The Huwaei Watch Ultimate is the company’s latest wearable and it claims to be the best Huawei has released to date. The Huwaei Watch Ultimate has a 100-meter water rating, Exploration Mode and premium build for outdoor adventures. We spent some time with the watch, and here is our review and findings.
What’s in the box?
The Huawei Watch Ultimate comes in a black box, which contains the watch, a wireless charging pad, and extenders for the titanium band, with an additional blue silicon band.
Design and Build
Our review unit is the Voyage Blue edition which comes with a strap made of titanium, and straight out of the box, and unlike the Apple Watch Ultra, you’ll immediately notice that the Huawei Watch Ultimate has a traditional looking metal body giving it the “luxury” look and feel.
Huawei says that the Zirconium-based Liquid metal, Nano-tech Ceramic Bezel and Sapphire Watch Dial are 4.5 times stronger and 2.5 times harder than stainless steel, and can withstand deformation under high temperatures and extreme outdoor conditions. The watch body comes at 48.5 mm × 48.5 mm × 13 mm, and it weighs 76 grams.
There are three buttons on the body of the watch, a rotating crown on the top right to navigate the watch or switch between the main dial and apps. Long press the system button to power the watch on and off. There’s a function button the bottom right, which has multiple uses. By short pressing on the function button, you can activate workout features, and a long press to activate the voice assistant. On the right top right side, there’s also an assist button at the top right side, which gives access to Expedition mode. While diving mode is in use, users can also operate the assist button to reset average depth or switch gas types when using the scuba diving modes.
The HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate has attained ISO 22810 10ATM water resistance standard and undergone EN13319 100m diving equipment standard. The watch redefines the water resistance performance standard of smart watches with the industry’s revolutionary water resistance performance.
Through a patented water-resistant machine design and more than 16 water-resistant structures, the watch can withstand extreme deep-sea pressure. Using both Huawei exclusive patented technology, the micron-level waterproof filter layer, as well as brand-new breathable membrane components.
Display
The large, 1.5-inch Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide (LTPO) AMOLED screen has a 466×466 resolution with a slim yet flexible AMOLED panel, and a glass cover made of high-strength sapphire glass, which is also fully laminated and wear-resistant. The display is big, bright (capable of going up to 1000 nits) and very easy to read under any conditions. Currently, HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate stands as the industry’s largest LTPO AMOLED high-definition circular colour screen.
Overall, we found that the display is excellent and very bright in any lighting condition, specially under water.
Software, Features, and Performance
Huawei’s Watch Ultimate comes loaded with HarmonyOS 3.0 and has a similar experience to the GT 3 Pro series, if you’ve used it before.
Dive mode
HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate supports 4 different diving modes, such as Recreational scuba dive, Freedive, Technical scuba dive, and Gauge. It also allows you to view your free dive settings, GF (Gradient Factor) value, and conduct breath-hold training and testing.
In dive mode, the HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate classifies diving data by different colours and enlarges or emboldens more crucial statistics. During diving or ascent, the HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate not only supports digital reminders, but is designed with a diving scale that allows intuitive and easy reading. At different depths, divers are also sent reminders through eye- catching notifications using different colour blocks, aiding diving enthusiasts and even high-level diving professionals to carry out safer explorations in the deep.
Expedition mode
The HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate has specially designed a brand new Expedition Mode to create a feeling and atmosphere of outdoor sports, satisfying multiple exploration needs in scenarios such as exploration, desert off-roading, camping, and hiking. When switched on, HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate in Expedition Mode can display data such as battery power, date, exploration time, heart rate, and exercise distance to help users understand their situation and the progress of their exploration. Expedition Mode can be accessed quickly through the independent app on the main menu or the top-left assist button on the HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate.
Fintness
Fitness junkies, rejoice! The HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate offers over 100 workout modes ranging from golf driving range mode, mountain climbing, cycling, open water swimming and many more.
Sadly, the Watch Ultimate doesn’t have cellular connectivity. The Watch can only connect to the phone via Bluetooth, and has GPS capabilities. Huawei said it designed the watch with connectivity in mind, focusing on ways to boost the antenna signal for remote areas like dense forests and mountains. The watch can also connect to L1 and L5 satellites.
Other features on the Huawei Watch Ultimate, are Arterial Stiffness Detection, ECG, sleep and stress tracking, smart notifications, Bluetooth call, dual-band five-system GNSS, and more.
Battery life
The Watch Ultimate is loaded with a 530mA battery, which promises 14 days of battery life with normal use and 8 days of heavy use. During our heavy testing, battery was still at 80% on day 4, which is impressive so far. Charging the watch is equally good, going from 0 to 100% in around 60 minutes.
Pricing and Availability
The Huawei Watch Ultimate is available in two colour variants: the Voyage Blue and the Expedition Black. The Voyage Blue comes with two straps- a titanium band and an HNRB rubber strap, while the Expedition Black only comes with the rubber strap.
Voyage Blue 2999 AED, Expedition Black 2599 AED, Staring May 3rd at Huawei experience Store and E-Shop (limited stock), and May 9th on Amazon, noon and other online retailers.
Verdict
The Huawei Watch Ultimate is indeed the best wearable Huawei has ever made so far. Everything from its diving mode, to its expedition mode, fitness and more gives this watch a full mark, specially when you combine it with its build quality and battery life.
So, is it recommend? That’s a big yes from our side if you are ok with the price tag.
See the full specs here.
