Huawei Watch GT 2 Assessment

Huawei Watch GT 2

From £180 – £219.99 as reviewed

Execs

Seems greatIntuative interfaceSuper battery lifeHealth / Sleep trackingHands-free name answering

Cons

No Third-party app integrationCan’t multitask

Huawei Watch GT 2 Smartwatch Assessment

We have been in Berlin for the launch of Huawei’s Mate 30 smartphones in addition to the model’s newest smartwatch, the Watch GT 2. Moreover, we have been fortunate sufficient to come back again with a Watch GT 2, and it has been our every day wrist put on ever since.

We favored the look of Huawei’s first smartwatch. The Watch GT was definitely a promising proposition. Nevertheless, we weren’t fairly able to make the leap.

Now the Watch GT 2 has arrived. Constructing on the muse of its predecessor with two new glossy designs, the Huawei Watch GT 2 sports activities the identical easy consumer interface however provides extra options.

The trick that Huawei has to drag off is to supply a good watch with a display screen and options that impress together with wonderful battery stamina. Have they managed this?

Learn on to search out out.

Huawei Watch GT 2 Design

The watch is available in two flavours, a 46mm and 42mm. We now have been testing out the bigger of the 2. This weighs in at 41g and sits slightly properly on our not overly chunky wrist.

We now have seen the Watch GT 2 on bigger wrists, and it nonetheless seems to be good.

The listed bezel across the watch face seems to be cool however is fastened. In different phrases, the bezel doesn’t rotate and is just about ornamental. 

What you do get is 3D glass with properly slanted edges. We now have the mannequin with a sophisticated stainless-steel casement, and we reckon it seems to be wonderful. The opposite end on this dimension is black brushed stainless-steel that lends it a extra stealthy look.

Additionally, the Watch GT 2 has a remarkably slim profile measuring solely 10.7mm.

Lastly, the brilliant 1.39-inch (454 x 454) AMOLED show is evident.

Smarts

Beneath the hood, you get 4GB of storage on your collection of faces and offline music. You possibly can both play the music by the watch speaker or through linked Bluetooth headphones. Good.

Processing is taken care of by Huawei’s Kirin A1, which is identical processor discovered of their FreeBuds three earphones. The bigger watch will get a full 32MB RAM whereas the smaller model ticks together with simply 16MB. 

There’s some clever process administration happening inside these smartwatches.

Straps

The 22mm quick-release straps make it very easy to alter from the tan leather-based band and the extra black silicone one included in our bundle.

At all times-on show

Having a pleasant case and selection of straps is one factor. Nevertheless, it’s the watch face that you simply’ll be spending most of your time .

We predict that the present crop of Huawei watch faces are respectable and we significantly like Shadow. Nevertheless, you aren’t in a position to customise the watch faces or obtain them from anyplace aside from Huawei’s app.

You do, nevertheless, get the choice to have an always-on show or just go along with a clean face till you progress your wrist to see the time. 

Listed within the choices as ‘lock display screen’ you get the selection of digital or analogue faces in monochrome. Once more, we like these and perceive that the ‘lock display screen’ choices are pared all the way down to preserve battery life.

Capabilities

It may be straightforward to imagine that, attributable to its light-weight and minimalist design, that this could be the identical for its characteristic set. Don’t fear, there’s nonetheless lots to play with.

Firstly, there’s a fairly correct heart-rate sensor on the bottom.

Moreover, there are slits for the speaker output and microphones – yup, you possibly can take calls and play music by the Watch GT 2.

The interface, Huawei’s Lite OS, is easy to navigate. Granted, you don’t get as many features as another smartwatches, however this makes it simpler to make use of and palms you that claimed fortnight battery life.

All it takes is a downward swipe to entry fast settings and a horizontal one to scroll by to the apps reminiscent of coronary heart charge, stress, climate, music, health logging and so forth. Lastly, an upward swipe allows you to see your notifications and messages. It’s a little bit of a disgrace that you simply can not reply to messages straight from the watch, although.

