The Huawei Watch D2 is the corporate’s second watch to come back with blood strain monitoring. Think about a smartwatch that not solely tracks your steps and coronary heart price but in addition brings superior blood strain monitoring proper to your wrist with the convenience of a built-in inflatable cuff.
Like all different Huawei smartwatches, the Watch D2 works with Android telephones and iPhones. It has all the fashionable options you could anticipate – coronary heart price and SpO₂ monitoring, sleep monitoring, pores and skin temperature, ECG, sleep respiration and arterial stiffness evaluation, in addition to monitoring varied sorts of train on demand. It would additionally enable you to keep on high of your cellphone’s app notifications, and you may even take calls on it whereas it is linked to your cellphone by way of Bluetooth.
Hardly any of that is groundbreaking performance, so it is no shock that the Watch D2 doesn’t differ a lot from the opposite Huawei smartwatches we have reviewed just lately, just like the Watch GT 5 or the Watch GT 5 Professional. So, on this overview, we can’t be entering into particulars about each function that has been coated earlier than. As an alternative, we’ll give attention to battery life testing and checking how correct blood strain monitoring is.
Desk of Contents:
Design and construct high quality
The watch has a well-recognized design and format (to the purpose of wanting generic), however it’s undoubtedly a looker. The white composite leather-based strap and the subtly golden physique on our overview unit look exceptionally trendy.
Within the field, you get a magnetic charging puck with a built-in USB-A cable (no charger) and straps in two sizes.
The strap itself feels extremely snug to put on and straightforward to regulate in size on the go, do you have to want that.
The watch can be very mild, and carrying it 24 hours a day felt seamless and cozy.
The physique is manufactured from aluminum, and unknowingly, we scuffed the shiny bezel and the display glass in on a regular basis actions. Therefore, they appear much less sturdy than Huawei’s Professional sequence watches.
The watch physique is IP68-rated, however Huawei advises towards having it in your wrist whereas taking a scorching bathe, swimming, or diving.
The watch has a 1.82-inch OLED display and a pixel density of 347ppi. Legibility is great in direct daylight (probably as a result of promised 1500-nit peak brightness), and computerized brightness management works nice.
The physique measures 48 x 38mm and is barely thicker than your common smartwatch on this format. In spite of everything, it has a miniature air pump inside to inflate the cuff, which is integrated into the wrist strap.
Eradicating the wrist straps for cleansing is straightforward and requires no instruments. As you may think, the straps should not commonplace, so you possibly can’t use a third-party one.
Eradicating the strap is straightforward and would not require any instruments
Software program
The watch relies on HarmonyOS 5.0, Huawei’s newest wearable OS. From what we might inform, there isn’t a function lacking in comparison with the corporate’s different watches.
With this OS version, you get extra frequent prompts about reaching your every day exercise targets than with HarmonyOS 4.0 watches. You additionally get entry to sleep respiration evaluation at evening, and also you now have first-party apps like a Calculator or Barometer.
Like earlier than, you possibly can obtain a number of third-party apps as effectively, however their usefulness will rely in your use instances. They often require a number app put in in your cellphone; some wouldn’t work with an iPhone.
HarmonyOS 5 additionally comes with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard if it’s essential to kind a reply in a pinch. You additionally get the choice to take a screenshot of the watch display.
HarmonyOS is effectively optimized in fluidity and battery life, however we really feel it nonetheless has a strategy to go relating to options. It has its limitations. You possibly can’t depend on auto train detection, which means you should begin the monitoring mode manually earlier than you start any sports activities exercise, or the watch won’t be bothered to trace or report it. The automated immediate each morning to measure your blood strain isn’t very good, developing in response to schedule daily, even for those who’ve simply completed measuring earlier than that. Some options, resembling Pockets or Psychological well being evaluation, are regionally restricted.
On the constructive aspect, getting a GPS lock for out of doors exercise monitoring may be very quick. The software program may be very fluid, and notifications work very effectively (though the icons do not match the icons of the true app).
