Design and Build

The Huawei Watch GT exudes a classic and timeless aesthetic. Available in two sizes: the Huawei Watch GT 4 46mm with an Octagonal design and the Huawei Watch GT 4 41mm with a sleek Pendant design, these watches feature round faces with minimal bezels and two multifunctional buttons on the right side for navigation and activity control. While the buttons lack a tactile feel, they get the job done. Both the 46mm and 41 mm are available in three vibrant colour options with customisable Huawei Easyfit Straps, and watch faces.

Both variants boast a bright and easily readable display, even in direct sunlight. Additionally, Huawei has integrated a speaker and microphone into the watch, enabling calls and voice assistant access. Both models are water-resistant up to 5ATM, adding durability to their sleek designs.

Battery Life and Health Tracking

One standout feature of the Huawei Watch GT is its exceptional battery life. The GT 4 41mm claims up to 7 days of battery life, while the GT 4 46mm extends that to an impressive 14 days. Enabling the always-on display does reduce battery life, but even then, it remains commendable at around four days on a single charge. The extended battery life proves essential for continuous health tracking.

Health tracking is where the Huawei Watch GT truly shines. Equipped with a variety of sensors, including heart rate and PulseOx, it provides comprehensive health data. The watch monitors sleep patterns, restlessness, stress levels, and “body battery,” offering valuable insights into overall well-being. Extended battery life ensures uninterrupted data collection, which is crucial for a holistic understanding of one’s health.

Software and Notifications

While the Huawei Watch GT may not match the complexity and app variety of some competitors, its software interface excels in simplicity and efficiency. Notifications are reliably delivered, ensuring you stay connected with your smartphone. However, the notifications themselves lack advanced features like quick replies regardless of application or email archiving, a drawback compared to the Apple Watch and Wear OS devices.

The watch’s software truly shines in the morning report feature, providing a quick summary of your sleep quality, daily schedule, and weather forecast upon waking up. The watch’s large and vibrant AMOLED screen enhances the visual appeal of this feature. Additionally, the smartphone app offers in-depth health reports, enabling users to analyze their health metrics over various timeframes.

Software Challenges

Despite its strengths, the Huawei Watch GT does face some software challenges. Customizing watch faces can be frustrating due to a lack of developer support and clunky interfaces. Huawei needs to improve its developer kit to enhance the user experience.

Another area needing attention is the process of purchasing watch faces. Developers often employ creative solutions, such as inputting codes or “unlock keys,” making it feel like the Wild West of smartwatch software development. Streamlining this process would improve the overall usability of the watch.

Seamless Pairing

Huawei excels in the seamless pairing of the watch with a smartphone. The process is straightforward, with the watch connecting to the app within seconds. This simplicity benefits users who frequently switch between phones and provides an excellent user experience.

Workout and Activity Tracking

Starting and tracking workouts on the Huawei Watch GT 4 is effortless. The watch offers various activity modes, and with a press of a button, you can start recording your exercise. While the watch attempts to automatically detect walking or running activities, this feature may be inconsistent. Manual initiation is a reliable alternative.

During workouts, the watch displays vital data such as duration, pace, and heart rate. Notably, the watch features a wheelchair mode, expanding its functionality to a broader range of users. After completing an activity, users can review detailed statistics, including a map of their route.

An essential feature for any smartwatch is nap detection. The Huawei Watch GT automatically detects naps, eliminating the need for manual input. This data contributes to overall health insights and influences the watch’s sleep coaching function.

Charging the Huawei Watch GT 4 is straightforward but relies on a proprietary cable. A wireless charging option would be a welcome addition. Additionally, the watch supports contactless payments through Huawei Pay, although the service is not available in South Africa yet.

The Huawei Watch GT impresses with its focus on health tracking, extended battery life, and user-friendly pairing. Its classic design and comfortable strap contribute to its appeal. While some software aspects require refinement, such as watch face customization and payment methods, the watch excels in delivering essential health data.

