8.3.2019

I've only had this watch a few days, and so far, I love it. It does not pretend to do everything that an Android Wear smartwatch does, but everything that it does, it does well.I have previously owned a Huawei W1 Classic, which I returned, as it was just too flaky. Apart from that, its battery life was useless; especially if you wanted to use it for sleep monitoring.For the last 18 months I've had a Huawei Fit Watch, which has decent battery life, but a dull monochrome display, and difficult user interface. That device provides in a decent sleep monitor (although it thinks you are asleep if you stay very still) and step counter, and when taken for a walk or run with a smart phone,combines GPS data from that device to plot the route, using the Health App, and computes stride length, cadence etc. It provides message notifications and vibrates when phone calls are received. It's heart rate monitor takes intermittent samples, and is a bit flaky; sometimes producing erroneous, dangerously high, one sample long peaks.The Huawei Watch GT should be considered to be the replacement for the FIT, and not a member of the W1, W2 smartwatch family. It starts with the functionality of the FIT watch, adds to it, and removes most of its weaknesses. It's display is bigger, brighter, crisper, and colourful. There are are a number of faces to choose from, (more since a firmware update), but unfortunately, they are not customisable.The user interface is greatly improved by the addition of 2 chunky buttons, and the battery life has improved further. I've used 10% in 2 days, which has included a large amount of time spent investigating its capabilities. The heart rate monitor operates continuously, and is now reliable, but a bit laggy (probably due to the low powered, low power processor it uses).Sleep tracking seems to be accurate, measuring and displaying periods of wakefulness, deep sleep, light sleep and REM. It also analyses breathing and the App computes an overall figure of merit for "sleep quality". it also provides useful lifestyle tips to improve sleep continuity, breathing, deep sleep, etc. In that respect it has the same functionality as the FIT but it does it better - probably because it uses improved sensor technology, and can afford to monitor heart rate continuously.It now incorporates GPS, so you don't need to take your phone with you to translate the steps taken into an accurate route. However, although the route appears as a google maps - like graphic in the app, and although it computes the average speed, stride length, etc, it doesn't have a data export function, so you if you want the route stored, to be analysed, or input into other apps, you will still need to take your phone or other GPS device with you).The GT incorporates barometer, altimeter and compass so the route analysis includes climbs and descents, for more accurate computation of calories burnt. Although it uses the same App as the FIT, I now get a calculation of the aerobic training effect, V02 Max and recovery time which I did not get with the FIT. Also, I now get all the information in easy to read displays on the watch itself. Similarly, although I received message and call alerts on the FIT, the messages were difficult to read and to scroll through, but on the GT they work well.The phone includes a wider range of exercises than available on the app, including climbing, outdoor and indoor cycling, pool swim, and open water swim. I haven't yet investigated how those get analysed and stored in the app.So, if you are frustrated by the poor battery life of Android Wear watches, are interested in monitoring your activity and tracking your sleep, but don't :a) take your exercise so seriously that you need to have an instantaneous pulse measurement,b) need to be able to download your GPS data - e.g. to analyse where in the run you slowed downc) you don't feel the need to be able to answer your phone to control your music , or to navigate using google maps from your watchd) can put up with the watch faces provided by HuaweiThen this watch is probably what you are looking for.

