Honor Watch GS Pro review - Built to last but can’t go the distance - Android

The Honor Watch GS Pro is basically a Huawei Watch GT 2 with a much bigger battery. Given the connection between the two brands, this isn’t much of a surprise, but it’s far from a “new” smartwatch. The main difference is that the GS Pro has a chunky exterior (which I love) and a massive battery (which I wish deserved my love). This is the Honor Watch GS Pro review.

Honor Watch GS Pro review: Design

As a fan of chunky watches, I like the GS Pro design. The larger battery means it’s a bit of a chonky boi, even on my wrist, but not ridiculously so. If you like larger watches this will suit you fine, as it does me. If you’ve been a bit wary of the bulk of most smartwatches in the past, be warned: the Honor Watch GS Pro is not for the faint of heart.

I like chunky watches, but be warned: the Honor Watch GS Pro is not for the faint of heart.

The design reminds me of a Casio ProTrek watch I’ve owned and loved for years. Two big flat buttons on the right-hand side, angular lugs, a diver’s watch bezel: it’s all on point. The stainless steel bezel doesn’t rotate, but the “outdoor watch” styling is pretty spot on.

The Honor Watch GS Pro features a Huawei TruSeen 3.5 setup on the back, meaning a quad-sensor layout with LEDs and receivers for reading heart-rate measurements and SpO2. You’ll also find two pogo pins for charging and the speaker, which thankfully isn’t muffled by your wrist despite its location on the back of the watch. There’s no NFC.

The included fluoro rubber strap on the Charcoal Black unit I have has a textured feel to it. It’s quite stiff at the lugs where it connects to the puck with a spring-loaded 22mm pin, but because the watch chassis is so large you don’t notice the stiffness as it wraps around your wrist.

The Marl White version comes with the same strap in a beige color but the Camo Blue option has a braided nylon strap instead. It’s not my favorite smartwatch strap but the textured feel does match the matte finish of the main plastic part of the watch body well.

25-day battery life?

The main difference between the Honor Watch GS Pro and the Huawei Watch GT 2 is battery life (if you’re wondering why I’m not comparing it to the Honor Magic Watch 2 instead it’s because that watch doesn’t have GPS while the GT 2 does and they are mostly identical otherwise).

Where the Watch GT 2 series offers 14 days of battery life via a 455mAh cell, the added battery bulk of the GS Pro jacks that up to an impressive 25 days. Apparently. Maybe. Not yet.

With what I would consider to be normal usage, I'm on track for 15 days of battery life, not 25.

The Honor Watch GS Pro has a 790mAh battery, charged by a familiar pogo pin puck in around two hours. In the six full days since my last charge, the GS Pro battery is right at 60%. I honestly don’t think it’s realistic to expect a full 25 days out of one charge – at least not with this current software version – but it’ll definitely be between two and three weeks.

Honor states the GS Pro can last for 100 hours with GPS enabled in power-saving mode. This is an option for just three activities: hiking, mountain hiking, and trail running (tap the settings icon next to each activity to change the GPS mode). The GS Pro’s default mode for all activities is performance mode, which Honor says will get you 40 hours of more accurate GPS tracking.

How I used it

During the Honor Watch GS Pro review period, I wore it as my main watch with always-on watch faces disabled (as these generally halve the battery life). I had TruSleep, continuous heart-rate monitoring, and automatic stress tracking enabled.

Beyond normal usage checking the time and weather, answering or rejecting calls, and checking my heart rate or stress levels, I also tracked several activities. These included a 40-kilometer bike ride, some hiking on the weekend, a couple of hours of kayaking, a few auto-detected walks throughout the week, and some strength training.

I also played music stored on the watch and on my phone but only for about an hour (half played through the GS Pro’s speakers and the other half over Bluetooth earbuds). Basically, nothing I would consider to be out of the ordinary, so I’m pretty skeptical about the 25-day claims being made. Right now, I’m on track for 15 days, not 25.

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