Huawei GT Runner - 3 Months Later Review
/Alright, let's get straight into the need to know. This is the Huawei GT Runner…it essentially is a GT3 with a different body kit and slight facelift on the user interface… and it is compatible with Android and iOS and, of course, Harmony OS.
The display is a 466x466 HD Amoled with good pixel density…it is bright too, so daylight is not an issue. The glass seems to be top secret at this point in time. So hit me up a little comment if you know what it is.
It also has 4GB of music and app data storage, it's got BT 5.2 for connectivity & it has an IP68 water resistance rating, and Huawei GT Runner has been certified to meet 5ATM standards…
Just in case you want to go running underwater…or maybe just swimming, like ordinary people… because yes, there are over 100 sports tracking features on the GT runner.
So on the design front, Huawei has taken the regular GT3 but has stripped out most of the metal and replaced it with a polymer fibre…in fact, the only metal that appears to be left on the GT runner is the titanium crown, and the clasps on the perforated rubber straps and the quick release catch for changing the straps.
And this change of materials has pretty much halved the weight of the Huawei GT Runner compared to the regular GT3. The GT3 is way over 100grams with the straps, and this one, the runner, weighs just 53grams with the straps… however, the thickness remains 11mm, just like the original.
And you know that legend Sir Mo Farrah…4 gold medals, 6 world titles. He'll tell ya…this lightweight design is good because carrying extra weight ain't gonna help you win races.
Anyway. Just like a kit car with a sports body kit. Huawei has made the design of the runner more aerodynamic…sort of. They've done this by adding ventilation cutouts in the watch's lugs…that's what part of a watch that holds the strap is called…the lugs.
So unlike the regular GT3, the air can pass through the watch and hopefully prevent your wrists from getting too sweaty… like me when I play call of duty.
But check this out. There is something else that's quite interesting about these lugs. There are, in fact, dual GPS Antennas embedded in them. This means better GPS tracking, and in fact, the GT runner can communicate with 5 different satellites to pinpoint your precise location.
And do you realise what this means? It means it's got excellent GPS… in fact, on paper, it should be a lot better than most of its big-name rivals out there…
And the watch does have the ability to use Huawei's Petal Maps software, so if you get lost, you can navigate your way back with the watch and petal maps. It's essentially Huawei's version of Google maps.
Now let's talk about the sensors. There is an Accelerometer, a Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic, an air pressure sensor…and A redesigned optical heart rate sensor array on the back.
Huawei has adjusted the curvature of the back panel to reduce light leakage. Because essentially what a smartwatch does is beam light through the surface of your skin into the blood vessels and measure the changes in blood volume each time your heart beats… now if half the light leaks out the sides whilst doing the readings become less accurate…so long story short the shape is better making the measurements better.
And Huawei has taken this even further & reworked the layout of the optical sensors. There are now eight in a circular formation. And I'm told this new setup makes this watch almost as accurate as a chest strap heart rate monitor. And if you have one of those…
Ask yourself this. Can you chest strap monitor, talk to you, play music to your earbuds, guide you through a forest, tell you when the sum will ride or what phase the moon is…can it even tell you the time? If the answer is yes… then that's one hell of a chest strap monitor you've got there. Anyway, you get the point.
This is a smartwatch…
But do you know what the number one problem with smartwatches is? They become pretty stupid when out of power. We are limited by today's technology. There is no perpetual power regeneration tech for smartwatches yet…
But, the Huawei GT runner does have a decent sized battery at 455mAh, delivering you between 10 to 14 days of power which is impressive…and the GT3 series chargers are standard Qi wireless compliant, so you can charge the watch on other wireless chargers.
And if you're wondering, the battery recharge time is zero to 100% in 3hrs…, which is a small price to pay for a 10 to 14-day battery in my opinion.
And having used the GT runner for a little while now. I've started to notice some things that I really like. For example, the dual functionality on the crown to quickly access the menu and scroll through them without touching the screen. If you are wearing gloves, your hands are wet. I'm sure you're going to find this handy.
Something else that I think a lot of people will appreciate is the 24/7 heart rate tracking and sp02. I did find this really interesting. It's the feedback the app delivers; there's a lot to analyse here…and I found the sleep data particularly interesting…because sleep might be more important than you think.
Did you know that the world loses an hour of sleep every year due to daylight savings, the risk of a heart attack rises by 25% the following week… that's a scientific fact…I didn't research it myself. I heard Tony Robbins mention it on the impaulsive podcast.
It's good to see this… at least I'm doing something right. I should probably run more, but why run when you can play laser tag or any other 100+ activities on this GT runner…
Honestly, I could be here all day showing you all the settings and menu…so I'm not going to do that. Instead, if there's anything you need to know…just hit me up in the comments. I reply 99.9% of the time… which is around the same percentage of people who watch videos and don't subscribe… so maybe you could help me with that… It would mean a lot.