Smartwatches have come a long way — from measuring basic health parameters to offering a more comprehensive look at our health and fitness. But this evolution has also placed a greater focus on accuracy, battery life, and, of course, a hint of AI. In the sea of fitness rings and bands, what makes the HUAWEI WATCH GT 7 truly stand out? Read on to find out.
Design and build
HUAWEI takes a slightly different approach to the design language of the GT 7 with a pop of color and playful accents on its watch. The unit we have comes in white, with pastel green touches seen on the stitching and loop of the leather strap, as well as the minute and hour markers on the bezel.
It still carries the same elegance as the previous generation, but with a hint of playfulness and personality. Aside from our unit, there are colorful options that lean more on the subdued side: Pink, Blue, Grey for the 41mm, then Black, Yellow, and Blue for the 46mm.
It goes without saying that owning a smartwatch would somehow suggest that you live an active lifestyle, so it’s good to know that it comes with an IP69 dustproof and water-resistance rating and a 5 ATM water-resistance rating.
Display
The HUAWEI WATCH GT 7 features a vibrant 1.32-inch AMOLED display with a 466×466 resolution that makes its watch faces and health and fitness insights easy to view at a glance. With a peak brightness of up to 3,000nits, the screen remains readable even outdoors under bright sunlight, which is especially useful when checking your stats during outdoor activities.
Health features
HUAWEI always prides itself on offering comprehensive health monitoring features, including heart rate, SpO2, stress, emotional wellbeing, and sleep tracking, among others. The upside is having in-depth and easy-to-understand insights that give you a better picture of your overall health, along with useful tips and frequent reminders throughout the day to do some stretches, stand up, or get active.
It is through HUAWEI TruSense that the smartwatch gets advanced sensors and algorithms that allow for more accurate and faster health updates.
Still present on the smartwatch are the mini workout reminders, featuring an adorable panda animation that encourages you to get moving when you’ve been inactive for a while. Another thing that has been extra useful is the insight I get from my sleep score. It shows me my sleep duration and the time spent in different sleep stages, which in turn helps me understand if I’m getting quality sleep.
With the rising cases of diabetes in the country, one nice addition to the GT Series is the Diabetes Risk Study. It works through collecting your physiological data, such as the blood flow signals from your wrist, throughout the day over a period of three to 14 days, while you’re at rest, asleep, and active to evaluate your risk. With the help of AI, the smartwatch analyzes the signal for patterns that may be linked to diabetes and estimates whether the user is at risk.
After all, it’s better to be proactive when it comes to one’s health rather than act on it when there’s already an issue. Assessing your risk right from your wrist is one way to do that. Thankfully, based on the results so far, I’m at low risk for diabetes.
Being part of the HUAWEI’s Health Community also lets users become more aware of the well-being of their family and friends, which is especially useful for those living with elders.
Sports and fitness features
As for the sports modes, there are over 100 to choose from, so if you’re a multisport athlete, you can track your stats across different activities. Unfortunately, golf is still not available on the non-Pro version. However, I’m glad that two of my go-to activities lately, tennis and Pilates, are supported.
A welcome addition is the AI Workout Analysis and Suggestions feature, which provides a summary of my performance, including duration of my workout, calories burned, fat-burning results, heart rate control, energy utilization, and training intensity. It also offers post-workout suggestions and tips to help me improve my performance.
Running has become part of the lifestyle of many Filipinos; hence, when it comes to tracking their progress, accuracy in tracking their route and other parameters is essential. HUAWEI boasts its AI-XDR Positioning, which delivers reliable accuracy even with little to no GPS signal. So, if you take the road less traveled, run through dense areas, or go through tunnels, you can be more confident that all the important stats are tracked correctly.
Convenience and compatibility
Other nice features to have in the GT 7 are its compatibility with both Android and iOS and NFC payment. The former removes the barrier to entry with its inclusivity, allowing users across different ecosystems to enjoy the rich health monitoring features it offers, while the latter increases the convenience factor for most users who’d like to make cashless payments.
Battery life
The battery of the GT 7 41mm can last up to 14 days with light use, but if you constantly fiddle with the watch, you can get up to 7 days, while turning on the Always-on Display will yield 5 days. This may still vary depending on how much activity and which settings you turn on, since some deplete the battery life faster than others such as activating the Diabetes Risk Study. Trail Running, for instance, has a battery life of up to 32 hours.
Verdict
With fitness trackers becoming more varied than ever, the HUAWEI WATCH GT 7 makes a strong case for sticking with a smartwatch. For the price of PHP 19,999, it brings together comprehensive health and fitness tracking, over 100 sports modes, detailed workout analysis, sleep tracking, and useful health insights in one stylish smartwatch form factor. It gives you a complete picture of your well-being in a digestible and easy-to-understand manner.
It’s also nice that Pro features are now trickling down into the non-Pro version, with special mention to the Diabetes Risk Study and AI Workout Analysis and Suggestions. For those who want more than just basic activity tracking, the WATCH GT 7 offers everyday convenience, fitness insights, and smartwatch functionality in one device.
