Honor Watch 5 Ultra: A Beautiful Face Marred by Software Woes
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra presents itself as a compelling smartwatch, boasting a stunning design and premium materials. Its elegant titanium construction immediately catches the eye, blending a classic round display with modern, angular edges. The thoughtful combination of matte and glossy finishes elevates its aesthetic, giving it a sophisticated and luxurious feel. Paired with a comfortable 22mm watch band, available in either a sleek black fluorelastomer or a rich, dark brown leather, the Watch 5 Ultra seems poised to be a strong contender in the crowded smartwatch market.
Beneath the surface, the device houses a vibrant 1.5-inch AMOLED display nestled within a 46mm chassis. The screen offers crisp visuals and vibrant colors, making it easy to read notifications and track fitness metrics. Its 5ATM/IP68 water resistance rating provides peace of mind, allowing users to confidently wear it during workouts or even for a swim. The inclusion of two physical buttons – a customizable shortcut button and a rotating crown – adds a layer of tactile control, enhancing the user experience. The rotating crown, in particular, is a welcome addition, allowing for smooth navigation through menus and settings.
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra is also packed with a comprehensive suite of health sensors, tracking everything from heart rate and sleep patterns to blood oxygen levels and stress. These sensors provide valuable insights into your overall well-being, empowering you to make informed decisions about your health. Wireless charging further adds to the convenience, eliminating the need for cumbersome cables.
On paper, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra ticks all the right boxes. It boasts a premium design, a vibrant display, robust health tracking capabilities, and convenient wireless charging. However, despite its impressive hardware, the device is ultimately let down by its lackluster software experience.
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra runs on a custom operating system, which, while undeniably fast and responsive, feels severely limited in its capabilities. The app ecosystem is sparse, lacking many of the essential apps that users have come to expect from a modern smartwatch. Perhaps the most glaring omission is the absence of support for mobile payments. In a world where contactless payments are increasingly prevalent, the inability to use the Watch 5 Ultra for making purchases is a significant drawback.
The limited selection of built-in watch faces is another point of contention. The designs lean heavily towards analog styles, leaving users who prefer digital faces feeling underserved. Furthermore, the customization options are minimal, preventing users from truly personalizing their watch face to match their individual preferences.
Downloading additional watch faces is an exercise in frustration. The Honor Health app, which serves as the companion app for the smartwatch, features a "Watch face market," but the experience is plagued with issues. The reviewer reported being unable to download a single watch face through the app, rendering the entire feature virtually useless. While the Health app functions adequately for tracking health stats, its overall user interface feels cluttered and disorganized.
Beyond the limitations of the app ecosystem and watch face selection, the notification system on the Honor Watch 5 Ultra is a major source of frustration. While the watch displays previews of incoming notifications, it offers no further interaction options. This means that users are unable to reply to messages, archive emails, or perform any other actions directly from the watch.
The handling of threaded notifications is particularly problematic. When receiving a stream of messages from a group chat, the Watch 5 Ultra repeatedly displays the same initial notification, effectively rendering it useless for keeping up with the conversation. This inconsistent behavior further exacerbates the issue. In some instances, the watch vibrated incessantly with notifications without displaying any preview, only to start showing new messages after the previous ones were dismissed. This unpredictable and unreliable notification system makes it difficult to rely on the watch for staying connected.
The unfortunate reality is that the software issues detract significantly from the overall experience of using the Honor Watch 5 Ultra. The author questions the rationale behind using a custom OS, suggesting that it might be for the sake of optimizing battery life. While the battery life is indeed impressive – the reviewer reports using the watch for over a week without needing to recharge, with the battery still at 50% – the trade-off in functionality is simply not worth it.
The author argues that Honor’s excellent hardware deserves better software, and Wear OS feels like the most logical solution. By adopting Wear OS, Honor would gain access to a vast library of apps, a more refined notification system, and seamless integration with Google services. The headaches associated with watch face downloads would be eliminated through the integration of the Google Play Store. Furthermore, Wear OS allows for customization, giving Honor the freedom to tailor the software to its specific needs.
While battery life has historically been a concern with Wear OS devices, advancements in both the operating system itself and the underlying chipsets have significantly improved power efficiency. Many modern Wear OS smartwatches now offer 1-3 days of battery life, and some, like the OnePlus Watch 3, can even last much longer.
In conclusion, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra is a visually stunning smartwatch with a premium design and impressive hardware. However, its limited software, frustrating notification system, and lack of essential features ultimately hold it back from reaching its full potential. At a price of €279, the author believes that users deserve more. There are cheaper smartwatches on the market that offer comparable battery life and a superior software experience. Honor has the potential to create a truly exceptional smartwatch, and adopting Wear OS would be a significant step in the right direction. The company could leverage its hardware expertise and design prowess to create a Wear OS smartwatch that truly stands out from the competition.