16.4.2020

I’ve liked Huawei’s watches for a while. I prefer them (and Samsung watches) to Wear OS watches. The big difference between Huawei and Samsung of course is the operating system. Samsung give you far more apps, but Huawei gives you MUCH longer battery life. So do you want a Smartwatch that does fitness on your wrist with a 2 day battery life, or do you want a stylish fitness tracker and watch on your wrist that also happens to handle notifications nicely and has a great battery. Only you can decide. But why does it matter? Well it doesn't run Androidwear or Tizen. It uses Huawei's own "LiteOS" which has a limited number of screens, no third-party apps and limited integration with other apps like Strava.So it's not really a true Smartwatch when compared to most other smartwatches. Fitness it does very well. So if you want a fitness tracker that looks like a watch and handles notifications very well, then maybe it's for you. You need your phone tethered to the watch for all notifications. But if you don't take your phone and go out for a run, the watch will still track your run and will allow you to sync the details later. So as a fitness tracker, its great.For me, what I want from a watch is notifications. I'm not bothered about taking calls on my watch. I'm not bothered about being able to reply to SMS on my watch. I want good battery life, good notifications, a nice screen thats easy to read and basic fitness info is a plus eg steps and heart rate.If you can sport a large watch on your wrists, this could be ideal for you. It comes in several colours and I looked at many online reviews and really liked the red and green ones, but I bottled it and went for standard boring black. But it is a large watch. They have a 1.39" screen which is actually bigger than the rugged Samsung Galaxy range of watches and is one of the biggest screens I've seen - and I've seen a few. The 2 buttons on the side have been changed from previous Watch GT models. They no longer protude, catching on a shirt sleeve. But this change in look means the watch is less "classy" than the original Watch GT. The watch is thinner than most smartwatches though and is very comfortable to wear. It also has a really stunning display.It pairs easily to your phone using the Huawei Health app which is easily every bit as good as Samsung's Health app. Once in, you select the watch from the drop down list and the pair process completes. After that, the watch syncs to the phone every time it comes in to range. From a fitness point of view, the watch has several new modes I've never seen before on a fitness tracker including skateboarding, rock climbing, surfing and street dance. You can even take it for a swim - both in a pool and in open water. I'm hoping the surfing option will work for standup paddleboarding. But since I'm in lockdown at the time of writing, it might be a while before I get to test that!!Blood oxygen saturation level monitoring (SPO2) has been included on this model along with an upgraded heart rate sensor has been upgraded. Stress levels and sleep pattern monitoring is also supported along with local music storage for some 500 songs which can be played back to bluetooth earphones that will connect directly to the watch.The specifications of the watch are as follows:1.39 inch AMOLED 454 x 454 display supporting slide and touch gesturesGPSKirin A1 chipset32MB RAM and 4GB storage (for 500 songs)14-day battery lifeOptical heart rate sensorAmbient light sensor5ATM water resistanceBluetooth 5.1Size-wise, I think it is too big for my skinny wrists. It's 46mm diameter basically makes the lugs for the strap extend to either side of my skinny wrists. It's bigger than my Citizen Eco-Drive divers watch. I prefer the size of the Watch GT 42mm or the Honor Magic. But size (for me) aside, in summary, if you want a waterproof fitness tracker that does good notifications and looks like a traditional watch and has a stunning display this is the watch for you.Note: I'll update this review after more use, particulaly after we are allowed out of lockdown, so check back.

31.7.2020

This watch feels great, straight out of the box. It's a really good weight and the combination of glass and stainless steel give it a real feeling of quality. I put it on and it felt like one of the most expensive smart watches that I've ever owned (which it is not).I've been wearing it for around two days now and the battery is still at 75%, which is a lot more impressive that the Mobvoi Ticwatch S2 that I had before. The charger is nice and compact, with a USB-C connector so that most phone chargers will power it.However, things start to go downhill a little from here.First of all, the app is fairly intrusive. It's running on the phone the whole time and not just in the background.There is a permanent notification on the phone, simply to let you know the phone's estimate of your step-count for the day. It's there the whole time! You can disable this notification but then, every time you open the app, it tells you that you've disabled the notification and that you should re-enable it if you want the best communication between your devices. I like to stay on top of my notifications and I don't want an icon sitting there that isn't alerting me to anything particularly useful. You can't just pull down and swipe the notification away either.There is a huge selection of alternative watch faces available, all of which display different batches of information. However, as far as I can tell, there is not one which displays how many notifications you have. What I would really like is a standby watch face that just displays a dot or an envelope, maybe, to let you know that you have a new email or WhatsApp message (or whatever). The vibration alert is extremely weak, even on the maximum strength vibration setting, so it is quite easy to miss. This means that you will mostly have to remember to check for new notifications by tapping the screen (or using raise-to-wake) and then swiping up from the bottom.Now that we're onto watch notifications, you can read most messages on the watch (although, photo messages are not displayed). You have to get your phone out to reply to the messages, which is ok because I've not found a watch yet with a reliable or convenient method of replying to messages. However, you then have to remember to clear the notification from the watch. Otherwise, they just keep mounting up. If you hold your phone and have a WhatsApp conversation with somebody, the next time you check your watch, there will be an individual notification for every single reply that the other person has sent. You can swipe these notifications away individually, or you can just wipe ALL notifications with a single action. The latter option obviously carrying the risk that you can easily delete an unseen notification.Another frustration is that, although an incoming caller's information is displayed, you cannot do anything other than reject the call from the watch. I half get why they've done this, and I don't want to be able to use the watch as a hands-free device for a number of reasons. However, a lot of the time I wearing Bluetooth headphones or I am in the car with my phone connected via Bluetooth to the car stereo. Every smartwatch that I've previously owned has allowed the call to be answered from its own screen, allowing the subsequent conversation to then take place over the connected Bluetooth device. I know that most Bluetooth devices will have their own method for answering the call but it seems silly that I have to look to the watch for the incoming caller details, then I have to reach somewhere else to find a button or whatever to answer the call.To summarise, it's an ok watch but it could be a lot better. It looks like I'll have to actually get my phone out of my pocket more than I have done with previous smartwatches. That said, I'm loving the long battery life that comes as a result of the device being more basic. It's just frustrating that some features have been executed in a bizarre manner, meaning that the watch and accompanying software are not as user friendly as they could be.

