Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Huawei Watch 2 Sport Smartwatch - Ceramic Bezel

Bluetooth only. No microSD. No eSim. No standalone GPS.

Dweib McGee

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2018

This is a pretty interesting gadget. Synced to my HTC M9, I was able to do a fitness track around the block and get a fairly detailed report from the Huawei health app. Also gave me a sleep study report in the morning. Very good. My only gripe is it doesn't have stand alone GPS navigation. You must have it in the vicinity of your phone with bluetooth on. You also must download Google Maps as it doesn't come pre-installed. Once done and synced to your phone you can use Google Voice assistance to navigate anywhere. First call up the Google Maps app on your watch. Wait till the GPS acquires your current location. Then press and hold the upper right button on your watch to activate Google Voice assistance. If you want to walk there you must specify "walk to xxxx" otherwise "navigate to xxxx" will show a car symbol. You must speak slow and clear for it to work. Then turn by turn navigation will appear on the phone as well as the watch. Seems like a tremendous drain on batteries to me. Haven't tried it but you may be able to turn off the phone once navigation is acquired on the watch.

A week later I am still loving it. Called my son in California during an evening walk right from my watch! Talk about Dick Tracy. Conversation was crystal clear on both ends. And the rapid speak-to-text messaging is amazing. Folks at work with the pricey Fenix 5 are very curious (envious?) I have added a few watch faces and tried different straps and "titanium" metal bands. Have settled for now with a Barton navy blue with white stitching along with their titanium buckle. Barton Quick Release Top Grain Leather Watch Band Strap - Choose Color & Width (18mm, 20mm or 22mm) - Navy Blue 22mm Looks great with my custom Spitfire watch face.

Unfortunately now two weeks later, the novelty has started to fade. And although everything works nicely, I realize it's just another gee whiz high tech gadget that I really don't need. I see I'm still within the return window and I may do that or just throw it in a drawer with the other gee whiz got-to-have-it gadgets from the past. Meanwhile I'm back to my analog Casio waveceptor solar radio controlled watch collection along with my Citizen satellite wave.

One person found this helpful

TheMagician

Awesome Watch!

Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2018

So, here's a detailed review:

I had to give this watch 5 Stars. This does not mean that the device is 100% perfect, but it does mean that the cost, features, functions and user-friendliness merited a pretty good deal in my eyes. I have been ducking the smart watch craze for some time, and things seem to have slowed down on the non-apple front so I figured why not jump in on a watch that debuted last year and get a good deal. And it doesn't get much better than the Huawei Watch 2, at 230 something dollars.

I am a former professional athletic coach, and a fairly tech savvy individual. As a result I feel I am qualified to break down the device. Please bear in mind I've been using the watch only for about a week now, so I cannot speak on long-term reliability/hardware issues:

Pros:
- Heart rate monitor is accurate and simple to use
- Real time heart rate is displayed continuously
- Pairs flawlessly with an Android Device(am using an LG phone)
- Many watch faces to choose from that can display all kinds of updates such as air quality, weather, notifications, heart rate, or updates from about just any app
- Looks sharp, is very comfortable, and appears quite durable
- Screen clarity and crispness is incredible, as is brightness
- User interface is fairly intuitive but does take some practice for the non-techy types (The Apple watch will be easier to use than this)
- Can stream music, manage phone calls, and has Google assistant
- Superb for fitness, will revolutionize how you train (Huawei Health on your actual phone is a must to maximize these benefits, Google Fit is not great with this device)
- Sleep monitoring is excellent when using the Huawei Health app in conjunction with the watch's sleep app
- Battery life is incredible the watch charges VERY fast
- Very comfortable to wear

Cons:
- OK Google just simply works better on your phone
- Can take some getting used to
- Must use phone apps to pull proper data on sleep and fitness from the watch; Must use Huawei Health
- Watch band could use some smaller notches, I am an adult man with small wrists and if it's not completely tight on your wrists the Heart Rate feature may not work as well (beware to the skinny or petit women and children)
- On Amazon it looks like the watch has neon green accents for the grey model, even Cnet lists it as being neon green- it is actually yellow and I was a bit disappointed but am learning to live with it since it is after all a sport watch
- Fairly limited functionality when your phone dies or is not nearby; Wi-fi connectivity issues do occur and public networks that have web browser logins may be inaccessible

With all that being said here, I think the watch is pretty amazing for 200 dollars, however I think this is going to benefit the sports minded individual the most. Some features of the Samsung watches seem like they would be cooler for every day use(magnetic stripe Samsung Pay abilities, Samsung watches simply look the more professional than their competitors in my eyes). The battery life however is great, the watch is very cool, and the screen looks incredible. I really cannot emphasize enough how detailed and incredibly accurate the sleep analysis app is from Huawei when used with their counterpart Huawei Health phone app. I Highly recommend this device!

