Huawei Watch GT Runner Review

Huawei wants to convince athletes in particular 
with the Watch GT Runner. It scores with lots  
of sensors, a great display, and a long battery 
life. But is it a good companion for everyday use?
The Huawei Watch GT Runner has an 
impressively high-quality casing.  
The majority of the watch body 
is made of “polymer fiber”  
(i.e., plastic). The top and bottom of the case 
are ceramic, and the crown is made from titanium. 
The rubber watch strap has several closely-spaced 
holes, so finding a good fit is a snap. The strap  
is a standard 22 mm band. As a result, it can be 
swapped for any of the countless 22 mm watch bands  
on the market. No tools are needed to change the 
band thanks to a small lever on the spring bar.
The Huawei smartwatch is almost as accurate 
as the Polar H10 chest strap in measuring  
the wearer’s heart rate. The watch convinces with 
very similar readings, deviating by a mere 1.59%. 
Thanks to dual-band GNSS, the Huawei watch can 
quickly find a GPS connection at the start of  
a workout. In addition to GPS, the watch 
also supports Beidou, GLONASS, Galilieo,  
and QZSS. We found the watch’s positioning 
accuracy to be quite convincing.
The GT Runner’s display is a lot of fun 
and leaves little room for criticism.  
It gets very bright and remains 
legible even in direct sunlight. 
The ambient light sensors works quickly 
and ensures adequate brightness.  
We measured the screen’s brightness at 338 
nits with automatic adjustment disabled  

and 564 nits with the sensor enabled.
Colors are vivid, the black levels are
perfect (as expected for an OLED),
and viewing angles are excellent.
The Huawei GT Runner is
primarily aimed at atheletes,
particularly (as the name suggests)
runners. It’s flagship feature is
calculating an individual training status
known as the Running Ability Index.
The Health app uses this to calculate possible
times for 5, 10, 20, or 42 kilometer runs.
The smartwatch also displays the
training load of the past week,
a training index, recovery status, and VO2Max.
Additionally, the watch measures a runner’s
lactate threshold and is marketed to analyze and
offer improvements to the wearer’s running style.
The Huawei Health app is required
for several of the watch’s features.
Many settings, such as starting a workout, setting
an alarm, or playing music, can be adjusted on
the watch itself. However, larger tasks like
creating training plans or adjusting daily goals
require the use of the Health app.
Music can be moved to the watch’s
internal storage via the Health app as well. Music
playback is thus possible without a smartphone.
Other applications can be installed on the watch
via the Health app or the watch’s own App Gallery.
However, the selection is very limited; well-known
developers and service providers are absent.
The watch reliably shows notifications
once the Health app has been given the
corresponding permissions. Text messages from
most messenger apps are sensibly displayed,
and you can scroll through your text history.
However, the GT Runner refuses to show
anything beyond text. Neither emojis
nor images can be displayed, and the watch
unfortunately does not play voice messages.
Huawei is silent about the SoC. However, the
watch ran buttery smooth in all our tests.
We didn’t hit the promised 14-day runtime
in our test. However, after one week of use,
the watch still had 34% left in its tank.
This was after setting it up, exploring
all the menus, and three short sports sessions.
The watch was worn 24 hours a day and was used for
sleep tracking. The watch constantly measured
pulse rate, oxygen saturation, and stress,
but the always-on display was not used.
Even with extended workouts, a runtime
of one week should not be a problem.
Charging from 15 to 100 percent took
about an hour and 15 minutes. We noticed
the watch was lukewarm while charging.
The Huawei Watch GT Runner is a smartwatch
for athletes. It convinces with many sensors,
is pleasantly light, and
offers a long battery life.
However, when it comes to everyday
use, the GT Runner suffers.
Notifications and responses are rudimentary,
and the lack of supported apps is painful.
If you want to learn more about the Huawei
Watch GT Runner visit our detailed review
on notebookcheck.net. If this review was
helpful, let us know by giving it a like.
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