Huawei Watch GT 2e Review

More and more wearable technology represents the gamification of our physical health. Take 10,000 steps and you get a reward, do it five times in a row and you get a badge, collect the badges and you inadvertently become healthier, and have the awards to show for it. 

Where our physical fitness has been boiled down to a series of achievements sparked by a vibration and some flashing lights on your wrist, you might as well make sure your controller is giving you the best advantage possible.

The Huawei Watch GT 2e is just one of the hundreds of gameplay options available on the market, boasting 100 workout modes, a two-week battery life, and a stunning 1.39-inch AMOLED display it seems like the wearable that could take you to the next level. 

Choose your character

Despite sometimes feeling like independent entities, smartwatches filter through smartphones, meaning the Huawei - Google debacle continues to cause problems for fans of the brand. While advertised as compatible with all smartphones, the GT 2e runs through the Huawei Health App which has stark functionality differences on iOS as opposed to Android.

Accessing the Health App on an Android phone isn’t as simple as just downloading it from Google Play. Since the US government executive order which deemed Huawei a ‘national security risk’ the manufacturer has been unable to use Google apps or services. As a side effect, it isn't able to list new apps in the Google Play Store either. Using a brand new OPPO A52 handset running Android 10, I had to sideload the Huawei App Gallery from the manufacturer's website, and download the latest version of Huawei Mobile Services (after being explicitly told that the version on Google Play is obsolete), before even being able to pair the watch with my phone.

Even after I did get the app working properly the functionality has been clunky. Notifications come in slowly or all at once, and there can be substantial delays in data transferring between the watch to the app. All in all everything seems to work, yet inevitably running a Huawei device through an operating system that actively fights against it didn’t yield the best results. It’s like playing The Sims on PS4 - it works but it would almost be better if it didn’t.

Four times in the three weeks I've been using it for, the watch itself or the Health App or Mobile Services required an update, during which time the device lies dormant and unusable. When the wearable ends up back on my wrist all the XP that could have accumulated from that downtime is gone. Of course the real life benefits supposedly remain, but if you didn’t track a walk did it even happen?

On iOS you won’t need to jump through hoops just to download the app and pair the GT 2e, but you also won’t get everything you’re promised. Basic functions such as workout tracking, workout modes, sleep and heart rate monitoring are all available and seem to work just fine. However more in depth analysis like your stress, blood oxygen levels, and even adding music simply aren’t available with Apple. 

Of course the Apple ecosystem famously prefers its own, but the sheer mass of lost functionality on the iOS app is a deal-breaker for me. Using the Huawei GT 2e with an iPhone is adopting a ranged character for a melee setting, you’ll still rack up points for trying but you’re just limiting yourself.

Generally speaking the GT 2e will work with all devices but it’s simply going to work better with others. I can only imagine that it runs seamlessly with a Huawei smartphone, but if you’re like the majority of Australians using iOS you’d be leaving your character’s progress to be saved on a dodgy server. 

Graphics

Current trends are seeing smart watches look more and more like their analogue counterparts. The Huawei is no exception to this rule, going so far as to label the second increments around the clock face. Where many watches fail to pull off this illusion, the GT 2e succeeds due to the visually stunning 1.39-inch AMOLED screen. Stunning in every sense of the word, the varied clock faces available on the watch do for the most part create the look and feel of an honest-to-God analogue watch. 

Couple that with some beautiful animations across various screens, like a rotating sun or a glowing figure stretching every hour, and the GT 2e represents the best smartwatch screen and graphics I’ve ever seen. 

Although its not all smooth sailing - the watch itself is thicc. Despite being advised that the side buttons are heavily receded to stop any accidental stopping and starting, they actually protrude further than old-school watch dials. The watch face is almost double the size of my usual watch, which allows you to take in the glory of the screen, but isn’t ideal for something marketed as a sports and fitness device. 

In saying that, I have small hands so for regular sized humans or people who prefer a big watch it could tick that box, but for me, it took up a third of my forearm which is just too much.

Gameplay

When it comes to actual features the GT 2e is your run of the mill smartwatch. Track your workouts, get notifications, monitor your heart rate, and nab a couple of premium extras like GPS tracking, 2GB for music storage, and a camera remote. You won't get any contactless payment options though, so if you're off for a walk you'll still need to bring something extra to grab a coffee along the way.

All in all the smart features of the watch work well, it does everything you would expect. The GPS is still powered by Google Maps (somehow) so you don’t need to learn a whole new universe in order to pick up a control. Gestures and usage are intuitive - bottom button is select, top button is back, slide the screen to toggle your wares.

Just like closing your rings on an Apple Watch, or reaching your goals on a Garmin, the Huawei tracks your daily step, stand and exercise targets using an arc system. As you progress closer to your end goal the arc fills with colour, giving you nuggets of encouragement throughout the day to boost you on. 

Unlike other watches you’ll get over 100 workout modes to fiddle around with, including activities like flying a kite, dragon boating, and dodgeball. It’s a nifty way to keep a record of the varied exercises you’re doing but unfortunately none of these options present any different tracking modes. Every mode tested had the same metrics, resulting in the same basic information. While competitor devices change up the features (like tracking breathing during yoga, or giving timed HIIT workouts), the Huawei sidequests ultimately have little to no bearing on your actual gameplay.

Final Level

If our fitness and health is boiled down to a game then the Huawei GT 2e is a perfectly fine controller to play it with. Just fine.

Setup is going to be taxing, but once you’re in the experience mostly supersedes the effort. In saying that you shouldn’t have to sideload apps or endure ongoing updates just to make a device work, and you most definitely shouldn’t have to sacrifice quality based on your chosen phone manufacturer.

If you are however willing to go through the ordeal you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful screen and a multitude of exercise options. And hey, it might even prolong your life and that’s pretty valuable, since in this game we don’t get the benefit of having two more sitting in the corner.

Anula Wiwatowska

Offsite Editorial Lead | Instagram

Anula is the Off-Site Editorial Lead for WhistleOut Australia, and an award winning tech journalist. She has been writing about the Australian telco industry, and consumer technology for over five years, and has been known to tell her Uber driver which phone they should upgrade to next.

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