3 people found this helpful

Spend your money elsewhere

David L.

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2019

I like many others have a love/hate relationship with Wear OS smart watches. They're great when they work properly, it's just they don't more often than not, but that's not why I'm leaving this review. I'm leaving this review because Huawei makes shoddy products and you're better off spending your money elsewhere.

Pros: The watch looks great. It's not too big or too small, and feels comfortable even with the regular watch band. Wear OS is extremely customizable, has a lot of app support and the watch has some decent apps built into it.

Cons: Extremely shoddy Craftsmanship. As you can see from the picture, the lug area broke rendering the top strap and by extension the watch useless. I was extremely careful with this watch too; never got it overly wet, used a screen protector, never banged it or was rough with it, yet it still broke after only 2 years. My OG LG watch is still kicking and it took WAY more abuse than this watch did. I emailed Huawei support a week ago and I've had no response. This isn't an isolated incident as MANY people have had this same issue and Huawei's response is basically give us more money or kick rocks. They revised the design for the new Huawei Watch 2 with a ceramic bezal at a higher price point but us suckers need to deal with a broken watch. Standalone GPS is complete garbage and takes forever to load up if it loads at all. The battery leaves a lot to be desired. More often than not I can make it around 15 to 20 hours before needing to recharge, but the battery needs a major upgrade. The magnetic charger dock is also not that great. I need to readjust it multiple times to get it to properly seat. Wear OS is a buggy mess. Sure it's great when it works, but when it doesn't it's infuriating. Phone calls take 15 seconds or longer to start notifying me on the watch and I sometimes don't get physical notifications at all until I physically look at the watch. Disabling "Ok Google" support helps a bit but not enough. This watch has some pretty beefy hardware as well and yet I still have issues that sometimes require a complete restart of the watch to get it to working order.

All in all, most Wear OS smart watches are a joke, but this one at this price point takes the Cake with it's terrible build quality. I will never buy a Huawei product again after this experience and I suggest you look elsewhere as well. If only the same level of craftsmanship that brought us the first Huawei watch leaked over into the first iteration, but alas we're stuck with a broken watch that I will probably need to superglue in order to use again.

One person found this helpful

... quite a while and finally decide to try its smart watch. (Pass the first generation because of the ...

YU LIU

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2017

Color: Classic BlackVerified Purchase

I use a Huawei GX8 to replace my old iPhone 5 for quite a while and finally decide to try its smart watch. (Pass the first generation because of the size and weight). To be frank, I am a little bit skeptical about smart watches at the beginning when most key functions are depended on the cellphone -it seems overkill for people to keep so many devices around. For regulator user only need a watch with some extra features, it make sense now because many brands start to make smart watch with build-in GPS and data.
The package arrived on time last Friday. I got change to open it on the following Sunday. I have to say Huawei's package is still looks and feels cheap. I guess Huawei spend most of its efforts on the technical aspect of the product. They can done much better job giving the price and position of the product. (I think Apple set the standard for simple and elegant package)
The product itself is not bad. The body of the watch looks precise and practical. From distant, it looks like a traditional watch. Surprisingly, it is pretty light. Even it is not nimble, I still feel comfortable with it on my wrist. The watch strap design is ingenious. It has two layers: outside leather like and inside rubber. This contraption allows both a stylish look and a comfortable feeling while exercising cause the rubber is sweat proof.
The initiation and orientation of the watch is simple and smooth. Typical android wear operation. I try to wake the google assistant and good map navigation. The processing speed is not bad. And I can download app in the watch directly and it can work independently from a phone. One plus is the display quality, the view angle is pretty wide and the color is good. Giving the size of the screen I think it is good enough. The time display can be on all the time, not like my friend’s apple watch, which you have to wake up the watch by gesture. This is a plus to me, but not sure how much more battery it will use in such mode. (You can turn it off in energy saving mode). The battery performance is still unknown to me. Huawei claims the battery can last more than 20 days if you switch to "watch mode" (only show the time and date). Anyway, I already get use to charging my phone every day, it doesn’t matter to charge another device at the same time :) My thought is that this second generation Huawei watch is a better product than the first generation to my personal need. The practical design make it looks like a normal watch to some angle with some latest features you will expect from a smart watch like continuous heart rate tracking, standalone GPS and scientific running coach(VO2 Max, HR ranges and recovery time advice).

