Huawei Watch 5

Huawei watches have relatively quickly taken a prominent place in the modern tech community, and for good reason. They're generally built well, have a massive number of features, and the list of new features this time around is so long that we've had to omit quite a few.

The watch comes in a 42 mm and a 46 mm version as well as a number of different finish options. The base price is actually not that bad: A black stainless steel watch (46 mm) costs €449, while the silver/titanium version, which we borrowed, is €649. The titanium version is a bit lighter than the steel version, but both variants should meet the standard for materials used in the aerospace industry. The coloured versions are not painted, but made with an oxidation process, which results in more subtle colours.

A fun detail is that the charger has also been given an overhaul. The normally cheap plastic block is now wrapped in metal. It's quite lovely and although it sounds daft, it's actually something I think has been missing.

The design is quite nice, classic, and streamlined, and even the sensors on the side of the watch are well integrated. The links on the watch use a neo-classical spring system, and if you're old enough to have tried a "real" watch link system with small metal rods that have to be taken in and out of a spring construction, you'll quickly forgive this - even if it's not perfect.
One thing Huawei deserves extra praise is the display: 3,000 nits, LTPO 2.0, and a very small bezel. But for me, it's actually the spherical sapphire glass surface that feels the most different. It's much smoother and more natural to the touch, and it's downright great to operate your watch. We've certainly come a long way in the last five years.

The interface on the watch is clear and colourful, and I feel much more like I have a minicomputer on my wrist. The battery life varies quite a bit. I typically got four days out of it with relatively frequent use, but if you use it normally and activate the battery saver function, you should be able to go a whole week on one charge. However, I can easily live with four days.

As always, the software is Huawei Health, available for both Android and iOS. I do miss that the watch itself shows pictures when I receive messages from apps, but there is hope that it might come with a software update, as the watch ran on beta software during the test period, but without problems.

The watch supports eSIM, which provides a number of additional options, combined with certain features supporting the use of hand gestures. It looks fancy, and once you get used to it, it feels more natural than I expected. The fact that you can operate your watch with the hand you're wearing it on feels quite strange, especially since this feature is quite new.

The big news is X-Tap, or "multisensing", the ability to measure blood oxygen saturation directly as well as much more in-depth health data and monitoring in 30 seconds. It doesn't promise too much and even warns that it can't detect a heart attack - but it will eventually. Using an additional sensor on the side provides a significantly more accurate measurement of, well... everything, and pretty much everything is upgraded to real-time measurements. Now, you should generally go to your doctor and get things measured properly, but if you're often in the mountains skiing or otherwise need to keep an eye on vital data like blood oxygen saturation, it's super easy and fast. As a lot of data is generated, it's easy to see if you have an acute problem or if there is a pattern, for example, related to stress.

Huawei is pleased with their variety of health indicators that can be measured in 60 seconds. It works well with a "this one's a little low, but within normal limits" setup and then an attached number, and there's plenty of opportunity to see how stress and exercise affect whole body health. It seems like a good idea. I usually only keep an eye on heart rate and not much else, but more in-depth health measurements like ECG seems like a great thing. Now all we need is for it to get mad at me when I eat too much cake. For many, however, it will be more relevant to be able to clearly see how sleep, stress, and exercise affect overall health. Perhaps most relevant is that the watch can warn you if any of your numbers are suddenly out of the ordinary, and hopefully, as Huawei is clearly looking to do, this will encourage people to focus more on a healthy lifestyle.

The sports section is impressive. You could write a few pages about it, but as I live in a flat country, in a flat area, there wasn't much opportunity for climbing, skiing at altitude, and the water was too cold for swimming. What little I could test, however, showed good function of the barometer, and I would have really liked to try the freediving function. Huawei has always been good at making things with large, easy-to-read text, and bright colours, and it works as it should. It also helps that there are a lot of free themes for your watch available from the start. Running cards have been heavily upgraded with colour cards, but actually the GPS accuracy is almost more impressive. It's not in millimetres, but it's close. If you don't feel like running (and normal people don't...) there are over 100+ other training functions to choose from.

Overall, it's a pretty competitive watch. Unfortunately, so is the price in the version we tested, but even though we don't know the full range and prices during this review phase, it must be assumed that you can easily switch to a more exercise-friendly strap, because metal is obviously not optimal for a two-hour run. But all in all, it's a pretty big leap from the last generation, both in terms of quality and functionality.