Here’s a great new Huawei product you can buy in the United States: The Huawei Watch GT smartwatch delivers premium looks and materials, fitness and wellness tracking, and two weeks of battery life in normal usage.
It costs $200 to $220 depending on model and is available now to preorder from Amazon.com and Newegg.
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
“Named after grand tourers, a performance and luxury car capable of high speed and long-distance driving, the Huawei Watch GT uses an innovative dual-engine and smart power-saving architecture that enables it to switch between performance and efficiency modes depending on an individual’s activity to maximize battery life,” the Huawei announcement notes. “Huawei Watch GT features two-week battery life with typical use.”
Everything in that quote needs a bit of explanation.
The “dual-engine and smart power-saving architecture” refers to Huawei’s use of the Cortex M4 embedded processor, which is designed for small, power-constrained devices like smartwatches. “Cortex-M4 brings advanced intelligence to battery-powered embedded and IoT devices,” the Arm website says of the chip.
The battery life claims will, of course, be the subject of some debate. But Huawei says that the Watch GT will deliver wildly varying battery life depending on usage. It can achieve up to 30 full days of battery life when not used for exercise tracking. And as little as 22 hours in a marathon scenario with GPS, heart rate monitoring and running mode all activated.
Aside from the battery life, I’m most intrigued by the device’s software, which is powered by LiteOS, not Google’s Wear OS (formerly called Android Wear). LiteOS is a bit of an unknown, but like the hardware on which it runs, it’s supposed to be quite efficient, and it is optimized for memory-constrained environments. According to Huawei, LiteOS is a lightweight Internet of Things (IoT) platform, and it uses this system across a wide range of products.
From what I can tell, the Watch GT isn’t a full-featured smartwatch like Apple Watch but is rather a device that focuses largely on fitness and wellness tracking, similar to a high-end Fitbit. It supports indoor and outdoor exercising, including swimming, tracks just about every fitness metric imaginable, including VO2max, plus sleep. Its watch-like looks and premium design will appeal to many, as will its affordable pricing.
If you’re interested in purchasing the Huawei Watch GT, I’d appreciate you do so via one of these affiliate links:
Huawei Watch GT Sport, graphite black with black silicone strap – $200
Huawei Watch GT Sport, stainless with saddle brown leather/silicone strap – $230
The Huawei Watch GT is compatible with both Android and iOS and will be available on February 19.
Bats
<blockquote><em><a href="#405432">In reply to Mestiphal:</a></em></blockquote><p>I believe you made the right choice and a smart one.</p><p><br></p><p>I am very leery with (computing-related) products that come with it's own proprietary software. You just don't know what the future holds with LiteOS, especially when the watch is dependant on the phone. What if Android Q or the next version of iOS breaks the connectivity between phone and watch? LOL…then you're stuck. However, it's probably different with Samsung though, because they have proven to be totally invested in their wearable lines. </p><p><br></p><p>As for the Ticwatch……</p><p><br></p><p>I was looking into that for me. LOL…I have several Android Wear watches 4 Huawei watches, 2 LG Urbanes (gold and silver) and the LG Watch R. I really have no interest of buying a new watch, because …I love my watches. I get so many compliments from people when I wear them, particularly the LG Urbanes (silver and Ltd edition Gold). However, I was able to get the sporty and modern Huawei Watch 2 for only $100 and I love the fact that I can pay for stuff using Google Pay from my wrist, rather than my phone. I see a lot of Apple Watch users do it and I just think it's so cool. All my other watches can't do it. The Ticwatch can. Therefore, Congrats on that purchase. </p>
Bats
<p>LOL…this Huawei Watch is pointless. I do not recommend people buy this watch. Why? NO GOOGLE PAY (or even Apple Pay). <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I can you tell ya know (because I am pretty much right all the time), that LiteOS has no future without any of those NFC payment systems.</span></p><p><br></p><p>Some people might think, "Uh……I don't need Google Pay." (LOL) Trust me, you do. </p><p><br></p><p>If people are still not paying for stuff through their phones, then you might as well go to Ebay and buy a cheap Windows Phone.</p><p><br></p><p>If you are paying for stuff, through your phone, then you need a watch that can do the same thing. It's not only cooler, but safer because your wallet and your phone is less exposed. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>