Huawei has delivered several meaningful updates to its Watch GT line over the last year. The latest addition, the GT 2 Pro, is Huawei’s most expensive smartwatch to date, and the most premium in the series.
Retailing at €299, the GT 2 Pro is crafted from top-of-the-range materials. It features a wear-resistant sapphire watch dial, titanium frame and glossy ceramic back. Sapphiric glass is allegedly more durable than Gorilla Glass and supports more accurate heart rate reading.
Weighing in at 52g without the strap, the GT 2 Pro has some heft to it, but that’s not felt when on. It is large, however, and for the smaller wristed among us, it creates a chunky look.
The GT 2 Pro features a 1.39″ AMOLED screen with a 454×454 pixel resolution, the result is a vibrant display that maintains strong visibility even under direct sunlight. There are 10 unique watch faces to choose from, ranging from classic, to playful, or even uber functional, data-heavy displays.
Under the sleek exterior is a watch built to withstand the elements. The device comes complete with 5ATM (atmospheres) water and dust proofing, meaning it can be used for shallow-water activities such as swimming both in a pool and open water.
The GT Pro 2 is packed with enough fitness-oriented features to satisfy even the most eager fitness enthusiast. It supports precise data tracking for over 100 workout modes, including 17 professional modes and 85 custom modes. Without the touch of a finger, the watch can auto-detect and track your activity. It also has 10 running courses with voice guidance, which is a handy feature, especially for those starting out.
For adventurers and explorers, the watch records travel routes and warns when you have wandered off track. Those looking to improve their swing can tap into Golf Mode, which intelligently analyses swing posture, and provides data references for improving swing speed and frequency.
Users can also make and receive phone calls through the device, with surprisingly crisp sound quality.
Working from home can all too easily support a decline into sedentarism. As well as counting the all-important daily steps, the watch helps users be mindful of their activity, or lack thereof, by posing regular reminders to get moving.
It also monitors heart rate, blood oxygen saturation levels, and it can estimate VO2Max levels, which are supposed to represent base fitness level. What’s more, it automatically monitors stress levels, and has an inbuilt breathing exercise feature to help offset some of that stress. While Huawei TruSleep, the sleep analysis feature, provides a highly detailed breakdown of what happens after our heads hit the pillow.
All this data is available through the Huawei Health app, and can also be fed into Apple Health, Google Fit, or MyFitnessPal, but the watch does not support third-party training apps.
There is not a lot of third party support at all, actually. It doesn’t have Spotify for instance, or Google Maps, and while notifications from apps such as Instagram and Twitter show up on the watch, you can’t interact with them. Nor does it have a pay service that you would find on premium smartwatches from Apple or Samsung.
The GT 2 Pro runs with Huawei’s custom interface, LiteOS. The UI feels smooth and is straightforward to use. It has just 32Mb of RAM, and an incredibly low-power, last-gen Kirin A1 CPU. There’s good reason for this low power combination, however. Huawei has optimised battery life on the GT 2 Pro incredibly well. Users can get up to a fortnight of use without having to reach for its Qi wireless magnetic connector.
While the watch comes at a premium price, the product delivers a blend of form and function designed to suit fitness fanatics, and absolute beginners alike.
Julia O’Reilly
Ltd
