Honor Band 9 in review: Affordable fitness tracker with large display

Price at test

Not available in the US

The Huawei brand Honor has released its latest fitness tracker, the Honor Band 9. The Band 9 is the direct successor to the Honor Band 7. There was never an Honor Band 8. Compared to the previous model, the Band 9 offers a larger display, more color options and improved fitness data, including the so-called fitness age.

It is still a tracker that records your heart rate and your training. According to the manufacturer, the battery should last up to two weeks. With a recommended retail price of 59.90 euros and a current price of around 49 euros, the Honor Band 9 competed with the Huawei Band 9, the Amazfit Band 7 and the two Xiaomi trackers Smart Band 8 and Band 8 Pro. So is Honor really bringing a breath of fresh air to the market for cheap fitness trackers?

The best fitness trackers in the test (2024)

Design & Processing

• Three new colours
• No physical buttons
• 5 ATM waterproof

The design language of the Band 9 hasn’t changed drastically compared to the Band 7. The only major difference is that the screen has gotten wider and offers a higher resolution. You get a 43-millimeter tracker that combines a polymer case with a TPU band.

The strap is interchangeable and is available in Charm Pink, Dawn White and Starry Black. Compared to its predecessor, the tracker now looks slimmer, but retains the understated design of the Honor Band family.

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

Honor has dispensed with physical buttons on the Band 9. This certainly contributes to the slim design, but it makes it more difficult to use. You always have to tap the screen to make entries on the tracker. It would have been nice if Honor had at least integrated a physical button like on the Band 7.

Nothing has changed in terms of durability. Like its predecessor, the Band 9 is waterproof up to 5 ATM. Thanks to this rating, you can also wear the band while swimming and in the shower. The tracker weighs 16.3 grams without the strap. The wearable is very comfortable to wear both during the day and at night.

Screen & Audio

• 1.57-inch AMOLED display
• Responsive screen
• No microphone or speaker

Honor switches from a 1.47-inch AMOLED touchscreen to a 1.57-inch panel with an improved resolution of 256 × 402 pixels on the Band 9. The screen is quite bright. You also have the option to individually adjust the display brightness and activate an always-on mode.

The band’s ambient light sensor also automatically adjusts the screen brightness. If you have deactivated the always-on display to save battery, the Band 9 responds quickly to activation with a finger tap.

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

The Band 9’s display is, as mentioned, wider than its predecessor. This puts the wearable alongside trackers like the Huawei Band 9 (1.47-inch display) and the Oppo Watch Free (1.64-inch display). The display is quite blurry, but offers good colors – which are a bit too saturated for my taste. The display is sufficient for viewing your training results, but not outstanding for this price segment.

The Band 9 does not have a built-in microphone or speaker, so you can only see on the display when a call comes in on your smartphone, but you cannot answer it on the tracker.

software & Features

• Runs on a proprietary operating system
• Works with Android and iOS devices
• Find my Phone and music control on board

The Honor Band 9 runs on similar software to the Band 7. This operating system still looks very similar to Huawei’s Lite OS, so if you’ve used a Huawei tracker before, the controls will immediately feel familiar.

On the tracker’s screen, you can swipe up and down or left and right to view data widgets and notifications or to access the main menu. This menu screen can be displayed on the wider display in two columns of icons or in an icon list.

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

To set it up, use the companion app “Honor Health”. It is very similar to Huawei’s “Health App”. The tracker is easy to use and the navigation feels familiar after a short time.

When you’re not tracking your steps or heart rate, you can use the tracker to check notifications, access music controls, check the weather, and use the useful Find My Phone mode.

The extra space on the screen makes some of these functions a little easier to use. The notifications have more space and the widgets are also much clearer.

Ultimately, though, the features haven’t changed compared to its predecessor. You get a Bluetooth upgrade from 5.0 to 5.3, but overall the Band 9 feels just like the Band 7.

Fitness & Tracking

• 96 training modes
• Records heart rate and blood oxygen
• No integrated GPS

The Honor Band 9 offers all the features you would expect from a fitness tracker. It counts your steps and motivates you to move more. It is also a good companion for sleep monitoring as well as regularly recording your heart rate.