5.2.2019

The Huawei Watch GT is more fitness tracker than smartwatch. While it's got that screen to make it look like a full-blown smartwatch, its feature set will resemble more that of Garmin and Fibtit than Apple or Samsung. That is not at all a bad thing so I would like to explain why in my review.Screen: The first thing you'll notice about this watch is that amazing, blazing, bright screen. It doesn't fail to disappoint. It it well used for the most part. While it is quite large at 1.4 inches, it is very unobtrusive as the device is so thin. It doesn't get in your way at all and it is still easy to wear a suit and such with the device.Battery: This is the one of the most important factors of this watch as is it advertised as having 2-week battery.I have to say, I questioned the validity of this claim at first but after months of usage, I have found this claim to be spot-on. Tracking your exercise also hardly drains the battery at all. While there are no power saving modes, there is no need as it matches up to the likes of Garmin with this stellar battery. Even while using the screen a lot and using the device to it's full capabilities, the battery bar moves incredibly slowly and it makes me wonder what sort of dark magic Huawei had to use in this device to make it have such amazing battery life. The charger is also equally impressive with me finding it charging the device from null to full in under an hour!Design: I have to mention the box it came in as it was the fanciest and most well-presented device I have ever unboxed. All the materials are extremely premium including the box made from Soya! The device itself is extremely stylish looking which I received many compliments about. It is super light to wear and it is very easy to forget it is being worn especially when exercising.Fitness: This is where the watch performed at its optimum and it is clear that Huawei had specific priorities when creating this device while keeping fitness tracking top of the agenda. The heart rate monitor is honestly the most accurate I have ever worn on my wrist. It is just as accurate as similar Garmin ones worn at the same time. All other sensors are also extremely account with the alti-barometer being spot on all the time. There have been so many things included in this device so it is easy to see how features like NFC have been left out.Software: I suppose Lite OS has been the biggest shortcoming of the decide for me. It is obvious that the chip is not very powerful which must equate to better battery. This is the trade off you just make with this device over the likes of apple and Samsung. This also means better value.In my opinion, it is worth the compromise however I understand that not everyone will share this opinion. I have read many negative reviews on the internet and while I don't disagree with them, I think that this device is worthy of a place on your wrist as I have found it to be for me. I have got on so well with this device as I have used it as a fitness tracker with using a couple smartwatch features and I'm sure most will also. Some may be looking for a powerful smartwatch with all the bells and whistles and be willing to fork out a higher price but I can say that I am completely happy with this device and share the vision that Huawei had when they made this device: compromise on a few features to achieve stellar battery and unbeatable fitness tracking features with many smartwatch features added for good measure.If you are in the market for a smartwatch or fitness tracker, this is a device that is definitely worth a thought!

