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Huawei Watch Ultimate 2: One-minute review
This is not a smartwatch for the casual user but rather a dedicated device for professional athletes and serious recreational fitness enthusiasts. The primary focuses are diving and golfing, although Huawei promotes the watch as being ideal for a much broader range of activities. As you’d expect, there’s also a full set of health tracking capabilities.
As well as rugged and premium materials, performance across the board is very strong, indeed. The display is super-bright, even when being used in direct sunlight. The interface is fast, responsive, and finely tuned for an optimum user experience. GPS tracking is quickly found and always accurate. Extreme waterproofing is engineered to perfection. The positives go on. I think if it could have been made slightly smaller and dealt with the pesky Huawei app side-loading issue, Huawei would have had the perfect package.
Huawei Watch Ultimate 2: Specifications
|
Component |
Huawei Watch Ultimate 2 |
|
Price |
£899.99 (Blue) / £799.99 (Black) |
|
Dimensions |
47.8 x 47.8 x 12.9 mm (Blue) / 48.5 x 48.5 x 12.9 mm (Black) |
|
Weight |
80.5g without strap |
|
Caze/bezel |
Zirconium-based Liquid Metal (Amorphous Alloy) / Nanocrystal Ceramic |
|
Display |
1.5 inch AMOLED (466 × 466 pixels) |
|
Operating System |
HarmonyOS |
|
GPS |
GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BeiDou, and QZSS |
|
Battery life |
4.5 days typical usage, 11 days in power saver mode |
|
Connection |
eSIM (for phone-free calls), Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi, and NFC |
|
Water resistance |
20 ATM |
Huawei Watch Ultimate 2: Price and Availability
- Blue: £899 / Black: £799
- Not available in the US or AUS
- It’s expensive, but very advanced
There’s no getting away from it. The Ultimate 2 Blue, at £899, is one of the most expensive smartwatches on the market, only beaten by the likes of the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro, which retails for £1,119. If you’d like the Black version, then that retails at £799.
The most similar price is the Apple Watch Ultra 3, which costs £749 and will always be a winner amongst Apple fans. If you’re not concerned about sonar communication but want a premium rugged offering, then the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra for £599 is a great shout and works well with Android phones, being compatible with Google’s Play Store.
Huawei Watch Ultimate 2: Design
- One of the largest smartwatches on the market
- Premium and rugged materials throughout
- Bright and high-resolution AMOLED display
It’s difficult to make any mention of the design without first stating that this is one of the largest smartwatches I’ve ever worn. With a 47.8mm case diameter and a 12.9mm thickness, it’s in the realm of the chunky Garmin Epix Pro (although they range up to 51mm) and the Apple Watch Ultra 3. I get that this is a rugged smartwatch packed full of innovative hardware, but this size of watch won’t be for everyone. I, for one, didn’t like wearing it while exercising. You can see it in the photos, but even on my reasonably sized wrist, the watch looks and feels odd. Slender-wristed folks, you’ve been warned.
That being said, everything else about the design of this watch is incredible. Beginning with a zirconium-based liquid metal case, the Ultimate 2 packs high-performance materials for a premium and rugged build. This metal is strong, hard, and allegedly more corrosion-resistant than stainless steel, which means users will have no problems exposing this watch to saltwater environments, even for long periods of time.
The bezel (blue and white on mine) is nanocrystal ceramic (sometimes dual-color) which is smooth, durable, and most importantly, scratch-resistant. If I’m honest, I think it looks a little too much like a plastic finish, which detracts from the overall premium feel.
The display is a 1.5-inch LTPO AMOLED screen made of sapphire glass. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a harder or more scratch-resistant material when it comes to smartwatches. I experienced zero scratches or cracks during my few weeks of testing, and I do not expect to have any problems in the future either.
The strap I’ve been testing is a durable fluoroelastomer strap with a blue/white color combo. It suits the overall watch aesthetic and is flexible enough to get a comfortable fit. It’s ideal for adventuring and exercising, but if you’d prefer a more polished and professional look, then there’s also a metal link strap in the box. Huawei also throws in a longer diving strap when you purchase the blue package.
Huawei Watch Ultimate 2: Features
- Industry-leading waterproof rating
- New X-TAP for PPG and ECG
- No third-party apps
One of my biggest bugbears with all Huawei watches is the copious number of legal agreements that have to be agreed to. Rather than providing a single agreement that users consent to before using the watch, Huawei has determined that it’s better for users to provide specific consent at the point of using each individual feature. This is the only smartwatch company that seems to do this, and I think it significantly interrupts the user experience.
The diving and water-related features are by far the biggest selling points of the Ultimate 2, and the 20ATM waterproof rating means it can be subjected to rain, swimming, diving, snorkeling, and high-speed watersports. It also boasts a diving certification of 150m.
Despite not being able to test the more extreme parts of these claims, I can confirm that I had no performance issues after submerging it for several minutes. By way of comparison, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 tops out at a waterproof rating of 10ATM, which makes the Ultimate 2 the industry leader at the time of writing.
The Ultimate 2 is also the first smartwatch to feature a sonar-based underwater communication feature, which lets two Ultimate 2s exchange messages up to 30 metres apart. You can say goodbye to traditional forms of underwater communication, although the requirement for both users to need the exact same Huawei watch is limiting. It’ll be interesting to see whether the diving industry begins to adopt this technology or whether Huawei has gone more niche than they needed to.
