Honor Watch 5 Ultra Review: If the Cybertruck was a watch
Honor Watch 5 Ultra Intro
Last year, Honor launched the Watch 5 and caused a bit of an uproar. Even though the wearable offered a great package of features at a very attractive price, the design was too similar to the Apple Watch SE, and this similarity shifted the focus away from what was a solid Android smartwatch.
Now, holding the Honor Watch 5 Ultra in our hands, we can clearly see that Honor has been taking notes. The Ultra model sports a completely different design. It has a hexagonal frame and a polished titanium alloy body that gives the watch a very futuristic look, and the watch faces that are preinstalled amplify this impression.
You're probably looking at the title right now and wondering where that analogy came from. Well, glancing over the sharp edges and flat metal immediately gave us Cybertruck vibes. Is the Honor Watch 5 Ultra durable? Yes, the grade 5 titanium case and the sapphire crystal over the display make sure of that. Is the design fresh and head-turning? We would say so. The Honor Watch 5 Ultra also runs on batteries, just like the Cybertruck, but let's not get carried away with the analogies and get to the review.
Now, holding the Honor Watch 5 Ultra in our hands, we can clearly see that Honor has been taking notes. The Ultra model sports a completely different design. It has a hexagonal frame and a polished titanium alloy body that gives the watch a very futuristic look, and the watch faces that are preinstalled amplify this impression.
There are a lot of things done right on the Honor Watch 5 Ultra, and some glaring omissions as well, just like the Cyber.... Okay, we've promised no more Tesla analogies. Let's see if this watch can get Honor into the serious smartwatch game and whether or not it's worthy of its Ultra moniker!
Honor Watch 5 Ultra features at a glance:
- Futuristic hexagonal design
- 1.5-inch circular display
- Rotating crown
- Grade 5 titanium case and sapphire crystal
- MagicOS
- New Quick Health Scan with ECG
- Up to 15 days battery life
Table of Contents:
Honor Watch 5 Ultra Specs, Models and Prices
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra comes in one size only, measuring about 46 mm. There are two color options—black and brown. The Black version comes with a fluoroelastomer strap in the same color, while the Brown one features a leather strap. The good news is that the watch takes standard 22 mm straps with a quick-release mechanism.
The watch doesn't support LTE, so there are no separate versions with cellular connectivity, even though you can kind of use eSIM through the Honor Health app; more on that later. Check out the specs table below for a deep dive.
The watch doesn't support LTE, so there are no separate versions with cellular connectivity, even though you can kind of use eSIM through the Honor Health app; more on that later. Check out the specs table below for a deep dive.
| Specs | Honor Watch 5 Ultra |
|---|---|
| Models (Size, Weight, Prices) | 46.3 x 46.3 x 11.4 mm, 51.8 grams, 279.99 Euro |
| Display | 1.5-inch AMOLED 466 x 466 pixels (310 PPI) LTPO AMOLED up to 60Hz |
| Processor, RAM, Storage | Undisclosed chipset and RAM, 3.8GB onboard memory |
| Software | MagicOS |
| Battery and Charging | 480 mAh 15-day battery life (typical) Wireless charging |
| Sensors | Heart rate sensor (with blood oxygen sensor) Accelerometer Gyroscope Ambient light sensor Electronic compass Barometer sensor |
| New features | 100+ sports modes Sleep tracking Two microphones and a loudspeaker Dual-frequency GNSS GPS Onboard storage for music eSIM services (limited availability) Bluetooth calls 5ATM/IP68 rated |
Looking at the specs sheet above, the LTPO display comes out as a notable feature. Honor doesn't say what the minimum refresh rate is, but the top ceiling is 60Hz, just like most smartwatches out there. The battery life claim of 15 days typical might have something to do with this LTPO display, so we'll be checking it in detail.
There's 8GB of ROM on the Honor Watch 5 Ultra, but you have around 3.8GB available to upload music and spice up your workouts or travels without the need to bring your phone along. We don't have any information on the chipset or RAM; smartwatch manufacturers outside of the Samsung/Apple camp have stopped listing these in recent years.
There's 8GB of ROM on the Honor Watch 5 Ultra, but you have around 3.8GB available to upload music and spice up your workouts or travels without the need to bring your phone along. We don't have any information on the chipset or RAM; smartwatch manufacturers outside of the Samsung/Apple camp have stopped listing these in recent years.
Honor Watch 5 Ultra Design, Sizes and Bands
Clean, futuristic, octagonal design
The design of the Honor Watch 5 Ultra strays away from the classic wristwatch look and ventures into more futuristic territories. The watch is all angles and flat surfaces, with the hand-polished grade 5 titanium shining with a cold and reassuring glimmer.
