The deed is done. Huawei, one of the last two remaining smartphone maker still making Android Wear smartwatches has left LG as the last OEM standing. But while the Huawei Watch GT might feel like a betrayal for Wear OS hopefuls who fell in love with the first two Huawei Watches, Huawei fans will probably fall deeper in love with the fact that the wearable companion to their Huawei smartphone would last days longer than any Apple Watch or Wear OS smartwatch could even dream of.
Battery life is, of course, the main selling point of the Huawei Watch GT. The company gives three figures, depending on which features are used and for how long. The average is, by Huawei’s estimates, 2 weeks of battery life. That’s with the heart rate monitoring enable and 90 minutes of exercise per week with GPS turned on. The longest would be 30 days, using it only for notifications. On the other extreme, the Huawei Watch GT would only last 22 hours with all monitoring turned on and continuous exercise tracking enabled.
That battery life, unimaginable for more common smartwatches, is thanks to Huawei’s new dual-core architecture made up of a low-speed core and a high-speed core pair where AI, unsurprisingly, decides which one to utilize for a given task. Unfortunately, that flexibility and battery life comes at the cost of having to develop an in-house smartwatch operating system which Huawei dubs as LightOS. Fortunately, that’s also the OS it uses for its fitness trackers so it’s not a complete waste or reinvention of the wheel.
What the Huawei Watch GT loses in terms of smartwatch apps it gains in health and fitness tracking apps. TruSeen 3.0 heart rate monitoring now uses AI and self-learning algorithms, along with sensors, to determine where the smartwatch is and what context it’s being used in. Activity tracking can identify not just outdoor activities but even different swimming styles. And TruSleep monitoring can recommend 200 ways to improve your rest.
All those sensor won’t bulk up the 10.6 mm thick Watch GT. The smartwatch features a 1.39-inch AMOLED screen encased in 316L stainless steel with a diamond-like carbon and ceramic bezel design.
Huawei is also putting out a new Huawei Band 3 Pro for those who prefer a more traditional smart fitness tracker. Equipped with a 0.95-inch AMOLED touch display, the Band 3 Pro boasts up to 20 days of use and can automatically recognize different activities. It’s pretty much the Huawei Watch GT in a smaller, sportier form.
