The step counter is a problem that Honor should address
In the crowded landscape of affordable wearables, Honor's Choice Watch arrives in India as a quiet argument that meaningful technology need not demand sacrifice — financial or physical. At Rs 6,499, it carries the ambitions of a more expensive device: satellite navigation, health monitoring, and wrist-based calling, all housed in a frame light enough to forget you're wearing it. Like most things positioned between aspiration and constraint, it succeeds more than it stumbles, though the gap between its best features and its weakest reveals how much craft still separates a good product from a great one.
- Honor is pressing back into India's consumer electronics market with a mid-range smartwatch that punches above its price point — but not without compromise.
- A vivid 1.95-inch AMOLED display and multi-system GPS give the watch genuine utility, yet an unreliable step counter undermines trust in the very metric most wearers check first.
- Health tracking for heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep, and stress performs with clinical-adjacent accuracy, making the step-counting flaw feel more conspicuous by contrast.
- Battery life holds above eight days under real-world conditions, but enabling the Always-on Display cuts that nearly in half — a trade-off users must consciously manage.
- Priced between the cheaper CMF Watch Pro and the occasionally comparable Amazfit Bip 5, the Choice Watch occupies a middle ground where the final decision rests on taste rather than clear technical superiority.
Honor's return to India has been deliberate, and the Choice Watch reflects that patience — a rectangular smartwatch priced at Rs 6,499 that arrives loaded with features once reserved for pricier devices: built-in GPS, Bluetooth calling, 120 workout modes, and a display readable in direct sunlight. The design is familiar rather than distinctive, borrowing the rectangular face and crown button common across the category, but the build is solid, the silicone straps comfortable, and any standard 22mm band will fit if the default doesn't suit you.
The 1.95-inch AMOLED panel is the watch's clearest strength — sharp, vibrant, and bright enough at 550 nits to render squinting unnecessary outdoors. Navigation through the interface is intuitive, built around simple swipes, and the Honor Health app extends the experience with customizable watch faces and metric displays. Health monitoring is where the watch earns its keep most honestly: heart rate response is quick, blood oxygen readings land within a point of clinical oximeters, and sleep tracking distinguishes meaningfully between light, deep, and REM stages. The GPS locks within a minute and draws from five satellite systems, underestimating distance by a consistent five percent — minor and predictable.
The step counter is a different story. It misfires in both directions, undercounting at times and adding phantom steps during weight training when movement is largely static. It is the watch's most visible flaw and one a firmware update could plausibly address. Bluetooth calling works well enough indoors, a triple-click SOS feature adds quiet reassurance, and battery life under genuine daily use stretches past eight days — though the Always-on Display compresses that to roughly four.
Against the CMF Watch Pro at Rs 4,999 and the Amazfit Bip 5 hovering near Rs 7,000, the Choice Watch occupies the middle with enough competence that the decision between them becomes one of preference rather than performance. It is not the cheapest option, nor the most refined — but for most wrists, it is more than enough.
Honor's return to India's consumer electronics market has been methodical, and with the Choice Watch, the company is making a straightforward bet: pack genuine fitness capabilities into a device that won't break the bank or look out of place on your wrist. At Rs 6,499, this rectangular smartwatch arrives with the kind of feature set that would have seemed ambitious just a few years ago—built-in GPS, Bluetooth calling, 120 workout modes, and a display bright enough to read in direct sunlight. The catch, as with most things in this price bracket, is that not everything works perfectly.
The watch itself is unremarkable to look at. It has a rectangular face with a circular crown button along the edge, the kind of design you've seen before on dozens of other fitness watches. But the build quality is solid. The frame is matte and resists fingerprints reasonably well. The curved display blends into the edges without any sharp transitions. The silicone straps use an unusual locking mechanism—the strap passes under itself rather than using a traditional buckle—but they're comfortable enough for all-day wear and don't cause irritation. If you dislike the design, any 22mm strap will fit.
The 1.95-inch AMOLED display is the watch's strongest feature. At 410 by 502 pixels, it delivers sharp text and vibrant colors. The brightness reaches 550 nits, which means you can actually read it in bright sunlight without squinting. There's no automatic brightness adjustment because the watch lacks an ambient light sensor, but the manual slider works well enough. The Honor Health companion app gives you access to dozens of additional watch faces beyond what comes preloaded, and you can customize many of them to show whatever metrics matter to you—step count, calories, heart rate. The interface itself is snappy and intuitive, organized around simple swipes: down for settings, up for notifications, left and right for widgets and shortcuts. The physical button serves as a home button and quick-access launcher.
