Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro (left). Photo: HWZ.
Earlier this week, Huawei finally announced its latest flagship-tier wearables: the Huawei Watch GT 5 and Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro.
In case you missed it, the biggest update to these watches is the addition of its TruSense System. Specifically for the Pro, it gets an additional Golf Course Mode, packed full of features that golfers can appreciate.
For my hands-on experience, Huawei loaned a Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro (46mm) in Black, made of aerospace-grade titanium alloy and dropped me off at the Mission Hills Golf Club in Dongguan, China.
Despite my repeated insistence that I suck at and never played golf, Huawei assured me that the features could aid in improving my play, and also hired a professional coach to demonstrate the pro golf features of Watch GT 5 Pro.
I’ll quickly talk about the design and handling before going into detail about Golf Course Mode.
Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro. Photo: HWZ.
As seen here, the 46mm Watch GT 5 Pro would be a better fit for larger wrists (these wrists have a circumference of 15.5cm) since the lug’s metal construct is non-negotiable. The good news is that the Pro version also comes in a smaller 42mm alternative, pictured below.
The smaller, 42mm version of the Watch GT 5 Pro. The others pictured above are the 46mm variant. Photo: HWZ.
Huawei said it has ultra-hard coatings, a nano-film waterproof finish, and an IP69K rating to withstand the many sports modes supported (including golf). That’s an excessively high water-and-dust resistance rating on a consumer device since most flagship gadgets (like phones and earbuds) cap out at IP68.
For reference, IP69K means heightened water protection against close-range, high-pressure, high-temperature water jets, while IP68 rating stops at 1m-deep water immersion for “long periods”. More details on IP ratings can be found here.
The 46mm's 1.43-inch AMOLED screen (466 x 466 pixels resolution) gets the job done (just like its predecessor) even if you’re out in a blazing afternoon on the green. It also doesn’t feel heavy, which means it doesn’t get in the way of swings.
Since it uses metal links for its strap, you can remove or add extra links to fit your wrist size (about four extra links are included inside its packaging, and it uses a standard catch mechanism).
Most importantly, Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro (and its recent watches, for that matter) are compatible with iOS and Google-powered Android smartphones, as long as you download the Huawei Health app on your mobile and pair it to the smartwatch.
Sadly, our version was a pre-release build, so we also had to borrow a compatible EMUI Huawei phone and operate it in Chinese for this exercise. However, the interface and app are available in English at launch.
Golf Course Mode
My instructor showed me how golf should actually be played, with her Watch GT 5 Pro her wrist. Photo: HWZ.
As mentioned, the Watch GT 5 Pro adds golfing as another supported sport mode to its myriad of existing trackers.
Huawei offers a 3D map database of 15,000+ golf courses from across the globe. You can download your favourites onto the watch and use them as your point of reference. It comes with crucial golfing data, like the obstacles (bunkers, water hazards), the playing field (tee, fairway, and greens), and even any inclines (roll, slope, elevation) that make up the challenge of each hole.
Example of the real-time putting green data as the golfing instructor nears the green. Photo: HWZ.
Perhaps most crucial is when you’re about to close out another hole at the putt, where the Watch GT 5 Pro will tell you the contour data of your putting green, and give recommendations right down to uphill or downhill putting.
You can manually mark the location of your shots on the watch. It uses location data and figures out the distance you covered between each swing. Doing so would prompt the watch to share with you what it thinks is the recommended club and direction to aim, based on wind speeds/direction and how you play. In my instructor’s case, her 42mm Huawei GT 5 Pro could recognised her skill, and even recommend multiple clubs for some plays.
Mine would’ve laughed at me, if Huawei had such a feature installed.
Data from the smartwatch can be reviewed in between holes via the Huawei Health app. Photo: HWZ.
After every couple of holes, the Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro would summarise the playthrough, and you can review it on the Huawei Health app. Besides your golfing time and date, it also tells you how many calories you’ve burnt, produces a scorecard for sharing, and even a personal report on your performance. It also gives an overview of your play with the same 3D maps and every stroke you’ve marked down.
Huawei Watch Ultimate Green Edition, which comes with even more advanced golf tracking features. Photo: HWZ.
While we did not try the Huawei Watch Ultimate’s version of Advanced Golf Course Mode, we were told that many more advanced features cater to professional players. For example, you get last-shot distance (measures the distance of the last shot hit), plays-like distance (adjusted aim distance towards the green, based on elevation changes, wind speed and direction, and air density), and an AI Caddie (strategies and predictions based on your playstyle).
While these features aren’t new to pro-golfing devices, don't forget that the Huawei smartwatches also double up as everyday wear for general health tracking and smart notifications from your phone, too.
Driving Range mode
The watch has a separate Driving Range mode if you can only afford time to go to the range, or if you're trying to improve your swing. Photo: HWZ.
Slightly separate from its course-focused golfing package is a driving range mode, which you can enable if you don’t have time to golf but want to get a few swings in at the range.
At this point, Huawei said I'd get the most out of golfing with the watch. After a quick coaching session from the same instructor, the watch took over by recording my swings.
Swing data is recorded immediately after each attempt. You can exit the mode and it will transfer the session over to your smartphone for review. Photo: HWZ.
It recorded every swing pattern and strength to guide me towards the correct swing posture. To do so, it combined my swing tempo, backswing (raising the club), downswing (striking the ball), and overall stroke speed.
A screenshot of one Driving Range session from the Huawei Health app. Photo: HWZ.
It’s really helpful, but I still needed the instructor to translate the numbers and tell me if my strokes were to her liking, or if I needed to be faster, slower, and have her check my posture. With Huawei present, I hope they took that session’s feedback into consideration, which can be extremely helpful for noob golfers trying to get more practice without going beyond the smartwatch.
Pricing and availability
The Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro (42mm and 46mm) will be available in Singapore at a later date. We’ll update once we have more information. Meanwhile, we have the Watch GT 5 series covered here.
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