Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro review: Fitness meets finery
Quick verdict
This Huawei is a perfect choice for those who want a smart sports watch that records all of the sessions they may want, with decent data levels and an indefatigable battery life. And given the materials used in its construction and the design craftsmanship, it's also pretty good value for money.
For
Materials of luxury
Lightweight and elegant
Lots of ways of exercise and activity monitoring
Heart-rate monitor revised
Long lifetime of batteries
Against
Bright OLED still has a low refresh rate,
Quite simple notification system
No Third Party Music Support
No contactless services for payment
HIIT workout struggles
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(Pocket-lint) - When Huawei first stepped away from Google's Wear OS and went off and did its own thing with the Watch GT, there were a few points that stood out. Huawei promised seemingly impossible battery life from a watch with a full-colour OLED screen. But the device was also surprisingly limited - at least in comparison with 'proper' smartwatches.
Now we're a few generations into the lifecycle of the Huawei Watch, what's become apparent is that Huawei needs to make a core feature of activity tracking, which is something missing in Wear OS watches.
That focus has already led to the Watch GT 2e - a very affordable solution with 100+ different activity tracking options - and now, with the Watch GT 2 Pro, Huawei is building on that platform: a watch with very similar performance, but built from much more luxurious materials.
Design and build
- Dimensions: 46.7 x 46.7 x 11.4mm / Weight: 52g
- Sapphire crystal glass over the display
- Finishes: Nebula Grey / Night Black
- Leather strap with 'Classic' model
- Titanium 46mm case
There are two GT 2 Pro models: the Classic and the Sport. In these summary pictures, the former is the one you'll see. It's the one that ships with a beautiful, soft, reasonably flexible leather band. It also comes with a spare rubber strap for when you want to go to the gym to run/go. The Sport model ships with an elastomer strip only.
The big design shift here is down to the materials. The case is made of titanium, a lightweight and robust metal, with a sapphire crystal lens capped off the screen and ceramic built on the underside.
It's tough and lightweight, but it has a fairly simplistic, minimal design. We love the look of it, particularly the way the reflective sapphire crystal glass that covers the black bezel and index contrasts nicely with the titanium's natural, duller grey.
The top glass is also fully smooth, which supports the minimalist look but also has an angled chamfer around the edges. The manner in which the leather strap joins the case is what we really admire. The curvature of the metal fixing points curves to form an almost uninterrupted line between the leather strap and the case, unlike previous versions.
No longer does it just appear strictly functional. Yet, using the quick-release catches, you can still quickly remove the strap to replace it with another. However, to make it look as smooth as the one that ships with the watch, you'll need one with the proper tapering.
The underside is almost as appealing as the top, which these days seems to be a theme among smartwatch manufacturers. The ceramic, glossy base curves gently upward into the sensing region of the heart rate, which features updated hardware that we will detail later in this review.
Display and performance
- 1.39-inch round AMOLED panel, 454 x 454 resolution
- 14-day battery life, 30hrs of GPS sports tracking
- Wireless charging
- 4GB storage
A lot is the same as it was before when it comes to viewing and hardware. Mostly, okay. On the front, the Pro has a similar round and bright OLED display that has a high resolution and therefore pixel density compared to many other smartwatches. That implies finer details noticeable on watch faces, but also that when you're outdoors, colours are vivid and simple to see.
When you lift your wrist, it triggers automatically, or you can trigger one of the handful of 'standby' screens - which are basically always-on watch faces that refresh every minute, rather than displaying animations second by second. It does cut into the epic battery life on offer when triggered, however, so that's worth considering.
It's useful for reading details while you're out running or working out, since it's quite a broad show. That's one aspect we've always enjoyed about the smartwatch platform of Huawei: you get loads of easy-to-read data and don't ever feel like the monitor gets too cluttered.
The GT 2 Pro is as good as you can get from a watch with a proper colour screen on it as far as battery life goes. You can get up to two weeks, Huawei says, and we weren't far from that in our everyday usage. The watch could go from 10-14 days between charges, depending on how many operations we monitored and how long those sessions were.