This review tends to be my initial impression, I believe there are more features to explore.

Pros:
1. Light weight & decent build quality
2. Build-in GPS for outdoor track without connection to phone
3. Decent processing speed and display quality

Cons:
1. Cheap packaging (giving its price range)
2. It says HUAWEI WATCH 2 has an independent storage which allows for listening to music without a phone. But actually I don’t know how to…

2 people found this helpful

A lot of capabilities but limited by software. Fitness data geeks may struggle with limited options.

GeekDaddy

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2017

I read several reviews and thought this might finally be the Android watch for me.
However, I found it to be a very capable watch with sensors and capabilities that were unfortunately too limited by the software and apps.

Pro's:
1. Well built, comfortable watch. Some say it looks cheap but I thought it looked better than most sport watches and not as nice as a dress watch.
2. Display is bright/vibrant and looks terrific indoors.
3. Loaded with sensors: GPS, heart-rate, altimeter, ambient light, etc.
4. Very effective at tracking basic things like steps, amount of activity, etc. Can track running, walking, etc.
5. Android wear is very cool. Integrates great with Android phones for google assistant, seeing/responding to alerts, etc. There is no better smartwatch operating system in this respect for Android users.

Con's:
1. Outside of the Android wear software and applications, the fitness functionality wasn't adequate for me.
2. Huawei health and Google Fit can coexist but their functions overlap on the watch and feels cumbersome.
3. The heart-rate monitor was not accurate. Many reviews claim it works well but my Mio and Scosche optical wrist/arm sensors are far more accurate and responsive.
3. You have little or no control over the data screens for workouts. If you want to see different data or a larger/smaller font you cannot change the apps.
4. The types of workouts you can track with the watch (only) are limited. You can more 3rd party apps but this is very cumbersome and your data resides in separate apps and online web xfaces.
5. The display is difficult to read outside.
6. Unless I used low power modes for the display and wireless xfaces, I could barely get thru the day on a charge.

5 people found this helpful

Best smartwatch there is right now (Feb 2018)

Rich

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2018

Amazing watch that does everything you want.

I searched for 4 months for the perfect smartwatch and never really found it. This Huawei Watch 2 Classic is very close to perfect but does fall short in some areas. However, it is also the best smartwatch that's available right now. We can all read the specs on it so I wont dive into that and I'm only going to add bullet points for pro's and con's compared to all the other smartwatches I've tried. For reference the list of smartwatches I've tried / owned are: Garmin VivoActive HR, Garmin VivoActive 3, Garmin Fenix 5X Sapphire, Samsung Fit 2 Pro, Samsung Gear S3, and briefly the Tag Heure and Diesel.

Pro's:
- Heart rate monitor is accurate to within 2bpm compared to the Fenix 5X, which was spot on compared to medical devices and manual monitoring.
- Tons of apps and watch faces
- Everything actually works on it and it doesn't take much effort to figure out how to configure apps or use anything
- Speaker is nice and clear both ways
- Battery life is a surprising 3days normal wear with display set to wrist movement, 2days always on
- Beautiful high density screen that is set deep into to watch making it very hard to accidentally break the glass.
- Very comfortable to wear and light weight compared to others
- Very solid and satisfying clicks when the buttons are pushed
- Magnetic charging cable quickly and securely locks onto the watch
- Wrist band is actually very nice for being a hybrid leather / rubber
- Overall just a VERY well engineered watch that blew my expectations out of the water after having been let down so many times by all the other watches I've owned

Con's: (mostly nitpicks that if changed would make this watch absolutely perfect)
- Only has a 1.2" screen, but I'm nitpicking here. I just wish it was a 1.4" screen.
- Plastic and steel instead of solid steel
- Would like to see a more accurate HR monitor like the Garmin's have and possibly a pulse-ox sensor
- Fitness tracking could be more accurate as well

Huawei, if you read these reviews please look into partnering with Garmin to bring some of their fitness tracking prowess to your next watch. I personally think if one were to take the best of the Garmin Fenix 5X (sapphire glass, looks, and tracking capabilities with it's HR monitor), added a 1.4" high pixel density screen, and smashed it together with this Watch 2 Classic then we would have, absolutely without a doubt, the best smartwatch ever created.

14 people found this helpful

Watch features are good, band hardware is very cheap

gcx302

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2021

I am not going to write a full review of the Huawei Watch 2 -- the purpose of this review is to point out two important negative items that hundreds of reviewers have stated on Amazon and elsewhere (see review from Heartbroken -- Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2019).

