Honor sent over a couple of goodies, including the MagicBook 14, which Stef checked out but also a new watch. Honor have just released two new watches in fact, the Honor Watch ES and the GS Pro, which is what I have on my wrist right now and have had for the last week. I am a watch collector, traditional mechanical watches at heart, until I got an Apple Series 3 at the beginning of this year and it converted me. Will the Honor GS Pro leave it’s mark on me too? Let’s find out.
Features
- 44mm face with a 1.39″ AMOLED screen
- Screen is 454×454 pixels at 326PPI
- Water resistance 5ATM
- Upto 25 day battery life
- 100 workout modes
- Multiple health monitors including heart rate, Sp02, sleep etc.
First Impressions & Set Up
First impressions are positive and my initial thought is, this is a premium smartwatch. It’s quite a chunky watch with roughly a 44mm face, plus the buttons and it’s 12mm deep, so if you have smaller wrists and are used to say a 38mm watch, this will feel big on your wrist. It won’t feel heavy though, at just 45grams, its pretty lightweight. The Colour scheme is stated as charcoal black and marl white, and from the promo images, other colours are or will be available. Black casing, with that AMOLED display to the front and a bezel set up as a compass. To the right are two push buttons and to the underside, you’ve got an array of sensors and two metal circles, which sit onto of the charging base to charge the watch. It has a black rubber strap and clasp, with ample cutouts for you to get the perfect fit on your wrist. Overall, it’s a nice-looking, premium-feeling watch, albeit larger than I’d like for my small’ ish wrists. In the box you get the watch, charging dock, and cable.
Set up was a breeze, just turn it on and follow the instructions on the screen. It will ask you to download the Huawei Health app (free to download) and you’ll need to set up an account. Once logged in, you can pair the watch to your smartphone via Bluetooth and it only took me a couple of minutes to do. From within the app and via the watch, there are a number of different options and settings to browse.
Performance
The display is beautifully crisp and vibrant. There are a number of clock faces available and the one I chose included the time, date, temperature, heart rate and steps, which was everything I wanted to know, on the go, without having to click on anything. The display is responsive, both in touch and upon activation. By that, I mean the watch face will be black until you tilt your wrist to turn the display on and when you do tilt it, the watch picks that movement up very quickly and turns the display on. As for touch response, it’s not as quick but not to bad at all. Sliding up & down through my notifications was perfectly fine.
At default, slide down for your quick menu, which includes settings, alarm, do not disturb and battery level. Slide to the left for heart rate info, slide to the right for activity info such as steps and slide up to read through your notifications. Pressing the top right button will give you access to the built in apps, while the bottom button will go straight to the workout menu.
As for health monitoring, the GS Pro covers you for 24/7 heart rate, Sp02, which is your blood oxygen saturation level and sleep monitor. As for the fitness side, it supports over 100 workout modes, including hiking, mountain climbing, open water swimming, free training, triathlon, outdoor/indoor running, outdoor/indoor cycling, mountain climbing, elliptical, rower, trail running, skiing and many more. Altitude barometer for mountaineering.
For the health part, the watch will sync with the app and all your data and be viewed from the app. Number of steps, minutes spent exercising, heart rates and so on, all of which is quite details and interesting to read. Like every other smart watch, when you swing your wrist, it’ll count that as a step, but dont cheat the system, no one likes a cheater.
As for exercise, its good but not as good as my Apple watch unfortunately. Why? Lack of third party integration. I use my Apple watch with Strava for outside rides and Peloton for my indoor rides. Now the GS Pro does have both those options available, indoors and outdoors rides, and it will track what you are doing, you just dont get that social accept I’m used too with Strava and Peloton. Hit the bottom right button to access the exercise section, scroll down to either indoor or outdoor cycling and then either just hit go or set some goals. The watch will display the duration of exercise, heart rate and calories burnt.
Battery life is fantastic, although not quite the 25 days as advertised. In fact, it’s stated at 48hours while the GPS is on, so the 25 must be without GPS and some other functions like notifications. Anyway, the watch came charged at 72% and after day four, it’s down to 40% and that’s with a lot of notifications and at least one exercise per day. It could easily be once a week charge if this continues on. One problem I found while charging the watch, the straps and lack of flexibility in the joint between strap and watch, was limited. That meant you cant actually lay the watch out flat on a table to charge it, you need to lay it on it’s side.
As the watch is paired with your smartphone, you can choose to receive notifications on the watch instead of your phone. Notifications work well, they come through very quickly but they all look the same. There are no fancy images, branding, or real differences between a text, game or whatsapp notification. When you get a call, you can answer it through the watch, as it has a built-in microphone. It works fine, the internal microphone isn’t the greatest but I had a couple of phone conversations without any problems. You cannot send text responses via the watch.
The GS Pro is heavily advertised as the adventurers watch, robust and built for any adventure. It’s stated the GS Pro complies with 14 military grade standards. It’s built to withstand even the most extreme conditions. Including its ability to within knocks, shocks, high & low temperatures, water, sand and dust. Now, I tried the water and it was fine, unaffected but as this was a review model, brand new and scratch-free, I didn’t throw it on the floor or drive over it with my car. Keeping with the theme of adventures, the watch does have GPS, great for outdoor sports and walks but so much more too. Sunrise, sunset, tidal patterns, and weather warnings, all available to keep you in the know while you’re out. Get lost? There is a GPS bread crumb trail that will be left behind, so you will always find your way back.
Verdict
I have been very impressed with the Honor GS Pro smartwatch. It’s well built, robust, durable, has a fantastic screen and a battery life like no other I’ve tested before. I couldn’t get the third party apps on it I wanted and I think it’s a little too big for my wrist but that’s just me! It currently retails for £249 in the UK, with some freebies (as of the day this article went live), which is a fair price for what you get.
For more info and to purchase, head over to the official Honor GS Pro webpage.
