Huawei Watch GT5 Pro review: Style & fitness personified

Greatest Costs At the moment: Huawei Watch GT5 Professional

£329.99

Huawei’s GT Professional watches are on a two-year cycle, so whereas we received a Watch GT4 final 12 months, there was no GT4 Professional. Now, the GT5 watches have arrived in each Professional and non-Professional varieties, and there’s a bigger and smaller model of every.

I’ve the bigger Professional mannequin in for testing and it definitely seems the half, with a titanium alloy casing and all-metal watch band. Huawei is aiming to supply the perfect of each worlds, a modern timepiece for each day put on and a class-leading health tracker multi function.

The query is, how does it fare in comparison with competitors? Huawei gadgets have a tendency to return with a bit of extra baggage than different wearables, you received’t discover the Huawei Well being app within the App Retailer or Play Retailer, for instance.

Is the Watch GT5 Professional ok to be value the additional problem? I’ve been sporting it for the previous couple of weeks to seek out out.

Design & Construct

• 42 and 46mm choices
• Titanium alloy case and bezel
• Sapphire glass display

The Watch GT5 Professional, in its 46mm titanium end, makes a direct impression. It feels extraordinarily premium, and it seems costly.

The one draw back to this premium development is that the system has a little bit of heft. It weighs round 86g with the steel strap connected (and a few hyperlinks eliminated). I wouldn’t name it heavy, however you realize while you’re sporting it.

This is perhaps what you’re on the lookout for in a premium watch. Tech corporations may be too eager to make gadgets as mild as attainable which may end up in them feeling low-cost however that’s definitely not the case right here.

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

The design carries over components of earlier generations, however the bezel is now flatter and extra angular. It has a singular octagonal form that makes it stand out from a sea of round rivals. The matte end feels extraordinarily hardy and resists fingerprints and smudges nicely, too.

Aesthetically, it is perhaps my favorite smartwatch thus far.

There’s a push button and a rotating crown on the precise facet of the watch, and so they’re offset at a 45-degree angle, which suggests you received’t by accident press them when leaning on a desk. The rotating crown is absolutely practical, and it may be used to scroll by means of menus or zoom into maps – take word OnePlus.

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

The included steel watch band may be adjusted with out instruments, and there’s a quick-release button for eradicating the strap completely. Fluoroelastomer straps can be found for many who need one thing extra sporty, and the usual push-pin mounting system implies that third-party straps needs to be simple sufficient to supply, too.

The show is roofed with a extremely scratch-resistant sapphire glass coating, and there’s a pleasant two-tone blue and crimson ceramic inside bezel on the colourway that I’m testing. It’s a small contact, but it surely provides the watch some further character.

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

For those who favor a smaller watch, Huawei has you lined with the 42mm GT5 Professional. It retains all the identical options, it simply has a smaller battery, as there’s much less room within the casing. Oddly, the 42mm selection has a drastically totally different design, a lot so, that you simply in all probability wouldn’t assume the 2 watches are a part of the identical sequence at a look.

The 42mm GT5 Professional is created from ceramic and is available in lighter colors (white or ceramic) with gold and silver accents. It’s a extra female design, but it surely’s equally hanging. I believe Huawei has nailed the styling on each of those choices.

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Display screen & Audio

• 1.43-inch AMOLED
• 466×466 decision, 326ppi
• Constructed-in speaker

The 46mm Watch GT5 Professional has a vivid and spacious 1.43-inch AMOLED panel with a 466×466 decision. For those who go for the smaller 42mm watch, you’ll get the very same decision, simply with a barely smaller 1.32-inch panel.

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

The spec sheet doesn’t record an actual brightness output, but it surely exceeds the vary of my mild meter, so it’s someplace above 1200 nits. It’s greater than vivid sufficient to see on sunny days, and it seems vibrant and sharp in all circumstances.

The touchscreen is extremely responsive, and a lightweight spattering of rainwater didn’t appear to alter that both. 

There’s a speaker constructed into the precise facet of the watch. It’s primarily used for voice calls and audible exercise notifications, however you can even use it for listening to music, just like the Apple Watch Collection 10, for those who fancy. It will get louder than I anticipated and the standard could be very first rate, by watch requirements.

