HUAWEI Watch Ultimate review: Should you buy it?

I’ve reviewed dozens of HUAWEI wearables over time. Whereas I like them, they have a tendency to really feel a bit samey. So I used to be excited to check a smartwatch from HUAWEI that units an ambitiously excessive bar. After greater than a month with the cheaper Expedition Black HUAWEI Watch Final on my wrist, I’m impressed. That is probably the most well-rounded smartwatch HUAWEI has made for some time.

The HUAWEI Watch Final is actually billed as an adventurer’s smartwatch. Its two large options are a well-equipped diving mode and a “new” expedition mode. We’ll return to the previous momentarily however I wished to rapidly point out expedition mode which I examined on a few weekend jaunts within the nation.

In brief, expedition mode is just not a lot an all-new characteristic as a kind of dashboard. It brings collectively a bunch of capabilities already current on HUAWEI’s wearables. That’s to not diminish its usefulness as a result of it saves quite a lot of fiddling by way of completely different apps and settings to seek out related data when within the nice open air.

The spine of expedition mode is HUAWEI’s glorious Route Again characteristic, a way-finding and backtracking mountain climbing characteristic HUAWEI has had for years. The remainder of it’s made up of current options and some new settings, all conveniently situated a single press away utilizing the Watch Final’s third button.

You may set waypoints alongside your route, monitor altitude and dawn/sundown occasions, allow storm warnings primarily based on barometric strain adjustments, set automated positioning intervals to preserve battery, and rapidly entry the compass, a flashlight, SpO2 app, and barometer. Most of those are already accessible elsewhere in HUAWEI’s software program however the comfort side of the dashboard is nice. It’s a good suggestion for a watch like this and it’s effectively laid out and executed.

I particularly admire the power to tweak the frequency of GPS pings in a extra granular trend than earlier HUAWEI watches. This gives elevated management over your mountain climbing expertise, providing pings primarily based on step depend or time, and concurrently gives higher management over battery consumption. Different HUAWEI wearables solely provide two battery settings: efficiency or energy saving, so it’s a welcome change.

I additionally just like the storm warning characteristic even when I didn’t encounter any unhealthy climate once I was utilizing it. Beforehand, I all the time used the barometer to foretell worsening climate manually so it’s nice to have automated alerts baked in. I solely want the dashboard parts served as shortcuts to the complete app or setting when tapped as a result of further data or adjustments over time are often vital to observe.

Now, on to the principle attraction: diving mode. With 10ATM/100-meter water resistance, the HUAWEI Watch Final is clearly focused at divers in its promoting. As a fast matter of clarification, the ISO 22810:2010 customary by which it has been licensed “covers watches supposed just for day by day use and for swimming, whereas ISO 6425 covers watches that can be utilized whereas scuba diving.” The HUAWEI Watch Final doesn’t have ISO 6425 certification. It does have EN 13319 although, which is the official German customary for “diving gauges and mixed depth and time measuring gadgets.” Make of that what you’ll.

Regardless of any potential misgivings about official certification, so long as a watch can face up to 100-meter depths and features a “time pre-selecting machine,” it could nonetheless be thought-about a diving watch. That perform in diving watches was, traditionally, dealt with by the rotating bezel however the diver’s watch-style bezel on the Watch Final doesn’t rotate. Thankfully, it does have a digital stopwatch and elapsed time counter. HUAWEI states you may dive with the HUAWEI Watch Final at 100 meters. My dive certification tops out at 30 meters so I didn’t take a look at this declare, nor would I wish to.

The HUAWEI Watch Final might be completely fantastic on your common 30 to 40-meter-limit leisure diver (like me). The sort of diver heading to 100-meter depths would little doubt require — and certain have already got — a extra refined dive pc with air integration and different superior options. Should you’re contemplating shopping for the HUAWEI Watch Final as your major dive pc for deep dives, analysis first. I’d advocate studying into the certifications and testing processes to make sure you’re well-informed and comfy earlier than you dive in.

