Hi Friends,
Huawei sponsored me this Huawei Watch GT Active (46 mm) last year in May 2019 when I planned to practice and walk the 25km in the MTN Walk The Talk 702 Race in the month of July 2019. I felt great and very happy to be getting this brand new Huawei Watch GT at that time and started using the same immediately. I was able to finish 29kms on the day of the race from the car park to and fro and then attended a birthday party and going to the office the very next day without any trouble. All thanks to the guiding force in the form of
Huawei Watch GT. The watch has been with me since that time and only once in its whole life since that day failed me during the Jacaranda Spring Walk for 15km in Pretoria where it crashed at the 14th kilometer and my whole journey was not synced at all to the smartphone.
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| The first few days using the Huawei Watch GT |
As you all know that I was using the Samsung Galaxy S2 Classic before that which I bought from Incredible Connection cyber sale and slowly the parts starting to come off and I did some jugaad to continue wearing it. Thanks to Huawei for providing me with a new watch that people not only loved but also wanted to take from me. I totally love wearing the 46mm version which looks really cool and fills your wrist and people do notice the same too.
Let's check out the various features of the Huawei Watch GT Active.
The first thing I admired the same is the actual watch after opening up the package which has the watch with the silicon strap in orange color and a Type C charging cable and charging cradle with 2 points and magnet to fit the correct side of the watch when placed on the same. It was the first time, Huawei provided me a brand new sealed or mint condition product and I felt great after all these years of posts and reviews for their products.
The second factor was the amazing battery life of Huawei Watch GT which would totally last me for more than 14 days when I am not measuring the walks or putting the GPS ON but as I used the same to walk every day with GPS ON then the battery life come down to around 7 days and still is giving me more than 5 days of performance when I walk more than 5-6 km daily. It can be 100% charged in around 90 minutes or so. Sometimes the GPS on the watch is not able to detect the actual locations during the walks and add up those straight-line marks when you check your walk or run on the smartphone Huawei Health app. It gives you extra miles without adding any extra time to your walk making your goal appear overachieved.
The third factor is the strap and watches dial which really looks cool in the Orange colors. The body of the watch is just 46 grams without the straps which are made from metal, plastic, and ceramic. My watch is in Titanium Grey Stainless Stell version whereas there are Black Stainless steel and normal stainless steel versions also available. The screen size is 1.39 inches with AMOLED display. The strap is made of some Fluoroelastomer material which doesn't give my skin any kind of irritation to date. Though I have to clean the back daily using a soft cloth as some kind of white material sediments around the circular sensors spot. I also regularly wash the band using the soap to make it clean as dust gets deposited in the slots of the straps. The strap is of topmost quality I have ever seen in all the bands and watches I have used since Jawbone UP, Fitbit, Samsung S2 Classic, Xiaomi Band, Huawei Band, etc in the last 7 years. Only recently the band of the straps broke after a year of usage in the month of April 2020 when I did 180kms of walk in a single month - my best performance ever in my life.
The fourth factor was that this watch is water-resistant up to 5 ATM which I never tested as I don't swim and never took it to shower. I don't want to risk the only thing I have new and once it goes to any of the repair centers it costs a lot of money to repair. I totally loved that the watch is equipped to measure your Oxygen intake and burn capacity measured using VO2Max and also measures your Aerobic Training effect after every exercise and tell you also how much time your body needs rest before your next workout.
There are several other small features that I totally love like covering the display with your palm and it gets turned off which comes handy in the night along with when you swing your hand towards your face the display lights ON to show you the necessary details. The barometer and the altitude meter features are an added advantage that I tested when I was at the highest point of South Africa at around 2150 meters above sea level on the road near Lydenburg Mountains towards Sabie in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
The factors which I didn't like in the
Huawei Watch GT was that it doesn't have any music player built into the same which the Samsung Gear S2 classic had along with a 4GB of memory whereas Huawei Watch GT has around 700 MB of space to install Watch faces which also was limited when I got the smartwatch but then it only allows you to install 15-20 watch faces. Now the Huawei App market has expanded and there are several new watch faces coming on a daily basis.
The second factor was the inability to interpret that you have already started jogging or running etc as you have to specifically press certain buttons on Huawei Watch GT whereas it was automatic in Gear S2 Classic. Gear S2 seamlessly measures without even thinking about switching to any mode and it will measure your performance using AI but Huawei Watch GT has to be put on a certain mode using the buttons on the side of the watch and then it saves your walks in the walk category and runs in the run category as per your command. But still, Huawei Watch GT is not able to measure the floors climbed no matter how many stairs you are climbing but it will tell you the elevation gain in meters. The stress test is shown in the app but there is no functionality in the Watch GT to perform the same.
The last factor is the Huawei Health App which is not advanced where you can add your friends and challenge them. It will give nice stats to show on your stories and posts but you can't earn points etc. Though you can get medals by finishing certain milestones it just looks like coins and nothing fancy about the same. Samsung Health is way advance in this matter where you get monthly targets to achieve and levels to cross. You can add all your friends using the Samsung ecosystem and challenge them and beat them to earn extra points and cross new levels.
Overall, I am very happy with the Huawei Watch GT which is not as smart as it looks but then there are always new versions coming from the Huawei range of products. I did not receive the Huawei Watch GT 2 at the launch event which has a lot of disadvantages I mentioned taken care of with music player built into it and various other things which I can only check if I use the same. Huawei gives out these watches when you buy any of their smartphones so be prepared to receive the new versions of the watch when you are due for an upgrade and opt for the Huawei Watch GT smartwatch.
RATING 3/5
