Huawei Watch GT 2 unboxing and first impressions By Neowin

Yes I'm Richard Neal, and today we're unboxing the Huawei watch, jt2. Okay, so, as you can see, I have several devices in front of me: two smaller watches. In fact all these are made by Huawei and the point is that I've used why we smartwatches before this is the first gen watch GT and like there's a very big difference between these three models that are in front of me and also there's one. That's missing, I just couldn't find it. It's the band 3 pro, and it's similar to this, which is the band 3. These are fitness bands.

They do notifications. You know that general stuff like that, and then you have to watch GT, which is kind of the same thing, but in a different form factor. This is using something called light OS, and it's Huawei's own thing. It's not as heavy as Android, and the big selling point was that you can get weeks of battery life out of a Smartwatch which it is not the case with really anything else. I've got a fossil gent v, Smartwatch on and I get you know about a day and when I say a damn mean from when I wake up to when I go to sleep a lot of the times, it's ready to go into battery saver mode by the time, I put it on a charger and then of course right here we have the Huawei watch.

? I want to say it was called. The sport might have just been called the watch ?, and this was actually Android wear as it was called at the time now it's called Wear OS and this wasn't ever refreshed. They haven't used, Wear OS ever since and gotta hated. This thing it's like just look at the band or the way that it's you know you can't easily change it. The bezels were massive, and you know it's like where OS is good in its own way, but yeah I didn't care for this one.

It's so thick, and I really like to watch GT a lot more. What I didn't like was that lack of functionality that comes with not having Wear OS, where, where OS here's some benefit right, it has Google Maps that that's big, because you pair with your Android phone or your iPhone, and you're getting directions through Google Maps, and it gives you turn by turn navigation on your wrist, so you're driving you don't have to have that voice over the speaker. That says: hey turn right in the half mile turn right in a quarter mile turn right in two hundred feet turn right and like it goes over or whatever you're listening to from your Bluetooth, and it gets super annoying. So it just shows up when your wrist and just look down okay, yeah turn right in a little. You know it works out pretty well, and so that's one of those things you're missing.

Another thing you were missing is music playback and that's something that's fixed in the watch gt2. So there's actually they've made a lot of improvements over here, so I'm kind of uh, I'm kind of excited about it. So it works through Huawei health by the way, and why would health is actually pretty good as far as fitness trackers go, because what one it's a sleep track and the sleep tracking has been done a lot of things, it's not done at where OS or Apple Watch. But it's been done a lot of places, and it's usually pretty useless. Usually, usually you can see how much you slept, how much deep sleep you got, how much light sleep you got and then that's it, and it's like okay, maybe if I can look and see that I woke up at 3 a.

m. every day, I can see that something's happening at 3 a. m. I. Don't know why we get something called true sleep where they actually give you insights on what you can do to improve the areas of your sleep where you're lacking.

So that's actually pretty impressive, and it's actually pretty useful. So, let's get this open, we got a little piece of plastic here. Oh there's, two pieces of plastic keeping this box closed, and here we go all right. So this is a black matte black color. Black floor elastomer strap I'm, not sure if it ever heard that word before a floor elastomer, but that's what this strap is made of.

Okay, oh nice, nice packaging here smartwatches do tend to come in nice packaging. Don't they guess, maybe because it's a fashion accessory okay, so here's the watch? Let's take a look at what else is in the box? I'm just slowly opening these pieces, because it's so nice all right. We got a charging plate which is different from the one at the watch, yeah different from the one that the watch to use the watch. Gt is the same one, and it's got pins right in the middle. There.

We're going to get this guy open, because we're going to need that it does. Oh, it plugs in through USB type-c. So that's nice, because that means you can plug it into whatever. Whatever cable you have lying around, which is super useful. Really you get these things, and they plug in through micro USB, because I don't know about you guys I, don't have any micro USB cables lying around anymore, like I have to, dig through my cables, where to find micro USB these days.

Okay, so here's our cable, and it is a USB type, a two USB type-c and is there going to be a power adapter in here looks like there is not, so it's just the cable and the end the charging plate, and then we have a Quick Start Guide, which is going to tell me to download Huawei health on my phone yeah charging, while we health pairing your watch with your phone and getting help. So those are the four topics, and we're just going to put this back in here and never look at it again. So I downloaded Huawei health on my pixel for Excel, which is what I'm using this with, because that's what I'm reviewing right now, and it's all pretty simple. You know you'll see a menu at the bottom. You hit devices click pair and you just you know, go right in weirdly when you select the language, it's it sends you to uh English UK is at the top, and then you have to scroll down for regular English but um.

So right now we're downloading a firmware update. So you look at a couple. Things like this. Is the Huawei watch, -? Okay, we're put you can put them right next to each other. You see the design of the new one is quite nice.

It has that curved or diagonal glass on the sides. It doesn't have these huge stainless steel bezels that go over the glass pulls all the way across the body on this one. Furthermore, it's much nicer same two buttons and the design has really evolved over time. Look how thick that is compared to this it's much more comfortable to wear with something that's this size. So this is started updating, but you said now we have the watch GT and, if I put the three next to each other, I can't even leave this one flat, but you can see is there's a big difference from the watch to watch GT just in terms of design.

