Huawei has announced that its next smartwatch series, the Watch GT 4, is heading to South Africa. The company’s latest intelligent timepiece will be available in 46mm and 41mm sizes with five distinct design options to pick from.
The company has apparently taken a new “fashion-forward proposition” with this new flagship smartwatch series. Whether this proposition is successful or not will be up to your taste in smartwatches. We’re certainly not put off by the look of any of them.
What’s your Watch GT 4 flavour?
The 46mm model features an octagonal bezel design along with a rotating crown and a single button on the right of the frame. You’ll have the option of a sporty-looking black stainless steel case with a black rubber strap, a silver stainless steel body and brown leather strap, or a slightly different silver stainless steel case with a few green flourishes to compliment the green woven composite strap, made of 70% ocean-recycled nylon with 30% recycled polyester from plastic bottles.
The 41mm model also gets the black sporty design and rubber strap option but swaps out the “rugged” octagonal bezel design for an “elegant” pendant design. Instead of silver, a gold stainless steel body accompanies a white leather strap, and the eco-friendlier green design is replaced by an opulent light gold frame with a matching pale gold Milanese band.
We’ve also seen two other design options but those appear to be exclusive to Europe, at least for now. Maybe they’ll find their way here in the future.
Long-lasting wrist-based intelligence
Other than the size and design options, display and battery size are the only differences between the 46mm and 41mm models. The larger of the two sports a 1.43in AMOLED panel with a 466×466 resolution for a crisp 326ppi (pixels-per-inch) pixel density. The display of the little one drops to 1.32in but still boasts the same 466×466 resolution for an even crispier 352ppi pixel density.
The battery in the 46mm model is rated for up to 14 days on a single charge. That’ll probably see you turning a lot of features off and require being a sedentary blob. Under regular use, Huawei reckons you’ll get eight days of use with the always-on-display feature off or four days with it enabled.
Halve those figures for the 41mm model’s expected battery life – 14-day max, 7-day regular use with AOD off, and two days with it on.
Keeping track of things
The Watch GT 4 improvements aren’t just aesthetic, with Huawei packing its latest suite of sensors and algorithms under the hood. Health and fitness monitoring will be handled by the TruSeen 5.5+ heart rate algorithm, now with “AI-powered deep learning features,” whatever that means.
That’s joined by something called TruSleep 3.0 which, as you might’ve guessed, will track your sleep cycles and habits. The Watch GT 4 will also monitor your SpO2 level and heart rate while asleep and look out for signs of problems.
Menstrual Cycle Management 3.0 is what Huawei calls its tech for keeping track of your menstruation cycles and estimated ovulation date. The Watch GT 4 can apparently analyse a user’s sleeping heart rate, body temperature, and breathing rate to predict menstrual periods.
eSIM support is sadly absent but Huawei does claim a 30% improvement in global navigation satellite system (GNSS) accuracy and has thrown in improved Bluetooth calling (up to 100m). But this feature might only be available when paired with a Huawei smartphone, we’ll let you know when we get one around our wrist. Generally, though, Huawei says its new watch series is compatible with non-Huawei smartphones running Android or iOS.
Count your rands and mark your calendars
Aspiring Watch GT 4 owners won’t have to wait too much longer before they can strap theirs on. The 6th of October is the official on-shelf date for these but Huawei has already opened up an ‘early bird’ special, offering those who sign up an extra R2,500 value. This special runs until 27 September when pre-orders for the watch will open, ensuring the eager beavers get theirs ahead of the pack.
If you aren’t someone who likes jumping in blind, you’ll need to wait for 6 October when you should be able to order yours online or in one of Huawei’s stores. Both the 46mm and 41mm models will cost R7,000 when they go on sale.