You management the interface by rotating and urgent the crown or deciding on apps and icons immediately on the display.
Battery life
There’s a 524 mAh battery contained in the Huawei Watch D2, and battery life was nothing wanting stellar in a month or two we used it every day.
With All the time-On Show (AOD), you get 6 days’ value of operation on a single cost because the watch loses about 15% cost per 24h. Including 5-6 blood strain measurements per day didn’t take any further toll on the battery life.
The Watch D2 actually shined with AOD off, as, on this setup, it simply lasted 10 days on a single cost, shedding 10% of cost per day.
We confirmed each battery life measurements throughout a number of charging cycles, and for all of them, we’ve all onboard well being and step-tracking options however no exercise-tracking classes.
Charging pace
The watch is rated at max 18W of charging, and we examined the charging pace by pairing the bundled magnetic charging puck with a 40W Huawei charger, which we had mendacity round.
A full cost took 98min, which is rather a lot. The watch’s cost stage confirmed 37% on the 30-minute mark, 67% on the 60-minute mark, and 94% on the 90-minute mark.
Blood strain measurement
Smartwatch producers have had blood strain measurements of their sights for some time now, and a few are already providing the function with various levels of user-friendliness.
Measuring on different smartwatches requires common calibration with a correct blood strain monitor and, in our expertise, hardly ever works very seamlessly, usually requiring retesting and retrying, which does not enable for frequent use of the function.
In comparison with these watches, the inflatable cuff system used within the Watch D2 and its predecessor – the Watch D – gives next-level usability and ease of use. Nonetheless, blood strain measurements right here should not with out their caveats – the largest being accuracy consistency. Let’s clarify.
This caveat isn’t particular to the Huawei Watch D2 by any means. Even with common blood strain displays you’d get from the pharmacy, the wrist cuff ones are inherently much less constantly correct than their arm cuff counterparts.
In our expertise, even within the best-case situations, with a wrist cuff monitor, you all the time need to take three readings and common them out to get a studying that may be thought of correct. These readings can nonetheless be +/- 5 factors off in comparison with a superb arm cuff monitor, which is sort of correct. One of the best-case situation we’re referring to requires understanding and making use of good kind and constant circumstances to get constant measurements.
By trial and error, we found that the pose that Huawei suggests you assume for blood strain measurement ought to be thought of an absolute requirement and never a mere advice if you wish to get something near correct outcomes.
The right kind throughout measurement is paramount for the accuracy consistency
For this overview, we used 3 devoted blood strain displays to gauge how correct the Watch D2 actually is. We had a Panasonic wrist cuff monitor and two Omron arm cuff displays – a contemporary Bluetooth-connected one which’s constructed into the cuff itself in addition to an everyday two-part monitor, which makes use of a cuff identical to the one that may be present in your physician’s workplace. And the outcomes had been fairly intriguing.
The common two-part digital blood strain monitor was probably the most correct of the bunch, producing dependable and constant outcomes time after time, no matter whether or not you had been measuring blood strain whereas sitting or mendacity down (we acknowledge that the 2 poses produce totally different outcomes and we by no means in contrast the 2 immediately).
The Bluetooth-enabled monitor constructed into the cuff was an in depth second when it comes to consistency, with slight variations from measurement to measurement, which required three measurements to be taken every time to common the consequence. Nonetheless, the averaged outcomes you’d get with this monitor had been fairly dependable and near those with the primary monitor (oftentimes equivalent and inside 2-3 factors of distinction at worst). Measuring BP each when sitting and mendacity down was high-quality.
Lastly, the 2 wrist cuff displays (amongst which the Watch D2) had been the least constantly correct. We found that utilizing any of those two necessitated 3 consecutive measurements each time, however even that was not sufficient. Each displays might produce correct measurements, however this relied closely on utilizing the correct place throughout measurements.
When the correct kind was adhered to, the common outcomes from the wrist displays had been additionally spot on, often deviating solely as much as +/-3 factors from our reference BP monitor.
