Honor Choice Watch Review: Strikes good balance between appearance and performance

Honor Choice Watch Review: Honor made a comeback in India with the launch Honor 90 5G smartphone last year. Cut to 2024, HTech is focusing on building an ecosystem as the company has now launched earbuds and a smartwatch. I got a chance to spend a couple of days with HTech's first smartwatch - Honor Choice Watch - and here are my impressions.

Honor Choice Watch Review: Design

In terms of design, Honor has managed to deliver a nice design for this smartwatch. Honor Choice has a sleek design and metallic textured frame which gives it a premium look. The sleek stainless-steel (albeit non-functional) crown adds to its beauty. The smartwatch is lightweight and weighs around 45 grams. While the silicon straps are soft, I feel that Honor could have provided better straps. The good thing is that the smartwatch has the option to change them and you can customize it as per your style.

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There are speakers on the left side of the rectangular smartwatch and it comes with a 5ATM water resistance level - making it suitable for water activities like swimming and surfing.

Honor Choice Watch Review: Display

The Honor Choice Watch has a 1.95-inch AMOLED display with a 60Hz refresh rate. The watch is responsive and the transition from one feature to another or scrolling through notifications is smooth. It comes with 550nits peak brightness and you can easily use the watch outdoors. However, the bezels are slightly thick. The smartwatch does come with Always on Display (AoD) but when turned on, the raise-to-wake screen feature stops working. This is a little weird as you will have to press the crown every time you want to see basic details like step counts and battery percentage.

There are some cool watch faces with a clean built-in always-on display style. I have been using the Urban Style watch face for quite some time and loving it.

Honor Choice Watch Review: Features and Software

The Honor Choice Watch has a familiar user interface UI that offers a lot of options to users. It has sufficient in-built watch faces and those who want more can download them from the watch faces market on the cloud using the company's app. The watch also has an SOS feature which works well. You can call the emergency number by simply pressing the crown thrice.

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The smartwatch has a built-in multi-system GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) that ensures accurate recording without relying on phone-based GPS.

Bluetooth calling feature also works well and audio quality is decent. Dual-mode Bluetooth 5.3 offers stable connectivity. This watch also lets user monitor their heart rate, SpO2 and stress levels throughout the day. Drinking and sedentary alert are common but useful features. Link the watch with the Honor Health app to easily track all these activities.

Honor Choice Watch Review: Battery

The Honor Choice Watch is equipped with a 300mAh battery. While the company claims 12 days of battery backup, I used the device with AoD and all notifications on and got around seven days of battery backup, which is good.

Honor Choice Watch Review: Verdict

While Honor Choice Watch offers a good display, sleek design with accurate sensor readings and reliable Bluetooth calling, I think more competitive pricing would have placed Honor in a better position in a highly saturated smartwatch market like India. However, impressive battery life and accurate readings make a good case for investing in this smartwatch. It is a must-have thing for those who want to be part of the Honor ecosystem.