Huawei Band 10 Review: The Smart Band with QR payment?
Huawei Band 10
Affordable at RM189, the Huawei Band 10 excels with QR pay and fitness tracking, though TnG activation can be slow. Recommended.
Positives
- QR payment function
- Comprehensive fitness and wellness tracking
- Competitive price
Negatives
- Potentially long activation time for Touch 'n Go eWallet.
Table of Contents
Initially, when the Huawei Band 10 landed on my desk here at HelloExpress.net, my first thought was, “Oh, another health band from Huawei.” Let’s be honest, with their already robust ecosystem of wearables, it’s easy to assume each new iteration will offer incremental improvements.
Huawei has certainly established itself as a strong player in the smart wearable market in Malaysia, consistently delivering devices that cater to a wide range of users. However, as I delved deeper into the features of the Huawei Band 10, I was genuinely surprised. Could this unassuming device be more than just a fitness tracker? Could it potentially be the first smart band in Malaysia to truly integrate a seamless QR pay function?
Beyond this exciting possibility, I’m eager to explore what other surprises the Huawei Band 10 might have in store. Let’s find out if this is the smart band that will redefine the category in the Malaysian market.
Huawei Band 10 Overview
Body
The Huawei Band 10 presents a refined aesthetic with its Aluminum Alloy case, lending it a sense of strength and durability right out of the box. The chamfered edges add a touch of sophistication to its overall design.
Catering to diverse tastes, the aluminum alloy version is available in five vivid colours: Matte Black, White, Blue, Green, and Purple. For users seeking a different feel, Huawei also offers the Huawei Band 10 with a polymer case, available in classic Black and a soft Pink.
One of the first things you’ll notice is how incredibly lightweight and slim the Huawei Band 10 feels on the wrist, tipping the scales at just 15g and boasting a mere 9mm thickness. This ensures all-day comfort, making it easy to forget you’re even wearing it.
Strap
The accompanying straps are crafted from FPM (fluoroelastomer), a material known for its durability and smooth texture. A convenient quick-release button mechanism allows for easy swapping of straps, letting you personalize your Huawei Band 10 to match your style or activity. The FPM material is also skin-friendly, a welcome feature for those who wear their bands continuously, and it dries quickly should you need to wash your hands.
Display
The visual centerpiece of the Huawei Band 10 is its expansive 1.47-inch bezel-less AMOLED color screen. This vibrant display not only offers excellent clarity and colour reproduction but also supports Always On Display (AOD), allowing you to glance at the time and other essential information without needing to wake the screen. Personalization is a key aspect, with access to over 10,000+ watch faces, many of which support customization to reflect your individual preferences.
Battery
Powering the Huawei Band 10 is a battery designed for longevity. Huawei claims that under minimal usage with most sensors turned off, you can expect around 14 days of battery life. With more regular use, including continuous heart rate monitoring and Huawei’s TruSleep™ enabled, the battery life is estimated at a still respectable 8 days. For users who prefer the convenience of Always On Display, the battery will likely last for approximately 3 days. When it’s time to recharge, the Huawei Band 10 offers impressive speed, providing around 3 days of usage with just a 5-minute charge, and reaching a full charge in approximately 45 minutes.
Durability
Finally, for the active users in Malaysia, the Huawei Band 10 comes with a 5 ATM resistance level. This means it can withstand static water pressure equivalent to a depth of 50 metres for up to 10 minutes, making it suitable for swimming in a pool or showering without worry.
Huawei Band 10 user experience
The Basic
Stepping into the user experience of the Huawei Band 10, let’s first touch upon the fundamental features you’d expect from any capable smart band. It capably handles the essentials, ensuring you stay connected and informed throughout your day.
Setting alarms is a straightforward process, allowing you to manage your schedule effectively with gentle vibrations on your wrist. Notification management is also well-integrated; the Huawei Band 10 mirrors alerts from your smartphone, displaying messages, calls, and app notifications clearly on its vibrant AMOLED screen.
Heart Rate & Blood Oxygen
Beyond staying connected, the Huawei Band 10 places a strong emphasis on health monitoring. Its heart rate sensor delivers accurate, real-time readings, allowing you to keep a close eye on your cardiovascular activity during workouts and throughout the day. This data can be invaluable for understanding your body’s response to different activities and for tracking your overall well-being.
