Revisiting Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro - Still the top smartwatch for the price

Back in November of 2020, we unboxed the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro and it immediately impressed us with what it has to offer out of the box.

Revisiting Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro

Coming from the Watch GT 2, the Watch GT 2 Pro arrived with several upgrades like the titanium and sapphire glass material, a skin-friendly Fluoroelastomer replaceable strap, a magnetic wireless charger, and a newer LiteOS more advanced workout modes.

Fast forward to April of 2021, how did it fare? Let's revisit the Watch GT 2 Pro.

Build Quality/Design

Titanium body (left)

For an update, our unit still looks new after 5 months. This proves that the materials used by Huawei here are all premium.

Buttons (right)

The titanium body is very hard to damage. Our unit only received a tiny dent (super hard to notice) after getting dropped accidentally on a concrete floor. On smooth tile flooring like tiles, you don't need to worry.

The strap

Up to this date, its display with Sapphire Glass protection remains unscratched. The glossy ceramic back remained to be very comfortable on the skin. To our surprise, it isn't prone to scratches as well. The replaceable Black Fluoroelastomer Strap still looks new and it still provides excellent comfort when worn.

Watch GT 2 Pro is a stylish smartwatch

And of course, this watch looks very stylish, minimalist, and manly. We also like that its bezel is now flatter and looks more seamless to the screen.

Titanium body, sapphire glass display, ceramic back, comfortable strap!

In short, it screams "PREMIUM" for the price. In fact, I personally find it to be stylish enough to be worn on my wedding day last year. For me, it looks that good.

See also: Top Filipino photographer Carlo Acetre used the Huawei Mate 40 Pro for the BTS of our wedding

We can also say that its 5 ATM water resistance is legit. This survived our out-of-town swimming sessions. It can be washed with water and soap as well.

Our only minor gripe is it is thicker than the Watch GT 2. Some may like this thickness better though.

Display Quality

Screen with deep blacks

This smart fitness watch still has some of the nicest rounded displays regardless of class today.

Bright and color-rich AMOLED screen!

Its flat 1.39-inch AMOLED HD touch display is pretty crisp at 454 x 454 resolution at 326 ppi so there are no visible pixels in the naked eye. Since it is using a nice type of AMOLED panel, the display is also rich in colors with deep blacks and nice contrast.

Viewing angles are excellent too and it can go bright enough to have respectable sunlight legibility. Actually, this has one of the brightest screens on smartwatches today.

Brightness level 5 is too bright for indoor use for us, so we just set the brightness settings to auto.

The display is not that reflective as well.

This screen is also large enough to show most of the information we needed on a smartwatch that is simply pleasing to the eyes.

In the display settings, it even has an Always On Display function if you don't mind your battery drain faster.

Battery

One of the best features of Huawei smartwatches is the battery life. Similar to its predecessors, the Watch GT 2 Pro has up to two weeks of battery life thanks to its 455mAh battery. Actually, it is more than two weeks if you are a light smartwatch user. 

But if you will use most of its features most of the time like checking notifications, answering calls, controlling your music player as well as its plenty of health and fitness-related functions with GPS, you can still get around a week of battery.

The battery will of course drain a bit faster if you turn the brightness to high always and switch on the Always On Display function.

Maybe we are asking for too much, but it would be even better if Huawei updated its battery life since its body is thicker though.

Still, it is so much better than the 18 hours of Apple Watch Series 6 and Galaxy Watch3 with around 2 to 3 days of battery life.

For charging, Huawei included a magnetic wireless charger with a USB-C port. This is a welcome upgrade to the old pogo pin charging solution of Huawei smartwatches. Now, even if you lose the stock charger, you can still charge the watch to any Qi wireless charger you have.

Huawei said that 5 minutes of charge can give the Watch up to 10 hours of battery life and it is true based on what we experienced. Charging time from 0 to 100 percent is around 2 hours.

Performance

Huawei Health app

The device works with either Android 5.0 or iOS 9.0 and above devices. It is very easy to pair especially with Huawei devices as long as you have the Huawei Health app and Bluetooth turned on.

