The smartwatch industry is at its peak right now, with health and fitness being a particularly important aspect for many people around the world to keep track of currently. Among the vast options available is the new Huawei Watch GT 2, the update to last year’s Watch GT.

Right now, there are two sizes available for the Watch GT 2; A 46mm model, and a 42mm one, which is the one that has been tested. The 42mm itself has two variations, the regular Sports Edition and an Elegant Edition that will be released later.

Though it seemingly has the word sports in its branding, don’t let that fool you, you can definitely pass it off as a regular watch. This all stems from the design that Huawei has implemented onto the watch, which is made to look more subtle and minimalistic.

The 42mm version uses a 1.2 inch AMOLED curved display for its screen and has no visible bezels on it; on the whole, the display is large and bright enough to easily whatever the watch is displaying on the screen. The slim design for the entire watch also makes it relatively light and comfortable to wear for long periods of time.

There are also two buttons on the side of the watch; the one on the top bringing you to the menu settings and other fitness functions while the one at the bottom acts as a quick-select to a function which you can personally customise to your liking.

Visually, the Huawei Watch GT 2 looks great but does the performance match it? Well, the watch has the usual functions like telling you the time and health-related information like the number of steps walked and heart rate — which is fairly accurate for the most part — but it also has other interesting tracking options.

Running and elliptical usage can be tracked by the watch, as well as swimming because the watch is rated to be water-resistant at 50m in depth. The most interesting one though is the sleep tracking, which is quite scarily accurate.

To really get the full experience, you’d need to download the Huawei Health app. Once you’ve linked your device with the app, the Watch GT 2 now has access to some of your phone functions as well. You can enable notifications as well as emails to appear on the watch so that you don’t have to take out your phone to view them, making it more convenient for you.

Viewing is the limit you can do with that though; there is no way for you to have further interaction with these notifications. For emails, in particular, you’re only able to read the subject line for the message you receive and not the whole message. If you are a person that receives a lot of notifications, you can also toggle to a Do Not Disturb mode which you can access via a quick swipe.

Besides your phone, you can also pair the watch with wireless earbuds, specifically Huawei’s own Freebuds 3 that offers you music playback without needing to bring your phone along for exercises.

The Huawei Health app itself is a fairly standard health tracking app. It provides you with the relevant information you need at a glance like distance travelled and calories burnt. There’s also an achievement system implemented to help encourage users to maintain or improve on their training.

Finally, a big aspect that Huawei is quick to tout about the Watch GT 2: its endurance. Powered by Huawei’s proprietary Kirin A1 chip, they claim that the smartwatch can last about a week before charging.

On testing the battery life, I found that it lasted for 5 days before needing to charge. Not quite one week like they advertised, but still quite substantial especially since this is an always-on display device. You charge using the charging dock provided, which can be a little finicky trying to find the right way to position it; definitely not something you can plop down without thinking for the first few times.

Conclusion

The Huawei Watch GT 2 is a fitness device that goes beyond what it was made to do, with its function and aesthetic blending seamlessly from fitness to everyday wear. For the price it commands as well, it makes for a great option as an upgrade or replacement as your new daily-use watch.

Photos by Soloman Soh by the DANAMIC team.