There is a particular type of product that is difficult to review. Not because it is bad, but because it is genuinely good in ways that are hard to quantify. The HUAWEI Watch Fit 5 Pro is precisely that kind of device.
After wearing it daily for two weeks through workouts, office hours, outdoor walks, and late nights, we came away impressed more often than we expected, with only a handful of caveats worth noting. At its price point, it makes a compelling case for anyone seeking a premium-feeling smartwatch without crossing into the RM1,000-plus territory of flagship competitors.
Let us walk you through what it is like to live with this watch.
Editor
Denise chevron_right
Table of Contents
Design and Build Quality
HUAWEI has made some bold claims about the Watch Fit 5 Pro's construction, namely an aircraft-grade titanium bezel, a nanoceramic-coated aluminium body, and a flat 2.5D sapphire glass. In day-to-day handling, the watch carries itself with a certain quiet confidence. It does not feel more premium than other smartwatches in this category. Still, it sits comfortably above its direct competitors in perceived build quality, particularly given the price bracket it occupies.
At just 30.4g, the watch is impressively light. We would not go so far as to say you forget you are wearing it during sleep or intense exercise, as there is still a presence on the wrist, especially if the strap is worn tightly. However, the strap design distributes the weight well enough that the overall sensation remains comfortable throughout the day.
The rotating crown deserves special mention. It is one of those physical interactions that genuinely elevates the user experience. Scrolling through menus with it feels smooth and fluid, almost like operating a display with a 90-120Hz refresh rate, even though the screen tops out at 60Hz. There is no judder or resistance, and the haptic feedback with each notch click is satisfying without being excessive. To us, this is a small detail that makes a big impression.
One note of caution on the strap: We opted for the orange variant, and after just one to two weeks of daily use (including outdoor exercise under the sun), the colour had visibly faded. For heavy users who spend significant time outdoors, it would be prudent to factor in the cost of a spare strap early on.
Display: Bright, Fluid, and Genuinely Legible in Sunlight
The 1.92-inch AMOLED panel is one of the Watch Fit 5 Pro's most immediately impressive features. HUAWEI rates it at 3,000-nit peak brightness, and we put this to the test by stepping outside on a midday under direct sunlight. If you don't go out under the sun enough, it's the kind of light that washes out most screens entirely. We're glad to share that the Watch Fit 5 Pro passed this test comfortably, and the display remained clear and legible without needing to cup a hand over it.
As for fluidity, the LTPO adaptive refresh rate (1-60Hz) delivered a smooth experience throughout our use. Interestingly, the screen felt smoother than 60Hz would suggest, as micro-stutter was completely absent during scrolling and app navigation. HUAWEI's panel calibration appears to handle transitions exceptionally well.
Performance and Software
HarmonyOS on the Watch Fit 5 Pro is snappy. Navigating through the Smart Assistant view, switching between watch faces, and launching mini-apps all happen without any perceptible lag. It is the kind of responsiveness you tend to notice only when it is absent. In this case, it is consistently present.
We paired the watch exclusively with an iPhone, and the experience was seamless and straightforward. Pairing took only a couple of minutes through the Huawei Health app, and feature availability on iOS felt comprehensive. Notifications synced reliably, and we did not encounter any dropped connections during our testing period.
On the NFC front, we did not test CurvePay functionality as we prefer not to link a payment card to the watch. That is a personal preference, not a criticism of the feature, and it is there for those who want it.
Health and ECG are Genuinely Useful, With Caveats
The 30-second ECG is one of the Watch Fit 5 Pro's headline health features, and it works as advertised. You sit still, rest a finger on the crown electrode, wait half a minute, and the result syncs automatically to the Huawei Health app via Bluetooth. The PDF export is accessible directly from the app, and the entire workflow feels polished rather than bolted on. It is the kind of health feature that a non-technical user can actually engage with regularly.