Nonetheless, this wasn’t all the time the case. Generally, even with our greatest efforts to keep up constant measurement parameters and kind, there have been nonetheless events the place we bought as a lot as +/- 7-8 factors off.
That accuracy continues to be fairly cheap for a blood strain monitor that may all the time be in your wrist (as a substitute of your drawer), and measuring your blood strain usually and sometimes can simply assist clear up these outliers over longer intervals of information recording.
Nonetheless, for those who plan on utilizing wrist cuff displays to solely sometimes verify your blood strain, you could be dissatisfied by the consistency of the measurement accuracy.
So as to add to that limitation, measuring blood strain mendacity down with any of the 2 wrist cuff displays produced unreliable outcomes. They’re simply not good for that.
Huawei has additionally constructed into the Watch D2 the choice to carry out 24-hour Ambulatory Blood Strain Monitoring on request by the person. You choose a day and begin this system, and the watch can both carry out the measurements routinely or nudge you to begin them manually when it is time.
Nonetheless, as we already defined, wrist cuff displays just like the one within the watch have an inherent lack of accuracy consistency in case you are not aware of utilizing the right kind and posture. Moreover, they’re inaccurate whenever you lie down, making them ill-suited for 24-hour monitoring classes, and we would not belief the outcomes.
That stated, we had been proud of the general accuracy of the blood strain measurements supplied by the Watch D2. So long as you carry out at the very least three consecutive measurements and common them each time, and also you all the time guarantee constant measuring circumstances and correct kind, it ought to serve fairly effectively for somebody who needs to maintain monitor of their blood strain usually.
Verdict
The Watch D2 prices £350/€400, greater than even the present flagship Huawei Watch GT 5 Professional. The built-in inflatable cuff for blood strain monitoring makes this a novel proposition. Okay, it isn’t completely distinctive, as Huawei additionally has the earlier Huawei Watch D, which comes with comparable tech.
In comparison with the Watch D, the brand new mannequin has a extra upmarket design, extra compact physique, longer battery life and far newer HarmonyOS. There’s additionally the improved movement monitoring, the barometer and the ECG performance. We did not have the 2 aspect by aspect to match the accuracy or consistency of the measurements, so we won’t touch upon that. The Watch D can even be tougher to search out in shops, because it’s already being phased out.
The Huawei Watch D2 is tough to beat for a blood strain monitoring smartwatch. The engineering that has gone into creating it’s commendable. Nonetheless, this comfort comes at a value.
In case you are after a smartwatch with lengthy battery life, you will get 90% of options with the Huawei Watch Match 3 for lower than half the cash, so you’re primarily paying upwards of €200 for a blood strain monitor with finicky accuracy and consistency (additionally true for ANY wrist cuff blood monitor). This a lot cash can get you a high-end compact, linked one-piece arm cuff monitor that can enable you to keep on high of your blood strain quicker, extra constantly and with much less consideration to correct kind.
Nonetheless, ultimately, the very best blood strain monitor is the one you truly use every day. So, if the comfort of getting the Watch D2 in your wrist will get you to verify your blood strain usually, then the worth is certainly value it.
Professionals
- Upmarket appear and feel.
- Show is sharp and performs nice in any surroundings.
- Inflatable strap is integrated seamlessly and inconspicuously.
- Intuitive person interface with fluid efficiency.
- Nice battery life.
- Quick and strong GPS lock throughout train monitoring.
- Correct blood strain measurement (with a number of caveats).
Cons
- The metallic and glass scuff extra simply than different Huawei watches.
- Not appropriate for swimming or showering regardless of IP68 ranking.
- HarmonyOS 5 nonetheless has some odd limitations, and apps are restricted.
- Correct blood strain measurement requires correct kind and circumstances (legitimate for any wrist cuff monitor).
- Particular person blood strain measurements are sometimes off (legitimate for any wrist cuff monitor), and the watch doesn’t routinely common consecutive measurements.