Past that asterisk, the HUAWEI Watch Final is a feature-packed and correct dive watch. Its depth gauging is spot on in comparison with a conventional gauge and it gives all the plain dive pc options you’d anticipate, together with:

• Decompression cease and ascent pace alerts
• Floor intervals
• No-decompression restrict (NDL) calculator
• No fly timer
• Gasoline mixes
• Salt/contemporary/customized water settings
• Gradient issue worth
• Oxygen partial strain (P02) limits
• Apnea coaching and testing
• Water temperature
• Dive depth common and max depth
• Digital compass and stopwatch

I’ve been diving recreationally for over 15 years and from my seasoned-but-far-from-expert dive expertise, the HUAWEI Watch Final has all the pieces a leisure diver may need from a fundamental and even intermediate dive pc. It simply replaces the essential dive computer systems occasional divers are issued after they go scuba diving whereas on vacation. That is particularly spectacular contemplating the HUAWEI Watch Final is first-and-foremost a smartwatch.

The HUAWEI Watch Final is in any other case the identical succesful smartwatch we’ve come to know from HUAWEI lately. There’s a complete host of health exercise monitoring and well being information, all of which work nice and are very correct in opposition to management gadgets together with the Apple Watch and Polar H10 chest strap. The one factor the Watch Final misses in its coronary heart fee monitoring is the acute peaks and valleys encountered throughout HIIT actions that the Polar nonetheless manages to seize. That is true of virtually all smartwatches, the Apple Watch included, so is just not a selected slight in opposition to HUAWEI’s sensors.

GPS was a little bit extra janky than I anticipated. Regardless of its dual-band, five-satellite GPS system, the Watch Final often took a very long time to repair my location. For no matter purpose, it oscillated between a near-instantaneous GPS repair and taking as much as fifteen minutes to lock onto my location.

In a single occasion, I went on a 20-minute run and the Watch Final solely locked onto my place for the ultimate three minutes. On one other run, it recorded GPS information for the center third of my run however not the beginning and finish. My advice could be to not begin an exercise till the GPS has locked onto your place. It could possibly sadly be hit-and-miss if you happen to head off earlier than it has finished so. Exiting the exercise and beginning it once more usually leads to a right away lock so don’t surrender hope. HUAWEI wants to deal with this situation because it has been current to a higher or lesser extent on each watch I’ve examined with this technique.

As with most different watches from HUAWEI, I additionally gave up on auto-detection of actions because it utterly missed bouts of train extra usually than it was triggered. As a basic rule of thumb, all the time manually activate exercise monitoring. And a PSA: all the time flip the amount down or off for Exercise Broadcasts within the sound settings to keep away from embarrassingly loud bulletins of your train progress on the gymnasium.

On the constructive aspect, the HUAWEI Watch Final gives a ton of important health-tracking options together with coronary heart fee information, step depend, SpO2 monitoring, pores and skin temperature, arterial stiffness detection, ECG, lactate threshold, VO2 max, stress monitoring, sleep monitoring, operating capability index, and extra. You may set up further apps through HUAWEI’s App Gallery utilizing the HUAWEI Well being app in your cellphone however the choice remains to be fairly restricted. The Spotify controller, TickTick, and calculator are about pretty much as good because it will get.

Thankfully, exporting health information is rather a lot easier as of late with native Strava integration in addition to Komoot and Adidas Operating (others additionally accessible relying in your area). The outdated technique utilizing Well being Sync to export information to any service of your alternative can also be potential if you wish to leap by way of just a few hoops. All instructed, HUAWEI’s well being monitoring is top-tier even when GPS continues to be a slight blemish on an in any other case very correct and dependable health tracker.

Lastly, I wished to speak about seems to be and supplies. The HUAWEI Watch Final is an unashamedly giant watch at 48mm which is likely to be too large for some. My tastes have all the time leaned in direction of chunky watches and it doesn’t take a look at all cumbersome or comically giant on my wrist. By way of styling it’s additionally my favourite HUAWEI Watch design but. Largely, that is due to the bigger 1.5-inch LTPO show which I really like.

The mix of an amorphous zirconium puck, sapphire glass show, and ceramic again and bezel is an effective mixture for sturdiness. At 76 grams not together with the strap, the HUAWEI Watch Final is heavy however not unreasonably heavy for a watch this dimension. For reference, the 46mm Huawei Watch GT 3 Professional I beforehand reviewed weighs in at 54 grams with out the strap. You may see the scale distinction within the picture additional under.