For those seeking a smartwatch that balances health tracking and longevity, the Huawei Watch GT 4 is a compelling choice. Its ability to last over a week on a single charge sets it apart, making it a formidable competitor in the smartwatch market. Whether you prioritize sleep monitoring or overall wellness, this watch can help you achieve your health goals. Priced at R6999.99, it offers a competitive alternative to iOS and Wear OS watches.

Most of that has been due to the Huawei Watch GT’s battery life, a trait that the newly launched Huawei Watch GT 2e continues.

As the name might suggest, the Huawei Watch GT 2e is a rather small incremental update to the company’s Watch GT 2. The latter was launched in the second half of 2019 so there might not have been much time to make significant changes in time for the Huawei P40. Fortunately, it still has the same features that made the older smartwatch a hit.

Inside, the Watch GT 2e smartwatch is powered by Huawei’s first self-developed wearable chipset, the Kirin A1. The chip provides for low-power computing and long-lasting battery life for workout tracking, heart rate detection, sleep monitoring and other features.

Similar to its bigger sibling, the Watch GT 2e smartwatch supports smart tracking for more than 100 sports, including 15 professional sport modes, eight of which are outdoor sports (running, walking, climbing, hiking, cross-country running, cycling, open water swimming and triathlon), while the other seven are indoor sports (walking, running, cycling, swimming in a pool, free training, elliptical machine and rowing machine).

While the battery life is advertised to last for 14 days. That’s thanks to a combination of a large 455 mAh battery, an energy-saving HiSilicon Hi1132 chip, and Huawei’s custom smartwatch OS.

In terms of other specs, it still has a large 1.39-inch 454×454 screen in an equally large 46mm body. There’s 4 GB of storage inside for your songs which you can play on paired headsets via Bluetooth 5.1. It seems to have just the basics and a bit more when it comes to tracking, including GPS, step, sleep, heart rhythm and blood oxygen levels. The latter can help users improve their health by learning more about their SpO2 status.

The Huawei GT 2e will set you back R3 499.

According to the report, Huawei maintained a high share of the wearable market in the first quarter of 2020, with a year-on-year wearables shipment increase of 62.2%.

In the smartwatch segment, 16.9 million units of smartwatches were shipped in the first quarter of 2020, down 7.1% year on year. Huawei ranked second with 2.6 million units shipped, up 118.5% year on year, making it the only smartwatch brand to grow more than 100%. Much of this success can be attributed to the new HUAWEI WATCH GT 2 Series devices launched in the first quarter of 2020.

Throughout the various workouts, we discovered that the GT 2 gives you all the vital information you would need throughout the day and more importantly during your workout whether it’s at the gym, outdoors, on a bike or even underwater. It is really a personal trainer on your wrist. It stores all your information and displays it as and when you need it, giving you updates every 10 minutes on the progress of your chosen activity and how your body is fairing against the activity.

The notifications we received from the GT 2 included a built in GPS, letting you know where you are or how far you’ve gone on that hiking trail; a calorie counter, which was remarkably accurate; a heart rate monitor and distance tracker, amongst others. You can also configure the watch to your specific workout, in order for it to give you the relevant statistics against your performance. While allowing you to listen to music, receive and speak on calls (only on the 46mm series) from a distance of up to 150m away from your phone, the GT 2 also provides various notifications from your phone, allowing you to decide which ones you’d like to have appear on the watch’s screen.

https://youtu.be/KRYuVWyFppU

As you can already tell, the GT 2 is not just a fitness watch, the design is sleek and slim and allows you to switch the durable rubber strap for a fashionable leather strap. This speaks to how versatile the watch is and how it has literally been created to be your companion throughout the day. The sleek design, when using the leather strap, looks professional, casual and sophisticated, all at the same time. The different looks are also emphasized by the different dial options.

The GT 2 is not just a fitness watch…

The watch also has 4GB of storage, which allows it to keep up to 500 songs downloaded for your listening pleasure and to keep pumped when exercising.

In short, it is actually more than a personal trainer; it’s more of a versatile companion, that fits into every part of your busy schedule, keeping you safe, informed, entertained, and stylish every step of the way, even in your sleep. Pricing for the Watch GT 2 is R4 999 for the most extravagant version of the watch.

Words by Manqoba Kubheka