Before jumping into our initial running thoughts on the huawei watch. Gt runner lets quickly go through the key running details. You should know about this watch. The runner is essentially a more running, focused version of the huawei watch gt3, but offers all of the same non running features and hardware. So it runs on hawaiis harmony, os, which does give you access to third party apps, and it will work with android phones and iphones on the design front, youre getting a 46 millimeter case, as opposed to the 42 millimeter and 46 millimeter options you get with the Gt3, it comes with a polymer case and silicon strap, so it does come in lighter than the gt3 as well, which features a metal and plastic case combo. One key design difference between the gt runner and the gt3 is to do with positioning of the antenna which is now hidden inside of the watch. Lugs hawaii says reduces the weight of the watch and interference when locking onto a gps signal theres the same true seen: 5.0 heart rate monitor setup as the gt3, which has been upgraded from 4.0 to reduce light interference and overall improve accuracy of that heart rate monitoring. If you dont trust the hr data, you can pair up an external chest, strap monitor with additional support for speed and cadence and power meters for cyclists, as well youre. Getting support for the five major satellite systems and theres dual band gns support, which means it can receive two different signals at different frequencies, from satellite systems to help improve outdoor tracking accuracy in terms of running modes.
Youre getting outdoor indoor and trail running modes and they support the ability to set up interval training sessions, but only from the watch huawei is offering customizable training programs and training insights here too, with training load a familiar one, a training index to assess fitness and fatigue Levels, recovery, insights, vo2 max estimates and predicted race times. Those particular race times are based on your running ability index, which looks at historical running data like heart rate, pace, distance and workout frequency to score you from 40.7 to 85.3. So our 47 score says we are capable of running somewhere between a three hour and three and a half hour marathon, which would seem pretty accurate. Already. Huawei also includes a lactate threshold test which takes 20 to 30 minutes and needs to be done outside to help make sure youre not over or under training. Theres navigation features here too, so you can share routes via the hawaii health, app with offline navigation support and a simple back to start mode on offer. Run data lives inside of huaweis health app. But you do have the capability to share data to adidas running and mapping service commutes huawei, it seems, has been working on strava integration, though that sport hasnt appeared on our watch. Yet there is an app called helsync, though that can bring the two closer together. It says a battery life youre looking at up to two weeks, but theres no specification on what kind of gps battery life you could expect from this watch now.
The first one i did with this watch was a track session. Now you can do interval training on this watch. I didnt set it up. I literally got this out of the box. Uh got it set up and then just went running with it essentially um. But i did um run with this and the garmin fenix 7, and what i wanted to do was get a sense really of the heart rate once when its at high intensity, which is where, in the past ive, had issues with the huawei um. Heart rate monitor sensors, now youve got an improved sensor here, which is promising to offer kind of better. Actually, in terms of you know, comparison with a chest strap monitor now. What well add as well is that you can now pair a chest, strap monitor with this watch, which you werent previously able to do on the hawaii watch. Gt2 series hawaii has added this feature as well to the hawaii watch gt3. So if youve got that watch and you havent updated it yet you can now pair a chest, strap monitor to that watch as well. Now, in terms of that heart rate monitor performance, i had the phoenix 7 paired up to a wahoo chest strap monitor. I had quite a meaty uh interval training session um, i hadnt. You know it was cold as well so kind of perfect kind of environment scenario to kind of test it out now, comparing the data it wasnt too bad.
The maximum heart rate was matched up with the wahoo ticker, and the average heart rate was about 5 bpm out from the chest, strap as well. Looking at the graphs, they are a little bit off in terms of the data recorded. I found it generally reliable. It definitely feels a little bit of an improvement. What i have experienced before so second run. I did with this watch, was a club run. It was a kind of hilly. Eight mile run um. I was using the uh guy in phoenix 7 paired to a wahoo ticker chest strap to kind of compare the data. Essentially what i saw from a kind of gps performance, the eight mile run um. It was pretty much eight miles on the garmin. It was a little bit over on the hawaii. I think it was eight um, four and obviously in huawei, youve got the dual band gns port and on the garmin youve got the multiband gns sport, which is you know the most accurate you can probably get at the moment. I had a little look at the um, the routes uh im kind of respective apps, and they look pretty good. On the whole, it wasnt a huge amount of difference in terms of gps. I think, but definitely a little bit more accurate on the phoenix um, which is what i would expect the kind of uh some of the core running metrics were pretty similar in terms of things like average pace now in hurry monitoring.
Now i had a good um kind of performance in the track session. On the on this second run, it was a little bit more of a disparity in terms of the information the huawei did post higher maximum heart rate readings, which is a little bit disappointing to see um. But as i mentioned, you can use this with a heart mate heart rate, monitor, cheshire, app and thats. Probably what i would i would end up doing to kind of make use of all the other features here. Um in terms of battery life, i saw a kind of drop off of kind of 10 to 12. I would say the 12 was kind of to factor in the uh. Warm up run that i did to kind of run getting to my uh, to my run. So i would essentially say its about 10 so similar to what ive seen with the huawei watch gt3 as well kind of what i was expecting on the kind of batch performance front, so that second run. It was okay in places heart rate, not quite there. For me, uh, but generally a solid performance. A really nice watch to run in a nice watch can absorb that information. You can have it in always on if you want, and it was comfortable to wear during that kind of hours worth of running um overall. So initial thoughts on the huawei watch gt runner so far, actually pretty good. You know not perfect, which is what i kind of expected, but actually theres definitely feels like theres, more good and bad here.
I definitely appreciate that this is kind of a nicer watch to run with than the huawei which gt3 its nice light comfortable, the screens great on it as well. I didnt have any problems kind of viewing my data um in terms of kind of the accuracy performance. The gps was okay. It was a little bit off from the kind of my main run, but uh gemini was pretty happy with what the metrics that kind of kind of generated, um heart rate, monitor performance had a good um experience of it in the track session, not so good. In my other run, so theres definitely kind of some issues there. I think, but obviously the fact that huawei is addressing some of these things is good to see in terms of that kind of external uh, monitor support and so to generally use this watch. Its been very similar to what ive experienced on the huaweis gt3 things like notifications, still things like kind of music controls, all the kind of smartwatch kind of features have kind of worked in a kind of very similar fashion. I quite like the kind of data rich kind of more data which watch facebook getting here for kind of thats kind of aimed at runners as well um, and then your battery performance seems very very similar to what i experienced on the higher watch. Gt3. You probably can get two weeks, but if youre using it in heavy usage, its probably going to be kind of a solid week, essentially overall, so yeah so far, so good um.
It is actually watch even though every few days ive actually quite enjoyed wearing. It feels very light. I think it looks quite good as well probably more. My kind of uh look compared to the kind of hawaii watch gt3 and the hawaii watch three but yeah a watch that im looking forward to spending a little bit more testing time with. Definitely gon na have to spend a bit more to kind of learn a little bit more. How about how reliable things like uh, the kind of running programs, the kind of training insights and the kind of running ability, insects that huaweis, making a big deal of as well and well kind of pan out over kind of having more sessions and more data? In there to kind of analyze, so yeah and thats my kind of initial thoughts on how i watched gt runner, so there you have it. That is our first run. Thoughts on hawaii watch gt runner. Now, obviously, we have plenty more testing to do and we will be taking consideration while we watch gt3 as well in terms of how it fits with that watch and other huawei watches as well.vQEqlvcstmI