Software program & Options

• HarmonyOS
• Color maps and topography
• There’s a keyboard now

The GT5 Professional runs on Huawei’s proprietary HarmonyOS software program and it pairs with the Huawei Well being app in your smartphone.

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

The app works with Android, iOS and Huawei’s EMUI gadgets alike, however on account of US sanctions, you’ll solely discover it in Huawei’s App Gallery, and it’ll have to be sideloaded on different gadgets. It’s no huge deal for tech-savvy customers, but it surely’s quite a bit much less seamless than the competitors.

As soon as put in, arrange could be very easy, and with the required permissions given (there are numerous them) the watch delivered calls and notifications to my wrist promptly and reliably.

Huawei has caught some flack in earlier years for missing primary options offered by competing smartwatches, however issues are getting higher. With this era, there’s now a keyboard for fast replies and you may lastly take screenshots, too.

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Extra excitingly, now you can use the look ahead to navigation, with full-colour maps and topography from Petal Maps. It really works very equally to Google Maps on a Put on OS system, you begin navigation on the telephone app and it’ll beam instructions over to the watch.

Petal Maps wouldn’t be my first alternative of navigation service, but it surely works nicely sufficient. No less than that’s the expertise on Android, this function is presently unsupported on iOS. 

The Huawei Well being app is full of fitness-related options, together with exercise plans, calorie monitoring and well being insights. It additionally includes a watch face retailer, with loads of free and paid choices to alter up the look of your watch, in addition to an app retailer to spice up the performance. Sadly, the app retailer is fairly spartan, and I couldn’t discover something value putting in.

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

The Watch GT5 Professional helps contactless funds through Huawei Pockets, however this function isn’t supported within the UK or the US. It is perhaps the only greatest draw back to this system, because it’s one thing you are able to do with each equally priced competitor.

Health & Monitoring

• Over 100 exercise modes
• Superior {golfing} options
• TruSense system

The Watch GT5 Professional is likely one of the first wearables to hold Huawei’s new ‘TruSense’ branding.

It’s a advertising time period to explain a sure set of requirements for the sensor stack and, in essence, it means the array of sensors work collectively in a quicker, extra cohesive method that’s much less susceptible to environmental interference.

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

Luke Baker

It’s laborious to check further how a lot of a distinction this new system makes, however for what it’s value, my step depend and coronary heart price readings have been about the identical as what I’m used to seeing from gadgets like my OnePlus Watch 2 and TicWatch Professional 5.

Comparatively, this watch takes issues additional with pores and skin temperature monitoring, anytime correct ECG assortment and sleep apnea detection.

What actually impressed me, although, is the GPS accuracy. When taking a look at my routes after a stroll or a motorcycle trip, the watch was so correct that it even appropriately mapped which facet of the street I used to be on. That is due to the brand new ‘Sunflower Antenna’, which Huawei says improves route accuracy by 40% and distance accuracy by 30%, in comparison with earlier generations.

The record of exercises out there for monitoring is significantly complete, and I used to be happy to seek out that every one of my normal actions are included, even barely extra area of interest actions like skating. The record goes as far as to incorporate issues like parachuting, parkour, motorsport and eSports. So, it doesn’t matter what you’re into, the GT5 Professional can seemingly monitor it.

One of many greatest additions to this era is {the golfing} mode, which is unique to the Professional mannequin and never discovered on the common GT5. Sadly, I’m not a golfer, so I couldn’t take full benefit of those new options, however in case you are, it looks as if it could possibly be a game-changer.

The golf mode helps 15,000 programs world wide and it’ll provide you with a 3D course preview which you can view in your wrist. Then, when you’re taking part in, it’ll provide you with exact measurements of the space to the outlet, together with necessary knowledge like wind velocity and route in addition to elevation adjustments.

It’ll additionally monitor your swings, advocate golf equipment, and it’ll even preserve rating. It’s like a digital assistant for golfers, it simply can’t carry your golf equipment.

Battery Life & Charging

• As much as 14 days of battery life
• 9 days of battery life typical utilization
• Fast 1-hour charging

Huawei advertises as much as 14 days of battery life for the 46mm model and seven days for the 42mm watch. After all, battery life varies dramatically relying on which options you could have enabled and what you’re doing between fees.

From launch till October 22 2024, consumers on Amazon and the Huawei UK website will get a free pair of Huawei Freebuds 5i with their purchase, which normally retail for around £80.