Review Huawei Watch GT 2: Noble fitness tracker in watch form

Is it a fitness tracker, is it a smartwatch? No, it’s the new Huawei Watch GT 2! In this Huawei Watch GT 2 review, we check whether the balancing act is successful.

Sports watches can usually be seen in their task, namely the recording and evaluation of sports activities. To this end, the manufacturers mainly rely on plastic and silicone bracelets. It goes well with sweatpants, in the evening it always looks unsuitable with a jacket. Even the first Huawei Watch GT (Review report) went a different way and tried it as a fitness tracker in the watch case – with great success. The successor Huawei Watch GT 2 continues this approach and brings some innovations that should make the watch even better. Is that enough to be a worthy successor?

We Review the Huawei Watch GT 2 as part of our themed world of sports watches, in which Fitbit Versa 2 (Review report), Polar Vantage M (Review report) or the Amazfit GTS (Review report) have already appeared.

Scope of delivery, design, furnishings

One thing has to be left with the Huawei Watch GT 2: it is chic. In contrast to the predecessor (Review report), the false bezel attached is chamfered on the edges of the display and the display glass and panel protrude without being restricted by a wall made of frames. As a result, the display quality is even better than before, despite the almost identical OLED display. In addition, the overall design looks higher quality. Thanks to the two mechanical control buttons on the right side, the device can hardly be distinguished from a real chronometer at first glance in daylight.

The dial can only be recognized as a luminous display and the high-quality metal body as a mixture of the top of the metal and the bottom of the plastic in a dark environment or on closer inspection. At the latest when the Watch GT 2 is no longer on the wrist but in the hand, the difference to a normal watch becomes obvious. Then you can see the plastic underside with the sensors for pulse measurement embedded in it. Incidentally, the wrong bezel is only available in the large version with 46 millimeters, which is tested here. The 42 millimeter version, which is also available, does not need one. In addition, the small version is also flatter (9.4 millimeters to 10.6 millimeters), the large version therefore offers longer battery life, among other things.

The chic metal housing in black, brushed aluminum with chrome applications or gray looks high-quality and stable. Our metallic version is delivered with a brown leather strap, a silicone strap is also included. The contents of the delivery box also include the charger, which magnetically docks and charges the watch in just 1.25 hours. This works best with two-part bracelets such as those supplied by Huawei, a continuous band with a folding clasp complicates the charging process minimally and the watch can then no longer lie flat on the bedside table. However, this rarely happens because of the strong battery, and the watch should also be worn at night and monitoring and evaluate sleep. In order for this to work, the Huawei Watch GT 2 wants to be smart health connected to a smartphone and the Huawei health app. The software is the linchpin – everything happens here, from connecting with a smartphone to evaluating sporting activities.

App

The Health app is mostly clearly structured and is divided into the areas of health, training, devices and account – corresponding tabs are located at the bottom of the display. In the health area, rough overview data on steps, calories burned, the last workout, heart rate, sleep and weight are presented. For the latter, coupling with a compatible scale, such as from Huawei, Honor or Picooc, is possible, otherwise the kilos can also be entered manually. Behind the rider training hide detailed information about the last training sessions. About the tab equipment Not only can smart health connected devices be added or removed, but users can also customize watch faces and transfer music to the Huawei Watch GT 2 here. There is 2 GB of internal memory available on the watch, users should take time to transfer it to the watch memory – despite Bluetooth 5.0, this is very slow.

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At the time of testing, 25 watch faces were available, and an update recently gave users the option of choosing their own background image. Additional information such as the number of steps or the battery level of the watch can still not be placed by yourself and the corresponding pre-placed ads are also not interactive. So if you press it to go directly to a corresponding submenu, you will be disappointed. The Account tab hides all sorts of information about the user, including motivation medals, weekly and monthly reports and settings with access to the interval of pulse and stress measurement.

