It’s not unusual nowadays for a lot of mobile brands to launch multiple accessories along with their mobile phones. We’ve been seeing a deluge of earphones, speakers, and even selfie sticks being re-labeled for these mobile brands. As one of the biggest manufacturers in the world, Huawei was at the forefront of this competition.
The Huawei Watch GT 2e is neither the first smartwatch nor the first fitness devices from Huawei. It’s actually features just slight improvements over the earlier GT 2. But damn, this newly-upgraded version is pretty solid one. Becoming more sportier and less business-casual-ish, it’s definitely focused on just one thing: being able to record and monitor your fitness experience.
One thing we have to understand here is that the Huawei Watch GT 2e, along with their other fitness bands and smarwatches, isn’t just built as an accessory to their phones – it’s about creating an entire ecosystem for Huawei. And, they already have a lot of great entries in this fitness segment.
We’ve had a few weeks to check out the Watch GT 2e, so here’s our take on it.
We’ve also done a quick unboxing video here, do check it out!
SPECIFICATIONS
- Body: 46mm watchface, 53 x 46.8 x 10.8 mm, 43 g weight (without the strap), 5 ATM water resistance, Metal + Plastic materials
- Display: 1.39″ OLED, Resolution 454×454, 326 ppi, supports slide and touch gestures
- CPU: Kirin A1
- OS: Huawei Lite OS
- Memory: 2GB RAM + 4GB storage (2.2GB user available)
- Battery: 455mAh, 5W charging through designated magnetic base
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.1 + BLE / BR / EDR, GPS + GLONASS
- System Requirements:” Android 4.4 or later, iOS 9.0 or later
DESIGN
The Huawei Watch GT 2e has a 1.39-inch 454×454 resolution AMOLED display which is a great size for those with relatively bigger arms. It will look a somewhat large and awkward on thin wrists.
The case is 10mm thin – which makes it not too chunky. Unfortunately, there is no smaller size option, but I guess Huawei had to have that size to be able to fit in the relatively beefy internals and sensors.
The relatively thick straps are made of a soft rubber (Fluoroelastomer), and I like the contrast between the large watchface and the bulky strap – it give the feeling of a very sturdy device, despite the relatively low price. The straps have so many holes on them, so it will fit on wrists of all sizes, plus giving an additional room to breathe for sweaty sessions.
The right side of the watch features just two buttons – the top one is a menu button, while the lower one is actually programmable for different options – depending on which one you like. By default, it opens up the fitness programs options. So if you usually just stick to just a few types of workouts like running or lifting weights, then you can just set it to start to that.
The straps come in three colors – Graphite Black, Lava Red, and Mint Green. It’s a bit strange to not offer more popular colors like white, blue or pink, but we’re assuming it’s because these colors seem less likely to get dirty. Straps can be replaced, anyway, and there’s a bunch of options already available in the market.
DISPLAY AND INTERFACE
Overall, I didn’t have any issues with the display or the interface of the Huawei Watch GT 2e. The experience of swiping or pushing the buttons to navigate the menu was a pleasant experience.
Swiping down will give you the quick menu, which features the notifications on/off toggle, the screen on time, the find phone button, and the settings menu. It will also display the date, bluetooth status, and the battery life.
Swiping left and will give you, in order, the following screens (checkout our unboxing video to see it! ):
- Workout tracker
- music player
- GPS location (bluetooth and location services on huawei health needs to be turned on)
- Stress indicator
- Heart Sensor
SENSORS AND FEATURES
Huawei made sure to fill up the Watch GT 2e with a ton of sensors for fitness purposes. Here’s the full list:
- Accelerometer sensor
- Gyroscope sensor
- Geomagnetic sensor
- Optical heart rate sensor
- Ambient light sensor
- Barometer sensor
- Capacitive sensor
While using the Huawei Watch GT 2e, the sensors have somewhat accurate sensors in general. I tried benchmarking the O2 sensors with a separate finger O2 sensor that I had and the results were pretty much similar. Heart rate monitor is also the same as most other fitness bands that I have, except that the Watch GT 2e reacts more faster compared to other sensors, for example if I suddenly drop my heart rate. It measures both the systolic and diastolic pressure, and calculates BPM (which is usually what most fitness bands display). If you want a more accurate reading on your heart rate, then the Watch GT 2e has you covered.