Furthermore, the inclusion of SpO2 monitoring give the ability to measure your blood oxygen saturation levels provides an extra layer of insight into your respiratory health. These core functionalities of the Huawei Band 10 lay a solid foundation for a positive and useful user experience.
Fitness
The Huawei Band 10 truly shines when it comes to fitness and wellness tracking, offering a comprehensive suite of features to support your active lifestyle here in Malaysia. It boasts an impressive array of workout modes, numbering over 100 different activities. Whether you’re into running, cycling, yoga, or even more niche sports, the Huawei Band 10 likely has a dedicated tracking mode to capture your data accurately.
Underpinning this is a sophisticated 9-axis sensor, which works in tandem with AI-powered tracking algorithms to provide detailed and insightful metrics for your workouts. After each session, you’ll receive a full report, breaking down your performance and progress. For aquatic& indoor running enthusiasts, the Huawei Band 10 offers ultra-accurate data, including detailed stroke identification, allowing you to fine-tune your technique.
Digital Wellness
Beyond physical activity, the Huawei Band 10 introduces an intriguing feature previously seen on the Huawei Watch GT5 series: the Emotional Wellbeing Assistant. This marks a significant step in bringing more holistic wellness features to the smart band category. The Huawei Band 10 can assess your stress levels and overall emotional state, providing you with a better understanding of your mental well-being.
Sleep tracking
Sleep tracking is another area where the Huawei Band 10 has seen notable improvements, seemingly taking cues from Huawei’s recent GT series smartwatches. The Huawei Band 10 now offers enhanced sleep monitoring capabilities, including improved sleep apnea detection.
QR Payment on Your Wrist
Now, let’s delve into what I believe is the most unique and potentially game-changing feature of the Huawei Band 10, especially for us here in Malaysia: its integrated QR payment functionality. In a market where digital payments are rapidly becoming the norm, the Huawei Band 10 steps up by offering a convenient way to pay directly from your wrist. What makes this particularly exciting is its support for popular local e-wallets, specifically Touch ‘n Go (TnG) eWallet and mCash.
The implementation is remarkably straightforward. The Huawei Band 10 essentially displays a QR code on its vibrant screen that can be scanned at participating merchants. This eliminates the need to fumble for your phone or wallet, making quick transactions incredibly convenient.
However, my experience with the Touch ‘n Go eWallet activation deserves a specific mention. While the promise of wrist-based TnG payments is enticing, the activation process took a considerable 13 hours in my testing. This delay is something potential users should be aware of. The extended waiting time for TnG could be a point of frustration for users eager to utilize this key feature immediately.
Huawei Band 10 Conclusion
In conclusion, the Huawei Band 10 emerges as a compelling contender in the Malaysian smart band market, particularly with its surprisingly innovative QR payment functionality. Priced attractively at RM189, which is a welcome RM20 reduction from the Huawei Band 9’s launch price, it offers a rich set of features that extend beyond basic fitness tracking.
The robust build quality, vibrant AMOLED display with Always On Display, extensive workout modes with accurate tracking, and the inclusion of an Emotional Wellbeing Assistant and improved sleep apnea detection all contribute to a well-rounded user experience. The standout addition of QR payment, supporting popular local platforms like TnG eWallet and mCash, has the potential to be a genuine game-changer for daily convenience in Malaysia.
However, the Huawei Band 10 isn’t without its drawbacks. The notably lengthy activation time experienced with Touch ‘n Go eWallet could be a point of friction for users eager to embrace this key feature. Despite this initial hurdle, the potential for seamless wrist-based payments, coupled with its comprehensive health and fitness tracking capabilities and competitive price point, makes the Huawei Band 10 a strong recommendation for those seeking a feature-rich and forward-thinking smart band in Malaysia. It signifies a positive step forward, pushing the boundaries of what we can expect from a device in this category.
We wholeheartedly recommend the Huawei Band 10. Its low price entry point, excellent lineage from the Band series, and QR payment function has earn our silver recommendation award.
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If you are interest to learn more about the older model Huawei Band 9, check out our review here:
