The brand new Watch GT 5 series has been presented by Huawei and we have tested the Pro extensively. In this review we take you along this luxury watch that also has a lot to offer in terms of software and battery life.
Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro review: Titanium version tested
Huawei has unveiled a batch of new smartwatches at an event in Barcelona. These are smartwatches in the Watch GT 5 series.
There is also a new version of the Watch Ultimate, especially for golfers, presented and Huawei also showed the Watch GT 5 Pro. We have the titanium version of the latter on our wrist for a while and in this review we will take you along all our experiences.
The review model of the Watch GT 5 Pro was provided by Huawei.
Octagonal shape with round screen
If you want to customize the look of a watch, you don’t have many options. You can make adjustments to the shape of the watch case, the buttons and play with the colors. Huawei has done well, because the new octagonal shape of the watch case plays the leading role. It looks more playful.
As mentioned, we tested the titanium version, which is equipped with a case and strap made of this strong material. It is nice that you can easily adjust the straps yourself and with the titanium strap you can remove or add links yourself.
There are two physical buttons on the right side, including a crown wheel. You use these in menus or to scroll through settings. There are various sensors on the back and a colored bezel is placed around the screen, which is partly red and blue.
Colorful, round and amoled
We don’t see anything crazy about the screen. It’s a round and colorful amoled display of 1.43 inches with a high resolution of 466 by 466 pixels. This makes detailed watch faces look good and you see a lot of information at once.
For operation, you use the touch-sensitive screen. The slightly rounded casing makes swiping movements feel nice and the brightness of the screen is good. This makes it easy to read in the summer sun. You can play with the brightness or set it automatically, and there is an always-on option on board. However, we have disabled this function.
Hardware is not too flashy
Huawei does not use chips from well-known manufacturers or all kinds of new techniques, such as the design of the OnePlus Watch 2(R) with two chipsets. The exact hardware in this Watch GT 5 Pro is unknown, but everything works smoothly and fine. This way you can quickly switch between apps, easily swipe through the menus and everything opens quickly.
You don’t have to be very careful with this watch, because it is resistant to dust and water and contains a titanium alloy, which means it won’t get scratched that easily. We have worn the smartwatch day and night, also while showering, washing hands or doing odd jobs and gardening. During the test period, no damage occurred to the watch or the screen.
The Watch GT 5 Pro supports dozens of sports. The watch collects all kinds of statistics and via the Huawei Health app you can then check extensive reports. In addition to walking or all kinds of running training, it can handle swimming, golf and cycling.
If you want to take a certain number of steps per day, you can set that as a goal, like on almost every wearable. Your heart rate, blood oxygen level, skin temperature and arterial stiffness level are also detected. Curious about your sleeping behavior or stress level? Then you can measure that with the special apps.
The watch has internal storage for offline music storage. Making a call works as expected and is occasionally useful when your phone is not in the vicinity. Support for an eSIM is missing, so you always need to have a smartphone connected to answer calls.
Huawei Health-app en HarmonyOS 5.0
Pairing the watch with an Android smartphone is not as easy as you might expect. The app is not yet in the Play Store, but must be installed manually. You do this by scanning a QR code and downloading an APK file. A Huawei spokesperson says that the correct app should be available in the Play Store from October this year, which should make installation a lot easier and faster.
It is also difficult to grant all the rights that the watch needs to work fully. We are talking about, among other things, being able to view your contacts, being allowed to use your location or being able to partially view the contents of your phone. In order to have all notifications synchronize properly, you also have to dive quite deeply into the settings.
Fast, colorful and without well-known apps
HarmonyOS 5.0 feels smooth and has been pimped up a bit. For example, backgrounds are more colorful instead of black, which makes the whole thing feel fresher. There are also all kinds of renewed watch faces, which are interactive. By turning the crown wheel, you get a fun effect on some watch faces.
If Huawei Health is properly installed, you can use this app to view all kinds of health insights. You can also set notifications for certain apps or find the right digital watch face there. You can download offline maps for the company’s own Petal Maps app, quick replies set it up for when you want to respond to a chat message, or find the watch via your smartphone if it is lost.
Swipe down from the top of the screen to open the quick settings with all sorts of useful options. For example, you can set the volume, screen brightness or sleep mode. You can check notifications by swiping the other way around. Swiping from right to left results in the display of ‘cards’, which resemble the ’tiles’ of Wear OS.
Finally, if you swipe from left to right, the Smart Assistance screen opens with information about the weather, what music is playing and other important notifications.
Unfortunately, well-known apps such as Strava, Google Maps or Spotify do not work on this watch: they are not available for HarmonyOS. However, for a handful of apps there is the possibility to synchronize data with the right app on your smartphone.
This is possible with Strava, Komoot and Runtastic, but that’s about it. Notifications show a nice icon, so you know exactly if you receive something from WhatsApp or Instagram, for example.
If you are looking for an operating system without options to install well-known apps yourself, HarmonyOS is a good choice. The watch itself offers many possibilities in all kinds of areas, but for many other users the system is too closed.
Charge twice per month
If you’re a fanatic athlete who covers miles every day while tracking your route with GPS, the GT 5 Pro will run out of battery faster than if you only use it for the time and notifications. Huawei itself says you can use it for up to two weeks before it needs to be charged.
We got through a week and a half, with the brightness set to automatic, the GPS used occasionally for a walk and notifications set for various apps. This includes incoming emails, but not chat apps.
Huawei includes a magnetic charging puck, which is very strong. Thanks to the USB connection, you can use it with all kinds of charging plugs or your laptop, for example.
Conclusion Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro review
The Watch GT 5 Pro is a luxury smartwatch that we can charm. The fresh update of the operating system is nice, but you have to keep in mind that you can not use known apps.
Huawei does provide a fairly complete software package, so you can get started with everything right away. The titanium version we tested feels premium and luxurious and offers a nice combination of an old-fashioned analog watch and a smartwatch.
In addition, it is nice that you have a lot of choice in terms of models and you can easily change the straps yourself. So there is something for everyone.
Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro kopen
The Huawei Watch GT 5 and Watch GT 5 Pro are available in different flavors. The Watch GT 5 is available from 249.99 euros, while you pay at least 379.99 euros for the 5 Pro.
For the GT 5 you can go to Huawei, Bol, Coolblue, MediaMarkt and Belsimpel. The Watch GT 5 Pro can also be found at these stores: Huawei, Bol, Coolblue, MediaMarkt and Belsimpel.
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Source: www.androidplanet.nl
