Honor Choice watch review: This affordable smartwatch is a bang for your buck; here's why

Months after re-entering the Indian market, Honor has expanded its focus beyond smartphones. Setting its sights on the burgeoning wearables sector, Honor has launched an affordable smartwatch for Rs 6,499, giving smartphone users another worthy option.

Unlike many new smartwatches with circular dials, Honor has chosen a rectangular dial for its design. It appears to draw inspiration from the Apple Watch, albeit with some distinctions. Firstly, the build quality doesn’t match that of the Apple Watch's premium feel. Additionally, there's only a crown-type button on the right side, which is one of the primary means to navigate.

Other is touch, which I will talk about later. This button can be pressed from within any app to return to the Home Screen. While it also allows access to apps, unlike the Apple Watch, rotating the crown doesn't provide any additional functionality.

Beneath the surface, there are sensors that make direct contact with the skin. The Honor Choice Watch comes accompanied by a silicone band, and the variant I reviewed featured a white one. Admittedly, the overall construction of the Honor Choice Watch doesn't match up to the premium build of the Apple Watch, which starts at Rs 29,990. Nonetheless, given its price tag of Rs 6,499, the Honor Choice smartwatch stands out with its impressive build quality and finish.

Setting up the watch required installing the HONOR Health app, which is accessible on both Android and iPhone devices. Following the instructions, the watch was ready for use in approximately 10 minutes.

The Honor Choice smartwatch features a 1.95-inch vibrant display with excellent touch responsiveness. This AMOLED screen boasts a peak brightness of 550 nits. Although the always-on display was initially disabled by default, I easily activated it through the watch's settings. However, this feature does lead to faster battery drain. Moreover, the watch doesn't support auto-brightness adjustment, yet users can choose from five brightness levels directly on the device. While level 3 proved adequate for outdoor use, indoors, particularly at night, it felt overly luminous.

Navigating the watch was intuitive—swiping from the top provides access to shortcuts for search, Do Not Disturb mode, screen stay-on for 5 minutes, Alarm, brightness adjustment, water drain, torch, mute, and settings. Swiping to the right reveals widgets such as weather, music control, workout, favorite contacts, phone, contact, compass, and a customization option. Conversely, swiping left grants access to activity records, heart rate, SpO2, stress, and sleep tracking. Finally, swiping up from the bottom unveils notifications, which can be viewed but not replied to.

Like most smartwatches, this one also serves as a fitness companion. Honor claims the watch can track 120 exercise modes. A notable feature is its ability to automatically track workouts such as walking, running, cycling, using an elliptical machine, and rowing machine. The step count, distance covered, and calories burned during indoor walks appear to be accurate—on par with calculations from other fitness bands and watches. For outdoor workouts, it includes built-in GPS that locks onto locations swiftly, taking only a few seconds. The GPS function generally performs well, although occasional signal loss may occur in certain areas. With a dedicated button on the watch, launching workouts is as simple as a double press, pausing requires a single press, and stopping entails a long press.

Other health features onboard include sleep tracking, which displays light, deep, and REM sleep cycles, and is notably accurate. The heart rate monitor proves precise, as does the SpO2 or blood oxygen monitoring. Additionally, the watch offers stress level monitoring, enhancing its comprehensive health tracking capabilities.

In addition to its health functionalities, the watch comes equipped with a microphone and speaker, allowing for Bluetooth calling. I found this feature particularly convenient for answering calls while tending to plants on my terrace, eliminating the need to retrieve my phone from my pocket. Moreover, the watch delivers real-time notifications from various apps, including WhatsApp. However, it lacks the capability to reply directly from the watch itself.

The 300mAh battery onboard is sufficient to last for five days on a single charge with continuous heart rate and SpO2 monitoring, sleep tracking, Bluetooth calling, notifications, and approximately 30 minutes of morning walks included. However, this duration was achieved with the always-on display feature enabled. With this feature turned off, the watch can last even longer.

Battery life may vary based on factors such as frequent use of the display at higher brightness levels, continuous use of the heart rate monitor during workouts, and having all notifications enabled. The watch comes with a proprietary charger and takes approximately 90 minutes for a full charge.

If you're looking for a budget-friendly smartwatch option, the Honor Choice is definitely worth considering. Priced at Rs 6,499, it offers a plethora of features, particularly in the fitness realm, but also in other aspects. Importantly, its long-lasting battery ensures that you won't have to worry about frequent charging, sparing you the hassle of adding yet another gadget to your daily charging routine.