In March 2023, Huawei brought you a brand new flagship watch at this year's spring new product launch conference:
HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate Extraordinary Master
, the watch has been in use for half a month, and today I will make a set of detailed evaluations for you. Given the relatively long name, the following is referred to as Watch Ultimate (I am curious why it is not called Ultra, and I look down on Apple?)
Because we have tested many Huawei watches (GT3 series, watch 3 series, Fit 2 series, watch D, GT Runner, etc.), I will not elaborate on the basic functions this time. Let’s make a comprehensive evaluation of this watch from five aspects: appearance design, innovative technology, sports function, health monitoring, and daily life. We will mainly talk about the new functions of the watch Ultimate. After all, as Huawei’s most expensive watch, we need to know it Where is expensive, how is it, and then judge whether it is worth it, let’s get to the point.
1. Appearance design: three buttons + ultra-high-end materials
There are 2 models of Huawei Watch Ultimate, namely the blue + rigid color marine model and the black mountain model.
In addition to the color difference, the rigid color model has an extra titanium alloy strap and an extra-long diving strap compared to the mountain model. There is no difference in function between the two, and the prices are 5999 and 6999 respectively.
What I got this time is the Ocean model. The first time I saw the Watch Ultimate, the biggest difference between this watch and other Huawei watches is that it uses a 3-button design. In the past, Huawei watches were designed with double buttons or single buttons. The design generally appears on traditional high-end mechanical watches, with a titanium alloy strap and a readable dial, this watch is indeed business-like at first glance.
The three buttons are the main button that supports rotation on the upper right, the function button integrated with ECG on the lower right, and the newly added auxiliary button on the left (short press to enter the outdoor adventure mode, long press to open Beidou satellite communication), touch screen + rotating crown We are already very familiar with the operation logic, and old Huawei users can get started in seconds without any pressure.
In terms of screen, Huawei Watch Ultimate is equipped with the industry's largest 1.5-inch LTPO AMOLED flexible high-definition round screen with a resolution of 466x466. Glass has both hardness and texture.
For the watch body, Huawei WATCH Ultimate is very particular about the materials used. The bezel is made of nano-microcrystalline ceramic material, which is more corrosion-resistant than traditional metals. Its hardness is 6-7 times higher than stainless steel, and its corrosion resistance is more than 10 times that of stainless steel. The touch feels warm and moist like jade.
Huawei has already mastered the use of ceramic materials. We have experienced Huawei’s various Pro series watches before. Ceramic materials bring a great personal experience to Huawei watches. One of the main reasons for feeling high-end.
By the way, this nano-microcrystalline ceramic bezel is not only a decoration but also has a great effect. It also integrates a suspended antenna, which is mainly used for GPS positioning and satellite signal transmission. When using the Beidou satellite function, the nano-crystalline ceramic bezel of The loop can play the role of antenna energy concentration, making signal transmission faster and more stable.
In terms of the case, Huawei WATCH Ultimate uses ultra-strong amorphous zirconium alloy. Compared with 316L stainless steel, liquid metal amorphous zirconium is 2.5 times harder and 4.5 times stronger, and has stronger corrosion resistance, and is more durable. This is another new breakthrough for Huawei in terms of watch technology and materials. Previously, Huawei relied on the configuration of sapphire glass + titanium body + ceramic backplane to create the standard configuration of high-end smartwatches. This time, the amorphous zirconium alloy If you join, it should become a new industry benchmark again (little friends, come and imitate it!)
If you get started, the 48mm dial is a bit too big for my 16.5cm wrist, but it is completely acceptable. After all, it is a business watch, which is too small and stingy, and Huawei has integrated ECG and Beidou satellite communication functions. This size control I think it's pretty awesome.
The weight of the watch is 78G, but it doesn’t feel very heavy (maybe because I have been using Enduro 2 and Falcon in the early stage), the texture of the titanium alloy strap is great, and it has extra points in terms of weight reduction. It looks great, but Most of my usage scenarios are sports, so I put on a more comfortable Fluoro rubber strap for the first time.
