Summary
- The Honor Watch 5 Ultra is a premium smartwatch that doesn’t cost a fortune.
- The Watch 5 Ultra offers a stellar physical design, incredible battery life, and, interestingly, it doesn’t run Wear OS.
- Despite its compelling attributes, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra isn’t available in the US at this time.
Despite my love of all things tech, I’ve been slow to jump on the
wearable gadget
bandwagon. I’ve yet to feel the need to purchase
virtual reality
(VR) or
augmented reality
(AR) glasses or headsets, and you generally won’t find a smartwatch strapped around my wrist on a daily basis, either.
That being said, I can appreciate a
good smartwatch
when I see one.
Honor’s recently-released
€280 (roughly $313) Watch 5 Ultra is one such wearable, and, despite its lack of availability in the US, I’ve had the chance to test it out over the past several weeks. I’ve worked out with it, I’ve slept with it, and, yes, I’ve even checked the time with it. Here are four attributes of the Watch 5 Ultra that make it a unique offering in today’s saturated smartwatch market.
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1
It’s a gorgeously crafted timepiece
I can’t get enough of the Watch 5 Ultra’s aesthetics
Simply put, Honor has built a stunning product in the Watch 5 Ultra. Its design language is understated yet handsome, and its round display, thin symmetrical bezel, and subtle octagonal shape all work to provide a visually harmonious aesthetic. The device is well-built, too: aside from being
IP68 water and dust resistant
, its main chassis is crafted out of polished grade 5 titanium. My black unit arrived with a corresponding polymer fiber (fluoroelastomer) watch band that feels like soft rubber to the touch. A brown variant of the watch is also available, which ships with a leather strap by default.
…I’d describe the Watch 5 Ultra’s design as being firmly on the masculine side.
The Watch 5 Ultra uses standard 22mm lugs, which means you can replace the out-of-box strap with any other compatible option you see fit. Its quick release mechanism is easy to work with, and there are a ton of third-party options available to choose from across most e-commerce storefronts. Put together as a complete 1.83 oz (51.8g) package, I’d describe the Watch 5 Ultra’s design as being firmly on the masculine side — more so than, say, an
Apple Watch
or a
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2
Its display is near impossible to scratch
Sapphire crystal to the rescue
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra is available in one size configuration: a 46mm casing with a 1.5-inch display. This LTPO AMOLED panel comes in at a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels (for a reasonably sharp 310 pixels per inch (ppi)), and it offers an always-on display mode out of the box. More than anything else, what I love about the Watch 5 Ultra’s display is that it’s protected by sapphire crystal.
Sapphire crystal is more brittle than tempered glass, which could lead to increased risk of shattering on impact.
Sapphire crystal measures in at a hardness level of 9 on the Mohs scale, which puts it well above the level 5 or level 6 that’s typical of
tempered glass solutions
. The result is a smartwatch display that won’t be easily scratched up, unless it comes into contact with such gemstones as rubies, sapphires, or diamonds. Sapphire crystal is more brittle than tempered glass, which could lead to increased risk of shattering on impact, but the Watch 5 Ultra is far too beautiful for me to stomach dropping it onto concrete.
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3
It doesn’t run Google’s Wear OS
The product ships with Honor’s own in-house software platform
When I first learned of the Honor Watch 5 Ultra, I assumed that it would be powered by Google’s Android-based
Wear OS platform
. Not so: the smartwatch instead runs Honor’s proprietary MagicOS, which is currently on version 7.2. All the basics are here, including a home screen of circular app icons, customizable watch faces, health monitoring, a quick settings panel, and access to notifications. It’s easy enough to flick through widgets and content using the touch screen, and I enjoy using the fluid digital crown with its subtle haptic feedback to zip around the interface.
The system comes with 8GB of onboard storage for downloading additional watch faces and the like, but it lacks access to the large catalog of third-party applications found on
Wear OS smartwatches
. This is a major sore point in my eyes, as it limits the flexibility and utility of the device by a considerable degree. As an example, while the device comes with built-in near-field communication (NFC) technology, there’s no way to set it up with
Google Wallet
for contactless payments.
The Honor health app is also adept at surfacing sleep tracking and health-related data.
The Watch 5 Ultra can interface with both Android phones and iPhones via Bluetooth, requiring the download of the Honor Health app to do so. The app itself is pretty basic, but it’s required for notification syncing, on-watch phone call answering, and other essential functions. The Honor health app is also adept at surfacing sleep tracking and health-related data pulled from the watch itself, including sleep phase timeframes, heart rate updates, and ongoing step counts.
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4
It’s a battery endurance champion
The 480mAh power pack can power the watch for up to 15 days
Honor says that the Watch 5 Ultra can survive just over two weeks on a single charge, which is a lofty claim to make. Of course, to achieve this endurance, you’ll need to turn off the
always-on display
, switch the heart rate monitor from continuous over to smart, and lower the screen brightness considerably. Personally, I always leave the watch firing on all cylinders, and I’ve experienced around a week of battery life per charge. Compared to many other smartwatches on the market, the Honor’s latest model is an endurance champ.
I really wish the smartwatch offered full Qi2 compatibility.
The Watch 5 Ultra’s battery itself measures in at 480mAh, and it recharges via an inductive charging puck that adheres magnetically in the same vein as
Qi2
or MagSafe. In fact, you can plop the phone onto any old Qi charging pad, and it’ll top up, though you’ll lose out on the magnetic latching system and under-an-hour top-up speeds if you forgo Honor’s included charger. I really wish the smartwatch offered full Qi2 compatibility, which would save me the hassle of dealing with the USB-A port found on Honor’s charging cable.
This device was provided to Pocket-lint by Honor.
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