Unlike Amazfit, I’ve been messing around with Huawei wearables in one way or another for the past decade since the very first Huawei Watch debuted at MWC 2015. Now that first one was a buggy device with plenty of teething problems, but ever since the Watch GT 2e, I’ve generally been impressed with the progress Huawei’s made generation upon generation. In many aspects, the Watch GT series have become my mainstay and baseline for comparing performance across devices simply because I’ve used them the most and I can tell if any reading is unusual. And unlike the Google’s Pixel Watch series, Huawei has managed to build on both hardware and software functionality in meaningful ways that translate to some direct user-experience improvements.
The Watch GT 5 is the latest iteration and it gets an expanded lineup too. While there was only a single Watch GT 4 variant, the Watch GT 5 comes in Standard, Pro, and Ultimate editions, and accordingly, there are two sizes (42mm/46mm) with different case designs and materials too. If anything, Huawei probably has the most comprehensive lineup of devices for a single product line.
The TL;DR version:
The Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro (46mm) is purposeful with upgrades in the places that matter. It features serious health and fitness tracking, while also offering fun social activities for the averyday user.
Note: You can buy the Huawei Watch GT 5 series of devices from Huawei Official Stores on Lazada and Shopee.
The design of the Watch GT 5 Pro is reminiscent of the Watch GT 4 Green Edition with its octagonal case and dual-colour bezel. The difference between the regular GT 5 and GT 5 Pro is in its construction. The 46mm variant reviewed here has a titanium alloy case and I have the titanium metal band as well. There’s a Sport version that comes with an elastomer band, but the case is still made of titanium alloy. The 42mm version features a nanocrystal ceramic case instead with a completely different, feminine design. Both come with sapphire glass screen and are the first devices I know of to feature an enhanced IP69K water and dust resistance rating. The GT 5 Pro features Wi-Fi connectivity now, which is a small update, but greatly benefits firmware updates and file transfers from phone to watch, which took forever on older devices.
Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro (46mm) full titanium smartwatch is very classy. Photo: HWZ
The large Huawei stamped on the band may or may not be to your liking. Photo: HWZ
The link design however is well crafted, and very easy to detach/attach for adjustments. Photo: HWZ
Now I’ve been reviewing smartwatches and activity trackers for a long time, and the Watch GT 5 Pro is the first watch to actually get attention from my wife, complimenting its looks in the way of a classy wristwatch. She normally doesn’t bat an eyelid with the rotating watches on my hand every few weeks. Not even the chunky Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra got an “Is that new?” from her.
The display itself remains the same as the Watch GT 4, which is a 1.43-inch fixed AMOLED (466 x 466 pixels). It’s not as advanced or as bright as the LPTO AMOLED on the Google Pixel Watch 3 for example, but it does its job well enough outdoors. However, the core hardware has been overhauled. The Watch GT 5 Pro gets a brand new TruSense health sensor array (previously called TruSeen), which has various improvements to sensor placement, algorithms and even a new ultra-opaque glass for to boost signal distribution and quality. With TruSense, Huawei claims 98%-accurate heart rate, less than 2% error for SpO2 readings, and under 5+8mmHg deviation for blood pressure accuracy. You can read our in-depth TruSense explainer here.
All new health sensors and GPS optimisations make the Watch GT 5 Pro one of the most advanced sporting smartwatches around. Photo: HWZ
It's not the brightest screen around, but it works well enough outdoors and under direct sunlight. Photo: HWZ
Here’s a little nugget of information. The Watch GT 5 Pro has ECG reading capabilities, and Huawei actually has supported this function ever since the Watch GT 2 Pro. However, because there’s no approval for its use in Singapore (or maybe Huawei never applied), this function has never been enabled. Blood pressure monitoring is available though, but like other wearables, you will need your own BP monitor at home to input and calibrate the first reading.
ECG function doesn't work in Singapore, but you still get a host of health and wellness rated stats at a glance. Photo: HWZ
Besides the updated health sensors, the Watch GT 5 Pro features dual-band GPS with a new Sunflower Positioning System, a proprietary algorithm that improves GPS signal accuracy. To this end, Huawei even had the watch’s GPS capability tested and certified by an external lab. While I admit that I haven’t put the watch through the kind of scenarios that would stress its GPS, I will say that it locks on super-fast, even compared to the Watch GT 4, which itself boasted GPS connectivity improvements. And with the new on-device mapping features like Route Draw and Outdoor Runing and Cycling, you get real-time mapping data on your wrist.
Speaking of Route Draw, this is one of the new fun features for the Watch GT 5 series. Choose from a selection of preset routes in your city/country, export the route to the watch, start a run and follow along. Credit to Huawei for actually having a solid list of routes setup for this feature and fun social events such as the Christmas Tree route in December. However, it doesn’t seem like you can build your own routes and share them, which is a bummer.
Serious or fun, Huawei Health complements the hardware capabilities of the Watch GT 5 Pro with activities you can engage in. Screenshot: HWZ
Other updated sports features include Trail Run mode with offline mapping and route support, segment-based navigation and crown zoomable maps, free diving up to 40m, and extensive golfing support with 15,000+ course database, 3D topography and even a smart caddy to recommend clubs to use. I have not tested these features because I don’t golf and free diving is a very specific, professional, and dangerous sport. You can check out my colleague HongZuo’s hands-on golfing preview of the Watch GT 5 Pro in action here.
I bring this up to highlight that not all features may be useful to everyone. However, unlike the Amazfit Balance, which tries to throw data at you, the Watch GT 5 Pro is more purposeful in approach. While Huawei has had its own “AI assistant” called Celia for a while and the on-device keyboard is called the Celia Keyboard with some predictive assist, they don’t push the AI agenda as hard as other brands, and I appreciate it because at times it just seems like waddling through marketing fluff with no real practical use. The Watch GT 5 Pro has extensive support for many sports and activities, including advanced running and cycling analytics that I dare say will give Garmin a run for its money. All this while still maintaining the 14-day battery life that Huawei’s consistently been able to offer since I reviewed the Watch GT 2e five years ago.
Huawei devices boast 100+ sports modes. While most of them are fairly basic in nature, Huawei's increasingly adding advanced tracking to actual sports. Photo: HWZ
The Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro is a serious kit for sports enthusiasts with upgrades to the core hardware components that matter. I also applaud Huawei for continuously improving the Huawei Health app. It’s breath of social features, fitness courses and wellness options are neck to neck with Samsung Health, plus it’s all free to access.
There's a wealth of fitness and wellbeing courses and plans you can access freely on the Huawei Health app. Screenshot: HWZ
Clean UI is easy to absorb, and some of the more advanced sports metrics like running form is derived from research jointly conducted with the China Institute of Sport Science. Screenshot: HWZ
You do pay a premium for titanium and sapphire glass though as the Watch GT 5 Pro (46mm) starts from S$426 for the Sport Edition, while the Titanium Band is exorbitant at SS698. This is considerably more than the S$350 Amazfit Balance. For about S$70 more than the Sport Edition, you could get the Samsung Galaxy Watch7 (44mm) instead, which has fully functional features in Singapore such as working ECG, and contactless payment options in Samsung Pay and Google Pay.
However, if you don’t really need niche features like Golf and can live with stainless steel, then the Standard Watch GT 5 has the same GPS and TruSense sensor upgrades, starting from a more palatable S$348.
Note: You can buy the Huawei Watch GT 5 series of devices from Huawei Official Stores on Lazada and Shopee. It is also available at Amazon.
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