It's a lot slimmer narrower bezels, but you can see it shares a design language between the two devices. We have a bigger screen over here, but they're very similar. So now we kind of have that same design, layer between the GT and the GT 2, but it's once again, more refined, and I do I like this. A lot I like the all glass look, I just hope: there's not a lot of compromises between these devices. What this is mainly about this refresh it eliminates a lot of compromises.

For example, like I said you can play back music that you have stored on the device. What music, though, because if you use a streaming service you're not going to be able to play your Apple Music, your Google play music, so I, don't know you can make and receive calls from the device. So at least you can receive calls I, don't have to try to get there's an always-on display now, which there was before notice. You can't even tap to wake on this one, and it's its rough. That's one of those big sacrifices.

Okay, and so hopefully this one comes out a lot better. So another thing we can, we can look at it's just the sides. You see like I, said slim body, which is a big deal to me. It just has to be comfortable to wear, and it has to look fashionable, and it seems like this pulls off. Both I feel like we're, seeing a lot of fashionable watches this year.

For example, you know that fossil, but that's a good thing, because it wasn't that long ago that this was the trend it was thick, it was bulky. I have an inch thick. It was insane you know. So this is a lot nicer. Um, like I, said ? vertically aligned charging pins on the back along with the heart rate sensor in between them, and I'm.

Not a fan of this charging method, like I, said the watch. Gt is exactly the same, and the watch too actually had them four pins off to the side. So I'm not a fan of this charging method, because those pins can get dirty after a while. You know you sweat under the watch they get a little corroded or whatever, and you have to clean them, or else it might not charge properly. You might put it on the charger, and you might have to move it a little to get it to work right and especially since you might be wearing this for like two weeks straight, it might be a real issue that the head of sweating, underneath them, you're gonna, wear it to sleep.

Furthermore, you're going to do all that stuff. So who knows so what I actually prefer over the over pins like? This is one wireless charging, which is what the Apple Watch does that's what the Moto 360 did. If you remember that, and if I can't get wireless charging I'll tell you what I prefer is what we get with fossil watches, where you get these rings on the bottom, so those two pins can connect anywhere on these rings on the device. So it's its a lot easier. It's a lot harder for a whole ring to get dirty than it is for just those two tiny little dots now I'm, not saying I've had this particular problem with, while with watches I'm, saying I've had a problem with some watches and something to be aware of.

So this is still updating, and it's only a 32% which is interesting. It's actually a hundred and forty-eight megabyte updates, which for a Smartwatch that's running light OS, that's huge yeah, so I mean obviously there's a lot more storage on this one than there wasn't the previous one, because the previous one. Obviously there were no apps. There was no anything really just the preloaded apps with pre-loaded watch faces and I. Don't think, there's AB Sun this one either, but there 's's more.

You can store music on it. So I guess there's a lot more storage, there's more RAM, and it can just do more. So the update is 93% transferred. Now it's been going for a solid ten minutes, and it also says don't use your phone or the watch while its update, and after it transfers it's the last install. So it does take a while to transfer this update if you're getting this update.

If you have the watch a couple, things that are new, it adds the gallery watch face it: optimizes playback for playlists and smoother listening. You can see it here. Optimize, the speed of GPS positioning increases the accuracy of heart rate monitoring during workouts, and it increases system, stability, and so it's 97% transferred now and then, once it's done, transferring it's still gotta install requires 20% battery. So the really sad thing is that it says you can't use your phone while it's transferring or while it's installing, which is kind of dumb, no other watch I know of does that it's usually a that's gonna. Take a while feel free to use your phone as you normally would, but not in this case.

So alright, it's its transferred, I assume, which would be why that happens. It still says 99% on the phone. So I guess this is the screen yeah. So that means it's installing that little progress bar down there. So hopefully this doesn't take much longer because it's kind of annoying.

So while that's setting up I did get a chance to finish on my phone, so it's just lost transfer that you can't use the phone I. Guess we're going to turn on notifications. Definitely we have to enable notification access. Alright, that's done and we get. Oh, I thought we were okay, nope we're in settings, okay yeah, so we can choose which apps that we want notifications from I'm, gonna, say messages, messenger Twitter! No, thanks, Gmail, no Facebook, no calendar I'll take wow.

It's a lot on. There wants Skype and slack right yeah, so we, those I, can always edit this stuff later, but yeah. There's this there's a lot there. So you know we can. We can just and okay, only notifications appear in the notification panel can be sent to your wearable device and what that means is that it's only gonna show up like if your phone is on Do, Not Disturb, and it doesn't show notifications while on do not disturb you're, not gonna, see you're, not gonna, see it on your watch.

If you, if, if you turned on notifications on that screen, and then you, you don't have it on for that app with the device. You're not gonna, get those notifications, so that that's what that means. We can explore the app a little. We can't see much of the device because the device is not connected but yeah. This is where we check for updates.

