Huawei is on a run this year with strong demand for its smartphone despite a ban by the US Department of Commerce. Not only did the Chinese smartphone manufacturer manage to retain its second position in the list of global smartphone manufacturers, but it shipped more devices than last year.
Though it is talking about development globally, the company is yet to make a big dent in the Indian market. The smartphone market in India is yet to crack, but the company is already outpacing other product segments. The most notable of these is devices like Huawei Watch GT 2.
The Huawei Watch, which launched in 2016, was one of the best Android Wear watches of its time. However, Google became sluggish and updates took time. As soon as smartphone makers left the segment altogether, Huawei decided to pivot.
By axis, I’m talking about a non-standard operating system. It is hard to find a truly great smartwatch for your Android smartphone. But the Huawei Watch GT2 wants to find the middle ground. I have a wearable for a few hours now, and here are my initial impressions.
Huawei Watch GT 2: Design and Display
Watches are a very personal piece of electronics that we humans have. A bad design may actually restrict the success of this device. There is no mistake in the Huawei Watch GT 2. It has a traditional watch design with a rounded face and is finished in a really cool way.
It is so traditional that there are numbers on the circumference of the dial, marking the similarity of diver watches. It is not Hamilton or Seiko in terms of design, but it seems like an amalgamation of the two of them. Huawei made a great wearable with the original Huawei Watch, and with the GT2, it is in contention for the best smartwatch design of this year.
The Huawei Watch GT 2 is just 10.6mm at its thickest point and weighs just 46 grams. It has a 1.39-inch AMOLED screen, which has a resolution of 454 × 454 pixels. The 326ppi display is so crisp that everything looks huge and crystal clear.
Since I have not spent much time interacting with information, I would like to preserve the judgment here. But the Huawei Watch GT2 proves that the display is a progression we’ve seen earlier with AmazeFit and other watches. It is made of a combination of metal, plastic and ceramic. Our review unit came in the box with a saddle brown leather silicone strap attached and graphite black strap.
Hardware, Software & Fitness
Huawei Watch GT 2 comes with 16MB RAM and 128MB internal memory. You might think that this is compared to something like the Fossil General 5 Carlyle HR which has 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory. This operating system has to do with powering this wearable.
The GT2 does not run Wear OS by Google and relies on a custom wearable operating system. It also comes with custom chips for Kirin A1, Bluetooth 5.1 and Bluetooth LE 5.1. We’ll have to look deeper into this chip and how it performs compared to the Snapdragon Wear 3100 and Apple H1 in our full review.
The Huawei Watch GT2 is a fitness-focused smartwatch. While its primary purpose is to show time and display information, it is also capable of tracking your running, swimming, cycling, hiking, elliptical, rowing, etc. The Watch GT2 lacks a network connection, but includes GPS, which is a nice addition to tracking your route.
It also uses three satellites (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo) for precise positioning around the world. The software seems barefoot on its face, but I want to see if I can install the application and custom watch faces. In the next few days, I will look at all these options.
Huawei Watch GT2: Initial Impressions
Smartwatches do not need to look like consumer electronics devices. It should ideally break down designed DNA that has been passed down for decades by Swiss watchmakers. The Huawei Watch GT2 is near perfection.
The watch face called Urban makes it similar to a mechanical watch. With fast performance, activity tracking features and a superb suite of battery life that go on weekdays, it is a strong contender for the best smartwatch design of 2019.
