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Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro Review: Premium Touches on an Already Solid Smartwatch

Over the past two weeks we have been trying out Huawei’s latest wrist-bound wearable – the Watch GT 2 Pro. By this stage we have already become quite familiar with the company’s smartwatches, having reviewed two earlier this year, as well as the Watch GT series, which hit shelves a year before that.

So how does the Watch GT 2 Pro stack up?

In fact, a better question might be, whether there is actually any need for the device, especially as the GT 2e for example is still fresh in our minds.

With that, here’s what the past two weeks revealed.

 

New look

First and foremost the GT 2 Pro is not like the other Huawei smartwatches. Yes, it has a circular design and yes, it boasts up to two weeks battery (more on that later), but this latest offering is a more premium affair.

This as two main elements make it so – the titanium material used for the watch body and the new Sapphire Glass to encase the device.

These are materials that Huawei has not used before, and they have done the trick, with the Watch GT 2 Pro feeling decidedly more premium than its predecessors. That’s not to disparage those previous devices, but the GT 2 Pro definitely has more of a simple Scandinavian chronograph feel to it, compared to the more sport smartwatch aesthetics of the GT 2e or GT 2.

This new device also seems to sit a bit larger on hand than the previous iterations, even though it’s still a 1.39″ AMOLED display on offer. Perhaps that is because the bezel is quite slim and stripped away from any unnecessary flourishes?

 

There’s also new button designs on the side of the watch, with the two round metal ones proving far more satisfying than the plastic rectangular options found on the GT 2e.

We were hoping that they worked like dials, akin to the digital crown of the Apple Watch Series 5, but alas, navigation on device is handled by pushing instead, or swiping on the display.

Sticking with some of the design elements, a grey brown leather strap is present instead of the usual silicon ones. For some reason, Huawei still decides not to add an additional longer strap in the box of the GT 2 Pro, which means if you have, ahem, meatier wrists like some of us in the office, the fit can be less than ideal.

Also a quick note on the colour and quality of material. The former has yielded mixed reactions, and the latter does not seem like genuine leather. We could of course be wrong on that count, but after two weeks of use, it does not seem like the strap will develop a nice patina that normally comes with genuine leather.

 

Solid performance

Okay, enough about leather and let’s look at the battery life. Like most, if not all Watch GT devices, the GT 2 Pro promises up to two weeks of battery life. Having only had two weeks with the smartwatch, we charged on the first day, and did not need to recharge until collection 14 days later.

As such, it looks like Huawei has once again set the standard as far as smartwatch battery life goes.

Looking at the other important aspects, namely the accuracy of its tracking, and once again things appear to be spot on again.

The real-time heart rate monitor for example and blood oxygen level are only one or two degrees off of a tracker we placed on our finger simultaneously, so users can rest safe in the knowledge that their smartwatch is on point.

 

There’s also the swathe of workout modes and daily activity trackers that are on the device, which too work as expected. The only thing missing is a better way to make the get-up and move notification more compelling.

Gamifying in the same way Apple has might be a good move down the line, as the notification can easily be ignored.

We’d also like to see more ways to interact with the metrics and data captured on the device without having to access the Huawei Health app all of the time.

It makes sense for setup, which takes less than five minutes, but being able to pull weekly or monthly reports sans phone would show an evolution in the ecosystem.

 

Final verdict 

At R6 999, the Watch GT 2 Pro is Huawei’s most expensive smartwatch to date. That’s for good reason though, as the new premium materials do elevate the device above previous iterations. It should also be noted that Huawei falls in the middle of the pack when it comes to pricing on its wearables.

That, however, is not the biggest issue with the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro. In fact, it’s actually that we’ve seen a number of similarly specced and impressive smartwatches from the company over the past 18 to 24 months. As such, upgrading does not seem a necessity.

Those new to the smartwatch scene though, will be getting a well made device that boasts newly improved materials, as well as delivering an accurate and wide ranging array of fitness-focused features.

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