HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro

The HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro is a sports focused smartwatch released in September 2020. HUAWEI is a popular smartwatch brand but there is a lot of political backlash against this manufacturer in the United States making it difficult to find HUAWEI products in some channels.

The GT 2 Pro is using a HUAWEI Kirin A1 processor. This is an older processor that is very power efficient allowing for extended battery life. That being said, in 2020 this processor is showing its age. While lag is not a big issue, it performs the same as older and cheaper watches in the HUAWEI family. Essentially, its sibling, the HONOR MagicWatch 2 at less than half the price has nearly identical specs, performance and user experience.

The operating system for this watch is the proprietary Lite OS. This means that available apps are limited and you do not have access to a 3rd party app store such as the Google Play Store. This is a significant disadvantage and is common drawback for any smartwatch using a proprietary operating system.

Design

The GT 2 Pro has a circular watch face design and is quite sleek and attractive. The watch is available in the following colors: black, gray. The case is titanium. This smartwatch is medium sized at 46.7 x 46.7 x 11.4 mm and weighs 52g. The 11.4 mm thickness is not too bulky and is quite comfortable to wear.

The GT 2 Pro comes with 22 mm fluoroelastomer and leather interchangeable straps. Fluoroelastomer is a synthetic rubber strap that is supposed to be more resistant to heat, moisture and oil than silicone. Both straps are high quality matching the overall upscale look and feel of this watch

You can interact with the watch using the touchscreen and 2 physical buttons. The touchscreen works very well with no lag. Fonts, menus and icons can easily be read and navigation is not too complex.

The GT 2 Pro has a 5ATM water resistance rating which allows for swimming and showers. Only use the fluoroelastomer band for swimming, as the leather band will get damaged. Salt water or chlorine could be problematic so make sure to rinse, wipe and dry the watch after swimming.

Screen

The screen of the GT 2 Pro is one of the highlights of this smartwatch. The 1.39″ AMOLED Touchscreen, with 454 x 454 pixels and 326 ppi pixel density delivers a high-quality visual experience. Indoors the display is excellent while outdoors it is acceptable but not great.

The GT 2 Pro uses Sapphire Glass to protect the screen. That being said, this is not a rugged watch and we imagine most people looking to purchase would not be doing activities that will be damaging the watch. The HONOR Watch GS Pro has nearly equivalent specs but with a rugged design more suited for durability.

The watch has an always on screen option but this has a significant impact on battery life. The watch allows for custom watchfaces which is a nice feature.

Battery

The GT 2 Pro comes with a 455 mAh battery. HUAWEI claims that typical usage battery life is 14 days. Real world battery life matches this claim and is quite good when compared to other smartwatches.

Connectivity Features

From a connectivity perspective, the GT 2 Pro has limited functionality when compared to full featured smartwatches. The watch can only receive notifications and there is no ability to respond to notifications from the watch.

This is one of the biggest drawbacks of the watch and a very common complaint. While the inability to respond to notifications may be acceptable on the $130 HONOR MagicWatch 2, not having this feature on a $300 watch is very disappointing. The watch does not have WiFi connectivity as well.

The GT 2 Pro has both a speaker and a microphone and has the ability to both answer and place calls via bluetooth.

The speaker and microphone work well for both incoming and outgoing calls. The speaker can be used to play music stored on the 4GB internal memory.

On the positive side, it does come with built-in GPS. GPS connectivity is fast and accuracy is good. The GT 2 Pro comes with a route back feature which records your travel route and allows you to find your way back to the starting point.

Finally, Near Field Communication (NFC) is not supported, hence you cannot use this smartwatch to make payments. In the $300 price range, NFC for payments is expected so that is another negative against the GT 2 Pro.

Health and Fitness Features

The GT 2 Pro comes with 6 sensors: Accelerometer, Barometer, Compass, Gyroscope, Heart Rate Monitor (HRM), Pulse Oximeter (SpO2). These cover quite a bit of fitness functions and even some health areas. These sensors allow you to track the following 11 metrics: Blood Oxygen Level, Calories, Distance, Fitness Level, Heart Rate, Menstrual Cycle, Sleep, Steps, Stress, Swimming, VO2 Max.

Also included are 100+ different sports modes. THE GT 2 Pro excels in monitoring. Sleep monitoring is very good and fitness tracking is quite decent.

HUAWEI Health App

The HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro uses the HUAWEI Health app, which is very good particularly for fitness and sports tracking. The app is not cluttered, easy to navigate and works quite well. One common complaint with all HUAWEI smartwatches is the lack of Strava app support, a popular app for runners and cyclists.

Known Issues

As this watch has just recently been released, there are no common known issues.

Verdict

Price reflects the very high quality design, build quality and excellent materials (titanium and sapphire screen). While the fitness and sleep tracking are excellent, some of the specs are disappointing for this price range (no notification replies, no 3rd party apps, no NFC). This is essentially the same as the much cheaper HONOR MagicWatch 2 in a nicer case with wireless charging.

Specifications

Published: December 06, 2020