Huawei Watch GT2 Pro goes official – here’s our first impressions

The Huawei Watch GT2 Pro is finally official, after a month of teasers and leaks.

The update to the Huawei Watch GT2 puts high quality materials front-and-center, while retaining a sports and health tracking focus.

The GT 2 Pro boasts a titanium case with sapphire glass, and a ceramic back giving it a premium finish that we’re not used to seeing from the budget end of the market.

It joins the Oppo Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, Fitbit Sense and forthcoming Apple Watch Series 6 as part of a bumper season of upcoming smartwatches for the end of 2020.

Huawei Watch GT2 Pro in brief

• Joins the Huawei Watch GT2 and Watch GT2e by adding more premium materials, with a titanium case and ceramic back.
• 47mm oversized case with a bright 454 x 454 AMOLED display
• New golf and skiing tracking modes
• A new focus on outdoor tracking with weather system tracking and tide tides, as well as back-to-strat navigation
• It will be on sale for $TBC

Huawei Watch GT2 Pro: Design

Ceramic and titanium are staples of the high-end Swiss watch market and have filtered down onto Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy smartwatches. However the titanium Samsung is $500 and ceramic Apple Watch costs more than $1000.

We’ve been wearing the Huawei Watch GT2 Pro for a week or so now, and it’s certainly a step up in terms of quality over the GT2e and rivals from Amazfit and even Fossil.

It’s a good looking device and feels premium on the wrist. In terms of design it’s certainly more vanilla than the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, and some classier watch faces wouldn’t go amiss.

The front is dominated by the 454 x 454 AMOLED touchscreen display. It’s a generous 1.39-inch display inside a 47mm case, which does feel a little oversized on the wrist. While all smartwatches are personal choices, it doesn’t feel very unisex.

It’s important to note that Huawei hasn’t yet announced any pricing, but we’re expecting this to stay affordable.

As it has so many sports focussed features, Huawei puts two hot-swappable bands in the box – a leather and silicone version for workouts and swimming.

It’s so obvious that this would be a good idea – to marry the design and features with two appropriate band options – and it’s something we wished Samsung had thought of.

Huawei Watch GT2 Pro: Health and sports

There are 100+ sports modes available on the watch, although most of these will be simple HR tracking and duration.

The on-watch experience is nearly identical to the Huawei Watch GT2e, which we were highly impressed with earlier this year.

There’s built-in GPS and even coaching modes for running, with guided HIIT sessions for all abilities, and Firstbeat’s advanced analytics for VO2 Max and recovery time from runs.

Like the Huawei Watch GT2 there’s also stress tracking.

But there are some new features exclusive to the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro.

A new golf driving range mode monitors swing tempo and swing speed when practicing. It’s a shame there’s no native golf tracking, and being Lite OS, there are no third party options as you’d get from Apple Watch or Wear OS.

There’s also a skiing mode, which covers most snow-sport disciplines, with dedicated data on descents.

Huawei has added a much bigger focus on the outdoors, with a back-to-start mode which gives you a heading back to the beginning of a GPS tracked route.

And the Huawei Watch GT2 Pro also offers tide times and weather apps. The latter will warn of storm and adverse weather based on atmospheric pressure from the built-in barometer, so you’re not reliant on your smartphone having signal.

The Huawei Watch GT2 Pro features the company’s new TruSeen 4.0+ heart rate sensor, which sounds akin to Fitbit’s PurePulse 2.0 by using machine learning and algorithms to offer more accurate HR. We’ll be assessing this in our full review.

All-day heart rate tracking is a big part of the fitness tracking features.

Obviously sleep tracking is catered for, and you get a breakdown of sleep stages, a sleep score with lots of extra data including a focus on night time breathing.

And the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro can also take SpO2 spot readings.

Huawei Watch GT2 Pro: Battery life

Part of the reason for the Watch GT2’s runaway success in 2020 has been battery life, and there’s excellent numbers for the Watch GT2 Pro.

It will still offer a 14 day battery life, and 30 hours of GPS tracking. We’re still testing those numbers ahead of our full review.

When you consider that the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 can only offer two days at most, and Fitbit smartwatches 6 days, it’s a strong proposition.

The GT2 Pro also features wireless charging and can charge straight from compatible Huawei smartphones, if you need extra juice.

Early verdict

We’re big fans of what Huawei has been building with the Huawei Watch GT2 range – and the GT2 Pro is a great addition. The premium materials is something missing from the current smartwatch landscape, even if it looks a little plain, and it doesn’t scrimp on sports watch features either.

The health tracking elements are really strong, especially for runners. It’s an intelligent and well thought through set of features, well implemented in the Huawei Health app.

Much of this depends on the price. The Huawei Watch GT2 Pro is £299 in the UK, so we’d be expecting around $299. It’s a punchier price tag than we were expecting, and while it undercuts the Galaxy Watch 3 and Apple Watch Series 6 it’s still more than the Series 3.

But you’re certainly getting good quality for the money.