Huawei Watch Ultimate Review: The Terminator

• Unboxing
• Specs
• Design, Models & Sizes
• Software & Features
• Battery & Charging
• Processor & Storage
• Connectivity
• Audio Quality & Haptics
• Competitors
• Summary & Final Verdict

Huawei Watch Ultimate Unboxing

The Huawei Watch Ultimate comes in a black box, which Huawei fans might be familiar with by now. The company has been using the same design for much of its GT range, as well as some other wearables.

Inside you'll find the watch, placed in the center, a wireless charging pad, one additional silicone band, a second, extra-large Hydrogenated Nitrile Rubber (HNBR) strap, for serious divers (meant to go over your scuba suit), extenders for the titanium band, and some paperwork.

Huawei Watch Ultimate Specs

The Huawei Watch Ultimate looks very similar to the GT3 Pro, at least on paper, but there are a few substantial upgrades. The screen is now a 1.5-inch AMOLED LTPO that can go from 1Hz to 60Hz, and also boasts up to 1000 nits of brightness.

There are now three buttons on the chassis, with the one on the left activating the new Expedition mode. Other than that, the watch feels like a more premium, sturdy version of the aforementioned Huawei Watch GT3, which has its pros and cons, of course.

Huawei Watch Ultimate Design, Models & Sizes

Go big or go home!

There's no way around this - the Huawei Watch Ultimate is quite large. At 48.5 mm, it could be too big for some people with smaller wrists (myself included), but there are pros to this size, and most of them go hand-in-hand with the purpose of the watch - to be a rugged, adventure machine.

The 1.5-inch screen (466x466 resolution) is the highlight of the Watch Ultimate, along with the nano-ceramic bezel. There's a sapphire glass on top of the display, which means it will stay scratch-free (unless you hand around diamonds a lot).

This is the first LTPO screen in a Huawei watch, and it's also a very bright one, capable of going up to 1000 nits, a very useful feature under the bright sun at 10,000 feet altitude, or down there in the ocean at 100 meters depth.

In practice, this peak brightness rating is just about enough to make the watch legible under direct sunlight on a very bright day. It's not as bright as the numbers might imply, but it gets the job done.

There are two color variants: Voyage Blue and Expedition Black. The blue one features a clean metal chassis (which looks like titanium, mostly because there is titanium in the Liquid Metal alloy), with a blue diver-inspired bezel.

The black version is, you guessed correctly, black - and the ceramic ring resembles a compass, with the north direction depicted as a red arrow. The black one also comes with a rubber strap (a high-elastic, lightweight HNBR strap, to be exact), and due to this fact, its price is a tad lower than the Voyage Blue variant.

The back of both variants uses polished ceramic, which is great for people with sensitive skin, as this material is hypoallergenic. Overall, the design looks very stylish, not overly muscular, and resembles some classic diver watches (the Omega Seamaster comes to mind).

If you're worried about the weight, 76 grams might sound like a lot on paper, but in reality, the Huawei Watch Ultimate doesn't feel too heavy, and the weight is evenly distributed, especially if you're using the titanium strap version.

Huawei Watch Ultimate Software & Features

What does this button do?

The subheading is not a reference to Bruce Dickinson's autobiography book (although you should read it, great stuff!), and concerns the additional third button added to the Huawei Watch Ultimate.

This watch runs on Harmony OS 3.0, and the experience and software are very similar to what we have in the GT 3 Pro series. The one big difference is the aforementioned third button, which takes you to the all-new Ultimate Mode, featuring Expedition mode, Dive mode, as well as other advanced features.

Expedition mode

Huawei has decided that it will be easier for adventurers around the world to track their, well... adventures with a tap of a button, rather than scrolling through some menus. The whole new Expedition mode is activated by pressing the third button on the left side of the watch, and it takes users to a new interface.

On the main screen, you see the distance, your average speed, sunrise and sunset hours, the current time, and your markers. You can place those by tapping on Mark, and the watch will then search for a GPS signal and record your current coordinates. You can also choose a custom color for the little flag that represents those coordinates.

Swiping down shows a second screen with the duration of your adventure, the altitude, heart rate, total waypoint distance, and average speed. Another swipe brings up a compass, and the last one takes you to some useful tools such as the SpO2 monitor, an altimeter, and a flashlight.

If you press the Expedition button once more while in this mode, the screen turns orange (Night mode) to be easier on your eyes during those nighttime jungle runs. It's a useful mode, that's for sure, but does it bring anything new and exceptional over the normal hiking mode? Not really.

What Huawei has done is organize some of the tools and modes already present and give them a physical shortcut button. Placing markers is fun, but you can use the Route Back tool to get back to your position, and it works just as well as the marker thing.

Dive mode

The all new Dive interface and functionality are obviously a big selling point for the Huawei Watch Ultimate. You have Freedive, Recreational dive, Scuba, and Technical dive, along with some Dive tools.

Now, I'm no diver and couldn't test all those features due to some physical limitations (no diving license and the necessary 300-mile trip to the sea to try and dip myself in water with a temperature of around 46 F), but all these features and tools seem pretty professional and robust.

You can calculate your decompression requirements, test for apnea, train yourself to hold your breath for longer, calculate your no-decompression limit (NDL), choose the type of water (salt, fresh, and custom density), set up notifications, etc.

The thing worth noting here is that all of the above is very niche and probably won't appeal to a mainstream audience. I don't know what percentage of human population divers represent, but if I had to bet, I'd say under 1%.

Actually, a quick search returned the following: " In the 18–44 age range, participation for casual divers is between 1.2 and 1.4 percent and for core divers between 0.2 and 0.4 percent. " So, the big asterisk here is that this watch will be amazing for divers, given that they don't use something pro-grade and even better, and also registering the fact that not that many people dive on a regular basis as a hobby.

You can take the Watch Ultimate and do recreational diving with your snorkel and fins, but I feel the potential of the watch will be wasted that way.

Fitness tracking

Fitness tracking is as good as it is on the GT3 Pro series: you can track more than 100 exercises; there's an algorithm for auto-tracking; and your Running courses and Training plans. They are pretty good, and even semi-pro runners can benefit from using them (one of our colleagues runs half-marathons, for example).

Health and sleep tracking

The Huawei Watch Ultimate can measure your heart rate continuously, take down your ECG, evaluate your arterial stiffness, measure SpO2 levels, watch your stress levels, body temperature, and of course, track your sleep.

All these sensors and algorithms are part of Huawei's TruSeen 5.0+ and TruSleep 3.0 packages, and they work really well. The watch can detect premature heart beats and alert you to possible heart conditions; the same goes for the SpO2 levels.

Sleep tracking is your regular Huawei stuff, with sleep scores, suggestions to improve your sleep, goals, sleep zones, etc.

Smart features

Smart features are still pretty basic on the Huawei Watch Ultimate, you get notifications from apps on your phone, but you can only use predefined answers, and you can't open any of them to see what they're all about. It's a bit frustrating not to be able to read your emails, especially on such a large and bright screen, but it is what it is.

You can use the watch to take and make calls (via Bluetooth), and we've already covered that, it works like a charm. You can upload music to the watch and pair headphones to listen to it (thus leaving your phone behind), and there are some cute little apps in the Harmony OS ecosystem, but nothing radically new, compared to the GT3 Pro.