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Highlights
- The Honor Watch GS 5 launched with up to 23-day battery life and a slim, lightweight body measuring 9.9 mm.
- The smartwatch offers advanced heart risk screening and 24/7 health monitoring.
- It supports Bluetooth calling, NFC, offline music, and GNSS fitness tracking.
- Priced at 699 yuan (~$100), the watch goes on sale in China starting January 23.
Honor has quietly unveiled its latest smartwatch, the Honor Watch GS 5, and it already has the tech world talking. The new wearable was announced alongside the company’s latest Magic 8 series phones in China, and it brings some features that we haven’t seen in this price bracket before. If long battery life and advanced health tracking matter to you, this one deserves a closer look.
Slim, Lightweight Design With Premium Touches
The Honor Watch GS 5 is an attractive product with a very lightweight design. With a thickness of 9.9 mm and a weight of 26 grams (without the strap), this is one of the most comfortable smartwatches to wear daily. The Honor Watch is composed of an aluminum alloy case and a curved AMOLED display, and appears to be paired with a genuine leather strap in the launch images.
The Honor Watch GS 5 is available in two colors – Khaki and Black – and the Khaki variant offers an upscale touch with its gold accents.
The curved AMOLED display measures 1.32 inches and has a resolution of 466 × 466 pixels with a maximum brightness of 1500 nits. Therefore, it will provide good visibility even in bright, sunny conditions.
Unusually Long Battery Life
One of the biggest talking points for the Honor Watch GS 5 is its battery. Honor says this smartwatch can last up to 23 days on a single charge under typical Bluetooth usage. Even with the always-on display (AOD) turned on, it still promises about nine days of life, which is ahead of most rivals in its class.
Behind the long battery life is a 495 mAh silicon-carbon anode battery, and Honor claims it can even give you one day of battery life after just five minutes of charging. That’s a practical benefit if you run out of juice before heading out.
Advanced Heart Health and Risk Screening
Health tracking features are nothing new for smartwatches, but Honor is pushing something slightly different with the Watch GS 5. The company says it is the first wearable of its kind to include sudden cardiac arrest screening technology.
Essentially, while the smartwatch provides information on your heart rate during activities and rest, it also shows how your vagus nerve controls the rhythm of your heartbeat, identifying any abnormalities in the way it beats and potential risk factors or “patterns.”
Although it does not classify itself as a medical device, it can identify any possible indications that you may be at risk of developing arrhythmia. As well as detecting abnormal arrhythmias, the smartwatch can highlight premature ventricular contractions and suggest a possible risk of developing atrial fibrillation or cardiomyopathy; it may even suggest a risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). High-risk users may receive follow-up recommendations from specialists connected to Honor’s research team.
In addition to this advanced risk screening, the GS 5 supports everyday health metrics like 24/7 heart rate tracking, blood oxygen (SpO2) monitoring, stress tracking, sleep analysis, and women’s health logs.
Built-In Smart Features and Fitness Tracking You’d Expect
Aside from health and battery, the Honor Watch GS 5 covers a lot of ground that modern users now expect. It has Bluetooth calling and a built-in speaker and mic, so you can make or receive calls right from your wrist. There’s also offline music playback, so you don’t always need to carry a phone with you on a run.
Fitness Capabilities
For fitness tracking, the watch supports more than 100 workout modes and has an independent GNSS positioning system using multiple satellite networks for better route tracking. NFC support is included too, which may let you use the watch for payments or access control, depending on the region.
Honor has also introduced some smart lifestyle features. The watch can show travel reminders – flight or train notifications – right on your wrist. There’s an AI voice assistant built in as well, which you can use for quick tasks.
Compatibility and Durability
Most mobile phone users are supported by the Watch GS5, since it is compatible with both Android (6.0+) and iOS (9.0+). The watch features a water-resistant rating of 5 ATM and an IP68 protection rating against dust and water, allowing the watch’s wearer to use the device without worry when getting wet from splashing water, being in rain, or swimming in shallow water.
This smartwatch has a number of sensors that include an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, a heart rate sensor, and an ambient light sensor. Pairing these with the watch’s software gives you a complete set of basic metrics for daily activity and workouts.
Price and What Comes Next
In China, the Honor Watch GS 5 is priced at 699 yuan, which is roughly $100. Honor has opened pre-orders, and the official sale starts on January 23. At that price, the GS 5 undercuts many competing smartwatches with similar screens and features.
International availability hasn’t been announced yet. It’s not unusual for Honor to launch a device in China first and then bring it to other markets later, sometimes with slight changes to software or supported features.
Final Thoughts
The Honor Watch GS 5 tries to offer serious value at a low price. You get an AMOLED panel, strong battery life, all the basic health and fitness tracking you’d expect, and a novel approach to heart risk screening.
The Honor GS 5 is not just a medical device but also offers everyday consumers improved health data and a functional smartwatch. The future of Honor’s distribution of the GS 5 is unclear, as competing brands, including Huawei, Amazfit, and Xiaomi, are all vying for similar customers. However, for the moment, it appears that the GS 5 could be an appealing choice for tech-savvy shoppers on a tight budget.
