The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is one of the most premium-looking smartwatches on the market right now, but is it worth the investment? At around $315, the GT 2 Pro is the best-looking and feeling smartwatch of its class. Combining premium materials with state-of-the-art health monitoring, the GT 2 Pro's design is comparable to even analog watches within its price range.

The Hardware

The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is a great-looking watch. The new front design gives off the illusion of the screen appearing bigger than it actually is, and it's quite stunning. The AMOLED screen gets plenty bright for outdoor use and is visible under direct sunlight.

The thing I keep going back to is the build quality. This is one of the best-built smartwatches out right now, and honestly, the competition isn't even close. The GT 2 Pro offers a premium titanium body with sapphire glass on one side and ceramic on the back. The unit I have comes with a leather strap, but EU models get an additional silicone strap in the box.

The ceramic back is a nice touch because it's antibacterial, making it resistant to bacterial growth. In today's climate, this is important for keeping your device sterile and clean. The right side of the watch has two buttons and a speaker. The left side houses the microphone cutout.

While this watch offers a stunning design, it's definitely aimed towards a male-centric audience. The body of this 46mm watch was a bit big on my wrist, and Huawei doesn't offer a smaller variant of the GT 2 Pro. Overall, this watch looks and feels professional and polished.

Here's a breakdown of what the GT 2 Pro offers:

• Display: 1.39" AMOLED 454x454 pixels with a 57.4% screen-to-body ratio
• Operating system: Huawei Lite OS
• Sensor suite: Accelerometer, gyro, heart rate, barometer, compass, SpO2
• Wireless: Bluetooth 5.1
• Dimensions: 1.83 inches (46.7mm) diameter x 0.44 inches (11.4 mm) thick
• Battery life: 9-14 day battery-life; 455 mAh
• Chipset: Kirin A1
• Wristband: 22mm leather strap
• Materials: Titanium body, sapphire screen, ceramic back
• Water and dust resistance: 5 ATM water-resistant
• Other: integrated single speaker; microphone; ambient light sensor

Performance and Battery-Life

The GT 2 Pro hands-down offers the best battery life on a smartwatch, period. I was skeptical of its alleged "2-week battery-life" claim, but I was delightfully surprised to see it can sustain itself for that long. In my time of testing, the watch drained 50% after a week of regular use.

The 455 mAh battery supports Qi wireless charging and is also compatible with reverse wireless charging; I had no problem charging this up with my Samsung Galaxy S21.

The GT 2 Pro is powered by Huawei's own Kirin A1 chipset, and the performance doesn't seem to yield any hiccups. While Huawei's Lite OS may not be for everyone, the tight software and hardware integration allows for a clean and minimal experience.

Health Monitoring and Sensors

The GT 2 Pro has a built-in barometer, heart rate sensor, SpO2, GPS, and compass. All these sensors allow you to track both your vitals as well as the environment around you. The heart rate sensor is accurate, on par with my Samsung Galaxy Watch. The SpO2 sensor helps monitor your blood-oxygen saturation. The watch can also monitor your sleep, which I found to be accurate, and it can monitor your stress levels. I didn't find the stress level monitoring to be all that useful, but it's there if you need it.

The GT 2 Pro doesn't support ECG monitoring like Apple's Series 6 or Samsung's Galaxy Watch 3.

The barometer, GPS, and compass are great for locating your surroundings; you can be aware of things like altitude and air pressure. I couldn't test these features out in-depth, but they seemed to be on-par with my Galaxy Watch in terms of accuracy.

Workout Monitoring

The Huawei GT 2 Pro is a great fitness tracker that can keep up with Samsung's and Apple's wearables. The GT 2 Pro has over 100 workout modes which now include things like skiing and golfing. The watch can automatically detect six workout modes like walking and running.

Huawei's Health app, the companion application for this watch automatically syncs with the watch and keeps track of all your steps and calories burned. I didn't end up using many of the workout modes, but if you're looking for a watch that offers a diverse set of workouts, you can take advantage of the workout modes built into the GT 2 Pro. The running courses are great for both beginners and intermediate runners.

Software Experience

One of the only things holding this watch back from being exceptional is the software experience. The GT 2 Pro has a couple of minor annoyances associated with the software that takes away it from the whole experience.

The Huawei Health app is a fantastic companion app for the watch. You can see all your health metrics, and you can see all the workouts available to you. One of the great things about this watch is it's compatible with both Google Fit and Apple Health.

You can also now receive phone calls right on your wrist, which is always a nice touch for these types of devices.

The GT 2 Pro is compatible with iOS and Android, but just like any non-Apple smartwatches, you're going to be getting an inferior experience if you opt to connect it to an iPhone. Things like transferring music aren't available on iOS; this is due to the limitations of iOS, but it's something to note if you intend on getting this to compliment your iPhone.

The two major annoyances I experienced during my testing were notifications and lack of app support.

The notification support on the GT 2 Pro isn't nearly as developed as on the Apple Watch or Samsung's wearables. You can receive notifications as you would on any other smartwatch, but you can't interact with them. One of the useful features of my Galaxy Watch is the ability to reply to texts without taking out my phone - the GT 2 Pro, unfortunately, doesn't support this feature.

The app library on this watch is also extremely limited. You won't be able to download and use services like Spotify or Strava to accompany your workouts and general day-to-day usage. This was quite disappointing as other competing smartwatches have 3rd-party app support, as standard.

Overall, the software experience on the Huawei GT 2 Pro seems to restrict it from properly integrating with certain aspects of day-to-day use.

Should You Buy the Huawei GT 2 Pro?

If you want one of the best-looking smartwatches out there, this smartwatch offers an uncompromising design and feel for the price. We recommend the GT 2 Pro to anyone who is into outdoor activities and isn't concerned with having the best smartwatch experience, but more so looking for a consistent, reliable tool to aid them in either navigation or workout monitoring. The battery life truly is one of the GT 2 Pro's biggest strengths.

If you're looking for something that supports 3rd-party apps, this watch might not be the one for you. Check out our Ticwatch 3 Pro review and see if that better fits your needs in a smartwatch.