14.7.2020

I was torn between this and the Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro, and it came down to a call between battery life and "proper" smart features and in the end I plumped for battery life, and so far I think I made the right decision.The smart functionality of this is limited -- you can get notifications from your phone, and store and play music from it, but that's about your lot. No third party apps are available, so if it doesn't do it out of the box then it'll probably never do it. That said, what it *does* do it does very well.First, general monitoring. I've turned on constant heart rate and stress monitoring and they feel pretty accurate,and step counting seems to be fairly close to actual steps taken.Sleep tracking is also reasonably good; sometimes it will mistake "lying in bed watching TV" for being asleep, but beyond that there's a definite correlation between the score it gives me and how rested I feel in the morning. Hasn't done anything to *improve* my sleep, but that's mostly on me!No idea how accurate SpO2 and VOMax are, but the readings seem reasonable so I will assume they're at least in the ballpark and as long as you use them for comparison rather than treat them as absolutes you should be OK.The built in compass and altimeter seem to be pretty useless -- I've tried calibrating them a number of times but they still seem to have a mind of their own -- but they're not something I imagine anyone's going to actually use so can be safely ignored.Exercise tracking is nice; GPS locks on quickly and tracks accurately enough, the summary stats are comprehensive and can even be viewed on the watch without having to faff with the app which is a nice touch. I'm sure it was supposed to autodetect exercise but that never seems to happen so either I misread or need to turn something on in the settings, but manually starting it isn't exactly a chore. I've only used it for outdoor running, walking, and cycling so can't vouch for stuff like swimming or any of the indoor activities, but presumably they're all on a par.Now to style/appearance. I went for the greenish strap and it's super comfortable; soft and pliable but feels sturdy, and I can almost forget I'm wearing the thing -- if I get a bit hot and sweaty then I need to jiggle it around a bit from time to time, but for the most part it's only been off my wrist for charging purposes. I have very slim wrists so I was worried it might look ridiculous, but it's actually not too bad; the shape and thickness means it doesn't protrude too far, and the way the strap is seamlessly connected to the watch body stops it looking too chunky. The selection of watch faces is pretty good -- some decent analogue ones, some novelty ones, and a selection of "functional" faces that display assorted stats -- but there's currently no way of adding "unauthorised" ones without a lot of mucking about.Battery life is excellent: I've had it a couple of weeks, used the GPS for an hour or so two or three times a week, had constant heart rate and stress monitoring turned on, and just given it a 30 minute top-up charge a couple of times and it's doing fine.In summary, if you don't need the additional functionality of WearOS then this is an excellent choice.

26.7.2020

Bought this watch mostly because the combo of strap and watch face type that I really wanted just doesn't exist anymore.I got the Lava Red, though I am looking into getting a better strap. The TPU strap it comes with is nice, but I am just not a fan of the type of fastening it has.As a person who hasn't worn a watch in almost 15 years, I can say, I have truly missed the feeling of looking at my arm for the time. I mean, how did I manage before?Now, I get to see my heart rate, watch's battery life, weather, time, steps and calories.How could I ever go back to a normal boring watch, or no watch at all. Oh, and it tracks sleep, now I have no excuse for not knowing how long (or little) I slept.

27.11.2018

As a first point this particular watch (the Huawei Watch G2) should not be lumped in to the same Amazon listing as the other Huawei smartwatches running Wear OS. It's a completely different animal other than looking quite similar. This is the latest Huawei watch and runs their own proprietary OS which is wildly different from Wear OS. The main difference is that this watch doesn't really do very much outside the specific area of activity tracking. It does display notifications and callers but in a fairly rudimentary form with no way to respond to them and there is a limited number of different watch faces available. So if you're looking for a little computer on your wrist look elsewhere - this will disappoint.

19.11.2018

So I bought my watch from a different site as they were not available from amazon at the time.If your into your fitness and health, its a good watch to have.GPS and HRM excellent, battery life around two weeks, I lost 4% battery on an hour run which was shockingly good. Quite like the charging interface, its basically a flat circle that's magnetic, it fits nicely. (Charges in under two hours)Huawei's own software but it does the job, Health App is great, sleeping tracking is very detailed and accurate.Notifications are very basic though, but I didn't buy it for that reason...You can change the watch faces, only stock ones at the moment but I'm sure there will be loads more out soon.The display is amazing and very life like...

