The first two watch products of Huawei started helped fuel the Android Wear operating system’s success. So when the company decided to not use Google’s wearable platform with its Huawei Watch GT. The company went with its own software instead. The software of the Watch GT was pared back to increase battery life.

Huawei Watch GT Release Date

The Huawei Watch GT comes in two variants, the Classic, and the Sport. When Huawei first released the watch, buying the more expensive Classic variant was more difficult. The way to differentiate the two watches is by looking at their bodies. The Sport variant has a black body while the Classic has a silver one.

The price of the Sport edition original was $199.99 while the Classic version cost $229.99.

Huawei Watch GT Design & Display

The smartwatch is thin and light. It has a full-color display. It is comfortable to wear on the wrist. It also looks great as well.

The Watch GT looks similar to the Huawei Watch 2 even though it is slimmer. Its thickness is 10.6mm, helping it sit on the wearer’s wrist comfortably.

The device is equipped with a 1.39-inch AMOLED display that is bright and clear. The screen can show all the stats clearly and is easy to interact with. It is likely because of the display’s 454 x 454 resolution, which is higher than a lot of other smartwatches.

The screen of the Huawei Watch GT is probably one of the best ones. It a shame that the watch doesn’t use Wear OS software to support apps other than those from Huawei.

On the right side are two buttons to help you navigate around if you don’t want to use the touchscreen.

The top button is to wake the watch and take you to the main menu. The lower one is to set up shortcuts. By doing this, you won’t have to go to the main menu to open your favorite apps. This is especially useful when you wear the watch while going for a run.

If you are a Huawei Watch 2 user, you will recognize many design elements from the Watch GT. Huawei uses ceramic and metal to make the GT, making it look premium. There are numbers around the bezel to make it look a bit like a traditional analog watch.

The outside of the device is completely metal. You can go with a silver watch body and a brown leather strap or a black body and a blcack silicone strap.

Huawei Watch GT Specs & Performance

It is unclear which is used to power the Huawei Watch GT. With its previous smartwatches, the company used Qualcomm wearable chipsets.

With the Watch GT, the company decided to go with the company’s home-grown system. The app works smoothly and you won’t have to wait for an app to boot up.

In particular, the GPS connects and syncs almost instantly. You can press the button while taking off on your run immediately.

The speed of the Watch GT is impressive. However, its software is limited.

Huawei Watch GT Software and App

This is the part where the device appears to struggle. It is because the company has decided to use its own LightOS software. Unlike other Android smartwatches, the Huawei Watch GT doesn’t use Wear OS or Tizen.

This isn’t a bad thing completely. However, Huawei’s software is limited when compared to other smartwatch operating systems. It doesn't support third-party apps. Huawei doesn’t have any intention of introducing that support later either.

What the smartwatch manages to offer is customizable notifications and watch faces and lots of fitness tech. But apart from that, we need to say it is truly limited. You don’t have Google Pay as there is no NFC chipset for that.

The software is adequate. However, it isn’t for users who want a fully-fledged smartwatch.

With the Huawei app on your Android or iOS phone, you can choose your specific settings. Third-party apps’ notifications aren’t exactly well optimized. You can still have a brief preview of the message. However, you can’t reply to those messages and will need to take your phone out.

Huawei Watch GT Fitness

The app is called Workouts. Most of the tracking capabilities besides heart rate monitoring and step tracking are offered.

Easy modes include Indoor Run, Outdoor Run, Climb, Outdoor Walk, Indoor Cycle, Outdoor Cycle, Open Water, Pool Swim, and others.

The smartwatch has a 5ATM water-resistance rating. So you can definitely use it to track a swim. The GPS connects extremely quickly.

Your stats are displayed clearly and easy to interact with. The tracking is suitably accurate.

Huawei Watch GT Battery Life

This is where things get exciting. According to Huawei, this watch should at least last around a whole month with only one single charge. But when being tested, after around two weeks, the battery drops to 50%. When it is recharged, it has around 72% of the battery left after 10 days.

Considering that the Huawei Watch 2 requires recharging every couple of days, this is truly impressive. There are some other smartwatches that can last a similar amount of time, but not all of them.

It also depends on how much you use the device. With heavy fitness tracking, GPS enabled, and continuous heart rate monitoring, the battery will drain even more. The period two weeks is only for mixed usage with only about one day of GPS feature turned on.