Quick review
The good
The not-so-good
A bit of an identity crisis with some clever features, the Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro could be the closest Android users get to an Apple Watch.
Your phone may be your regular go-to device in your life, but it doesn’t have to be the only one. Wearables play a part, too, monitoring your health, hopefully kicking you into gear, and telling you not just the time, but who called and messaged.
They can take you away from needing to check your phone, and simply glance at the gadget on your wrist.
But they’re not created equal, even if some look the same.
You only need to glance at our regular recommendations to see not every wearable or smartwatch makes it to the list of gadgets you should consider. You can’t just copy the best and think it’ll work out for you.
Or can you? Huawei’s latest attempt is an interesting case that definitely tries, though we have mixed feelings on how far this gadget really goes.
Design and features
Glance at the Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro, and you’ll think you’ve seen a ghost. It looks familiar, and yet it’s also something different.
If you’ve ever seen an Apple Watch Ultra, the Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro is a dead ringer for that piece of hardware by Apple, adopting a similar softened rectangular screen, similar flat metal band, and two main controllers on the side which look an awful lot like what the Watch Ultra delivers. That includes two buttons, one of which is hidden behind a crown controller.
It’s all a bit familiar without actually being a piece of Apple hardware.
Despite this, the Watch Fit 4 Pro is actually a good looking watch. It’s a copy, but it’s a good looking copy, and IP rated for water resistance, too.
It’s relatively slim at 9.3mm, and it’s nice and light on the wrist at 30 grams when you take out the strap. Add a few more given you’re wearing it, and you’ll hardly notice it’s there.
That’s both thinner and lighter than the watch it borrows from: the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is 14.4mm thick and weighs twice as much at nearly 62 grams.
Inside, we have to assume is a Huawei-made chip, but the company hasn’t been specific about that. What we do know is there’s support for a speaker and microphone, WiFi, Bluetooth, and NFC even though there is no support for mobile payments in Australia.
The sensors are a little on the light side of wearables, covering optical heart rate and accelerometer, but seemingly missing out on temperature sensors. It does come with a depth sensor, however, so may have use for swimmers and divers. It also supports SpO2 blood oxygen monitoring, something it likely covers through the optical heart rate technology, as Huawei hasn’t noted a different sensor.
Similar but not the same, that seems to be the vibe Huawei is going for in its Watch Fit 4 Pro, at least in its specs and design.
In-use
When you get to using the watch itself, Huawei’s approach may as well be the same as an Apple Watch, except where the app and installation are concerned.
You can even easily replace the bands, with buttons found at the top and bottom of the watch to let you detach the bands rather easily. Hold them in and the bands detach, allowing you to plug new ones in.
Unfortunately, these bands aren’t the same as what Apple makes, but the fact that the bands is easier to plug in than a standard pin-pull watch band is a positive. Kind of. There clearly needs to be more support from third-party brands.
However, the setup is where things get complex.
Setting up the watch on Android
On iPhone, it’s a pretty easy install and pairing. Fine, cool. On Android, however, things get complex.
When it comes to Android, you need to find the app, which can’t be found on the Google Play Store. Instead, you need to make your way to Huawei and choose whether you want to install Huawei’s App Store equivalent in AppGallery, or just install the Health app by itself. At which point, your phone will probably say no, and you’ll need to override it and just force it to install.
None of this is against your phone’s terms and conditions, but the whole thing feels a little lurid, like you’re breaking a rule and doing something you’re not supposed to.
Even after this, you have to sign up to Huawei’s service with your phone number or email address, all just to install the wearable. That’s probably part and parcel of any wearable right now, but it’s yet more steps in a device that just feels like running a marathon to install.
Once you’ve gotten past these hurdles, you’ll still need to convince Android to let you flick on the notifications, something it doesn’t let you do unless you go into settings and override entirely.
That alone is a pain in the proverbial, but there for a good reason: Android is letting you know this app came from unknown sources, and you need to work a little harder to make it work for you, because the OS isn’t sure it’s not a scam.
Setting up this watch is frustrating and just a total chore on Android. Everything you have to go through just makes recommending the Watch Fit 4 Pro that little bit more difficult. The setup isn’t going to be familiar or friendly for plenty of users. Even experienced Android folks will find themselves grinding their teeth at times.
The Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro is easy to use on iPhone. On Android, it’s just a pain.
Using the Watch Fit 4 Pro
Because of its seemingly deliberate focus on being very much like an Apple Watch, how you use the Watch Fit 4 Pro is almost the same.
Press the circular button and you’ll get an almost identical app menu to Apple’s map of circles, allowing you to move it around and find an app to use. There aren’t apps you’ll install specific to the watch — that’s different from an Apple Watch — but you do have a reasonable bunch here to work with.
Performance
The good news is the watch is really quick to use, so much that there are no complaints from a performance standpoint. A little bit of lag here and there, but it’s quite reliable in terms of doing the job it’s meant to do.
You don’t get a lot of exciting watch faces, but if you don’t care about that, the app has several health features, a responsive menu, and generally performs quite well.
Battery
It even handles its own in the battery department, though it will depend on what you use the watch for.
Huawei suggests a maximum of 10 days of battery life are possible from the Watch Fit 4 Pro, but our testing found the wearable would hit closer to 4 to 5 days, particularly when the always-on display was enabled.
That’s not bad and certainly stronger than the 1 to 2 day maximum of an Apple Watch, but we also didn’t find ourselves leaning on the Huawei Watch for use the way we do with Apple’s equivalent.
