A Smart Basketball Band that Tracks Your On-Court Play

Smart bands are hardly a novelty in 2019, coming in all shapes, sizes, and colors. But have you wondered why most bands out there are so vanilla – tracking walking, jogging, cycling, or free weights, while none is specifically designed for basketball players? Chinese electronics brand HONOR has come up with something truly unique, a band that not only measures your running and the quick stops and starts that are so common in basketball, but also tracks jumps and hang times.

As a hardcore basketball player, I got myself an HONOR Band 5 Sport band as soon as I heard about it. Here's what the product packaging looks like on the day of arrival.

It's hard to overstate how much I love its strap. Rather than coming with a generic plastic or leather design, the HONOR Band 5 Sport band utilizes soft, sweat-absorbing, lightweight cloth that provides for extra comfort and convenience. It's easily adjustable, and feels good on the wrist.

The eco-friendly, regenerated fiber strap is made of recycled plastic. It's soft and smooth to touch, extremely durable, and visual striking. Best yet, you can choose from a number of different color schemes, ensuring that its aura matches your personality off the court, and demeanor on the court.

You're likely aware that playing basketball involves relentless movement, stopping and starting on a dime, jumping, "hanging", and even dunking for those of us fortunate enough! Tracking the arm alone can't distinguish between a jump and a simple hand movement, so accurate jumping data requires measuring foot motion. This is the thinking behind the dedicated Foot Mode on the HONOR Band 5 Sport variant, which comes with a buckle that easily secures the band with the laces on your shoe. Due to its advanced settings, it's also perfect for runners at any level, from common joggers to those training for a marathon.

Basketball players need to be able to use their hands with absolute freedom – to deflect passes, snag rebounds, or take jump shots – without having something else tied around their wrist, weighing it down. That's why Foot mode is such a godsend. I've used it now for several rough-and-tumble pickup games in the park, and the buckle is remarkably secure.

Below is a short video clip I made that shows how to insert the band into the buckle. Make sure that you don't get it reversed. The band will vibrate to let you know when it's locked in correctly.

From there, just slide on the screen and choose Basketball mode, and touch and hold the icon to start a countdown from 3. Then get your game on!

After you're done playing, open the Huawei Health app on your phone, where you'll see a basketball icon and summary of the data on the app home page. Touch it to get a detailed look at your play on the court.

Below is my performance chart, with a sub-score for each category. Only 57 – I've got to step it up to avoid getting benched!

Touch the chart to view the detailed jump metrics – a sense of what the hard data looks like. The data is highly precise as the band is worn directly on your shoes.

Hang time is recorded down to the millisecond for each jump, and then cumulatively by minute.

This dedicated band is said to have been jointly developed by HONOR and a research team that specializes in basketball training from a well-known Chinese university. It records how fast you move and rates your performance, so that you can get a clear look at your on-court play and areas for improvement.

You can even generate a poster with the data, which displays the time and burned calories. Not a bad idea for an FB or Instagram post!

Though it's specially designed for basketball players, the HONOR Band 5 Sport also comes with the standard features seen in other wearable devices including step counting, calorie counting, sleep tracking, notification function and so forth.

The band's battery seems to last forever…advertised as 14 days. I can't confirm that, because I always remember to charge it before the battery drops too low, but it's certainly long-lasting.

There you have it, the HONOR Band 5 Sport. It's got a revolutionary Foot mode, and provides for professional-level basketball performance tracking. But for something so sophisticated and precise, it's remarkably easy to use.

If you're like me, and love playing basketball to stay in shape, but hate running on a treadmill or peddling on an exercise bike, this band has got you covered! You might not be ticketed for the NBA, but you can still get bragging rights when playing against your friends, by sharing the data on social media, answering once and for all, who played better that day! Don't take my word for it… try it for yourself, and share your game with the world!