In terms of details, I think the biggest improvement is the rotating crown, which is not as loose as the GT3 series. It is very tight (similar to AW), and the vibration feedback is also great. The low-key and delicate HUAWEI LOGO is also stamped on the buckle. , after all, it is currently Huawei's most expensive watch, and Huawei will never let us down in terms of temperament.
I was worried that it would be difficult for me to control the aura of Huawei WATCH Ultimate, but after getting started, I found that there is no need to worry at all. Whether it is wearing a formal suit or using it for sports life, it is no problem. Compared with the nano-microcrystalline ceramic bezel on the front, I still prefer it. I like the close-fitting enjoyment brought by the ceramic back plate, and with the comfortable fluoro rubber strap, it is not awkward to wear it to sleep at night.
2. Breaking through the sky technology: actual measurement of Beidou satellite communication
HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate's biggest
The highlight of the function is that it supports the Beidou satellite communication function. It is the world's first public smartwatch that supports two-way Beidou satellite messages. It can independently send Beidou satellite messages to other mobile terminals. The receiver can receive Beidou satellite messages through the Huawei Changlian app or short messages. , and reply to the watch Ultimate according to the preset message (currently, the two-way function has not been activated).
Huawei released the mobile phone satellite communication function on the Huawei Mate 50 series for the first time last year, but it is indeed a bit of a show to integrate the satellite communication function into a small watch. In addition to the antenna, Huawei also redesigned the full battery intelligent heating solution for the watch Ultimate, because sending Beidou satellite messages using the small battery of the watch requires an instant increase in battery energy density and discharge capacity, and low temperature will affect power output.
To test the satellite communication function of Huawei Watch Ultimate. I went climbing the mountain for a long time and found a place with a weak mobile phone signal for testing.
The first step is to connect the mobile phone to Huawei Watch Ultimate, open the Beidou satellite communication public test function in Huawei Sports Health, and set up emergency contacts.
The second step is to long press the button on the left side of the watch, or open the Beidou satellite message card through the watch interface, and click to send immediately.
The third step is to draw a figure 8 on the watch according to the watch prompts to help the watch locate.
The fourth step is to follow the guidance of the watch to search for satellites and rotate the direction to dock with the Beidou satellite. After success, it will display that the message has been sent.
The fifth step is to receive the rescue information by taking away the latitude and longitude on the mobile phone, of course, it can also be other set information.
This feature is not used by most people, but for outdoor adventure enthusiasts: use it once in a lifetime, and extend it once in a lifetime. Although outdoor adventurers generally carry more professional communication equipment, it is undoubtedly much bulkier than the Watch Ultimate, and a sports watch is also one of the essential equipment for outdoor adventures. The satellite communication function of the Huawei Watch Ultimate is for outdoor use. Users have an extra layer of security.
3. Sports function: 100m diving + outdoor adventure mode
Although the appearance of Huawei WATCH Ultimate is business-oriented, as a master of Huawei watches, it supports all previous sports functions of Huawei watches, including the lactic acid threshold of GT Runner. After all, Huawei invested 200 million yuan in sports and health laboratories. Among regular smartwatch players, Huawei's sports health is far ahead.
Huawei WATCH Ultimate supports 100+ sports modes such as mountaineering, swimming, and rope skipping. It has built-in professional running courses. It can train in stages and guide users step by step to achieve better fitness results through running. Users can also import other related courses by themselves.
Take my most commonly used outdoor running as an example. Huawei WATCH Ultimate supports dual-frequency 5-satellite positioning and has a variety of running courses built in. During exercise, you can scroll through various exercise indicators by rotating the crown, including altitude, heart rate, pace, and other professional indicators.
After the exercise, you can also view and review more detailed exercise information on your mobile phone. Since I have used Huawei watches for a long time, Huawei Sports Health is now a huge health database for me.
What I like more is the smart accompanying running function of Huawei WATCH Ultimate. Although it is only the evolution of the training and coaching function, it is more humanized. During the running process, the watch is your personal running companion, and it will automatically remind you of the gap between you and the smart running companion. Is it fast or slow? In today's society where social fear is common, this function is very considerate.