A positive aspect of the Review was that training sessions and sleep analyzes are automatically synchronized. However, the respective process sometimes takes 10 to 20 seconds – the user notices this if he wants to see his sleep data immediately after getting up. We didn’t like the absence of automatic training detection, an automatic pause function, however, is hidden in the training settings and is deactivated at the factory. If you also want to listen to music during training, you must activate it before starting the training session and should also use headphones with a control option. After all, you can no longer get into the music control without ending the training.

everyday life

Even if the 46-millimeter version appears quite voluminous at first glance, it should not only look neat on average men’s wrists, but is comfortable to wear despite the relatively high weight of around 70 grams. For sporting activities, the silicone wristband is preferable, since a leather wristband usually shows the first signs of wear after a few weeks of more or less sweaty activity. In addition, the material becomes increasingly unsanitary in the long run. The silicone bracelet, on the other hand, is easy to wash off. Fortunately, there is nothing to be said against changing the bracelet to a third party, Huawei uses the 22-millimeter standard for bracelets for the Watch GT 2, so replacement is easy to find.

Worn as a watch in everyday life, the GT 2 cuts a very good figure, but users also have to live with some limitations. Apart from the chic look, the display is particularly noteworthy. It is round and measures 1.39 inches in diameter with a resolution of 454 × 454 pixels. This results in a sharpness of 326 pixels per inch and can confidently be described as sharp. Because of the use of an OLED screen, the panel scores with deepest black and vivid colors, and the viewing angle independence is excellent, which enhances the impression of a real clock face. This impression is supported by so-called 3D glass, which looks pretty impressive overall. The Huawei Watch GT 2 also has an ambient light sensor that automatically regulates the display brightness if desired. This minimizes the glare in very dark surroundings and enables basic readability even in the sunshine – even if the latter works better with a shadow-giving hand.

The presentation on the great screen also scores with the presentation of the individual areas. Operation is very simple: by swiping sideways, the user changes through five additional, defined functions. They include pulse display, stress level, weather, music control for the first time and daily goals. All data are underlaid with small animations – sometimes a heart pulsates, then stylized clouds move across the small display or the song title scrolls through the picture. There is of course something moving on the 25 watch faces at the time of the Review, mostly it is the second hand. Overall, this looks very plastic and pleasing.

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If you want to have WiFi or NFC, you will be disappointed – there are neither. That’s a shame, because the watch just looks great and almost every current smartwatch has these functions today. Owners of the Watch GT 2 can use the built-in microphone and loudspeaker to make phone calls up to a distance of several dozen meters from their smartphone. This works surprisingly well because the speaker is surprisingly loud for its tiny size. What should hardly be used in most cases (the only person who is allowed to speak in his wristwatch and looks cool is David “the Hoff” Hasselhoff as Michael Knight!) Makes sense if the smartphone is still in the bedroom while you are making coffee in the kitchen.

The operation of the watch is unfortunately not quite smooth. Slight stutters can be seen again and again; overall, the frame rate for movements seems to be around 20 frames per second. It’s not a broken leg that the new Kirin A1, which powers the Watch GT 2, is jerky, but it diminishes the good impression it usually makes.

Huawei can obviously still use some tutoring for the implementation of the always-on display. Because the user of the watch has to decide whether he wants to have a completely deactivated display, that the typical “watch-the-clock movement” is fully activated – or whether he wants to see a permanent time display that saves electricity is reduced and requires a push of a button to activate. A combination of both methods is not possible for some invisible reason. Another disadvantage and an indication that Huawei sees the GT 2 more as a fitness tracker than as a smartwatch: there are no freely installable apps. Despite the built-in GPS with Glonass support, real navigation without a smartphone is therefore not possible. By the way, while the upper button always leads to the main watch face, the lower button can be freely assigned.

notification

Unfortunately, not everything works as well as making calls on the Huawei Watch GT 2. This way, notifications can be received and the source – such as Whatsapp or Skype – is displayed correctly, but it is not possible to reply. Even if several messages are received, they can no longer be read individually. Instead, there is only the hint that X messages about service Y have been received and unread. After all, umlauts are displayed correctly, but the clock does not show emojis. We also had to prohibit Google Maps from relaying messages to the Watch GT 2 during the Review period, as updated route information came in every few minutes for the journey to or from work. Incidentally, the watch acknowledges incoming messages either by sound or, alternatively, by vibrations with adjustable intensity.