The rotating crown on the right is nicely ridged, offering a great tactile feel, and there's also a red line accent circling around in the center. There's a customizable quick-launch button too, and there's the loudspeaker opening on the ceramic back, along with a small hole for the microphone.
On the back we find the usual suspect—an optical heart rate and blood oxygen sensor coupled with eight LEDs to illuminate your blood (sounds a bit sinister, doesn't it?). There are no markings on the hexagonal bezel, and that allows for a very clean-slate look—the design vastly depends on the watch face you choose.
The rotating crown on the right is nicely ridged, offering a great tactile feel, and there's also a red line accent circling around in the center. There's a customizable quick-launch button too, and there's the loudspeaker opening on the ceramic back, along with a small hole for the microphone.
On the back we find the usual suspect—an optical heart rate and blood oxygen sensor coupled with eight LEDs to illuminate your blood (sounds a bit sinister, doesn't it?). There are no markings on the hexagonal bezel, and that allows for a very clean-slate look—the design vastly depends on the watch face you choose.
The size of the watch comes in at around 46 mm, and it suits almost all kinds of wrists—it's not too big or too small. At 11 mm thickness and around 50 grams of weight, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra is neither the lightest nor the most compact smartwatch out there, but we found it comfortable enough when wearing it for a prolonged time.
Even though the lugs of this watch look like the front hood of a certain electric truck, the mechanism uses standard 22 mm quick-release straps, so you can easily customize your Honor Watch 5 Ultra with a wristband of your choice.
The Black variant comes bundled with a fluoroelastomer band in the same color, and it's quite comfortable—soft and very smooth. The Brown model features a leather band (made of vegan leather), but again, you can pair the Honor Watch 5 Ultra with almost any 22 mm band out there.
Honor Watch 5 Ultra Software & Features
Core features with virtually no app store
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra runs on the company's proprietary MagicOS 7.2 and this comes with some disadvantages, but more on this later. You pair the watch to the Honor Health app by scanning a QR code or adding the watch from a list of devices.
There's no limitations for the phone OS, you can connect the device to iPhones and Android phones. The watch displays alerts, allows you to set alarms and timers, it can remotely trigger your phone's camera, and you can also use the Honor Watch 5 Ultra as a proxy for making and receiving calls (over Bluetooth, as there is no cellular connectivity).
The onboard memory allows you to listen to music (either on the watch itself, as it has a loudspeaker, or via a paired headphone), and you can also check the weather and use the watch as a flashlight—all in all, pretty basic stuff.
There is also NFC onboard, but there is no matching wallet software, so we assume this is a remnant from the Chinese version, which allows for contactless payments. There's a couple of more advanced features in the health and fitness category and we'll get to them in a minute.
Workout features
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra can track more than 100 activities, from the usual running, cycling, walking, and hiking to more exotic things like dancing, martial arts, and extreme sports. If you're doing something physically taxing, there's a good chance you'll find the activity on the Honor Watch 5 Ultra.
There's also a little more focus on running with assisted training, running programs and courses, and you can also dive with the watch at up to 40 meters. The GPS is pretty accurate, and there were no deviations from the heart rate when we tested the watch with a couple of competitors.
You also get detailed statistics from your run, such as your VO2Max reading, and also a composite reading that assesses your fitness age. The last one is based on all the parameters from your recent exercises: your pace, heart rate, the aforementioned VO2Max, stress, etc.
You also get detailed statistics from your run, such as your VO2Max reading, and also a composite reading that assesses your fitness age. The last one is based on all the parameters from your recent exercises: your pace, heart rate, the aforementioned VO2Max, stress, etc.
Sleep tracking
Sleep tracking is done the usual way—with sleep stages, recommendations, and an overall sleep score you get in the morning. There are some additional features, such as the option to record your sleep and see if you snore, talk in your sleep, or turn in bed too much, and after a couple of nights you can get a deeper analysis of your sleep pattern with relevant suggestions.
We're not sure how accurate sleep tracking is on smartwatches in general, as it uses only the heart rate sensor and the accelerometer to guess what sleep stage you're in or whether you're awake or not. If you lie peacefully in bed watching a movie, the watch might think you've fallen asleep, for example.
Nevertheless, sleep tracking provides a general overview of your sleep quality that can serve as a baseline for deeper analysis, measurements, and consultations with your GP if needed.
We're not sure how accurate sleep tracking is on smartwatches in general, as it uses only the heart rate sensor and the accelerometer to guess what sleep stage you're in or whether you're awake or not. If you lie peacefully in bed watching a movie, the watch might think you've fallen asleep, for example.