I didn’t have any similar watches that had any altitude or barometric sensors, which are typical with a lot of higher-end fitness bands, and are mainly used for long distance or elevated running. However, one thing I could say about it is that the interface looks really great.
There are a total of 85 customized workout modes and exercises featured on the Huawei Watch GT 2e, and here’s the complete list:
| Base workouts |
| Outdoor Run Indoor Run Outdoor Walk Indoor Walk Outdoor Cycle Indoor Cycle Pool Swim Open Water Swim Mountain Hike Hike Trail Run Triathlon Eliptical Rower Other |
| Indoor Activities | Fun | Sports |
| Spinning Stepper Air walker Aerobics Group Training Yoga Pilates Crossfit Functional training Physical Training Taekwondo Boxing Free Sparring Karate Fencing Belly Dance Jazz Dance Latin Dance Ballet Core TRaining Body Combat Kendo Single Bar Parallel Bars Strength HIIT | Street Dance Roller Skating Martial Arts Plaza Dancing Tai Chi Dance Hula hoop Frisbee Darts Archery Horse Riding Hunting Kite Flying Tug of War Swinging Stair Climbing Obstacle Race Fishing | Badminton Table Tennis Pool Bowling Volleyball Shuttlecock Handball Baseball Softball Cricket Football Beach Soccer Beach Volleyball Gateball Hockey Squash Sepak Takraw Dodgeball |
| Water | Winter | Extreme |
| Sailing Surfing Rafting Dragonboating Canoeing Rowing Water Scooter SUP | Ice Skating Ice Hockey Curling Bobsleigh Sledding Biathlon | Skateboarding Rock Climbing Bungee Jumping Parkour BMX Orienteering Parachuting Autoracing |
Once the workout is set, all of the sensors will adjust and measure your workout accordingly – for duration, calories burnt, heart rate interval, exercise progress, recovery time. However, it is mostly just a label on your workout reports to remind you on what kind of workout/activity you actually did during that time, and also a tool that you can use for sharing on social media after you generate the infographic on the Huawei Health app.
One thing to note here is that to fully use the watch, you would need to use the Huawei Health app – which only highlights further the closed ecosystem that Huawei is building. It was a bit tedious to install the Huawei Health app on a Samsung phone – I had to install Huawei services to do it. But when it was running, it was pretty much smooth.
BATTERY LIFE AND CHARGING
I was initially excited to take a look at the battery life of the Huawei Watch GT 2e – primarily because they promised 2 weeks worth of battery life. The Kirin A1 processer should have been efficient enough to do this. However, from Huawei’s website, they mentioned this:
Battery can last 2 weeks when:
Worn 24 hours a day, with heart rate monitoring enabled, HUAWEI TruSleep™ enabled for sleeping, 90 minutes of working out every week (GPS enabled), message notifications enabled (50 SMS messages, 3 alarms a day), screen is turned on 200 times a day, 30 minutes music playing every week. Battery life may vary depending on actual usage.
https://consumer.huawei.com/ph/wearables/watch-gt-2e/
I tried doing this, and it lasted me only a little over 8 days. I didn’t even have message notifications on, and definitely turned it on less than 200 times a day. I would have to say that battery life definitely varies based on different factors. In addition, some features such as TruSleep (a sleep tracking option), TruRelax (Stress sensor), Truseen (heart sensor), and Always-on screen should be turned off to save on battery. When all options are turned on, expect a little less than a week of battery life. The Always-On screen feature will definitely drain the battery the most.
The charging cradle was great, and gave some reminders to keep the points of contacts clean and dust free. Despite having two symmetrical contact points, there’s only one way you can actually put on the watch on the charging cradle.
CONCLUSION
The Huawei Watch GT 2E is fantastic little amartwatch loaded with helpful features, and doesn’t break the bank at just Php6,990. It only has some slight upgrades from the Watch GT 2, but these small tweaks resulted in a great overall product that’s recommended for amateur runners, fitness enthusiasts, or just everyday use. It’s stylish enough to compete with regular smartwatches, while its feature set is vast enough even for advanced users.