Health tracking with the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro

HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro has a relatively comprehensive approach to health tracking. Due to its updated system of sensors, this watch can help you track the following health aspects:

HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro can evaluate your arterial stiffness

• Heart rate - the watch continuously monitors your heart rate and resting heart rate, two important indicators of heart health.
• SpO2 - measures your blood oxygen level when sleeping or resting and alerts you when it drops below the ideal value.
• ECG - records the electrical signals that control how your heart beats and can detect cardiac rhythm disturbances or inadequate coronary artery blood flow. Luckily, HUAWEI is one of the few companies that has certified this feature in many countries. You can see where it is available by consulting this page.
• Arterial stiffness - it uses the ECG sensor to evaluate if your arteries are still elastic and in good condition, it shares useful trends about their evolution, and it compares your results with people your age, helping you understand whether your results are normal or not.
• Sleep - monitors how long you sleep, how much time you spend in each sleep stage, and it provides you with personalized recommendations on how to improve your sleep quality and get more rest. I like how HUAWEI presents its sleep data, as well as how easy it is to understand and use it. However, since this isn't a medical device, you should take its accuracy with a grain of salt.
• Sleep breathing awareness - the watch can also monitor if there are any interruptions in your breathing while you are asleep. Such data is useful in detecting health issues like sleep apnea, which are surprisingly common.
• Respiratory rate - this is measured automatically while you sleep, and the data collected is used to detect breathing interruptions.
• Skin temperature - the watch automatically checks your skin temperature during the day and the night, at regular intervals.
• Stress level - it automatically evaluates your stress level and gives you recommendations on what you can do to relax. I found it funny that you can also make a manual snapshot and check your real-time stress level. The simple act of starting a manual snapshot, which requires you to stand still for one minute, helps you relax and lower your stress a bit.

An ECG reading made on the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro

The only health tracking feature that HUAWEI GT 5 Pro is lacking versus competing devices with similar prices is the HRV (Heart rate variability), which tells you the variation in time between each heartbeat, and evaluates your cardiovascular fitness and stress resilience. Another feature that I missed using is the Health Glance introduced on the HUAWEI Watch 4 Pro, which is nowhere to be found on the WATCH GT 5 Pro.

On the upside, you can use the HUWEI Health app to log your water and food intake, for a more comprehensive view of your lifestyle and wellbeing. Unfortunately adding the food you eat takes a bit of time, and it can be done only from the app, and not from your watch. To make things a bit frustrating, HUAWEI's database is not as good as similar solutions from other brands. However, you can quickly scan packaged foods with your smartphone's camera and add their nutritional information.

You can log your food intake in the HUAWEI Health app

Logging how much water you drink is also done only in the HUAWEI Health app and not on your watch. I wish HUAWEI would add this capability to all their smartwatches because it isn't that difficult to program and turn it into a smartwatch app.

Last but not least, HUAWEI is promoting a new and improved deep learning algorithm dedicated to helping women track their menstrual cycles and provide them with estimations about their period, ovulation, and fertile times. There's both a Cycle Calendar app available on the watch, as well as a dedicated search in the Health section of the HUAWEI Health app. Women can also get recommendations for more suitable exercises and workout plans with adjusted intensity that consider the onset of the menstrual period.

The cycle calendar

If you're interested in tracking your health, the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro does a good job of providing you with a relatively complete perspective. Some of its features, like the food and water logging, still deserve more finetuning, while others work perfectly well. In my view, this smartwatch's killer feature is the ECG. If you want to keep a close eye on your heart's health, the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro is one of the better choices you can make.

Sports tracking with HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro

HUAWEI has a long tradition of offering watches that can track a wide range of activities, from the usual activities like running, cycling, or swimming to triathlons, lifestyle activities like dancing, and niche sports like curling or bobsleigh. The company says that it has improved its GPS tracking accuracy on the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro compared to its previous generation of products. During my testing, I was able to confirm these improvements, and I appreciated the general accuracy of its GPS tracking. However, there's still some room for improvement. When testing the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro, I also used the Garmin Fenix 8 in parallel to track the same activities. Sometimes, the WATCH GT 5 Pro took a while longer to lock the GPS signal, while other times, its tracking accuracy wasn't as good. But this doesn't make it a bad product. On the contrary, HUAWEI has made more improvements to its GPS tracking systems and algorithms than many of its competitors, and it's now closer than ever to match the likes of Garmin in this regard.

Tracking a Run with the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro

Depending on the type of workout you've tracked, you'll get a map of where it took place and relevant statistics for that activity at the end. HUAWEI is offering quite a lot of data nowadays, which increases the usefulness of the WATCH GT 5 Pro to athletes and people who take sports seriously.

While running, I appreciated seeing detailed stats, including my ground contact time, cadence, and body balance. For example, I've learned that when running, I tend to put a bit more stress on my right foot than on the left and that I should take care to improve my balance during such activities.

The charts available for running activities

But, as always in life, this product isn't perfect either. A missed opportunity for the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro is regarding the water-based activities that it can track. While the company brags that you can use it for diving or freediving up to 40 meters in depth, it's missing a profile for tracking a popular activity that's simpler to track - snorkeling. Hopefully, the company will add it in future updates, alongside other similar activities like open-water swimming, which are already available.

You can use the watch for diving activities

However, one standout feature is its Golf activity tracking profile. The WATCH GT 5 Pro offers thousands of maps for golf courses all around the world, as well as a dedicated tracking profile that provides in-depth guidance and helps you become a better golfer. However, since I don't play this sport, I can't share how well these features work and how useful they can be for an actual golfer. One aspect to remember is that this feature is not available in the initial firmware of the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro, and it was added in a firmware update that was released post-launch.

Golfers get useful maps and guidance

For people who are at the start of their sports and fitness journey, HUAWEI offers several training plans, including some which are enhanced with the help of AI (Artificial Intelligence). During my testing of this watch, I tried the HIIT Run workout, and while it was useful and mostly well-designed, it did have a few bugs.

For example, one time, it asked me to rest when I was supposed to start sprinting in the next five seconds. If I had followed its advice, I wouldn't have been ready for the sprinting stage of the workout. Another time, the watch asked me to rest while jogging because my heart rate lowered slower than the algorithm expected. However, doing so wouldn't have helped me finish the workout plan. Luckily, my heart rate lowered anyway to the level that was expected, but it required another twenty seconds of jogging instead of stopping and resting immediately.

HUAWEI offers AI-infused workout plans

For those who want workout plans that are designed better and benefit from the perspective of real-life coaches, the company launched a new HUAWEI Health+ subscription service. It gives you access to a wide variety of workouts led by renowned coaches, guided meditations, breathing exercises, and a Stay Fit Plan to maintain your health and well-being at an optimal level. HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro users receive a free 3-month membership with their device, and after this interval, they can choose whether they want to pay for a monthly or yearly subscription. Prices vary depending on your region, so it is best that you check them out in the app itself.

HUAWEI Health+ offers many guided workouts

The sports tracking offered by HUAWEI is evolving and improving, and the features you get on the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro are likely to please many people who take sports seriously, including those who regularly participate in triathlons. If you're a beginner just starting your fitness journey, you'll appreciate the varied workouts and training plans available on this smartwatch, especially those included in the HUAWEI Health+ subscription service.

What do you think about the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro?

At the end of this lengthy review, you should have a pretty good idea of what the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro can and can't do. I hope you enjoyed reading it and you found it useful in your purchasing decision. If you have any questions that weren't addressed in my review, don't hesitate to comment using the options below. And whether you like or dislike this product, please share your opinion. I'm curious to know as many perspectives as possible.🙂