In my opinion, the most affordable Huawei sports watch to date is the Watch GT 6 Pro. With a plethora of capabilities, it is a potent fitness aid, and Huawei has meticulously designed its internal components to make sure you get the most out of your investment. Consider it if you are searching for a running or fitness watch with a long battery life. But as is typically the case with Huawei products, the user experience is ruined by annoyances when interacting with the most popular phones.
Given that the US still forbids the use of Huawei telecom equipment, the company's reputation is now weak in the US, UK, and Australia, especially in the phone market. However, the company is manufacturing exceptional smartwatches and reporting record global sales. I can understand why they provide a premium exercise gear in a traditional dress-watch package like this for a comparatively modest price. The Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro has a ton of great features.
It is a fitness powerhouse, to start. In my testing, which included numerous GPS-enabled workouts that were packed with detailed, actionable stats, the battery life lasted a full two weeks, compared to the 46mm version's claimed 21-day lifespan. I tested the Huawei Watch GT6 Pro's GPS capabilities while running and walking outside, and I wore it to the gym.
I evaluated the Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro against the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and an industry-standard heart rate monitor (the Polar H10) in a stationary cycling fitness test. Its average heart rate reading was only 1 bpm off from the Ultra's, and its heart rate graph matched the Polar's without any statistically significant differences. I was undoubtedly pleased with the TruSense heart rate monitoring system's accuracy.
The cornerstone of health, wellness, sleep, and stress monitoring is heart rate, which is the basis of on-wrist wellness. During a four-day period, I wore Huawei's TruSleep algorithm to bed every night and found it to be highly indicative of how I felt every morning. It is so accurate that the watch even said, "REM sleep accounted for 32% of your overall sleep, which is a touch high and may indicate excessive dreaming," following a difficult night filled with extremely vivid dreams. You are right. After years of evaluating wearables, I rarely am caught off guard by an instant degree of knowledge.
The Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro, which I tested, has a battery life of up to 21 days on a single charge, while the Huawei Watch GT 6 has a battery life of 10 or 14 days, depending on whether you choose the smaller or larger model. In any case, it is worthy of any of the top Garmin watches and far longer than the Ultra 3's 42 hours.
The skin temperature monitoring, blood oxygen detection, arrhythmia analysis, and even the emotional wellness feature—which tries to interpret your different metrics as markers of your present mood—were also evaluated by me. This was somewhat implausible, but mostly true: it never mistaken exercise for excessive stress or said that I was experiencing a panic attack while watching Frasier on Sunday morning.
The 1.47-inch AMOLED screen is responsive to ambient light and adjusts according to brightness, making it clear and bright even in broad sunshine. It can reach an exact brightness of 3,000 nits, which is comparable to the Apple Watch Ultra 3. The non-professional models of the watches are made of stainless steel, but the titanium case and bezel are constructed of titanium.
The cumbersome environment of Huawei is what prevents me from giving it a higher rating, not the device's quality or the package's overall value. Due to the US embargo, Huawei finds it difficult to function flawlessly with either of the two operating systems that the majority of users use on their phones: iOS and Android. You can download Huawei Health using AppGallery on your phone's browser, however Huawei's HarmonyOS does not support Google or Apple's Maps, Wallet, emails, or app stores. Rather, you simply receive the most basic call and notification features.
Although a WhatsApp app cannot be installed on the watch, you can receive notifications from WhatsApp messages. Additionally, Huawei's own features are restricted. If you wish to use Petal Maps' Maps feature, you must download an app from your phone's browser. Additionally, you need a Huawei phone with proprietary software in order to access the wallet feature.
The inability to fully utilize third-party apps on the watch makes Huawei Health less useful as a convenience tool or communication extension, even if it can interact with Strava, Komoot, and other third parties. However, the Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro is a great choice if you are searching for a high-quality fitness tracker at a reasonable cost and do not mind forgoing apps like Spotify or WhatsApp.
In the UK, the Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro costs £329.99, which is approximately $445 or $670. In the UK, the Huawei Watch GT 6 is priced at £229.99 (about $300/AU$465) for both the 41mm and 46mm models.
Due to the communications ban, it is now unavailable in the US, while some Huawei goods are sold in Australia.