Overall the watch is good to very good in many areas (screen, fitness functionality, technical functions such as notifications, texting, emails, etc.) and use of Wear OS 2 is mostly good.

After 2 1/2 years of use the main areas where the watch falls far short in quality are these:

1) Battery life
2) Band hardware

I was never able to get more than 2 days use on a single charge, and 1.5 to 2 days was only with very minimal use. If I used the watch functions at all (say, just to check weather once or twice a day) the battery would be down to the 20 - 30% level in 1 day -- even when I used a watch face that was set to shut off after 1 minute.

The most significant negative about this watch is the cheap hardware of the band and band connector. I am a very light user, I rarely wear the watch in rough conditions and for the most part I don't even use it for exercise. However, after about the first year I noticed that one of the bands kept falling out. I would put in back and few days later it would come lose again. Then I tried gluing the band in place. That made the band last longer, but it still broke off again after a few weeks.

Finally, one day I was simply taking the watch off and (one side) band came off again. When I looked to repair it again I noticed that this time the band holder (that is part of the watch face itself) had a crack and a piece just came off. No decent repair for something like this - so I gave up and will not look for a new watch.

*Note: I never tried to contact Huawei support about this issue, I have read enough about this to know that the problem is considered as "physical wear and tear" and they will do little, if anything to help resolve.

If you like the Huawei 2, it is a feature packed watch, and a decent value if you can get it for $250 or less. Personally, I don't think it is worth it, there are better value options out there.

Great sports watch. Has many functions. Decent battery life for Android Wear.

David L.

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2017

I want to first point out that I bought this watch over Cyber Monday for $170. My review will be based off the value I got it for. I will split this review into couple categories for an easier read: packaging, design, functions, apps, and battery life.

Packaging:
The outer paper box of the smartwatch is quite creative in my opinion. You open it from the backside and the box unfolds like a present to reveal the actual watch box made of decent quality cardboard. The watch box opens to reveal the smartwatch fixed securely with a creatively designed and colorful orange cardboard insert which can be lifted to reveal the accessories.

Design:
The body of the watch is made of what seems to be a high quality hard plastic and the bezel is created of shiny ceramic. The ceramic is a nice touch; however, I don't really care for the minutes tick marks around the bezel. It just seems kind of obsolete for a smartwatch, but that's just my personal opinion. The screen is a 1.2 inch AMOLED screen with a sharp display of 390x390 pixels with 326 PPI. I was amazed by the clarity of the screen.

There are two buttons on the right side of the watch, one to pull up the apps list or activate Google Assistant and the other one is a customizable shortcut button. The customizable shortcut button is quite the nice touch and you can use it to open up the app you use most frequently. A downside of the watch is that it doesn't have a unique method of scrolling through lists. Other smartwatches have a rotating bezel, a rotating crown, or a touch sensitive side panel that allows you to scroll through apps or notifications. With this watch, you have to do all scrolling on the touchscreen display. However, considering I bought this watch on sale, it is a great value still without a unique scrolling mechanism.

The watch band itself seems and feels quite cheap. It feels really plastic-y. It also didn't seem to grip to my wrist quite well and would slide around often. Good news is that the 20 mm watch band is interchangeable, so you can mix and match with whatever style of band you like.

Functions:
Nothing much to mention here that you can't find in the product descriptions. Since this is considered a sport watch, you can expect many sport functions such as built-in GPS, heart rate sensor, pedometer, and a calories burned counter. If you haven't been moving for an hour, it even tells you to walk around and stretch. There is also a speaker and mic on the watch which makes it quite convenient to pick up calls while driving or multitasking. The watch is NFC capable, so you can store your debit/credit cards on it to pay with using Android Pay. The watch is rated IP68, so while it isn't waterproof, it is water resistant to a certain degree. The watch also uses Google Assistant for hands-off control.

Apps:
Since the watch runs on Android Wear 2.0, you can access the Google Play Store. Although a lot of apps aren't optimized for smartwatch usage yet, you can expect to find the usual notable apps such as Google Maps, Uber, Google Fit, Facebook Messenger, health/workout apps, and many others. If you use Google Music, you can even download your own uploaded songs (or songs through Google if you have a Google Music subscription) onto your watch for offline music. Sadly, this function hasn't been optimized for Spotify yet.

