Huawei is back with the second edition of its smartwatch range and with a strong battery it certainly delivers – Rating 4/5
I’ve been looking to buy a smartwatch for a while, but have always been cautious where to spend my money.
I have looked at smartwatches in the past and have been put off by the price and also questioned whether I really needed or if they are nothing more than a gimmick.
But now after seeing the benefits of having a wearable, for fitness and health purposes I thought it was time to step it up a notch.
Fortunately, I was at the Huawei Mate 30 series launch in Munich where the Huawei Watch GT 2 was unveiled and provided me with the chance to see if a smartwatch is for me after all.
I put the GT 2 through its paces, where I was able to test the 46mm variant (there is also a slightly smaller 42mm one).
To get started I headed into the App Store and download the ‘Huawei Health App’, which acts as the hub for all the various data such as steps, heart rate monitors etc.
It took a fair bit of time to get the watch set up what with the data transferring, but the simplicity of pairing my iPhone to the GT 2 to get it to update was amazing. It even tells you when your watch is updating.
I wanted to see how simple it would be to pair an Apple device with a Huawei one and unsurprisingly this wasn’t the easiest of transitions.
The data transfer, for example, took a while, as did the update for the Watch GT 2 itself and this proved a little frustrating but once it was done the transition was seamless.
Hardware specs (46mm series)
Dimensions: 45.9 x 45.9 x 10.7 mm
Weight: 41g (without the strap)
Display: 46 mm Series: 1.39 inch AMOLED 454 x 454 HD
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.1
GPS: Yes
Battery life: 46 mm Series: 14 days for typical use.
Charger Voltage and Current Requirements:
5V0.5A / 1A /1.5A / 2A
Sensors: Accelerometer sensor
Gyroscope sensor
Geomagnetic sensor
Optical heart rate sensor
Ambient light sensor
Air pressure sensor
Capacitive sensor
System requirements: Android 4.4 or iOS 9.0 or later
Water resistance: 5 ATM water-resistant
Colour availability: Black, Orange, Brown and Grey
Well, aesthetically it’s pleasing both on the eye and to wear.
I’m a big fan of the watch face which with the AMOLED display brings a clear picture to life, while it just looks smart and stylish with the strap too.
It also helps that the GT 2 is comfortable to wear and reacts very well to hand and slide motions.
Updating: The watch will display when it is updating
I also like the level of customisation on the GT 2, which is simply done by holding down on the screen for a couple of seconds. This action triggers a variety of different watch-faces, from classic designs to ones with stripes and speedometers.
One thing that did leave me stumped was the feature of testing stress levels. While it was a cool feature, I could not find this on my Huawei Health App, despite even clicking on the ‘help’ button and following the instructions.
A quick look the internet revealed that I’ve not been the only to have this problem, but perhaps this might be down to me being an Apple user instead.
It performs as most smartwatches do. It gives you a host of fitness information from heart rate to steps counted.
The main screen will have icons with the weather, steps, heart rate and battery life which is always helpful.
Although I’m not entirely sure the step counter was completely accurate, I did enjoy getting messages along the lines of “get up and get active you lazy so and so”.
Huawei didn’t quite put it like that, but it’s good to be reminded to try and achieve in what was my case 10,000 steps a day.
App: Huawei Health App displays your stats, even on iPhone
One thing I was impressed with was the ability to take calls while on the move, but more importantly the sound quality of these calls.
Another hugely important feature is the battery and when spending over £200 on a smartwatch you want to make sure it has a strong battery life.
In particular, I’ve heard that Apple watches generally don’t last any longer than a day, and if used a fair bit, not even that.
So it was reassuring to hear Huawei say that Watch GT 2 can last up to two weeks. But does this really stack up?
It’s fair to say that the battery does hold up well which for a piece of smart tech such as this is a major bonus.
To charge it up it is relatively simple, as the watch clips onto the magnetic charging thimble where a USB port takes the USB type C Huawei charging cable.
Asides from having a strong battery life, one which does last the best part of two weeks ‘ as Huawei suggests ‘ it also takes next to no time to charge the Watch GT 2 up.
For the money, it’s a steal. If you’ve got a Huawei smartphone then its simple to set up and would compliment this device brilliantly.
However, it’s not just confined to Huawei phones as I was able to set it up with no problem on my iPhone through the Huawei Health app.
The Watch GT 2 looks and feels stylish and I loved having the ability to modify the watch face so easily just to give the watch my own personalised customisation.
Huawei claims about the strong battery life was also refreshingly backed up and this was a big win for the Watch GT 2.
If I have any qualms about my experience with the Watch GT 2 then it’s around the reliability of the step count. At times it didn’t feel like it was being clocked accurately, but that said this can always be difficult to know for sure.
Overall though, it’s a brilliant piece of kit and certainly can rival what the likes of Apple and Samsung can offer.
