Huawei’s GT series of smartwatches has always been good, starting with the very first model. The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro and Huawei Watch GT 3 were my main smartwatches, meaning I considered them to be some of the best smartwatches on the market. I changed them only with the Samsung Galaxy Watch5 model, where Samsung finally managed to overcome the main problem of this watch – short battery life and long charging – after which I switched to it. But the GT series, of course, continues to interest me, so I keep an eye on the release of new models.
The Huawei Watch GT 4 model recently appeared on the market – it was introduced at the end of September this year.
I purchased Huawei Watch GT 4tested them, and in this review, let’s get to know them: compare them with the previous model.
Specifications
Display: 1.43″, AMOLED, 466×466 pixels, 326 PPI, touch, AOD
Operating system: Harmony OS 4
Compatibility: Android from 8.0, iOS from 13.0, HarmonyOS from 2.0
Wireless connection: Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi
NFC: yes (only for Huawei Pay)
Battery: 524 mAh
Dimensions: 46 × 46 × 11 mm
Weight: 48 years old
Speaker/microphone: There is
Wireless charging: yes, Qi (5V/2A)
Definition of coordinates: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS
Vibration: yes
Monitoring: sleep, physical activity, training, heart rate, SpO2, skin temperature
Sensors: barometer, accelerometer, gyroscope, optical heart rate sensor, ambient light sensor, compass, automatic pulse oximeter (SpO2), skin temperature sensor
Waterproof: up to 5 atm, up to 50 meters (swimming, diving)
Prices:
What do we see in comparison with the previous model? The display characteristics have not changed, other parameters seem to be the same. The company is touting its non-invasive blood sugar measurement feature, which is currently only available in China, but we are well aware that this is the same marketing nonsense as measuring blood pressure on a watch.
The price has not changed compared to the previous model.
As usual, this watch has several modifications and two types of case sizes: 41 mm and 46 mm. The 46 mm model has four color options: green (silver case, green strap), gray (silver case, steel bracelet), brown (silver case, brown eco-leather strap), black (black case, black plastic strap). The 41 mm (women’s version) has a gold case and three strap colors: white plastic, silver-gold metal, light gold metal.
Nothing is known about the Huawei Watch GT 4 Pro model yet, but we do know that the Huawei Watch 4 Pro has a titanium case, a ceramic bottom, and a sapphire crystal display.
Let’s see how this clock works.
Contents of delivery
Effective packaging.
Let’s open it.
Delivery set: watch, charging cradle, user manual.
Appearance and features
Metal body, painted black.
In terms of appearance, this model is almost no different from the GT 3, except that the inscriptions on the bezel have changed.
Compare – GT 3 model.
There are two control buttons, the top one also rotates, producing scrolling.
Bottom cover with sensors. The strap fastening is standard, the strap size is 22 mm, so if necessary, you can replace the strap with the one you like better.
The materials and workmanship of the watch are excellent, they look solid, but if you need to wear them under a suit, it is better to choose a silver model with a brown strap.
Well, the watch fits my hand well; for a narrow wrist (and I have a narrow wrist) it may seem a little bulky, but this size suits me quite well.
Well, here is this model next to my Samsung Galaxy Watch5. Samsung is less bulky, but their design is completely boring; GT 4 looks more fun.
Display
Excellent quality AMOLED display. There is an effective oleophobic coating, the glass practically does not stain when touched by fingers.
There is an effective anti-glare filter, the image is perfectly visible in direct sunlight, but it’s hard for me to say whether there is any difference with the GT 3.
Working hours
Pairing the watch with a smartphone is very simple: when you first start it or after a reset, a QR code appears in the watch, which you need to scan in the Huawei Health application on your smartphone, after which pairing will occur. The watch interface language will match the smartphone interface language.
The watch faces change with a long press on the display, in the watch settings and in the watch settings in your smartphone. The choice there is very large, however, I note that most of the dials are paid, but Huawei has always had it that way.
The AOD (always on screen) mode works here as follows. Most watch faces have only one AOD option – digital hands (previous models had three options), but if the watch face has its own AOD, then it is displayed.
Here is the watch face with standard AOD.
And here is the dial with its AOD.
Swipe down – area of quick switches and information. There are 9 switches, they are all located on one scrollable screen.
From the dial, swipe to the right – the so-called “Smart Assistant”. What’s so smart about it is completely unclear: it’s just a weather widget and an audio playback widget.
From the watch face, swipe to the left – widgets for regular applications (sleep, audio player) plus information widgets where various data is collected. Unneeded widgets can be removed from this list; some widgets can be customized (for example, the training widget).
Swipe up from the watch face – notifications. Each notification can be expanded to full screen and read in its entirety. You can respond to notifications with emoticons or preset messages (they can be edited).
Incoming icon. You can reset it, receive it directly on the watch, or respond with a preset message via SMS.
Training. There you can swipe up through various windows with information and track your location with a compass.
