Huawei’s new watch ‘is already impressive’ as an iPhone 17 user ‘all my notifications sync through immediately’
Huawei’s newest watch has a boosted battery better than my old Apple Watch
When looking at buying a new smartwatch, there are often two main dilemmas shoppers face: does it track their desired fitness, and how long will it last while synced to their smartphone before the battery life dwindles?
Last week, Huawei launched its GT7 device, and it now goes up against wearable favourites Apple and Garmin thanks to one crucial feature. It’s strong battery life. Among its newest features, the durability stands out, making the less than £250 watch feel even better value for money.
The new model was unveiled with a starting price of £279.99, but in an early offer, pasting in the code A50WATCHGT7 at checkout knocks £50 off. Cutting it to £229.99.
“Huawei claims the GT7 can last up to 14 days on just one charge with light use, while I’ve not been testing it for that long, it’s already impressive”, as I highlighted for The Mirror. As well as outperforming rivals with a boosted battery, its fitness tracking stats are eye-catching too.
Unveiled along a string of new Huawei wearables, including the Watch GT7 Pro and Watch D3, the GT7 is packed with high-end tracking, including the ability to track the amount of oxygen in wearers’ blood – important for telling wearers how efficiently their blood carries oxygen to their muscles during a workout.
Huawei Watch GT7
From now until October 13, Huawei have cut £50 off the Watch GT7 price for launch shoppers. Another early offer is the three months free of Huawei Health+ app, for more in-depth metrics.
I pointed out the features in my review: “Huawei hasn’t forgotten to make this smartwatch useful, despite its stylish look. The GT7 has sleep monitoring, SpO2, heart rate, emotional well-being, body temperature checks, breathing exercises, and in-depth pulse wave arrhythmia analysis.
“The last one essentially checks for any abnormalities like atrial fibrillation using the nifty PPG sensor. It also supports more than 100 workouts.”
The usual walking, running, biking etc are included on the tracking; there’s now an additional perk for avid skiers. Which will no doubt be popular this coming winter.
Rivalling Garmin, the Huawei Watch GT7 has the addition of more than 3,000 ski resort maps. This means watch wearers can access routes, slope names, and elevation details while on the slopes – so no more fumbling with paper maps or trying to get a phone out of a bulky ski jacket (with cold hands).
This goes up against the Garmin Fenix, specifically the Garmin Fenix 8, with its ski resort maps, chair lift tracking, and incline. Usually more than £780, HSamuel has cut hundreds off the price, as it dips to £549.99.
For iPhone users, another alternative can be found at Argos, it has cut £80 off the newest Apple Watch Series 11 – seemingly another price drop ahead of the upcoming Surprise and Shine launch event next week.
Back to the Huawei model, it is still reliable for Apple users. This is a huge perk, but as an iPhone 17 Pro user, I was surprised by the integration, which I highlighted in my review.
“Typically, Apple’s iOS makes using third-party wearables tricky, but my usual social media, notifications, messages and calls all sync through immediately.” But there is a small kicker.
The main limitation is that you still can’t reply to messages directly from the watch face. Away from the downside, back to the best feature.
“I’ve questioned why I put up with having to charge my Apple Watch every evening. Since I first picked it up. I’ve tracked my sleep three nights in a row, walked more than 10,000 steps around Munich, and even done a 20km bike ride up a small mountain peak in Tegernsee.”