Worth noting, though, that Huawei has even been inspired by Apple in its charging puck, which is basically a bigger version of the Apple Watch charging puck.
Before you ask, no, the Apple Watch can’t be charged on the Huawei Watch charging puck, and the Huawei Watch charging puck can’t be charged on an Apple Watch puck. We tried. You don’t have to.
Value
But if what you’re looking for is a wearable that’s like an Apple Watch Ultra, but costs a lot less, Huawei’s price is hard to beat.
Set at less than half the cost of the Ultra, the $499 Watch Fit 4 Pro appears solid value provided you’re fine with all of these little niggles, and all of these little flaws.
The watch is technically fine, and some of the sporting features are actually kind of cool. Golfers looking to improve their swings may find the tools helpful and the price points as useful as a golf cart on a long course.
What needs work?
But in terms of what needs work? Well, maybe we’re just getting grumpy in our age, but obvious clones don’t sit well with this reviewer. And the Watch Fit 4 Pro just screams “clone” in just about every way. It’s not a flattering comment, either.
The design is ripped straight from the Apple Watch Ultra series, so much that even the circular Huawei Watch GT series has more individuality than this obvious clone.
At least Huawei has tried to be original in the past, but this model makes it seem like the company is done trying. The design may as well be Huawei’s next best take on the Apple Watch Ultra. The app menu manages follows the same interface, and even the tiny hockey puck charger looks the same, as well.
It’s so similar, it’s practically brazen.
The Watch Fit 4 Pro just screams clone, with Huawei adding its own features to a design it hasn’t started or iterated or even improved upon. It’s not even an interpretation; it’s just Huawei’s edition of the Apple Watch Ultra. And it doesn’t feel as clever.
The one upside might be that compatibility for both iOS and Android; given Apple probably won’t ever make the Apple Watch for Android, the Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro is about as close as Android owners will get to owning an Apple Watch Ultra. That’s not a bad thing.
But there are also more complete Android wearables overall, many of which come with mobile payment technology built-in. Not this one, though. There’s none of that for those of us living in Australia and New Zealand.
It’s bad enough that Android owners won’t be able to find the app easily, but they also aren’t getting the full premium wearable experience.
There are just lots of little things that frustrate with this wearable. The Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro lacks individuality, is awkward to install, and misses out on the full wearable experience with mobile payment support, despite its $500 price. It takes point from its obvious inspiration, and yet doesn’t finish the job. It’s almost surreal.
What we love
However, not all is bad.
The upsides to this clone could be the extras Huawei has added, not to mention that it’s a relatively solid little wearable even if nearly every aspect of the watch’s design language is clearly an Apple Watch.
It comes with titanium and sapphire glass just like an Apple Watch Ultra, yet does so for less than half the price.
It’s not a full titanium body like on the Apple Watch — there’s aluminium for the case — but it feels premium, and manages to be slim, too. Even the sapphire glass is marked as “artificial sapphire glass”, but basically retains the scratch resistant qualities.
The overall effect is that the Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro feels like the premium smartwatch you want it to be, which is very much the point.
While the Apple Watch Ultra is closer to the $1399 mark, the Watch Fit 4 Pro is $499. That’s a staggering difference.
Add to this the fact that you’re unlikely to ever find an Apple Watch Ultra model work on Android, even if we keep asking. And we do. Repeatedly. That’s one of those things that only works on with an iPhone, and that’s all there is to it.
This watch works fine on both, though. Some might argue it’s easier to install on iOS because you can find its app on the App Store.
And if you happen to play golf, the inclusion of golf courses, a digital scorecard, and golf swing analysis are features that really make the watch stand out.
Huawei Watch Fit 4 vs the competition
Comparing the Watch Fit 4 Pro to what’s out there becomes an interesting challenge, largely because it has a fair amount in common with other fitness-focused wearables, while still being different enough to count.
The obvious competition is clearly the Apple Watch Series 10 and its Apple Watch Ultra 2, two models that this draws inspiration from, but doesn’t live up to.
However, Huawei has Apple beaten on price, so there’s something to consider there, hitting closer to the halfway mark on the latter and still beating the former by a couple of hundred, as well.
In Android, there’s way more competition, but Huawei is clearly competing because of that Apple-inspired design, premium materials, and extra features for the golfers in your life.
That said, much like how the Apple Watch feels like the superior wearable on the iPhone, the other Android-ready wearables we’ve tried also feel superior, too. They have more watch faces you can control, more app support, and usually play nicely with payment systems. Here on the Huawei watch, those three features are missing in action.
Instead, Huawei’s Watch Fit 4 Pro feels like the wearable you have when all you want is an Apple Watch Ultra, but you don’t want to pay for the privilege, or you lack the hardware requirements like an iPhone.
Final thoughts (TLDR)
Let’s just get this out of the way: despite how much Android folks might want to use an Apple Watch, it’s never going to happen. Manufacturers might tease experimental support for Apple’s wearable, but it’s never going to stick around, and Apple will just end up patching Android support out of the watch if it does happen.
The simple truth is you need an iPhone if you want to use an Apple Watch or Apple Watch Ultra. It’s that simple.
But if you want to get something that looks the same, you have another option.
Huawei’s Watch Fit 4 Pro definitely isn’t an Apple Watch Ultra, but for many it’ll be close enough for jazz.
The Watch Fit 4 Pro isn’t quite the spectacular piece of industrial engineering Apple manages, but it won’t be a bad bet if all you’re after is the look, and can live without the extras that make an Apple Watch what it is. Rather, it’s a smart watch with a bit of an identity crisis, but one you’ll probably be able to live with.