Where the watch genuinely excels is health monitoring. The heart rate sensor is responsive. Blood oxygen measurements take about 15 seconds if you wear the watch correctly and keep your hand steady, and the readings typically fall within a point of what a clinical oximeter would show. Sleep tracking is accurate, distinguishing between light sleep, deep sleep, REM periods, and waking time. The watch can monitor stress levels and blood oxygen around the clock if you enable those features, though doing so will drain the battery faster. The built-in GPS locks on in about a minute and stays strong outdoors, pulling data from five different satellite systems—GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BDS, and QZSS. It tends to underestimate distance by about 5 percent consistently, which is minor and predictable.
The step counter, however, is a problem. It errs unpredictably, sometimes undercounting and sometimes adding false steps. During weight training sessions, the watch continued incrementing the step count even during fairly static movements, which suggests the algorithm struggles to distinguish between different types of motion. This is the watch's most glaring weakness, and it's one Honor should address in a firmware update.
Beyond fitness, the watch offers Bluetooth calling—you can make and receive calls directly from the wrist as long as it's paired with your phone. The speaker and microphone work reasonably well indoors but lack volume in noisy environments. There's a useful emergency feature that lets you dial a preset SOS number by triple-clicking the physical button. You can receive notifications and read messages on the watch, though you cannot reply. The watch also includes a calculator, compass, voice notes, stopwatch, weather app, and music controls.
Battery life is respectable as long as you avoid the Always-on Display feature. Honor claims 12 days under typical use, and real-world testing with continuous heart rate monitoring, two hours of GPS usage, multiple workouts, and daily health readings yielded just over eight days. With the Always-on Display enabled, that drops to around four days. The magnetic pin charger refills the 300 mAh battery in less than 90 minutes. The watch is rated 5ATM water resistant, so swimming is fine.
At Rs 6,499, the Choice Watch sits in a crowded segment. The CMF Watch Pro from Nothing costs Rs 4,999 and offers similar features. The Amazfit Bip 5 typically sells for Rs 7,000 or more but occasionally drops to comparable prices. All three deliver strong value, and the choice between them comes down to brand loyalty and which design you prefer. The Honor watch is the middle ground—not the cheapest, not the most expensive, but solid enough that the decision hinges on aesthetics and ecosystem preference rather than any decisive performance gap.
Citas Notables
The pedometer tends to err on both sides, at times showing a lower step count and on some occasions adding false steps, and the company needs to look into this.— Reviewer assessment
A price tag of around 6K is not bad for a swim-proof fitness watch with a large and sharp AMOLED display, built-in GPS, reliable health tracking, useful companion app, Bluetooth calling, and good battery backup.— Reviewer conclusion
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does a watch at this price point struggle with something as basic as counting steps?
The pedometer algorithm seems to have trouble distinguishing between different types of motion. During weight training, it kept counting steps even when the wearer was barely moving. It's a software problem, not a hardware one—Honor could fix it with an update if they prioritize it.
What's the real cost of keeping the Always-on Display off?
You lose the convenience of glancing at the time without a gesture. But you gain four extra days of battery life. For most people, flicking your wrist is a small price for not charging every four days.
How does this compare to what you'd get for Rs 4,999 with the Nothing watch?
The Nothing watch is cheaper and has similar features. The Honor has a slightly better display and more polished software. But if budget is tight, the Nothing watch is the smarter buy. You're paying Rs 1,500 more for refinement, not capability.
Can you actually use this for serious fitness tracking?
Yes, with one caveat. The GPS is reliable, the heart rate and sleep tracking are accurate, and you get 120 workout modes. But the step counter is unreliable enough that you shouldn't trust it as your primary metric. Use it for distance-based activities like running or cycling, where the GPS handles the measurement.
What's the biggest surprise about this watch?
How well the Bluetooth calling works indoors. You'd expect a tiny speaker to sound tinny and distant, but it's surprisingly clear when you're not in a noisy environment. It's genuinely useful for quick calls without reaching for your phone.