Half fitness band, half bluetooth headset and not much else. Huawei’s comfy effort is quite lacking.
Fitness wearables are still so newto the market that classifyingthem is a bit of a pain, especiallyfor us reviewers. We have the likes ofthe Apple and Huawei Watch, which aresmartwatches; there as an extensionof your smartphone so you’ll spendless time reaching into your pocketto see a notification from a WhatsAppgroup you’ve been meaning to delete.You then have the Fitbit Surge andMicrosoft Band, with dedicatedfeatures and sensors to cater to yourfitness needs and wants. This isn’tnecessarily a complaint; if a wearablecan do everything at a master level we’dclassify it in their own league.Huawei’sTalkBandB2 ismore a fitness band but it really tries tobe that notification centre that it is not.What makes the TalkBand B2 unique isthe detachable bluetooth headset thatdoubles as your screen. But apart fromthat it is pretty lacklustre and key thingsseem to have been omitted with a biggeremphasis on the bluetooth headset.
DESIGN
Comfort is the make or break for allwearables, unless they can make up forit stupendously with unique featuresor advanced refinement of existing keyones. The TalkBand B2 is a comfortabledevice to wear with the rubber strap moredesirable for those who want to use itmore as a fitness wearable. There’sthe more stylish leather bandthat looks great but isn’t reallyrecommended for a reallysweaty session at the gym.The leather option also comeswith a screen that has a lighthue to it. While it gives offa facade of a gold face(making it look quiteclassy actually) it attractsfingerprints and ruinssaid facade. The rubberstrap version does nothave this problemwith the hue notpresent.The TalkBandB2 isn’t going towin any beautypageants as it’smore counting onyou seeing what’son the inside. We’reof course referringto the bluetoothheadset. It’s easyenough to remove theheadset from its restingpoint but putting it on canbe a massive pain at first.Of course no one has the sameshaped ear, if you find someone whodoes, well one of you is encroaching onthe other’s dimension. With a few minutesof fiddling around with our ears, it gets alot easier to instinctively put it on whenreceiving a call. A bluetooth headset ismeant to free your hands up and that’sexactly what it does. It was incredibly usefulto use when driving or having to get muckywith some dishes. Although you don’t haveto worry about getting it wet as it has anIP57 water- and dust-resistance rating
SCREEN
The screen is extremely deceiving, itseems to have a lot of real estate but thereal screen is around 50% of what youexpect. A screen within a screen is whatyou’re getting here. Quite disappointingbut the band has that rectangular shape toaccommodate the bluetooth headset, so itmakes sense. The display itself is minimal,showing only black and white with pixelgraphic. Not awe-inspiringly gorgeous butclear enough to read information displayed.A bit too bright at night especially when weaccidentallypressed thehome button and wokeup to its glaring display. An ambient sensorwould have been welcomed, especially for adevice that boasts a sleep sensor (you can’tadjust the brightness). But it is readable insunlight with excellent viewing angles, veryhandy when going out for a run and yourarm can only muster so much energy.
PERFORMANCE
Call quality isn’t as clear as you’d be usedto on an actual handset but it’s clear enoughto relay what you’re trying to say and viceversa. We did notice that sometimes it candrop but by no means was it detrimental,not every phone call you make is perfect,bluetooth headset or not. It needs to bementionedthoughthat youshouldn’treallyuse theheadsetwhen goingfor a run –it doesn’tsit firmlyenough inyour ear and isprone to fallingoff!As a fitnesstracker it performswell to a decent degreeof accuracy. It tracks running,walking and cycling all in the onephysical activity option. It automaticallydetects what activity you are doingwith the six-axis motion sensor. Startingyour workout is easy enough with just asimple three second hold of the screen toget started. We had problems with thesleeping features unfortunately; it activatesautomatically when it detects you’ve beenprone for a while but sometimes it fails toeven recognise you were asleep.With a basic screen the battery life islong lasting, more so than the OLED screenMicrosoft Band 2. Huawei says you can getup to six days of battery life out of it and wemore or less got that, as we opted to use ouractual phones to pick up a call, using thebluetooth headset uses more of the batteryof course.
SOFTWAR
What it fails to do is offer a variety in termsof notifications. At its current price we’dexpect to be notified from all forms ofcommunication. WhatsApp, emails,text messages are not available fornotification, disappointing from adevice that costs £99.99. The HonorBand Z1 (also reviewed in this issue)has the ability to notify us on allfronts and has the same fitnessfeatures.There isn’t much detail interms of fitness analysis on thewearable itself, the HuaweiWear app displays all of thatinformation. It is brokendown into categories; fitnessand sleep. The design of it isreally easy to understand andnavigate, workouts are broken up indifferent coloured bar charts and so is thesleep tracker. The sleep tracker shows whenyou’re falling asleep, in light and deep sleep.Which then gets aggregated into a sleepquality score (when it works).In terms of interface, the app and theband itself are fast and intuitive. You won’tget confused flicking through either andthey can keep up with your nimble fingers.A nice little feature for Huawei device usersis you can use the TalkBand B2 as a camerashutter button.
CONCLUSION
We’re still unsure what to classify theTalkBand B2. Is it a smartwatch? Fitnessband? We’re finding it hard because itdoesn’t necessarily excel in either area. It’sdecent enough to track your workout butas a notification centre it’s below averageand as a sleep tracker it doesn’t turn upsometimes. For it’s price we recommendlooking elsewhere. You can get the PebbleTime for nearer to the TalkBand B2’s price ifyou look hard enough and for fitness freaksthere’s the FitBit Charge HR.
SpEC SHEET
OS Compatibility Android 4.0+, iOS 7+
processor N/A
Screen 0.73-inches
Resolution N/A
Memory N/A
Sensors Sleep, Pedometer, Running,
Storage N/A
Micro SD Compatible? No
Connectivity Bluetooth
Dimensions 11.88 x 22.0 x 242.85 mm
Battery 95 mAh
At a glance
camera
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Speed
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battery
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 |  |  |
NO
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4/5
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3/5
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VERDICT
Not much of an extension of your phone and not a complete fitness tracker. While it does perform well for actual workouts, the sleep tracker seems to be temperamental. Thereisn’t notifications for WhatsApp, texts and emails but if you spend more of your time driving, the bluetooth headset does come in handy with decent quality calls