This is where we get all our steps and calendars. I can't do that right now, but if I just go to health, you can see that I've taken nine steps since I downloaded this app minutes ago hundred percent walking. So if you're, climbing or running there's a weekly view, a monthly view, a yearly view, it's actually pretty good and all this stuff provides insights. Okay, this is what moderate to high intensity, walking cycling. Training, await health is actually pretty good, so stay on top of your weight, no weight data, that's fine sleep quality, there's not gonna, be any data for that because.

Obviously, although I bet, if I went to no, no, no because there was no option in here to sign in to an account which was weird, so I can't sync all of my old Huawei health data. I, guess that only works if you're using a Huawei phone, which is kind of a Bauer, all right messages, there's a message: I, don't I, don't I, don't think I want messages on this app, but it is what it is achievements, so we'll be able to. Please sync, your data. Why can't I sake? My data I'd really like to be able to sign it with my way it can actually get some of this stuff so exercise. This doesn't anything to do with the device, because you can use Huawei health with any particular phone, so I'm curious to see how I can, I got to reconnect my device first, all right.

We finally got it up and running, and that was a good 20-minute update. So here's it works much. Like other watches, where you can press the phone. That brings you to all your apps. They don't seem to be any particular order, which is kind of weird torch, turns it into a flashlight, and we can just go back yeah.

We can go all the way up to the top workout records. You know, I think it would be really nice if they were in alphabetical order, and I'm, not sure why they're not. This is really kind of unsettling settings. Take your buds, and you're obviously going to need Bluetooth earbuds. If you want to use the music playback feature: hey the screen is beautiful: I love the all class, it's all edits.

It's bright and vivid, okay, advanced screen up standby watch face style, digital okay. So if I do that so cut your battery time in half and disable rail'd also disables raised awake. If you, if you do that, but that should give us and some kind of always on a display, I hope kind of bummed that it disables raised to wake so you kind of have to choose between race, but yeah, there's your, always on display. So you so you have to choose between raised awake and it always on screen, which is weird, do not disturb. Obviously, you're gonna watch do not disturb if you're wearing it at night.

Okay system restart power off can I swipe to go back. Yeah, I can swipe to go, so that's cool anything else. Okay, quick settings show time. Do you have to stir find phone alarm settings notifications over here? Anything from the left, yeah work out rings, and this is the one song that it automatically puts on the watch. I, don't know where it came from.

Oh, you can't play music through the built-in speaker, which is kind of cool weather. Stress boredom an enabled that one Mike stress test and why wait help cool lots of cool stuff there, so you can swipe through those things you swiped in this way you get those same things: okay and yeah. If you try and add music here, it's just gonna. Do that same, it's it pulls from local storage. So if you don't have anything which I don't know where this came from, but um yeah, it just pulls from local storage.

So I am already disappointed that you have to choose between raised awake and an ambient display. That's that's! Um! Really disappointing and I. Don't know how I MMM, now because I turned it off. I was trying to see a bracelet. Just automatically comes back on, so I couldn't find a setting for it, but it seems to, but we'll play I'm going to charge it up all the way before I put it on, because I want to see how long the battery life lasts and yeah.

You know you notice how it said that the battery life will be cut in half. If you turn on that always-on display. So it's um there's a lot of compromises like that in this device, for example, it says you get 14 days of battery life. That's why we promised, if you have music play background all day, 24 hours, if you, if you're talking on your phone with Bluetooth headphones, which you can do 10 hours. So it goes down really quick.

You start turning on settings so 14 days is the max I. Guess it's 7 days! If you have that always-on display of I don't plan on really making phone calls or listening to music with this I, don't listen to music, a lot with smartwatches. You know, um usually have my phone with me and I. Do I, have a cellular Apple Watch and bring it to the gym occasionally by itself because, you know, I, don't want to have a phone with at the gym and then I, listen to music they're, very rare though, and when I do, I prefer to cellular connection, so I could stream, and I don't really want to cite like I won't, listen to one I'm in the mood to not what I was in the mood to when I had time to sync music to the device, so I mean I'm. Personally, the biggest thing I'm excited about was the ambient display and I.

What I wasn't excited about, and I didn't realize because of the first time I've seen it in person. Was the design changes? It's quite nice. It really is quite a nice device, so battery life is gonna, be cool I mean they promised weeks on this one too, it was maybe a week which is still way above and beyond anything, that's in the Android or Apple Watch categories. So it's still pretty cool, and you know it's a good Smartwatch I, just I hope that my expectations were met because it's like to me, this had just a bit just a little too many shortcomings a little too many compromises to hit that battery light and obviously gets better over time. And obviously this has more storage, more ran because I do more, and we'll see how it goes.

So, that's it I'll review on this in a few weeks, and I'll be wearing this until then, hopefully, the battery doesn't die and the entire time that I'm wearing you and be amazing, hey guys, that's it I'm rich Neil, win I'm great.

Source : Neowin