I used to be far much less impressed with the rubber HNBR strap although, which break up close to the ejector mechanism after solely a month. This isn’t an awesome search for a watch you’re imagined to take to the underside of the ocean with you. There’s a spare strap within the field however it’s solely the aspect with the holes on it, in order luck would have it, mine break up on the aspect with the clasp. I’d advocate swapping it out for the standard 22mm watch strap at your earliest comfort and ideally earlier than you’re taking it within the ocean.

Battery life stays a standout characteristic of any HUAWEI smartwatch with its 530mAh cell managing 10 days to 2 weeks for me, in step with all different HUAWEI watches I’ve reviewed. It’ll solely hit this vary if you happen to’re not regularly monitoring actions with GPS enabled or utilizing the always-on show.

Monitoring a number of GPS actions every week with sleep mode on for nighttime hours nonetheless obtained me between seven to eight days between expenses. You’ll deplete round half the battery in a single day if you happen to’re logging a full day of diving however it’s nonetheless greater than sufficient to get you thru. Recharge time with the included wi-fi charging puck is round one hour.

I actually like this watch. I can nitpick sure elements of it however the total bundle is phenomenal. It’s proper up there with the Apple Watch by way of the accuracy of its well being metrics. It has class-leading battery life, all of the health monitoring necessities you would wish, and a few killer new options.

You should purchase the HUAWEI Watch Final if you happen to’re an off-the-cuff or novice diver however nonetheless need an all-in-one smartwatch and dive pc of your personal. Should you’re already inside HUAWEI’s wearable ecosystem this might be a good simpler promote. Particularly so since you’d already be acquainted with the asterisks that include any HUAWEI wearable. I wouldn’t advocate the HUAWEI Watch Final for extra superior or skilled divers, due to some higher-end options it lacks which may be important for extra technical dives.

The most effective HUAWEI Watch Final alternate options basically fall into two classes: these which are smartwatches first and people which are diving computer systems first. Each classes have different choices on the excessive and low finish of the worth spectrum.

• HUAWEI Watch GT 3 Professional ($332 at Amazon): Inside HUAWEI’s lineup, the very best different is the far cheaper and barely smaller HUAWEI Watch GT 3 Professional (pictured above). The GT 3 Professional encompasses a extra fundamental diving mode and decrease water-resistance ranking of 5ATM or 50 meters. The HUAWEI Watch GT 3 Professional is just not really helpful for dives deeper than 30 meters. It additionally doesn’t embody a devoted scuba diving mode (solely a free-diving mode in Exercises).
• Apple Watch Extremely ($799 at Amazon): The most important competitors for the HUAWEI Watch Final is arguably the Apple Watch Extremely. Apple’s smartwatch additionally gives a comparable diving mode though you do want a paid subscription to benefit from it. Which watch is healthier for you’ll seemingly come all the way down to the ecosystem you’re already in.
• Cressi Leonardo ($229 at Amazon)/Aqua Lung i450T ($600 at Amazon): If a extra inexpensive diving-specific watch is what you’re searching for, take a look at the Cressi Leonardo which is available in at a 3rd of the price of the HUAWEI Watch Final or Apple Watch Extremely. You might choose one among these up together with the GT 3 Professional and save a few hundred {dollars}. The Leonardo doesn’t have air integration or a compass, although. It’s a fairly fundamental dive pc and is clumsy to navigate with its single button. The Aqua Lung i470TC, in contrast, gives air integration and can solely set you again round $400. It lacks all the plain smartwatch options, nevertheless.
• Garmin Descent Mk2i ($1,899 at Amazon)/Shearwater Teric ($1,565 at Amazon): On the different finish of the spectrum, Garmin’s Descent line does all of it, however to get one with built-in air and a transmitter, you’re going to should spend $1,900. The bottom mannequin Garmin Descent Mk2i is a good different to the Watch Final. Even it’s significantly dearer at $1,499. It’s, after all, a dive pc first and a smartwatch second. The marginally cheaper Shearwater Teric can be paired with a transmitter for round $1,550. Once more, nevertheless, it lacks quite a lot of common smartwatch options it’s your decision. The alternate options actually come all the way down to your particular diving pc or smartwatch wants and the way a lot you’re prepared to spend.