Honor Watch GS Pro is a smartwatch built for the great outdoors

Huawei spinoff brand Honor has announced two new watches led by the Watch GS Pro, which Honor says is built for “urban adventurers”. We think that means people who like to go explore the great outdoors, just not all the time.

Something of a departure from the Honor MagicWatch 2 we tested out back in January, the GS Pro has qualified for 14 MIL-STD-810G military certifications. That’s to ensure it’s got the kind of rugged and durable design to brave everything from high temperatures to rain and altitude.

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The watch is made from reinforced polycarbonate body matched up with a stainless steel bezel that weighs in at 45.5g when you factor out the accompanying strap. You’ve also got your pick of charcoal black, marl white and camo blue color options. All watch models have a 5ATM water resistance rating making them safe for a shower and a swim up to 50 metres depth.

Front and centre is a 1.39-inch AMOLED touchscreen that promises a 454 x 454 pixel resolution and 326 PPI pixel density. That’s the same sized display and resolution that the MagicWatch 2 came packing as well.

Honor Watch GS Pro is a smartwatch built for the great outdoors

In terms of sensors, you’ve got built-in GPS as well as an barometric altimeter and a compass to make itself more useful when you’re out hiking. While there’s no full mapping support like you’d find on something like the Garmin Fenix, it does offer breadcrumb navigation and features like Route Back to help you safely get back to your start point.

There’s also support for weather alerts to help warn you about adverse conditions as well as provide sunrise and sunset times as well as moon and tidal phases.

Away from the adventuring uses, it offers a lot of the fitness and sports tracking features we’ve seen in previous watches.

There’s support for over 100 workout modes, which now includes a dedicated a skiing mode with ski-centric metrics on offer. You still have 24//7 activity tracking including continuous heart rate monitoring powered by Huawei’s TruSeen 3.5 sensor. You can also track stress and use the onboard SpO2 sensor to track blood oxygen saturation levels during the day.

Smartwatch features include notification support, managing calls over Bluetooth and storing music (roughly 500 songs) as well as controlling music playing on your phone.

When it comes to battery life, Honor promises some impressive numbers. It claims the GS Pro can last up to 25 days on a single charge with up to 48 hours in GPS mode and up to 100 hours in outdoor workout mode.

Honor Watch ES looks very familiar

Honor Watch GS Pro is a smartwatch built for the great outdoors

Joining the GS Pro is the Honor Watch ES, which looks to be a clone of the Huawei Watch Fit that we’ve already seen detailed.

Geared more as a fitness-focused option, it features that same squashed 30mm rectangular frame that houses a 1.64-inch AMOLED, 456 x 280 resolution touchscreen display.

Available in meteorite black, coral pink and icelandic white colors, the ES carries a 5ATM water resistance rating and delivers 10 days of battery life. There’s also fast charging support to get you 70% of battery off a 30 minute charge.

Honor’s big sell with the ES is that along with the 95 workout modes it promises to track, it also supports 12 animated workouts you can follow when you need a break from work as well as dedicated exercises that work on those abs or burning fat.

Additional features including 24/7 activity tracking, a female cycle tracker, SpO2 monitor and stress tracking. For smartwatch features, you’re getting remote photo shooting, notifications and music playback controls.

What seems to be the two biggest differences between the ES and the Huawei Watch Fit is that the former lacks built-in GPS and music storage you will get on the latter.

Honor Watch GS Pro and ES price and release date

So, when will you be able to get hold of these two new Honor wearables?

The GS Pro will go on sale on 7 September in the UK, though no pricing has been revealed yet. We do know that it will be priced at €249 in France, Germany, Italy or Spain. There are no details as yet on US pricing. That suggests it will be an affordable outdoor option when you compare it to Garmin, Polar and Coros’ outdoor watch options.

It’s a similar story for the ES, which will land in the UK and Germany on the same day. It will cost €99.99, though no UK pricing is available yet.

We’ll be testing both of the watches out, so keep a look out for our verdict on the Honor GS Pro and the Watch ES in the coming weeks.

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