The HONOR Band 5i plugs right into any USB port to recharge
Most smartbands requires a dock or cradle to recharge, but not the new HONOR Band 5i. It can directly plug into your smartphone’s power adapter, as long as you aren’t using a ROG Phone or an iPhone 11 Pro, that is.
HONOR integrated a USB-A connector into the HONOR Band 5i, skipping the pogo pins on the HONOR Band 5. All you need to is detach the upper half of the strap and reveal the connector, ready to be plugged into any USB-A port.
While I would consider the USB-A charging connector of the HONOR Band 5i an upgrade over the HONOR Band 5, it’s essentially a lite version of the latter. The screen is marginally larger at 0.96″, but sports a lower resolution (160×80). Also, instead of AMOLED, you will only be getting a TFT LCD panel here. It looks like the HONOR Band 5i will also support customizable watch faces, although I would expect it to be similarly limited like the HONOR Band 5.
You still get most of the key features of the HONOR Band 5 though, including 50 meter water resistance and all the fitness tracking chops. And yes, that includes the fancy new SpO2 measurement capability. HONOR promises up to 9 days of battery life with most of the features turned off, or 7 days with sleep tracking and continuous heart rate measurement on. That’s somewhat to be expected, given the slightly smaller 91 mAh battery.
Overall, the HONOR Band 5i represents pretty good value priced at CNY 159 (~RM94), given that it is CNY 30 (~RM18) than the HONOR Band 5. Would you be willing to sacrifice battery life and the beautiful AMOLED display to save a few bucks?
Pokdepinion: Hopefully the HONOR Band 6 will follow on this trend, and maybe throw in always-on display too?
