For an occasional user (most of us) who primarily desires sleep tracking – I am mostly happy given my limited use (resting HR / sleep measurement). For an enthusiast (my wife is a fairly serious runner / swimmer) this is pointless. This is not a “WOW!!” but a “Cool” type of device – it is the kind you buy if you are unsure of using one, but don’t want to spend big amounts on a high end device like the top notch Fitbit.
Updated 3.5 month (July 7) review of Honor Band 2:
Pros:
– Battery life (15-20 days is easy)
– Segmented sleep capture (you can sleep at 12 noon and it will capture it – mi band did not record midday sleep)
– Notifications work as intended
– Number of Watch faces can be simplified using the app – you can drop pages you don’t want, eg running / swimming but only keep HR.
– Sleep tracking is REALLY accurate! This was my primary purpose – however, do note that it doesn’t capture sleep in flights well. It will only capture a subset of that time as sleep, while I’ve heard from others that Apple watch tracks in-flight sleep more accurately.
– Steps is fairly accurate as well. (if you just swing your arms wildly while stationary it counts steps – this is something JawboneUP4 was smart to ignore)
– Bluetooth connection is quick, reliable but you don’t keep it on since it needs BT+GPS to sync (Stupid Android 8 “feature”)
– 100% waterproof. I bathe with it every single day. I only take it off when I happen to knock the lock open by mistake.
– It stores 10 days of old data on itself. I recently changed my phone under warranty and it brought back 10 day old data that had previously been synced to the older phone. Jawbone UP4 does not do that if I recall right.
Cons:
– First signs of disintegration seen in 3 months of 24×7 usage. The snap fit tabs of the band that fit into the watch, no longer do so, so the band looks slightly puffy at that edge, but is not visibly broken. Since the band is screwed on to the watch portion, it needs a service center visit. I hope to avoid that for 2-3 months but will update when that happens.
– It is not linked to an ID but to your IMEI hence it is NOT portable across phones. Change phones – you lose your data.
– Swimming tracking is very average – only time is tracked. Under water, touch is disabled (but that’s okay for a 3800 bucks band since costlier watches do that as well).
– Classic is basically rudimentary for running (steps X stride length). I regret not buying the pro for this reason.
– You really need to twist your wrist to switch the face on. Kinda annoying – I would’ve preferred a bit more sensitivity to avoid stressing my hand less.
– Switching the swim mode on/off (long press followed by two knuckle taps) is error prone and a bit kludgy.
Please note that this review is cross-posted on Team-BHP as well: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/163799-fitness-band-smartwatch-thread.html