Aside from these groundbreaking features, the Ultimate 2 includes top-level health tracking. It centers around a Distributed Super-Sensing Module that is paired with Huawei’s TruSense system. This combines multiple sensor types (optical, electrical, acoustic, and mechanical) to improve health tracking accuracy.
Huawei has integrated a sensor, named X-TAP, on the side of the watch which measures blood flow through the finger, making it capable of taking ECG and PPG readings. Taking health readings from the wrist has always been notoriously inaccurate, so a feature like this that uses more reputable sensor technology is very welcome indeed.
Huawei Watch Ultimate 2: Performance
- Accurate metrics
- Between three and eight days of use
- Too bulky
We’ve recently seen a rise in silicon-carbon battery technology that adds silicon to the graphite anode and thereby increases the capacity of the battery. Huawei has brought this new tech to their Ultimate 2 smartwatch, although it’s labeled the battery technology ‘high-silicon’.
As a result, we’re looking at an 867mAh battery rather than the 510mAh battery that was found in the first version of this watch. That’s quite the upgrade considering the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra sit just below 600mAh batteries.
While testing the watch, I achieved between three and eight days of use depending on how intensely I was using it and whether I was using GPS on a regular basis. Having always-on-display activated significantly reduced the battery life, but there are no surprises there. My normal smartwatch habit involves performing daily GPS tracking for around 30 minutes, tracking health metrics regularly, and actioning dozens of notifications each day. Doing this drained the battery in just under five days.
The specs state that normal use will result in 3.5 days of use on iOS and 4.5 days on Android. The additional life on Android is on account of having to perform less frequent refreshes to maintain the connection. Either way, having a smartwatch that can last several days between charges is fine by me, especially given the rich feature set.
After comparing it to other Huawei smartwatches and my Suunto Race S during activity tracking, I have to say I was very impressed with both the responsiveness and the accuracy while tracking metrics, including heart rate, SpO2, and ECG.
Huawei has upgraded its Sunflower GPS technology. I tested its GPS capabilities in built-up urban areas as well as in dense woods, and it was capable of finding a signal quickly, with and without fuss. There was absolutely no inaccuracy or drift while tracking my runs and bike rides. If you need GPS that you can rely on, then there are very few watches on the market that will match it.
As accurate as the Ultimate 2 is in terms of tracking exercise, I actually think the watch is just too bulky to make it comfortable for most types of exercise. You certainly wouldn’t want to wear it for long periods of time while running, swimming, or when in the gym. As a result, I’m not quite sure who this watch is designed for. If Huawei could reduce it by a few grams and slim it down a little, I’d be giving it a five-star rating without reservations.
If you can cope with the size, you’ll be pleased with the user experience. The software, HarmonyOS, is fast and well laid out and integrates surprisingly well with Apple and Android phones. I especially like the addition of text labels to icons, which significantly helped me find features quickly and efficiently. Interaction with calls, texts, and other types of notifications was equally seamless.
Scorecard
|
Category |
Comment |
Score |
|
Value |
An expensive smartwatch but the technology is very advanced. |
4.5/5 |
|
Design |
It’s large but there are premium and rugged materials throughout |
4.5/5 |
|
Features |
A range of innovative features set it apart, including sonar communications. |
4.5/5 |
|
Performance |
Accurate health metrics and solid fitness tracking alongside a reasonable battery life. |
4.5/5 |
Huawei Watch Ultimate 2: Should I buy?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Also consider
|
Component |
Huawei Watch Ultimate 2 |
Apple Watch Ultra 2 |
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra |
|
Price |
£899.99 (Blue) / £799.99 (Black) |
$799 / £799 / AU$1,399 |
$649 / £599 / AU$1,299 |
|
Dimensions |
47.8 x 47.8 x 12.9 mm (Blue) / 48.5 x 48.5 x 12.9 mm (Black) |
49 x 41 x 14 (mm) |
47.4 x 47.4 x 12.1mm |
|
Weight |
80.5g without strap |
61g |
60.5g |
|
Caze/bezel |
Zirconium-based Liquid Metal (Amorphous Alloy) / Nanocrystal Ceramic |
Titanium |
Titanium |
|
Display |
1.5 inch AMOLED (466 × 466 pixels) |
49mm poly-silicon always-on OLED Retina Display |
480 x 480 full-color AMOLED |
|
Operating System |
HarmonyOS |
watchOS |
Wear OS |
|
GPS |
GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BeiDou, and QZSS |
Dual-frequency (unspecified) |
Dual-frequency GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo |
|
Battery life |
4.5 days typical usage, 11 days in power saver mode |
36 hours |
590mAh, up to 100 hours |
|
Connection |
eSIM (for phone-free calls), Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi, and NFC |
Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi, LTE |
Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi |
|
Water resistance |
20 ATM |
Yes, WR100 (diveproof) |
10ATM + IP68 |
How we tested
I tested the Huawei Watch Ultimate 2 in much the same way as we test all smartwatches here at TechRadar. Over the period of several weeks I wore and interacted with the watch on a daily basis. This included daily activity tracking using the built-in GPS and regular health metrics monitoring, as well as responding to dozens of notifications each day.
In addition to this, I also ran tests on numerous other features found in the watch, including listening to music and playing games. One of the biggest selling points is the set of diving features, including tech that allows for diving down to 150 meters. Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to verify Huawei’s claims that the watch can cope with the pressure at this depth, but I did test its ability to cope with water submersion.
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paulo.n.hatton@gmail.com (Paul Hatton)