sleep

Big Brother is watching you – even while sleeping. At least that is what Miesepeter could say about the sleep tracking of the Huawei Watch GT 2. The rest of the people are probably more happy that the Health app in conjunction with the watch, which is also worn at night, provides tips for better and healthier sleep. In doing so, she not only examines the duration of sleep, but also differentiates between deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep and breathing quality. In the evaluation, users can then see whether the sleep was restful and clicking on any problems that are identified opens tips for correcting or improving the problem. Heart rate and stress levels are measured in the smart preset depending on the activity and the watch warns of particularly high or – especially outside of sporting activities – particularly low level. The bedtime detection worked very well and roughly matched the times when we went to bed and got up in the Review.

training

Speaking of training: The Huawei Watch GT 2 differentiates between 15 different sports such as running, cycling, swimming, mountain hiking or triathlon. Heart rate monitors, pedometers, GPS and barometers help to determine the correct values. In addition, the gadget offers 13 running plans from beginner to professional, with which the ability of the user to improve should be increased. In addition to medals for certain successes, the so-called intelligent companion can also be activated as a motivation aid, which is nothing more than an imaginary time previously set by the user that can be beaten in further runs. This is reminiscent of racing games on the computer, in which a ghost car is faded in on the track, showing the times previously driven or those of rivals.

As in the game, the watch also provides information via Bluetooth-smart health connected headphones as to whether the intelligent companion is currently faster or slower than the current time – but unfortunately currently only in English. Users should watch out for swimming activities. Huawei specifies the water resistance at 5 ATM, but this is usually only enough for normal swimming on the surface. Diving deeper or jumping into the water could still damage the watch. When bathing, in a heavy rain shower or in the shower, i.e. away from extreme sports, this is not a problem.

In everyday life we ​​were impressed by the pedometer and pulse measurement with measurements that also matched those of other fitness trackers. In sporting activity, however, the pulse always seemed to be delayed. During a mountain hike it happened that the tester could already hear the pulse in his inner ear, which indicates greater stress. A look at the watch in smart continuous pulse measurement mode, however, only promised a frequency of around 100. A minute later, however, after the tester was able to regenerate briefly, the watch showed a pulse of around 130. Changing the continuous measurement from smart to Real-time could fix the problem, but it costs battery power. This setting can be found in the Health app under Devices, a tap on the watch and then below Continuous heart rate measurement. The data collected can currently only be linked to Google Fit and MyFitnessPal.

Battery life

The battery life is the unique selling point of the Huawei Watch GT 2. In the 46-millimeter version, the manufacturer speaks of runtimes of up to 14 days – this should hardly be achievable in reality. The real runtime isn’t far from that either. In the Review, the GT 2 with a good pulse tracking and always-on display lasted a good 5 days, even a week was possible. With a motion-controlled display and moderate use, the week was easily exceeded, the rule was 1.5 weeks. A Smartwatch with WearOS or an Apple Watch is far from such values, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch is also out of the question. The watch is charged via a magnetic charging base, which takes up to 1, 25 hours and is therefore quite quick.

Price

The price of the Huawei Watch GT 2 starts at the time of testing from 199 dollars, but there is the 42 millimeter version. The 46-millimeter version tested here starts at 226 for the black and silver version, the gray elite version starts at 279 dollars.But there is also discount.

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Conclusion

The question asked at the beginning, whether the Huawei Watch GT 2 is now a smartwatch or rather a fitness tracker, can be answered clearly: both and neither. Some features are missing for both, but they more or less master both disciplines. Ultimately, it depends on the use of a prospective buyer. Particularly ambitious hobby and especially professional athletes who want to regularly push their line to the limit should rather use other products. Because they either need better water resistance, automatic training detection or maybe even a measurement of the oxygen level in the blood.

If you expect the full scope of a smartwatch, with which you can respond to individual messages not only by reading, but also by voice, quick access or even a micro-onscreen keyboard, you are just as wrong here as someone who wants to expand the watch via apps. Paying with the GT 2 does not work due to the lack of NFC.

Again to clarify: The GT 2 is not a complete smartwatch, but rather a fitness tracker for health home use in the guise of a chic wristwatch that is aimed at casual athletes. But then they are not only rewarded with a nice appearance, but also with a grandiose display, nice presentation of the features and an outstanding battery life.

AB SMART HEALTH REVIEW