After setting up the device, you will be greeted by a very easy-to-use touch interface. Swiping down will let you access the shortcut keys and the settings and if you swipe up, you will find the notifications on your phone.

Swiping left or right will let you access the step counter, music player, weather app, stress measurement (Huawei TruRelax), and heart rate monitor.

This also has physical buttons. The upper right button will allow the user to check the workout modes, heart rate monitor, Sp02 for oxygen tracking, activity records, sleep tracking, stress measurement, breathing exercises, call log, contacts, music, remote shutter, air pressure checker, compass, notifications, time, flashlight, find phone function, and settings. It also serves as a "back" button. 

The down button is the shortcut key for workouts like running courses, outdoor run, indoor run, outdoor walk, outdoor cycle, indoor cycle, pool swim, open water swim, mountain hike, hike, trail run, driving rage, skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, triathlon, and more to name a few.

The workout modes even have guidance using its speaker that gives its users suggestions for better training. Personally, I use the running courses the most. We also like that it has GPS for distance and location tracking. By the way, you can use this watch even while swimming in the pool or sea as it is water-resistant with workout modes for swimming.

Apart from tracking your steps, calories burned, and workout results, this also has a lot of health-related features. We like that it has accurate heart rate monitoring, it can check my stress levels, Sp02 for oxygen tracking (it could also be useful in high-altitude areas), sleep recording with analysis as well as suggestions (Huawei TruSleep 2.0).

The step counter is nice, but we can't say that it is 100 percent accurate as it sometimes registers bumps from road humps while inside a car as steps.

This also measures aerobic/anaerobic workout effectiveness, recovery time, and training intensity.

GPS in action

Unlike the older versions of LiteOS, you can now install apps using the Huawei Health app. I tried to install a calculator and FM Radio. Though it would be better if this has an option to install third-party apps like Strava.

And of course, this goes with plenty of watch faces and a lot of them can be downloaded on the Health app. 

It even has the OneHop option when you enable NFC to select images in the gallery by holding your watch at the back of the phone to create and transfer custom watch faces. This doesn't work all the time though.

After going for a swim or washing your watch, there's a drain water function to unclog the speakers with water as well and it'll recommend you to shake the watch to help get the water out.

Huawei has also seeded plenty of updates to this device from the time we got it to generally improve its performance, increase the number of watch faces that could be installed, and more.

Pros - Premium titanium body, sapphire glass display, bright and color-rich display, long battery life, wireless charging, plenty of workout and health modes

Cons - Body is a little thicker, can't install third-party apps

Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro Specs

Display: 1.39-inch Sapphire Glass protected AMOLED screen w/ 454 x 454 resolution at 326 ppi

CPU: 356MHz Kirin A1 + STL4R9 processor

RAM: 32MB

ROM: 4GB

Battery: 455mAh w/ wireless quick charge

OS: LiteOS (Works for Android 5.0 and iOS 9.0 and above)

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.1 (BLE, BR, EDR), NFC, GPS

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, geomagnetic, gyroscope, optical heart rate, air pressure, capacitive

Others: 5 ATM water resistance, titanium body, loudspeaker, microphone, Colors: Night Black

Dimensions: 46.7 x 46.7 x 11.4 mm

Weight: 52 g

Price: PHP 11,999

Verdict

The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro remains one of the most competitive smartwatches for the price. It is noticeably more affordable than most devices with the same materials used (titanium, sapphire glass, and ceramic) and battery life is still top-notch for a feature-rich watch with a large display and it now has a wireless charging function.

The LiteOS may not have support to Strava and Spotify apps, but its LiteOS has improved and it has most of what fitness and health buffs would need.

We highly recommend this to those who are looking for a sexy-looking watch made out of PREMIUM materials with tons of fitness and health-related functions and those who can afford it.

Build/Design - 4.75

Display - 4.5

Battery Life - 4.5

Performance - 4.5

Average - 4.5/5