I’d say the Band 9 does a pretty solid job in this regard. However, I found the step count to be about 500 steps off on average from two other comparison trackers. There’s a nice activity widget, but there’s little in the way of additional features to encourage you to stay active throughout the day.

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

When it comes to sleep monitoring, the results were consistent with Oura and Garmin. You get sleep scores and an analysis of your sleep stages. If you want to know how well you slept, the sleep scores are the most useful metric.

The readings for heart rate, stress and blood oxygen are similar to the Honor Band 7. The heart rate monitoring is mixed. Compared to two other trackers in my test, the resting heart rate was identical between the two devices. However, there were noticeable deviations in the real-time values, with five to ten beats per minute more. This raises questions in the context of the reliability of other functions that relate to heart rate, such as stress tracking.

Like its predecessor, Honor gives you 96 workouts to choose from, with eleven modes offering more activity-specific metrics. There’s no built-in GPS, but you can rely on your smartphone’s GPS sensor to increase tracking accuracy during outdoor workouts.

Among the 96 workouts, you’ll find support for indoor exercises like rowing and elliptical training, outdoor and indoor cycling, and running. Honor also includes running classes to introduce new runners to structured running workouts they can incorporate into their routine.

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

However, there doesn’t seem to be much difference in sports tracking performance. Without built-in GPS, tracking accuracy isn’t that great. If you use GPS via your paired smartphone, it gets better. However, in my testing, GPS and distance tracking weren’t always reliable even in this mode.

Honor has added some additional workout insights to make the watch a more useful workout partner. It shows you your fitness age, which takes into account your cardiovascular endurance and tells you if your fitness age is lower than your actual age.

This is not a new feature for trackers or sports watches. Given the unreliability of the heart rate sensor associated with assessing cardiovascular endurance, it is difficult to trust it.

Battery life & charging

• Up to 14 days battery life
• Up to 10 days on average
• No fast charging mode

Battery life hasn’t changed from the Band 7 and Band 6. You can expect a maximum battery life of 14 days, but this can drop to 10 days if you regularly use key features like continuous heart rate monitoring and workout recording.

I used the Band 9 with notifications enabled, continuous heart rate monitoring, sleep monitoring, and features like music control and weather forecast.

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

Mike Saw

Once you get to zero percent, you’ll need to use the proprietary charging cable to recharge the tracker. It takes about an hour to go from zero to 100 percent, so you can put the tracker back on quickly. Like its predecessors, the Band 9 will last you over a week on average, which should be enough for most users.

Price & Availability

The RRP for the Honor Band 9 is 59.90 euros. It is currently available in the Honor online shop for 49.90 euros. The predecessor – the Honor Band 7 – currently costs 38 euros. However, for the small savings you have to forego the larger display of the successor.

With a price of under 70 euros, the Honor Band 9 competes with the Huawei Band 9, the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro and the Amazfit Band 7. All of them are trackers that take up the new trend towards wider displays, which makes the wearables look like a cross between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. The Fitbit that is closest in price is the Ace 3, but this is aimed at children.

For more options, check out our review of the best fitness trackers.

Should you buy the Honor Band 9?

The Honor Band 9 is essentially an evolution of the Band 7 with a larger screen. There are no notable differences in the software, so the performance is almost identical. The larger display makes some functions feel more comfortable than before.

There are no truly new fitness tracker features in the Band 9. It’s another very solid but not very groundbreaking device. If you already own the Band 7, there’s no need to upgrade to its successor.

It’s hard to choose the Honor Band 9 from a wide range of comparable trackers because it doesn’t really offer anything new. The Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro has an even larger display in comparison. GPS and generally more robust fitness and health monitoring can also be found on this competitor. So the Honor Band 9 is not the best tracker among budget wearables.

Specifications

• 1.57-inch AMOLED display
• 5 ATM waterproof
• GPS via paired smartphone
• Up to 14 days battery life
• Heart rate sensor
• Blood oxygen sensor
• Sleep monitoring
• Stress monitoring
• 16.3 g without strap