However, the arterial stiffness and Emotion Analysis metrics are harder to evaluate objectively. We are relatively healthy, and we took these readings with a degree of healthy scepticism. They seem directionally accurate, as the values returned were plausible given how we were feeling, but it is genuinely difficult to determine whether they reflect clinical precision or sophisticated pattern estimation without independent validation. We would treat them as useful wellness indicators rather than medical-grade readings.
One limitation we encountered was that our resting heart rate is at the lower end of the normal range, which prevented us from completing the ECG and arterial stiffness tests on certain occasions. Whether this is a known constraint across smartwatches in general or specific to this model, it is worth noting for users with naturally low resting heart rates.
Fitness Tracking and GPS
The Watch Fit 5 Pro features HUAWEI's Sunflower dual-band GPS. In real-world testing across open areas and routes with some tree coverage, the route mapping appeared accurate and consistent with what we would expect from a dedicated GPS device. There was no obvious drift on the routes we tracked, and the data was visualised cleanly in the Huawei Health app.
To add, the offline maps feature worked without issue. With built-in access to over 17,000 maps, the watch can navigate without a phone connection, which is a genuinely useful capability for hikers, cyclists, or anyone who regularly ventures off the beaten path.
One minor gripe: the step counter felt slightly inaccurate when the strap was worn loosely. The watch does count steps based on wrist movement, and a snug fit seems to produce more reliable readings. Although this is not unique to HUAWEI's implementation, it is worth noting if you prefer to wear your watch with some slack.
Smart Features: Calling and Audio
Wrist calling works better than we expected, at least indoors. We made and received several calls directly through the watch speaker, and the person on the other end reported no issues with audio clarity. The microphone picked up our voice cleanly in a quiet indoor environment. Outdoors in a busy area, however, background noise became a factor, and we would not recommend relying on wrist calling in that context. It is a feature that shines in the home or office rather than on a noisy street.
Battery Life
HUAWEI advertises seven to ten days of battery life, and in our experience with all features enabled — including the Always-On Display — we consistently achieved around five days per charge. That is a meaningful gap relative to the marketing claim, though it is worth acknowledging that heavy usage, GPS sessions, and AOD will naturally shorten any device's stated lifespan.
The more notable behaviour occurs at 20%: the watch automatically turns off most advanced features and scales back to basic notification tracking and time display. It keeps the watch functional, but it does mean you lose access to health monitoring and GPS precisely when you might be in the middle of a long day out. Keeping an eye on the battery level and topping it up regularly is therefore advisable.
Charging from zero to full via the wireless puck took approximately one hour in our testing. It's clean and efficient, with no complaints.
Value: Is the Pro Worth the Premium?
We did not test the standard Watch Fit 5 alongside the Pro, so a direct side-by-side comparison is beyond the scope of this review. The Pro's combination of titanium construction, sapphire glass, ECG functionality, and offline GPS maps creates a cohesive package that reads as more than the sum of its parts.
If you intend to wear this watch every single day, then the additional RM300 over the standard model is a justifiable investment. Sapphire glass alone will outlast the scratches that would accumulate on a standard mineral glass panel, and the ECG feature adds a genuinely useful layer of cardiovascular awareness for the health-conscious buyer.
Final Verdict
The HUAWEI Watch Fit 5 Pro is a well-executed smartwatch that hits more targets than it misses. The display is excellent, the rotating crown is a joy to use, HarmonyOS runs smoothly, the ECG workflow is genuinely accessible, and the Sunflower GPS delivers reliable outdoor tracking.
On the other hand, the five-day real-world battery life falls short of HUAWEI's headline claim, the step counter benefits from a snug fit, and strap colour durability is a practical concern for fashion-conscious buyers.
Nevertheless, none of these is a dealbreaker. For its price, the Watch Fit 5 Pro offers a premium experience that is hard to match in this category, and it wears its credentials without overreaching. If you are shopping for a daily driver smartwatch that looks good, tracks accurately, and holds up over time, this one deserves serious consideration.
Reviewed unit: HUAWEI Watch Fit 5 Pro (Orange Strap variant), tested over two weeks of daily use.