As an adventurer who loves hiking mountains, trail running and basically anything in the great outdoors, I’ve been looking for an ‘all-rounder’ smartwatch that does everything I need from long battery life to navigation capability. So I was excited to be given the chance to review the HONOR Watch GS Pro – HONOR’s first ever rugged smartwatch for urban adventurers.
The key things I look for in a fitness watch are long battery life for wild camping, GPS navigation (that actually works) and integrated features, so the GS Pro seemed like the perfect watch for me! HONOR’s new urban adventurer watch promises to enhance your true mountain experience as well as evaluating your everyday training routine. This latest smartwatch is designed to be more durable, rugged and practical than ever before. Offering a 25 days prolonged battery life, a powerful set of sensors and trackers for outdoor sports in rocket design.
I have been using the watch for 2 full weeks and tested nearly all of the features, so below I’ve written a little about each of them and my honest review of the HONOR GS Pro.
HONOR Watch First impressions:
My favourite thing about the watch is the face design, it’s so elegant even though it’s an ‘outdoorsy’ watch. I was sent the watch in Marl White to review which I feel is a lot more feminine than the other colours (Charcoal Black and Camo Blue). My only negative about the design is that the watch is a little ‘bulkier’ than I’m used to, having said that, I’ve previously only ever used lifestyle type fitness trackers and I guess for an adventure watch it needs to be more rugged and durable.
The GS Pro is comfortable to wear, I’ve not taken it off for the past 2 weeks (even at night), I don’t usually track sleep but I wanted to test this for the purposes of the review. At first it was ‘noticeable’ at bedtime on my arm, but after a couple of days of getting used to the new watch I can barely feel it’s there.
Testing the HONRO Watch GS Pro Outdoors
25 Hour battery life:
So to really put this watch through its paces, I decided to take this on a 2 day wild camping trip in Wales, were I planned to send a mountain summit using the routeback feature. I also had a few other long walks planned, a lake swim and I just wanted to generally see how long the battery lasted throughout the weekend.
When you are heading out to the countryside or mountains for a weekend trip, the HONOR Watch GS Pro promises to give you a total of 48 hours in continuous GPS mode or up to 100 hours in outdoor sports GPS power-saving mode.
I charged the watch up before the trip (even though I had been using it for 10 days prior on one charge and the battery was still at 90%) as I wanted to see how much battery it would use while out and about. We were in Wales for 2 full days and 2 nights camping and the battery was still in good shape after the weekend. So I would definitely say they lived up to expectations here.
GPS & Route Back Function:
Equipped with the high-precision built-in dual satellite positioning systems, the HONOR Watch GS Pro automatically records your route and provides breadcrumb navigation. You can toggle with the route by zooming in or out and the watch will also notify you if you deviated from the route recorded after activating the route back function, this is a great feature for anyone who isn’t an experienced navigator.
I found this feature really simple to use and it’s ideal for being hands-free, especially in poor weather conditions when you’re trying to find your route on your phone with wet / cold hands.
Altitude barometer and compass:
The HONOR Watch GS Pro comes with an altitude barometer and compass, supported by the orientation ring, making life easier when in the great outdoors. The altitude barometer is a great feature for being up in the mountains, checking your altitude and having a better grasp on your point position, which comes in handy when using the built in compass.
Celestial Data, Weather Alerts and Updates:
The GS Pro is capable of forecasting ambient changes to the environment and will provide alerts if severe weather conditions are expected. The smartwatch also calculates the sunrise and sunset timings and detects ebb and flood tide as well.
When climbing mountains, the “Barometer” feature is great for staying alert and monitoring sudden changes in weather, when you activate this your watch will send you alerts when severe weather conditions are predicted. You can also check details on the times for sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset ect directly on the watch, I found this really useful when aiming to send the summit for sunrise.
Durability:
The HONOR Watch GS Pro is a smartwatch with a rugged design to the toughest environments. It features a water-resistance rating of up to 50 meters as well, suitable for a wide range of sports. Great for wild swimming, surfing, skiing and so many more! A lot of watches claim to be water resistant and then suddenly stop working after being submerged in water, so I was weary of wearing this in water, but I’ve had no issues with it after lake swimming and wearing it in the shower. So far so good. (If this changes I will update the post).
The GS Pro for everyday life and wellbeing:
Tracking & Monitoring:
Even though this watch is designed for adventures outdoors and extreme sports, I was really impressed with the features for everyday life and wellbeing.
The watch supports over 100 workout modes and a newly designed skiing mode. Made for adventure seekers and fitness enthusiasts in mind, the smartwatch also supports modes including indoor and outdoor running, walking and cycling, mountain climbing, hiking, pool swimming, open water swimming, free training.
During workouts, the watch will automatically record your workout data in real-time and then provide guidance based on overall performance. All data is handily stored in the Huawei Health app, to help users keep tabs on their progression.
Auto detect and record your workouts:
This is actually really accurate compared to some other sports watches and ideal for me as I often forget to hit start before a workout. The watch can detect the type of exercise you’re doing from outdoor running and cycling to crossfit classes and stepper, it picks up the exercise and tracks it for you.
Tracking your heart rate:
I find I use this most to monitor and track my workout progress in general with any watch. What I really love about this watch is it tells you what zone you are in during a workout and it’s great for preventing overtraining. The HONOR Watch GS Pro offers accurate heart rate monitoring with the HUAWEI TruSeen™3.5. It will vibrate to alert you if it detects an unusual heart rate during your workout, reducing the risk of injury.
I also love the performance summary you get following your workout, the data shows how effectively you’ve trained for aerobic and anaerobic health and whether you’re ‘maintaining’ or ‘improving’, I find this really useful for improving my cardio fitness for my outdoor adventures. It also shows recovery time needed after your workout and encourages you to rest for a certain amount of hours before training again.
Store music:
You can store approximately 500 songs on your watch and enjoy the soundtracks with built-in speakers or paired Bluetooth earbuds or other devices, I’ve not tested this out as you can only store music using HUAWEI Music or from your phones device and I just haven’t had the time to set this up.
Manage calls and texts
With the HONOR Watch GS Pro’s strong Bluetooth connection with your smartphone, you can pick up calls simply by tapping on the watch interface and you can talk directly using the watch, perfect for times when you need to be hands-free. I pretty much answer all my calls using the watch now!
Overall rating:
So overall, I am actually really impressed with this watch. As someone who spends a lot of time outdoors, climbing mountains and training in and out the gym, this watch is the perfect tool. I’ve swapped this out for my old watch as it’s just so much more accurate. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who love urban adventures and outdoors sports.
I was so impressed with the HONOR watch GS Pro that I have added it to our round up of the best gifts for people who love hiking and adventures.