I have briefly mentioned the above functions because we have experienced them on both GT Runner and GT3 Pro. This time, I will mainly talk about the new professional diving functions of Huawei WATCH Ultimate.
The GT3 Pro released by Huawei last year already supports the diving function, but that is the most common free diving (diving without carrying any underwater oxygen equipment, not inhaling pure oxygen, and relying on normal breathing and holding your breath), while Huawei WATCH Ultimate has added more professional recreational scuba diving, technical diving, and instrument diving this time, and the diving modes are more abundant.
Huawei WATCH Ultimate supports professional scuba diving mode. Scuba diving refers to diving activities carried out by divers with their own underwater breathing system, including recreational diving and technical diving. Recreational diving generally refers to recreational diving activities, usually at a depth of no more than 40m Technical diving generally refers to challenging diving activities, such as deep diving, scientific research diving, rescue diving, diving activities such as visiting underwater caves, shipwrecks, etc.
Huawei WATCH Ultimate supports flexible diving settings, which can set gas, water body type, GF value, maximum oxygen partial pressure, safety stop time, automatic start/end dive, and reminder/alarm. Underwater, Huawei WATCH Ultimate can present professional and rich diving data, such as depth, time, speed, NDL, PPO2 (partial pressure of oxygen), CNS (oxygen toxicity standard), TTS (time to surface), MOD (maximum depth ), allowing divers to keep abreast of their own situation.
Special attention is that in the scuba diving scene, if the diver's speed is too fast during the ascent process, the nitrogen dissolved in the body will run out of the solution and form tiny bubbles in the tissue, blood, and joints, which may cause "Decompression sickness". Huawei WATCH Ultimate adopts Bühlmann, the most mainstream diving decompression algorithm model in the industry, to provide divers with professional decompression knowledge and accurate real-time diving data. In the process of technical diving, if encountering an unexpected situation and needing to stay underwater for a while, divers need to accurately judge the time of exiting the water, otherwise, it will endanger their lives.
In addition to commonly used diving data, Huawei WATCH Ultimate also provides reference data such as Ceiling and surface GF values for advanced divers, which can take into account decompression efficiency and safety, and ensure the life safety of divers; Prediction of time to return to the surface in deep conditions (OT+3, +OD+5) helps divers flexibly respond to underwater emergencies.
After diving, you can view the depth curve, temperature curve, and the newly upgraded speed curve through the watch and the sports health app, which can help free divers analyze each dive more accurately and effectively, and the watch also supports surface satellite positioning, which can accurately locate The position before entering the water, to help divers return to the voyage.
I am not a diving user, and there are no professional diving sites in the local area, so I can't give you experience in this part. I will only introduce the official diving function of Huawei WATCH Ultimate. If you have professional diving partners, welcome to add your experience.
4. Health monitoring: TruSeen™ 5.0+ comprehensive health monitoring
Huawei WATCH Ultimate is equipped with TruSeen5.0+ technology and PPG 5.0 heart rate module. It adopts an 8-channel ring layout. The design bump is smaller than that of the watch 3 series, which can make the heart rate module more personal and greatly improve the heart rate. The accuracy of heart rate detection in strenuous exercise scenes can also improve the accuracy of blood oxygen monitoring.
Huawei WATCH Ultimate also supports the plateau care mode first launched on the GT3 series. The biggest function of this function is to predict altitude sickness and give early warning. In some high-altitude areas, altitude sickness may cause physical discomfort or even life-threatening. The altitude care mode will monitor your blood oxygen level in real-time, remind you, and guide you to perform breathing exercises to relieve altitude sickness. Wearing Ultimate can travel to Qinghai and Tibet with confidence!
In addition, Huawei WATCH Ultimate has a built-in body surface temperature sensor, which, together with Huawei's smart counter, supports skin temperature and body temperature detection functions, which can help users grasp their body temperature in real-time.
Old Huawei users know that Huawei has also cooperated with 301 Hospital to initiate heart health research, as well as a series of health monitoring functions such as sleep health research. These Huawei WATCH Ultimate are inherited, and Huawei WATCH Ultimate also supports the function of ECG ECG collection, The high-performance ECG sensor can accurately record ECG information, and the high-performance ECG sensor can accurately record ECG information.