15.1.2020

Bought them as a replacement for defective Vivoactive 3.Those watch are really nice, my experience with them is good so far, much better then Vivoactive 3 which are approximately same price.1. Screen resolution is winning over Garmin2. Sleep tracking is the killer feature of the app and watches.3. Swim stroke type detection is lovely (I am mainly swimming , have not tried other sports on watches yet)However some things definitely worth improvement.1. App - most important. Garmin app definitely beats Huawei Health. They need to work on improving their app.2. Passive calories counter is missing. Seems watch are only tracking active calories. So at hte end of the day you have 700 calories spent,

9.12.2019

This is my first Smart Watch and so far I have been very happy with it.The watch is a good size but doesn't feel bulky.The various watch faces are easy to select and use. The menu is straightforward to navigate.I've noticed a difference between distance/calorie tracking as compared to another App (I use Endomondo). Not sure which is most accurate as both rely on GPS. The Huawei tracks under Endomondo at the rate of almost one mile in every 12/13.Heart rate monitor is pretty much bang on. I've tested 'manually' alongside the watch and both measures come out the same.Message notifications are simple enough to set up. They can be easily muted too for bed time,

20.4.2019

was very pleased with this watch as it is a decent size and does everything i want it to such as track my activity and have a decent battery life , not too sure about two weeks but i have had it on for three days without charging and its had a decent amont of use and battery level is at 61% so pretty good. Great activity tracker and it has a decent level of water resistance, can silence alarms from the phone and reject calls, i wasnt too bothered about streaming music or making calls from my watch at all as im trying to use the phone less. This watch is ideal for me and so far seems robust enough as i dont have much luck with watches. Only thing is the charger which uses a different connection from the phone which is of course annoying by huawei,

2.1.2020

Regarding the statement that GT (1st generation) don't have "always on" mode. Actually they do have it! In the Settings - Display - Advanced - Standby watch face, analog or digital style. You're welcome.I wanted "smart watch" for a long time now, but battery life and bloated functionality was always an issue.I don't want to recharge a watch every night (or every 2nd day), this is a no go!And I know that I will never use all those features that others have. And I don't want to pay for that too much as well.When GT watch is on offer with 40% off it's just the super duper option. There's simply no better option for money/quality!1-2 weeks of battery life (depending on usage),

25.4.2019

This is a very good looking watch and performs very well on tracking side of things. You cant add any apps which for me an absolutely no problem at all as I want to use it as tracking device/watch which it does very well to my surprise. The downside is that you cant watch independently to the app as the app on your device collected all the data. The other thing I do not like is that in exercise mode there are very limited options, I would like to have different sports mode like tennis, badminton soon or even general sports as the current app only has running, swimming /triathlon. The recent update got new faces which is very good but it makes the watch slightly slower in my opinion.

16.8.2019

The setup process was a little unclear but the hardware is fantastic; bright vibrant screen, big battery, accurate biometric and barometric sensors all packed into this tiny little thing. But the real star of the show is the number of updates they release for the watch. Practically every month they've improved the apps/features, patched bugs and made the experience smoother.Most of the reviews you'll read on the internet complaining of stuttering animations are likely using an older version of the software and sadly you can't install your own apps or watch faces. But the market is littered with watches with 1/2 day battery life, this one will last weeks and has a bright AMOLED screen.It's years ahead of it's time vs.

5.10.2019

Really good buy, this. I was sceptic with this Huawei GT watch not being supported by Android Wear but all in all it's a decent piece of wearable tech for the price you're paying. Life battery is great, 7 days with all notifications on, checking the time 100 times a day, heart rate on the whole time, pedometer & sleep tracking.The watchface gallery is not extensive but has at least 7-8 faces that I use for different times of day/week.Mine came with a silicone strap, which feels comfortable on the wrist, but went and purchased a brown leather strap and this way I have a sport and an elegant watch to wear ?.The charger is easy to use as it's magnetic and just 'sticks'

Huawei Watch GT2e - Reviews

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