Huawei has just unveiled a series of new “smartwatches” in South Africa: The Huawei Watch GT5, the Watch D2, and the Watch Ultimate Green Edition. Each of these devices boasts exceptional build quality, stunning aesthetics, and remarkable battery life, but you just can’t help but feel like these are just dressed up Fitbit’s. Seriously though, this isn’t a troll post; I’ve worked at Huawei for almost a decade and I own last year’s Huawei Watch Ultimate and appreciate its capabilities. Yet, it’s important for consumers to understand the full context.
You see, Huawei is in a weird spot when it comes to its consumer business. Thanks to an executive order issued by former President Donald Trump in 2019, the company is banned from using US tech in its gadgets. That includes GMS ( Google Mobile Services ) and Wear OS — hence, the proprietary Harmony OS being used to run these so called “smartwatches”.
It’s a shame really, since Huawei has been in the smartwatch game for some time and produced some truly fantastic watches. The Huawei Watch Ultimate I currently own exemplifies this: its elegant analog designs, premium materials, seamless user experience with Harmony OS, and industry-leading battery life set a high standard. So what’s the issue?
To illustrate, humans and chimpanzees share 98.8% of their DNA, but that hardly makes chimpanzees human! Similarly, Huawei Watches have the genetic makeup of a great smartwatch, but lack a few vital strands of DNA code that render them more of an advanced fitness tracker than a true smartwatch. For starters, Huawei claims compatibility with both Android and iOS, and while this is true you may have to jump through a few hoops to get the Huawei health app installed on your phone.
Currently, Huawei Health isn’t available on Google Play, meaning users must sideload the Huawei AppGallery to access the app. While this isn’t a deal-breaker, it’s an inconvenience. A more significant drawback is the absence of a robust voice assistant like Google Assistant, Alexa, or Siri. Harmony OS relies on a proprietary assistant named Celia, which is only accessible if you own a Huawei phone. Additionally, users are limited to Huawei’s own apps, with little support for third-party applications beyond basic notifications.
Without third party app support, think Spotify , Strava, Fordpass, Shazam and Google maps etc, it becomes more of a fancy Fitness tracker than a true smartwatch. It almost feels like a Fitbit in Cosplay – appropriate since ComicCon starts today!
The major downside for me is the lack of NFC payment options. While many high-end Huawei watches feature NFC, mobile payment capabilities remain absent—yet another consequence of the ongoing US restrictions. Just this morning, MyBroadband reported a surge in tap-to-pay usage in South Africa. While I may never utilize the deep dive function on my Huawei Watch, I certainly miss the convenience of paying for lunch with a simple tap of a real smartwatch.
Plenty of people will appreciate the design and craftsmanship of Huawei watches. If you own a Huawei smartphone and don’t care about NFC payments and the lack of third party apps, I’d say go for it. For everyone else, there’s nothing that’s truly game-changing with Huawei’s GT5 Series, so consider your options.
