Compare Honor Smartwatches
For the Honor smartwatches for which the brand provides specifications—the Watch 5 and the Watch 6—the features you get depend on your phone. Some of the features require an Honor phone, and with an iPhone, fewer features are available. Below, you can see what Honor itself lists for each model.
What Your Phone Determines for the Watch 5 and Watch 6
These are the two models for which Honor publishes specifications on its Dutch website. Both work with Android and with an iPhone via the HONOR Health app.
- With an Honor phone: only with a recent version of MagicOS will you get all the features Honor lists. The Watch 5 requires MagicOS 8.0 or higher for some features, while the Watch 6 requires MagicOS 9.0 or higher—and 10.0 for certain features.
- With another Android phone: the watch works, but the features with such a MagicOS requirement are unavailable.
- With an iPhone: even more features are unavailable. Honor’s own example for the Watch 6: changing watch faces is not supported on iOS devices.
On its Dutch product pages, Honor does not specify a minimum Android or iOS version for the watch itself. The only version requirement we found there is for the app.
Note the app’s version requirement
Honor contradicts itself on this point. Its own support page lists iOS 12.0 or higher, while the App Store requires iOS 15.1 or higher for the same app. What you can install today is listed in the App Store. For Android, Honor lists version 9.0 or higher.
Two models on the Dutch site, four no longer listed
Honor does not publish product line descriptions for its watches. The only clear distinction is what the brand currently lists about a model on its Dutch site.
| Model | On the Dutch Honor site |
|---|---|
| Watch 6 | product page with battery ratings and MagicOS requirements |
| Watch 5 | product page with battery ratings and MagicOS requirements |
| Watch 4 | No longer has a product page |
| Watch GS 3 | No longer has a product page |
| Watch GS Pro | No longer has a product page |
| Watch Magic | No longer has a product page |
See the overview above for current prices. There is no ranking in euros listed, because the brand no longer offers four of these six models itself.
For those bottom four models, this has practical implications. On Honor’s Dutch website, you’ll find no battery life information and no requirements for your phone. The brand’s specification pages in other regions load their values via JavaScript and were unreadable to us.
Honor does have a Dutch-language brand website with Dutch product pages and its own Dutch online store in euros, complete with a Dutch support address. That site also lists the Watch 6 Pro and the Watch X5i, which are not included in this overview.
One final note regarding the Watch 6: The brand’s product page simultaneously displays a “Buy Now” button and a message stating that the model will be available soon. The FAQ on that page lists August 14, 2026, as the release date—a date that has already passed.
Watch 5 or Watch 6?
According to Honor, the Watch 6 has a longer battery life but also places greater demands on your phone. For some features, the brand specifies MagicOS 9.0 or higher, and for certain features, even 10.0. For the Watch 5, that requirement is 8.0. If you have an older Honor phone, the Watch 5 is the safer choice.
Honor lists several battery life figures for the Watch 6, with the highest corresponding to the most power-efficient scenario. That 35-day figure applies with Bluetooth, smart heart rate monitoring, and 60 minutes of GPS-enabled exercise per week. Honor’s own estimate for typical use is 17 days, with automatic oxygen and stress monitoring and 180 minutes of GPS use per week. For outdoor sports with standalone GPS, the brand cites 42 hours.
For the Watch 5, Honor claims up to 15 days. There’s a detail here worth noting: that test was conducted using an Honor phone.
Don’t have an Honor phone? Then keep in mind that, according to Honor, some of the features of these two watches require a specific version of MagicOS.
Do you use an iPhone? The watch works, but some features are missing, such as the ability to change watch faces on the Watch 6.
Seven years for the Magic phones, no timeframe for the watches
For its Magic flagship models, Honor promises seven years of Android and security updates; the Magic Lite series is excluded from this. For the watches, we found no timeframe and no list of end dates. This discrepancy within a single brand is striking, as these are devices that process your health data and are connected to your phone.
On its smartwatch pages, Honor makes no mention of Wear OS; the brand only refers to MagicOS as a requirement for your phone. What this means for you: Honor only lists its own store for interchangeable watch faces for its smartwatches. The brand makes no mention anywhere of an app store or Google Play for the smartwatch.
We couldn’t find a name for the system running on the watches anywhere on Honor’s website. On its phones, however, the brand does use Google services, with a pre-installed Gemini app. Honor has been independent of Huawei since November 2020, when Huawei sold the brand.
What does an Honor watch measure, and what doesn’t it measure?
On the Dutch product pages for the Watch 5 and Watch 6, Honor is clear: these watches are not medical devices but are intended for health management. According to the brand, the measured data is for reference only and should not be used as a basis for diagnosis or treatment.
For the Watch 6, Honor lists smart heart rate monitoring, automatic blood oxygen and stress detection, sleep tracking, and a quick health scan. For the Watch 5, the brand lists heart rate, oxygen saturation, sleep, and a quick health scan. Honor does not mention an ECG feature on the pages we reviewed.
