Huawei Watch GT in the Review: record-breaking battery life

The smartwatch Huawei Watch GT convinces with good features and long battery life. In the Review, we explain why you still have to cut corners.

Design & scope of delivery

The silver Watch GT arrives at the customer neatly packaged, with a magnetic charging cradle and a USB-C cable. The round AMOLED display, enclosed by a non-rotating bezel, measures 1.39 inches. The diameter of the case is 46.5 millimeters. The thickness of the watch is 10.5 millimeters. The workmanship is high quality and so there are no sharp edges or any unclean material transitions.

The housing is made of stainless steel, only the back is made of plastic. The sensors for heart rate measurement and the two charging contacts are located there. Magnets installed in the charging station not only hold the watch firmly and align it appropriately. If you put the watch on, it literally snaps into the correct position. Although the charging contacts then meet perfectly, there is one disadvantage compared to wireless systems: if the contact surfaces of the watch are dirty, correct alignment will not help.

In addition to the touch-sensitive display, two function buttons are also installed for operation. These are also made of metal and have a clean pressure point. A total of 13 skins have been available for the dial design since the latest software update. These range from classic analog clock designs to very colorful displays for tech fans.

The bracelet is mostly made of silicone, but still looks high-quality thanks to the brown leather application. The strap with a width of 22 millimeters is comfortable to wear and provides a sufficiently secure hold for the 46 gram watch. The bracelet has a practical quick-change clasp, which we already know from other smartwatches. Accordingly, other bracelets can easily be built on the watch.

Furnishing

An ARM Cortex-M4 ensures the computing power of the smartwatch. We do not find many details about the processor; in practice, the performance is definitely sufficient to ensure smooth and smooth operation. The very bright AMOLED display has a resolution of 454 × 454 pixels. Reading in direct sunlight is not a problem. In practice, use was only critical at night. Because even at the lowest brightness level, the watch is still very bright.

The Watch GT's battery has a capacity of 420 mAh and, according to Huawei, should last up to a record-breaking 30 days. In practice, this only works when the watch is not in use. But even with an active Bluetooth connection and permanent heart rate measurement, the watch gets a good ten to twelve days of battery life in the Review. The Watch GT even beats the good performance of the Samsung Galaxy Watch (Review report). If you use the watch every day to measure training sessions, you are likely to get a few days less. For a week, the watch should still hold out. A criticism of many smartphone haters is definitely lost: Daily charging of the watch is definitely not necessary with this model.

Only Bluetooth is available for communication. WLAN or even an LTE modem are not installed. An NFC module is apparently installed, but there are currently no applications that work with it. GPS, Glonass and Galileo are used simultaneously to determine the position as precisely as possible. In practice, this works well, reliably and quickly.

The TruSee 3.0 heart rate monitoring from Huawei is used to measure the heart rate. We could not Review the accuracy due to the lack of comparison options, but the measurement works at least reliably. Even if the bracelet is not extremely tight, there are no errors in measuring the pulse.

In addition, a compass module, barometer, gyroscope, acceleration and light sensor are installed. The watch is water resistant up to 5 ATM. This means that she can safely stay on her wrist even when swimming.

software

When it comes to software, Huawei goes its own way with the Watch GT – apart from Wear OS or Tizen. The operating system Lite OS is very simple and reduced to the bare essentials. The advantage of the system can be seen in the good battery life. The stripped-down operating system works very energy-saving.

The Huawei Health app is used to connect to the smartphone. Here you can find both the recorded data and various settings for the clock. Updates of the Watch GT are also transferred to the watch via the app. This takes about five minutes and works without any problems in the Review.

The operation of the smartwatch is intuitive. All existing applications run reliably and smoothly. Only with dry fingers, there are occasionally slight problems with touchscreen operation – especially when scrolling up and down.

The pre-installed training programs are suitable for cyclists, joggers and swimmers. Anyone who uses the outdoor programs must wait until the position has been determined. This works pleasantly quickly in the Review and rarely takes longer than a minute.

In addition to the alarm clock, heart rate monitoring, activity and sleep tracker, there is also a telephone search function. Altimeter, compass, weather forecast and a stopwatch are also available. The watch reliably displays messages, for example from Skype. But that's about it with the applications currently available for the watch.

There are no additional skins or any additional apps for the Watch GT. Messages that are received on the smartphone are shown on the watch, but answers via smartwatch do not work. Refusing calls works; Answering or even using the watch is not possible. Saving music does not work with the Watch GT either. The weather forecast will not work reliably without a smart health connected smartphone. In a nutshell, the amount of options is extremely limited compared to other smartwatches.

variants

In addition to the classic silver variant we tested, Huawei also offers the Watch GT as a sports model. The only difference is the color and the bracelet, which is made entirely of silicone.

Watch GT silver

Watch GT black

Conclusion

Compared to other smartwatches, the Watch GT only has a very limited surface. On the other hand, it convinces with simple operation, a successful design and a great battery life. Ultimately, it is a mixture of a real smartwatch and a pure sports watch.

Anyone who has been on the road with a fitness bracelet or a classic wristwatch should definitely take a closer look at the Watch GT. We like the concept, despite the limitations.

If you want to do a lot more with your watch than just tracking the sports program, you should better look for an alternative, such as the Galaxy Watch (Review report). The battery of the Samsung smartwatch only lasts about five days, but it offers a lot of apps and countless skins.

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