Battery:
I am quite impressed with the battery life. There are three different battery modes (normal, battery saving, and watch mode). Your battery life will vary depending on how heavily you use it. I use the watch mostly for time (obviously), pedometer, messaging, notifications, and the occasional workout tracking. In normal mode, there's an always on screen display. In this mode the watch lasts around 1.5-2 days. In battery saving mode, the ambient display is off, and the screen will turn on when it senses you looking at your watch. This mode allows my watch to last anywhere 2-3 days. Watch mode will only display the time and steps and will only go back to being a smartwatch if you restart the watch. Supposedly, this mode lasts 3 weeks although I have never tested it.

The watch comes with a charger that is of decent quality. It is magnetic and holds the quite very well so that there is no worry of accidentally knocking the watch off the charger.

Overall:
I am very happy with this smartwatch, especially since I got it on sale. At its original price point of $300, it is up to you to decide whether or not the watch is worth it.

Positives: great sports watch with many workout functions, great battery life for an Android Wear, NFC capability, has speaker and mic
Negatives (if I have to be picky): cheap watch band, no unique list scrolling method

Tips:
- If you are experiencing a laggy interface, go into settings and turn off "OK Google" detection. This fixed everything for me and now my watch runs smoothly.

- At first I was having trouble with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. If you this happens, just factory reset your watch and these problems should go away too.

10 people found this helpful

Worth it for the battery life

T.W. Cook

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2018

On Black Friday sales, I ordered a Huawei Watch 2 Classic and an LG Watch Sport (figuring to return the one I didn’t want). Both were priced similarly on sale. I also read a lot of reviews in the process. Ultimately I returned the LG. Below is my analysis and rationale for that decision.

From a cosmetic standpoint, both watches look pretty good. Neither would look embarrassing in a business meeting. I have large hands but relatively small wrists, so the LG looked and felt pretty bulky while the HW2 felt a bit more compact and thinner. HW2 slight winner but the smaller screen probably cancels that out. Neither could be called elegant but that doesn’t matter too much to me, as long as it looks respectable and not tacky.

For my usage, cell service in the watch isn’t really very important. I am never without my phone. Battery life however is essential. My goal is actually to be able to wear the watch all day and all night, so that I could use it as an alarm clock. I proposed to use the half hour or so while showering and eating breakfast in the morning for charging time.

I can’t read either watch without reading glasses, so screen size isn’t as critical but ability to use an analog ambient display that I can read at a glance even without reading glasses is critical to me - my main use for a watch (surprise) is actually checking to see what time it is. Either watch will do that, but there are battery life implications to this.

I don’t use tons of apps on the watch and don’t interact extensively via touch - so the scroll wheel, while nice, wasn’t a big deal for me. Seeing notifications for emails, texts, and calls is most important for me. Also, being able to send texts or initiate calls via voice is something I use frequently. Either watch can do all this just fine. The one app I really wanted to use is alarms. I have been using a fitness band, more for the ability to have wrist-vibrating alarms (so I can wake up without waking my wife) than for fitness aspects - because I didn’t have a watch that could hold a charge all day and night. I wanted to get rid of that and just use my watch.

Adequate waterproofness is a factor too. I’m a boater, and need a watch I can keep on. I don’t mind removing it for swimming but it needs to be able to survive an accidental dunking or a rain storm. Either of these would be fine on this front.

Ultimately the factors that decided me were around the battery. I needed to get more than 24 hours, with ambient display on during the day, and based on reviews, I didn’t see how I could get there with the LG. Plus I need to be able to get most if not all of a full charge in 30 minutes, and again, I didn’t think I could get there with the LG.

I am more than a month into this now, and I’m happy with my choice. It’s not perfect, but it’s doing what matters to me pretty well. I consistently get through my 24 hours with at least a bit of battery to spare (usually 15-25%). Charging is really fast - half an hour is usually enough. I turn off ambient display at night (because I don’t need or want it on then, but it does help with battery life). I have come to like the look - respectable enough without being obtrusive. Not a single person has commented on my watch, which means that to them, it just looks like a watch. I didn’t think I would use the watch as a speakerphone, but that actually works so well that it’s surprisingly useful. The alarm works reliably and I got rid of the fitness band. I found a watch face that I like and that I can read easily without my reading glasses. All in all, my requirements are met. Certainly there are things I’d change - the main one is that I wish I could turn off the heart rate monitor, I rarely use it, and would prefer to save the battery. Hopefully Huawei will keep up with Android Wear updates on this watch, and Google won’t completely give up on Android Wear. The Watch 2 doesn’t usually get much love in reviews, but it was the best choice for me, and I’ve come to be quite fond of it.

6 people found this helpful