The low refresh-rate of the screen and also the fact that it is off most of the time by default make part of that. If you allow features such as the always-on monitor, or you use it a lot for GPS fitness tracking, you cut into that time, but still it has a much better battery life than anything from Wear OS, Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch devices.
The charging process is one thing that's improved in this Huawei. A truly wireless charging system has been replaced by the old magnetic disc with two physical contact points. It's still magnetic, but, like the competitive devices of Apple and Samsung, it uses wireless technology to deliver power. This also implies that you can top up the watch battery using your phone if you have a phone with reverse wireless charging.
Fitness tracking excellence
- 100+ workout modes - new additions include Golf and Skiing advancements
- Outdoor assistant, Offline navigator with auto-return route
- More accurate heart-rate readings
It's no secret that the Huawei operating system lacks a little bit of interactivity on its watches. The low refresh rate display means that animations are not the smoothest, while the basic level of notification support means that, with the Galaxy Watch 3 or Wear OS watches, you will not reply and respond to messages from your phone. But it is a concession made to extend the life of the battery.
Where Huawei excels is in details for fitness monitoring. We have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of data you can get with previous watches, particularly while running. And all the same, the activity list seems to be increasing. There are more than 100 different activity monitoring modes in the new iteration of Huawei's health offering, as seen in the GT 2 Pro, and - although some of those provide more simple details than others, this is still an impressive list.
A dedicated driving range mode is added for when you want to exercise your golf swing. In order to help you develop your form, it will offer you swing speed/tempo as well as show you your downswing and backswing stats. There is also a pro mode of skiing, designed to help track downhill and cross-country skiing and snowboarding.
If that was not enough, Huawei now has an offline navigator designed into the different modes of operation for outdoor/trail walking and running. That means that if you've lost your way a bit and just need to return to your starting point, it will help you find your way back.
Apply to that an outdoor assistant that gives you tide times, moon phases and weather warnings as well as sunrise/sunset times. All in all, that means that when you're out in the wild, you have an accomplished tool for staying healthy and conscious.
Combined with a new heart rate monitor - called TruSeen 4.0+ - this ensures that the physical activity and effort can also be monitored more accurately than ever. The LED lights that shine to make the work are brighter than before, while at the same time the power efficiency has been enhanced. Huawei has also implemented several machine learning capabilities to make data more reliable in computing as well.
What we found in our monitoring attempts was that the heart-rate tracker was just as accurate as any others we have tried for the normal activities, such as indoor cycling or outdoor running. The findings were comparable to the trackers for our Apple Watch, Samsung and Garmin.
However, where it failed was in high-intensity workouts. We noticed it would take almost 10 minutes to reliably start monitoring. The Watch GT 2 Pro claimed that with our pulse pounding after a few intervals, we were still plodding along at just above 100bpm - which is slightly above our heart rate while walking slowly - while the Apple Watch on the other wrist was showing 140-150bpm more accurately.
VerdictThe Pro model is a fantastic fitness and activity tracker, as with previous models of Watch GT, but one that is made using some of the finest materials this time.This is the Watch GT 2e in a lot of ways - a watch that we always enjoyed - but dressed in better clothes and with a more sophisticated sensor for heart rate. However, despite the latest sensor, Huawei still needs to figure out how to address the inaccuracy problems, among others, in HIIT workouts, which seem to take too long to start having an accurate reading.Overall, with decent data levels and a battery life that is unrivalled in a color-screen unit, the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is an excellent choice for those who want a smart sports watch that records all the sessions they may want.Given the materials used in its quality of construction and the craftsmanship in its design, it is also pretty good value for money.
Alternatives to consider
Apple Watch SE
The tech giant has brought us almost all the latest smartwatch features and fitness tracking with its more affordable Apple Watch model, but in a bundle that's far more available. The only downside is that only iPhones are compatible with the Apple Watch.
Garmin Venu
There's the Garmin Venu if what you want is an experienced sports and health monitoring watch with some of the modern-day conveniences of a smartwatch. With decent battery life and applications such as onboard music from Spotify/Amazon and Garmin Pay for payments, it features excellent sports features.
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