the smart health connected watch sports champion of autonomy

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 You may have been lucky enough to find her under the tree. Know from these first lines that you have then one of the best smart health connected watches ever designed. That being said, what exactly can one expect when unpacking one's Huawei Watch GT ? Thorough answer in the lines below.

Huawei is not at his first attempt in terms of wearables. Still marketed, the Huawei Watch 2 (which itself succeeds the Watch's first name) was unanimously recommended as an excellent knockout. So what was the point of proposing a new declination, with a "GT" emblem that inevitably evokes cars that look voracious and pieces of gum that are sticky to bitumen?

In reality, the Huawei Watch GT represents something like a bet for the world's second-largest smartphone maker. Unlike his other watches, Huawei chose here to switch to a proprietary operating system. Exit Wear OS, and welcome to LiteOS.

As a result, Huawei produces a product that is as close as possible to its aspirations, and in total adequacy with EMUI, which equips the brand's phones. Still, the Huawei Watch GT does not do in discrimination, and remains fully compatible with any Android and iOS smartphone thanks to a companion app on which we will return in more detail a little further down.

The Huawei Watch GT Sport is available for 199 € and the Watch GT Classic for 249 €.

The Huawei Watch GT Sport. © Pierre Crochart for Clubic

Huawei Watch GT: the technical sheet

A good value for money. Here is in essence how one could analyze the technical sheet of the Huawei Watch GT by putting it in parallel with its price.

The Huawei Watch GT is :

• 1.39 "AMOLED display with a resolution of 454 x 454 pixels (326 dpi resolution)

• A Cortex-M4 SoC

• 16 MB of RAM / 128 MB of ROM

• 420 mAh battery

• Bluetooth 4.2

• GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO support

• Certified 5ATM for immersion up to 50 meters deep (the Watch GT Classic leather strap is not suitable for swimming

Point of Wear OS, nor of Snapdragon: Huawei signs here a product of rupture which, you will see it, proves itself perfectly convincing with the use.

But let's immediately note the lack of some features that can be annoying for some people. The Huawei Watch GT does not have NFC chip, and is therefore not intended for people wishing to pay for their purchases via Google Pay with the wrist.

It is also devoid of a microphone; you will have to draw a line on Google Assistant, which, in any case, is absent from the OS of Huawei.

It will be necessary to draw a line on Google Assistant

The manufacturer clearly displays it on the page dedicated to his product on his site: this is a watch intended primarily for athletes. In this sense, it has of course all the usual paraphernalia where the heart rate sensor (permanently active) alongside an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a pressure sensor and ambient light.

Finally, there is no AC adapter in the watch case. You will need to use the one on your smartphone to attach the USB-C charging base of the Watch GT.

A classic design, but well finished

Difficult to stand out in the small world of smart health connected watches. If Apple seems to be the only one to be successful in terms of design, most other manufacturers strive to stick to the closest real quartz watches sold in jewelery.

This Huawei Watch GT is no exception, and takes a form of the most timeless. The glass dial is barded with a black ceramic undeniably bringing a certain cachet to the whole.

The Huawei Watch GT has a sober and timeless design. © Pierre Crochart for Clubic

The case, all brushed stainless steel, shows (you have it?) Exemplary solidity, and the buttons on the right side of the device seem sturdy enough to confirm our first impression of overall strength.

The back of the watch is covered with a rather unattractive plastic but fortunately hidden by our wrist. In the center, we find the various sensors from which the watch will draw the valuable data that will be processed to offer various training and wellness tips in everyday life.

The back of the watch is a little less happy, but lets you notice that the bracelet is removable. © Pierre Crochart for Clubic

Sold for € 199, the Huawei Watch GT is adorned with a black silicone bracelet that has the good idea to have countless notches to fit all wrists. In return, this one is not very beautiful.

For 50 € more, the Classic version has a nice dark leather strap. But do not forget that the bracelet of both models is removable, and you will probably find more fanciful models to put under your wrist.

A screen not far from being irreproachable

Generously equipped with a 454-pixel AMOLED panel, the Watch GT screen is perfectly defined. No matter how far you look at your watch, the information will be displayed very clearly, and the pixels will only be visible by sticking your retina to the slab (do not do that at health home).

The screen is very well defined, but some dials are a little cheap. © Pierre Crochart for Clubic

With such a screen, it is all the more pity that the dials offered by Huawei are not quite up to the task. Analog dials suffer – as often in smart health connected watches – from an effect cheap which made us prefer the digital option throughout our Review.

Digital displays are very clear and informative. © Pierre Crochart for Clubic

Here, we are confronted with one of the limitations of LiteOS, the new operating system dedicated to wearables from Huawei. Can not get any apps or download more dials. It will be necessary to bend to the good will of the manufacturer in the matter.

A perfectly responsive watch

Impossible to add dials and applications, of course, but it allows Huawei to offer a particularly lightweight OS – as its name suggests. Huawei thus masters his work, and delivers a watch infinitely more reactive than the TicWatch C2 that we tested in mid-December.

