Wearable - Huawei Watch GT2e - 2020

Hello! 

Welcome to my first tech blog. In this blog, I will describe about the Huawei Watch GT2e which released in 2020. This is a smart yet brave move from Huawei. I bought this for my birthday on December 2020 and it's almost three weeks of use (when this blog was written). I was seeking a smartwatch for the purpose of ease and style and I can say that I've found what I was looking for. I had other choices from the brands like AmazeFit, Samsung Galaxy Watch etc., but since I have a Huawei smartphone, I felt the experience would be seamless; and it is!

Hardware

The Huawei Watch GT2e has the hardware and it puts what it has to the very limits. The watch comes with 1.39 inch AMOLED display which presents graphics and presents UI in a crisp and clear way. The watch has 4GB Internal Storage  and 16MB of RAM. Yes you read it correctly. While the other competitors make smartwatches with >500MB RAM, this hardware configuration seems it might lag/ stop functioning in critical situations. No it doesn't. I put the RAM to the test when I used it to track my cycling activity. I rode straight for 7km (about half hours) and paused the activity. I had a chat with my friends whom I met on the way (still paused) for about several hours. Then when I decided to return home, I was able to resume the activity and it was amazing. I am not sure whether my 6GB RAM mobile phone could do that. The secret behind this is the Huawei’s first self-developed wearable chip — the Kirin A1 — is powering the GT 2e. The hardware is not all good though. As advertised, the battery capacity of the watch is 455mAh and has been said that it could stand 2 weeks with typical usage. I turned on the following to maximize the power usage.

• Huawei TruSleep(TM)

With HUAWEI TruSleep enabled, your watch/band will be able to match your heart rate and breathing data to your sleep, and recognize sleep stages (incl. wake, REM, light sleep and deep sleep) with a high degree of precision, for comprehensive monitoring. The reliable nature of the collected data ensures that sleep is accurately accessed and scored, with personalized suggestions for improved sleep quality that are grounded in hard science. And all of this information is synced to your Health app, and cataloged for future reference.

- Huawei -          

• Activity Reminder 
• Continuous Heart Rate monitoring
• Automatic Stress and SpO2 test
• Notifications from phone.

The watch went from 100% to 5% in just a week. But if you try any GPS-related workout like outdoor running or outdoor cycling, the battery will drain faster. Also, the watch is water resistant up to 50 meters (as advertised). But I don't recommend the use of this watch in beach,

Sensors

Talking about GPS, there are multiple sensors on this device which will track your health and your workouts. 

• Accelerometer
• Gyroscope
• Geomagnetic sensor
• Optical Heart Rate
• This sensor drains your battery more if you leave the heart rate monitoring and automatic stress test is turned on.
• Ambient Light
• For automatic brightness dimming.
• Air Pressure (Barometer)
• Capacitive Sensor
• If you wake your watch and cover it by your palm, the screen will go off.
• SpO2 
• Checks the blood oxygen level.

Physical Buttons

There are two physical buttons on the watch. One for power, wake and return to home functions. The other button's action is customizable (eg. Music Player, Workout, Settings etc.). The press and feel of the buttons feel good but not as good as the buttons on Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 which contain titanium bezels and buttons. 

Software

The watch runs on Huawei's new wearable OS - LiteOS. As a result, you cannot use external apps on your Huawei Watch GT2e. Also, no USB or Wi-Fi connectivity is supported which makes debugging even more difficult. On the bright side, this watch has 100 workout modes in which you can track your workout to the very finest detail including calorie burns, heart rate etc. Customizable watch faces, Find phone etc. are small but key features for a watch of this price range.

1st day of buying