The Huawei Watch GT Runner is another fitness-oriented watch from the company. This watch is more focused on runners than any of the company’s previous offerings. It still has all the features that make the Huawei Watch GT 3 great, though.
The Huawei Watch GT Runner is large, bold, and sleek-looking
The first thing you’ll notice when you pull this watch out of the box is how large it is. It is definitely not for people who have tiny wrists, and having its size in mind, it caters more to men than women. If that’s not a problem for you, and you like large watches, this one looks great, and feels really premium.
Despite the fact it’s a fitness-oriented watch, Huawei did an excellent job with the design, and it actually feels like a premium product. That’s not surprising at all, as the Huawei Watch 3, and Watch GT 3 also offered that premium feel. I’ve been using a lot of wearables in the last year or two, and Huawei usually stands out from the crowd, especially in the design department.
It is metal-clad, and it comes with a comfortable silicone band
The chassis of this wearable is made out of metal, while the watch comes with a silicone band. That band has plenty of holes on it, and you can set it just right on your wrist. There is also a locking mechanism for the strap holder, which is quite handy, and I’m surprised not more fitness smartwatches use something like this. There are two buttons on the right side of the watch, and the top one doubles as a rotating crown. It offers plenty of haptic feedback, and it’s a joy to use. The lower button is customizable, and it’s focused on fitness, out of the box. You can change that, of course, and use it for weather, media controls, or something else that is on offer in the menus.
The display definitely stands out
Another thing that really impressed me with this watch, straight away, is its display. The Huawei Watch GT Runner features a 1.43-inch AMOLED display with 466 x 466 resolution. It’s plenty sharp, plenty bright, and touch sensitivity here is excellent, to say the least. I literally don’t have a single complaint about this display. The viewing angles are also great, and so are the colors, the display is really vivid. The watch is also not too heavy, even though it has some heft to it, and that’s a sweet spot for me personally. It’s very comfortable to wear, and it looks quite sleek. Despite the fact this is a fitness-oriented watch, it looks very sleek, and you can easily use it for whatever you want. If you slap on a different band, maybe a leather one, or one made out of metal, it can easily be a watch to wear to business meetings, and so forth.
The battery life seems extremely promising
In 24 hours, the battery life on the watch dropped by only 5%, which indicates this watch offers great battery life, just like its siblings. Huawei’s smartwatches have been great in that regard, the vast majority of them, and that is one of the main advantages of the competition. If you’re not a heavy user, you can use most of the company’s modern watches for around two weeks before you’ll need to put them on a charger. Compared to 1-2 days of use you can get out of most Wear OS watches, and Apple Watches, that’s amazing battery life. And yes, this thing does support wireless charging, and comes with a charging cradle.
Harmony OS has been further improved
I’ve also noticed that Harmony OS has been further improved since my last interaction with the Huawei Watch GT 3. To be more specific, Huawei further improved the notification aspect of its OS. The messages are now grouped together, and you can easily expand them, while you can now also respond to them via predefined responses or emojis. That aspect works great, it seems, and it’s nice to see progress in that regard. There’s much more to talk about when it comes to this watch, but we’ll leave that for the final review, as I need to spend more time with the product, of course. We’ll see how it handles the fitness aspect, and much more. Until then, some images are included below, in case you’d like to take a closer look at the watch.