so no tap-to-pay functionality. However, that is understandable considering its recommended retail price of R2000. It is our fitness tracker of choice.