From the training mode you can switch to the watch face (that is, multitasking is supported), but this is done a bit crookedly: you need to press the top button 2 times, then the interface for changing the watch face appears, where you can switch from training to the watch face. And on the top of the dial there will be an icon indicating that a workout is in progress, by clicking on which you can return to the workout. An audio player and a training management window are available in the workout itself.
The relevant information about any training is stored and displayed.
The top right button is a list of all installed applications. They can be in the form of icons or in the form of a list with text.
Now let’s see how it all looks in the Huawei Health app.
Watches connected to the application. Please note that among the selected applications there is “HUAWEI Wallet”. Huawei Pay is currently available in China, Russia, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Singapore, Macau and Thailand. At the same time, Europe and the States are in flight – you won’t be able to pay with these watches there.
Watch face store – some examples. You can select all free watch faces separately.
Music monitoring and control. The watch can control playback on a smartphone, and can also play audio tracks from its own memory. They are uploaded there through the application: you can simply select the desired tracks for uploading on your smartphone, and they will be uploaded to the watch wirelessly. You can also connect wireless headphones to your watch to listen to audio.
A gallery of all applications that can be installed on the watch. Compared to Samsung, where hundreds of applications are available, this is, frankly, sparse.
Alarm clocks (regular), clock search.
Setting up and editing quick replies, weather reports.
Setting up notifications, setting up your device.
Now let’s move on to the information window in the application. Main window and step by step report.
Sleep report.
Stress and heart rate.
Skin temperature and blood oxygenation level.
Activities.
Detailed walking report.
Pulse and details. The watch’s heart rate was clearly not correct here (my maximum when walking was 135 beats/min), but it seems that the strap was simply not tightened well, so it was measured incorrectly. In the following example, where I played padel tennis, the heart rate was determined very accurately – I checked it with a Garmin watch.
This is the game of padel tennis. Here everything is absolutely clear with the pulse.
Battery life
Over the course of battery life, not much has changed here. As usual, battery life varies greatly depending on settings and usage scenario.
First, I tested the watch in the fullest load mode: monitoring of absolutely everything was turned on – heart rate, sleep, stress, SpO2 and skin temperature, – AOD was turned on, the watch tracks one hour-long workout every day. And even in this mode, the watch clearly lasted a full 4-5 days, which is actually quite decent (the previous model lasted up to 6 days, but there were fewer measurements).
Turning off AOD and turning off completely unnecessary monitoring of stress, skin temperature and SpO2 increases autonomy to 7-8 days, which is very good!
If, in addition to this, you remove constant heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking and turning on the screen by wrist movement, then the watch will last up to two weeks of autonomy.
The charging cradle is securely magnetized to the watch case, and I have never had any failures during charging. From zero to 100% the watch charges in one hour and forty-five minutes, which is a good indicator.
Well, as I already mentioned, this watch is charged from any Qi wireless charger, not just from its own cradle.
Observations during operation and conclusions
What changes are visible in this model? The AOD mode has become somewhat poorer, some settings and some quick switches have disappeared. Some applications work strangely. For example, a stopwatch. They were clearly too clever with him. During strength training, I constantly use a stopwatch – to measure rest periods between approaches and to measure the time of performing certain exercises – for example, planks. On every watch I’ve owned, starting the stopwatch meant that the stopwatch was now running on the screen without the screen turning off. Which seems more than logical, because the stopwatch is constantly monitored. But here they were too clever with the stopwatch: if you hold the watch exactly in one position and look at the screen, the screen does not turn off. But as soon as you turn your wrist slightly, the screen turns off. So what kind of stopwatch is this? Moreover, somehow everything is done in a completely incomprehensible way: sometimes the stopwatch behaves more or less tolerably, and sometimes the screen turns off due to any small movement. And this is not configurable in any way; the only option is to press the icon for the screen that is on. But here the screen will only turn on for 5 minutes, and this, unlike previous models, is also not configurable in any way (in GT 3 it was possible to turn it on for 20 minutes).
What can we say about monitoring? Sleep monitoring – as usual from Huawei, excellent: in my opinion, this is the best monitoring of all manufacturers. Samsung is clearly inferior here. Stress, SpO2 and skin temperature monitoring – I still don’t understand why they are needed. Heart rate monitoring is quite good for home use. Measuring heart rate in sports modes – you need to make sure that the strap is properly tightened and is located slightly below the wrist: then for amateur use the monitor is very tolerable, I compared it with Garmin on a bicycle and while playing padel tennis.
Does it make sense to switch from GT 3 to GT 4 – I don’t see much sense, there are some restrictions that didn’t exist before.
But what in general, if we are not talking about the transition from GT 3 to a new model? Is this watch worth buying just as a smartwatch? Yes, they are quite worthy. They have certain features, but they are very well made, look good, have good autonomy and perform their stated tasks normally.
Could I use it as my smartwatch? Yes, it is quite. Will I switch to them? No, I definitely won’t, I like my Samsung Galaxy Watch5 much more, although it is inferior in terms of autonomy, and the ability to pay by the hour is important to me.