The bodily buttons work as brief cuts. The highest button takes you to the watch’s app record. The underside one, nevertheless, is customisable and is defaulted to set off to document a exercise. Oh, how we laughed at that one as we tucked right into a burger.

We’ve used the timer, alarm and stopwatch fairly a bit and the compass is a pleasant contact. That mentioned, the Watch GT 2 isn’t massive on multitasking. Let’s say you’ve kicked off a exercise, after which somebody asks you to set a countdown, otherwise you want the stopwatch – this may imply you’ll should pause or cease your exercise to make use of one of many different apps. Not a giant deal, however could possibly be seen as a shortcoming.

I believe you’re match

We just like the addition of stress monitoring and sleep monitoring as these are areas that we undoubtedly want to enhance. 

Huawei has additionally included a barometer to measure air strain within the GT 2.

Total, the Watch GT 2’s coronary heart charge monitoring gave the impression to be correct when put next with its rivals and costlier skilled choices.

We have been impressed on the vary of exercises that it helps, too. Sixteen in whole, together with operating programs, out of doors run, indoor run, out of doors stroll, indoor stroll, out of doors cycle, indoor cycle, pool swim, open water, climb, hike, path run, triathlon, elliptical, rower and different for health club exercises and the like.

In the event you’re appy and you realize it

The smartphone companion app, Huawei Well being, works with Android and iOS, and hyperlinks to Apple’s Well being app, Google Match and in addition My Health Pal. Nevertheless, the shortage of Strava integration and such will undoubtedly postpone extra energetic wholesome sorts.

Sleep monitoring we discovered fairly helpful. The outcomes are damaged down into mild, deep and REM sleep, with tips on how properly you’re resting throughout all three metrics. We discovered that the Watch GT2 might even spot after we took an influence nap (handed out) through the day. 

In the event you’re the kind to run for enjoyable, then you definitely’ll additionally just like the charts you get to evaluate. Right here you get your tempo, coronary heart charge, cadence and altitude at totally different factors within the session to mull over. Really, you can too get additional concerned and take a look at efficiency metrics reminiscent of cardio and anaerobic effort, VO2 Max, and the restoration time required earlier than repeating all that effort. We’re fairly positive our restoration time will probably be measured in weeks.

Each day exercise is tracked robotically. Right here you get your steps counted, any train you do and your resting/common coronary heart charge.

All very spectacular contemplating that the battery lasts so lengthy.

Battery life 

Like most boasts of stamina, you want excellent circumstances to get Huawei’s 2-week battery life. Nevertheless, we usually clocked in properly over per week between expenses. 

We guess that turning off the good options reminiscent of coronary heart monitoring and the like may get you that magical fortnight. 

Nevertheless, get that lock display screen always-on show going after which 5-7 days would be the greatest you possibly can obtain. That mentioned, we expect it’s nonetheless spectacular.

We have been barely dissatisfied that battery charging isn’t wi-fi. Nevertheless, the upside is that it’s fast.

From empty to full tank solely takes an hour and the magnets within the cradle snap securely to the Watch GT 2.

Conclusion

In case you are searching for a smartwatch with wonderful battery life and a few well being monitoring smarts, then the Huawei Watch GT2 is what you’re searching for.

The design is nice from any angle, and the full-colour AMOLED panel is beautiful.

We just like the always-on lock display screen and loudspeaker, virtually as a lot as we love the week+ battery life.

The Watch GT 2 does fall brief on some features when in comparison with others on the market, and it received’t play with third-party apps, so may postpone critical health freaks. Nevertheless, for the remainder of us looking for a handsome watch with a fantastic well being tracker for lower than £200, the Huawei Watch GT2 will get our vote.

Worth and availability

The Huawei Watch GT 2 46mm is available in two flavours, the black-cased Sport (black or orange strap) which prices £199 and, the silver-cased Pebble Brown (leather-based strap with a spare sports activities strap included) for £219.99 as reviewed right here.