Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro and GT 5 review: Frustratingly short of perfection | Expert Reviews

The new golf mode is nice to have, too, and includes maps of UK golf courses for the first time. And while this can’t compete with Garmin’s dedicated Approach Golf wearables for features, it’s great for the occasional round, displaying distances to the green, the location of hazards, green slope maps and even wind direction, although the latter is only based on weather forecast data. There’s also score and performance tracking available on the watch for you to fill in manually as you go.

Finally, there’s also a comprehensive selection of training and recovery tools for runners, including ‘AI’ running plans from 3km up to marathon distances, although these tools haven’t changed much, if at all, from the last time I looked at a Huawei wearable.

Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro – check price at Amazon

Huawei Watch GT Pro and GT 5 review: What could it do better?

• Underwhelming accuracy
• Confusing, messy mobile app

Huawei’s smartwatches have a pretty patchy record on heart rate monitoring, with some watches performing well in this regard (the GT Runner and Watch Fit 3 come to mind here) and some not so well (for example the original Huawei Watch Ultimate).

The Huawei Watch GT 5 series falls between these two camps: it’s not fantastically accurate but it isn’t a terrible disaster either. I tested both watches over the course of a couple of months and a series of 5km to 10km runs and compared them back-to-back with my Polar H10 chest belt for heart rate and Stryd Gen 3 foot pod for distance accuracy.

The GT 5 Pro proved the more impressive of the two watches here, with an overall average heart rate difference of a mere 1.64% compared with the Polar chest belt and an average distance delta of 4.92% versus the Stryd Gen 3. In the same tests, the Watch GT 5 returned differences of 6.6% and 5.15% respectively.

For context, these results make the Huawei GT 5 Pro slightly better than the Apple Watch Series 10 and the GT 5 slightly worse. Perhaps surprisingly, the Huawei Watch GT 4 performed better than both. These are disappointing results, especially when Huawei is claiming improved accuracy from the new sensor system, but they’re not disastrous by any means.

Another small complaint and one that I would expect to get used to in time is that navigation around the watch UI can be a little confusing. I’d expect, intuitively, that clicking the digital crown would act as a select/confirm button, and the side button below it as a back button, but it’s the other way around.

I could say the same about the Huawei mobile app, but alas I’ve never gotten used to its UI design and inconsistencies and Huawei haven’t improved it this time around. It’s still difficult to find your way around, it’s messy, unappealing to look at, and features that you might think should be in one place are often buried deep in obscure menus.

Race predictions, for instance, you might expect to find in the Exercise tab but they’re buried in the Me menu under the ‘My data’ sub-menu. Likewise, you might expect to find map-routing features in the Devices menu but, again, that’s in the Me section under ‘My route’.

And while you can link the app to some third-party services – Strava, Komoot and Adidas Running are supported – this option is also buried and hard to find in Me > Privacy management > Data sharing and authorisation.

Finally, don’t expect support for NFC payments like you get with the Apple Watch Series 10 and Pixel Watch 3. The Huawei Wallet app is installed on both watches, but NFC payment isn’t supported in the UK right now.

Huawei Watch GT 5 | check price at Amazon

Huawei Watch GT Pro and GT 5 review: Should you buy one?

Huawei continues to impress with the design of its wearables, combining premium materials with aesthetics that wouldn’t look out of place on a high-end Swiss watch. Battery life is excellent, there’s cross-platform support across iOS and Android and a very generous selection of fitness- and health-tracking facilities. These watches tick all the boxes – and then some.

There are plenty of niggles, though. Huawei still hasn’t addressed the usability of its app, which remains a tangle of inconsistent design and confusing menu systems, and the accuracy of the heart rate monitor, while acceptable, isn’t as good as the best we’ve tested. While these things may be excusable in a budget wearable such as the Huawei Watch Fit 3, in a more expensive smartwatch, they’re flaws that are harder to forgive.

That’s not to say you should disregard the Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro or the GT 5. Both are smartwatches I’d be happy to own and wear. But they’re not quite the finished article.