The Cortex-M4 processor does wonders, even with its only 16 MB of RAM available. This is thanks to a big.LITTLE architecture that combines high performance hearts with more efficient ones, cleverly spreading the load to offer a more fluid experience.

Switching from one screen to the other is done smoothly, and especially without having to use it several times to make the screen understand what you want to do.

Autonomy of very, very high fly

This is probably the most positive point we have to take on this Huawei Watch GT: autonomy is simply insane. On his site, Huawei is really not afraid of words, and trumpets that his knockout is able to hold 2 full weeks, and up to 30 days if you disable continuous heart rate monitoring.

With a battery of only 420 mAh, we had all the trouble in the world to believe the promises of the Chinese manufacturer in the field. And yet.

After 8 days of use, the battery still showed a proud 18%. © Pierre Crochart for Clubic

Yet difficult to blame the figures advanced by Huawei. Unpacked on a Wednesday noon, the watch did not hit the road until Saturday afternoon … the following week! I wore it every day with activated notifications, continuous heart rate monitoring, and during my workouts three to four times a week.

The watch only fell on Saturday afternoon … the following week!

In its most intensive mode of operation, ie continuous physical activity monitoring with the heart rate sensor and GPS continuously activated, the manufacturer announces a battery life of 22h . This is more than the majority of other smart health connected watches that, to achieve the result, must be limited to a time display.

This is one of the most enduring smart health connected watches on the market.

A lightweight but functional chick

How did Huawei accomplish this feat? Largely thanks to LiteOS, which comes here to replace rather advantageously (at least for athletes) Google's Wear OS. Unfortunately, if you design the perfect smart health connected watch as a true digest of Gadget Inspector technology, you may be a little bit showered here.

We have already said above, but the Huawei Watch GT does not have a microphone. You can not make calls or dictate your messages, or use Google Assistant, or any other voice assistant to search the Internet.

Can not add applications to your knockdown either; you will have to deal with those preinstalled. And to say that there is only for sports.

In terms of applications, the Huawei Watch GT has only sports features to offer. © Pierre Crochart for Clubic

We will find in the list of available applications that activity tracking programs, weather, and the one designed to track you during your sleep to provide you with tips to sleep better.

In the same way, the settings of the watch are reduced to a minimum, as are the possibilities of customization. It is only possible to modify the general brightness of the watch, and other very basic parameters. As such, I particularly regret the impossibility of defining certain shortcuts via a particular gesture as it is often possible to do it on Wear OS. But even so, the same concern for content poverty would arise.

Rest assured, however, it is completely possible to control the music you listen to from the Huawei Watch GT, which automatically detects when a media player is running.

So you have to understand that the possibilities offered by the watch alone are quite limited. It must be added to the services of Huawei Health, an application available on both Android and iOS, to unlock its full potential.

Huawei Health is fully compatible with iOS and has no limitations. © Pierre Crochart for Clubic

I was pleased to see that the applications were the same on a Huawei smartphone as iPhone, confirming the full compatibility of the watch regardless of your device. A bit like the iOS Health app, Huawei Health aggregates all the data collected by the watch, and offers you analyzes and various recommendations presented in a pleasant way.

Small flat nevertheless on the GPS part of the application: when launching an activity (eg race, cycling or just walking), the watch goes tracker your itinerary for you to consult a posteriori via the app. I would have appreciated that the display of routes is a little easier (you have to walk a little in the menus to find it), especially since the Huawei Watch GT is particularly accurate in its geolocation.

The Huawei Health application is particularly rich in data and visualizations.

Huawei Watch GT: Clubic's opinion

Displayed at 199 €, it is safe to say that the Huawei Watch GT currently represents the best value for money possible on the smart health connected watch segment. At least if you are looking in this type of device the perfect companion for your sport. Betted with sensors, comfortable both under water and on the surface, Huawei's watch is also coupled with a minimally invasive application that is rich in information.

In return, it must be remembered that if Huawei decided to do without Wear OS, it is also to the detriment of the features of his watch which, at the end of a sports activity, is finally satisfied to serve as relay to your notifications. A choice, which nevertheless allows the Watch GT to establish itself as the champion in any category in terms of autonomy. Recall that after a big week of use, the smart health connected watch was still not out of breath.

In the end, you will have to wonder why you want to buy a smart health connected watch. If this type of device is, in any case, very targeted to athletes, city dwellers can usually find their account. This may not be the case here, given the lack of customization (applications, dials, etc.) allowed by Huawei on his health home OS.

But once accepted these meager compromises, we take full advantage of an excellent product for a price defying all competition.

Huawei Watch GT

+ Well finished watch

+ Impeccable screen

+ Performance at the rendezvous

+ Monstrous autonomy

+ Very precise GPS

– Silicone bracelet a little cheap

– Little customization on LiteOS

– Reserved for athletes in priority

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