When measuring ECG, you only need to touch the ECG button on Huawei WATCH Ultimate with your finger to start the detection. The watch will record ECG information and then display the test results.
At the same time, these data can also be synchronized with the mobile phone, and more detailed ECG information analysis can be performed on the mobile phone through the Huawei Sports Health APP. After the ECG test, you can also apply for an interpretation, and Huawei Sports Health will issue an interpretation report signed by the doctor (6 times for free). This function allows you to better understand your heart condition, detect abnormalities in time and take measures.
In terms of health, Huawei has also launched the "Exclusive Guardian Service", which provides online professional health services for Huawei wearable device users, including private doctor services, online consultations, expert registration assistance services, and vitality life membership rights, purchase Huawei WATCH Ultimate You can also enjoy one year of exclusive protection service rights. The private doctor service can provide 24-hour online consultation to help interpret the physical condition and tell whether it is necessary to seek medical treatment.
5. Smart function: comprehensive and complete Hongmeng 3.0
Huawei WATCH Ultimate still adopts Huawei's original chessboard interface layout, and the HarmonyOS theme is more beautiful. The icon size can be adjusted by rotating the crown, the interface switching and icon movement are silky smooth, and the operation is intuitive and efficient. It is worth mentioning that the 3D rotating crown of Huawei WATCH Ultimate has excellent damping and vibration feedback, and supports wet hand operation. You can view body data and exercise data in real-time while swimming, which is convenient to operate.
With the support of HarmonyOS, Huawei WATCH Ultimate also brings a richer watch application, some of which are the linked expansion of the watch and mobile phone, and some of which can be used independently on the watch, with a rich software ecosystem.
Even though everyone laughs at the Huawei watch as a "large bracelet", Huawei WATCH Ultimate may be inspired to be the most functional large bracelet. The most commonly used Alipay scan code payment, message reminders, WeChat reply, etc., Huawei WATCH Ultimate All are supported and work well, but eSIM may not be supported due to battery life considerations.
In terms of human-computer interaction design, Huawei WATCH Ultimate also supports a negative screen, with built-in weather, music playback, and notification functions, which are a bit like smart assistants, so that we can easily grasp some important information through the negative screen of the watch. Open the corresponding APP without picking up the phone.
In terms of themes, Huawei will never let you down. With the release of Huawei WATCH Ultimate, there are also some high-value official themes built in. Everyone still remembers that Chengdong once introduced the astronaut-themed dial that became popular all over the Internet bringing the creator an income of up to 13 million yuan. A good software ecology will naturally attract more creators to join and bring more abundant dials theme.
Although the appearance of the Huawei WATCH Ultimate is more compatible with the mechanical pointer dial, for daily use, I still prefer digital dials with clear readings, such as the classic Huawei Hongmeng card. In addition, I recently found a very cute fox dynamic The dial is great!
Apart from not being able to make calls, the Huawei WATCH Ultimate does everything I can think of for a smartwatch.
6. Product summary: high-end Huawei watches that perfectly meet user needs
I am also an old player of Huawei watches. According to the layout of Huawei’s wearable family, I think Huawei WATCH Ultimate should be called Huawei WATCH GT Ultimate, but Huawei may think that this watch that supports satellite communication is too powerful, so I give it a separate name. Named Ultimate (Extraordinary Master), and opened a single product sequence.
Although a long time ago, I heard from Huawei wearable partners that they would release a watch that supports satellite communication function, after it was actually launched, I was still surprised, because it is indeed Huawei that realizes satellite communication function in such a small size. It's a crazy performance, but the satellite communication function is perfectly connected with the outdoor adventure function of the watch, which is really great.
In addition, I was also surprised that Huawei WATCH Ultimate does not support eSIM. I thought that the communication function must be expanded on the watch digital series. I did not expect Huawei to make Ultimate based on the GT series. However, after using the watch for some time, I seem to understand Huawei's considerations very well, and I can't help feeling that Huawei's positioning of this watch is really accurate.