Nevertheless, sleep tracking provides a general overview of your sleep quality that can serve as a baseline for deeper analysis, measurements, and consultations with your GP if needed.
Health features
There's a very clever and easy-to-use feature that aggregates the data from all the sensors on board the Honor Watch 5 Ultra. It's called Health Check-up, and it's on a tap distance. After the watch measures your heart rate, levels of stress, and blood oxygen saturation, and also looks at your other metrics you put in the app, such as weight, age, activity, and so on, you get a health report highlighting any problematic areas.
There's no temperature sensor on the watch, and in our region the watch can't take your ECG, so the health analysis is somewhat limited compared to other more advanced watches that can measure your body composition, blood pressure, or glucose levels.
Honor Watch 5 Ultra Battery and Charging
Two weeks of battery life but with a caveat
Honor advertises the Watch 5 Ultra as able to last two whole weeks on a single charge. That might be possible, but there's fine print under the asterisk. At default settings, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra has the always-on feature turned off, the heart rate monitoring is set to smart (not 24/7 continuous), and the brightness of the display is fixed at one of the lowest settings.
If you turn on the always-on display, set the brightness up so you can see what's going on, and turn on continuous heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, things start to look different on the battery front. The watch features a pretty decent 480 mAh battery cell inside, and it will last a couple of days even if you put the device through its paces.
With everything turned on, exercising for an hour or two each day with GPS tracking, taking some calls, and listening to music while working out, we were able to get a solid 6 days on a single charge. It's still pretty impressive and a nice quality of life improvement to not be forced to charge your smartwatch every single day.
The charging is wireless via the bundled charger but you can use Qi charging pads or even the reverse wireless charging of your phone should it come with one. Using the bundled charger a whole charge takes less than an hour, which is fine considering you won't be doing it every day.
If you turn on the always-on display, set the brightness up so you can see what's going on, and turn on continuous heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, things start to look different on the battery front. The watch features a pretty decent 480 mAh battery cell inside, and it will last a couple of days even if you put the device through its paces.
With everything turned on, exercising for an hour or two each day with GPS tracking, taking some calls, and listening to music while working out, we were able to get a solid 6 days on a single charge. It's still pretty impressive and a nice quality of life improvement to not be forced to charge your smartwatch every single day.
The charging is wireless via the bundled charger but you can use Qi charging pads or even the reverse wireless charging of your phone should it come with one. Using the bundled charger a whole charge takes less than an hour, which is fine considering you won't be doing it every day.
Honor Watch 5 Ultra Competitors
The Honor Watch 5 Ultra starts at 279 euros, which is not cheap. Most of the value you're getting comes from the design and build materials; it's nice to have a titanium watch with a sapphire crystal over its display at this price point. The watch has a distinct futuristic look and might appeal to people looking for something different than your run-of-the-mill smartwatch designs, trying to replicate normal mechanical wristwatch designs.
That said, there are better options if you don't care for the titanium and the angular look. The Xiaomi Watch S4 can do everything the Honor watch can, and it's much cheaper at 159 euros. Then there's the Huawei Watch GT5 that also comes with premium materials and build, offers the same long battery life, and it's still a bit cheaper than the Honor.
Finally, for 279 Euros (roughly $300 after conversion), you can get the base version of the Galaxy Watch 7, an Apple Watch SE, or even a Pixel Watch 3. These devices offer more in terms of health and fitness tracking, as well as smartwatch features, but they don't feature premium materials in their build. You also need to be tied to a specific ecosystem to get the full benefit of using either of these, so that's a thing to consider, as well.
Finally, for 279 Euros (roughly $300 after conversion), you can get the base version of the Galaxy Watch 7, an Apple Watch SE, or even a Pixel Watch 3. These devices offer more in terms of health and fitness tracking, as well as smartwatch features, but they don't feature premium materials in their build. You also need to be tied to a specific ecosystem to get the full benefit of using either of these, so that's a thing to consider, as well.
Honor Watch 5 Ultra Summary
Is the Honor Watch 5 Ultra worthy of the Ultra name? We don't think so, as there's nothing ultra in the capabilities of the watch—actually, most fitness bands can do what this watch does.
That said, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra offers something that most of its competitors lack—an original design and premium materials. When you pair this with the solid health and fitness tracking, the bright LTPO screen, and the long battery life, the end result is one attractive and capable gadget.
That said, the Honor Watch 5 Ultra offers something that most of its competitors lack—an original design and premium materials. When you pair this with the solid health and fitness tracking, the bright LTPO screen, and the long battery life, the end result is one attractive and capable gadget.
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