The Huawei Watch Ultimate 2 is a robust outdoor smartwatch designed for divers, featuring an ECG and sonar. It also supports mobile payments. This premium smartwatch from Huawei combines professional features with an elegant design, making it ideal for extreme conditions. It's a successor to the Ultimate series, targeting outdoor enthusiasts and divers, offering a blend of professional capabilities and a sleek aesthetic.
Visually, the watch resembles classic diving watches, but technically, it's a robust version of the Huawei Watch 5 with added extras. The manufacturer claims it's suitable for dives up to 150 meters deep, an impressive depth even in the premium segment. It comes with GPS, fitness tracking, and sensors for heart rate, oxygen saturation, and ECG, along with LTE, Wi-Fi, and access to apps via the Huawei AppGallery, positioning it in the high-performance segment where smartwatches and precision instruments converge.
In terms of design and comfort, the Ultimate 2 is substantial and heavy, which might be too much for slender wrists, especially for women. However, one gets used to it over time, and the comfort is excellent on a male wrist. It measures 47.8 x 47.8 x 12.9 mm and weighs around 80 grams, similar to the Garmin Fenix 8 Solar. The watch features an 8-sided case made from a combination of liquid metal on a zirconium base and a ceramic bezel, giving it a distinctive athletic look. The included Fluorelastomer strap is also high-quality and comfortable.
The Ultimate 2 is waterproof up to 20 ATM (200 meters) and is certified for free diving up to 150 meters according to EN 13319. In contrast, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is only rated for depths up to 40 meters. Huawei offers the watch in three versions: a sleek dark gray and black combination, a bold blue and white version, and a new green and white model. The blue and white, and green and white versions come with an additional separate titanium strap, which can be switched easily and without tools.
The watch features a 1.5-inch OLED display with a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels, providing sharp and colorful visuals with excellent contrast. It has a peak brightness of up to 3500 nits, making it readable even under direct sunlight, ideal for outdoor activities. The screen is protected by sapphire glass, which is scratch and impact-resistant. A minor criticism is that in low-light conditions, the automatic brightness adjustment can sometimes be too aggressive, making it difficult to read.
The Huawei Health app is required for using the Ultimate 2, available on Android 9 and iOS 13. On iOS, it's available in the App Store, but on Android, it must be sideloaded via the Huawei AppGallery or found in the app stores of Honor and Samsung. The app is well-structured, with sections for health metrics, guided programs, wellness and nutrition content, device settings, and watch faces. A Huawei account is mandatory.
The watch offers a wide range of training modes, from endurance sports to water sports and specialized profiles for golf and diving, positioning it in the premium segment of tech-oriented multisport watches. It provides precise heart rate measurements, even during intense interval training, with only a slight deviation from a chest strap. The X-Tap sensor, also seen in the Watch 5, allows for quick oxygen measurement with a finger tap, which is faster and more accurate than traditional methods.
The Ultimate 2 also includes health and sleep tracking, with features like arterial stiffness detection, heart rate variability (HRV) during sleep, skin temperature, stress levels, and sleep apnea detection. The sleep analysis distinguishes between REM, deep, and light sleep phases and generally provides accurate results. However, it falls short in detecting wakefulness phases, which is better achieved by devices like the Oura Smart Ring or Ringconn.
One notable feature is the cycle tracking, which analyzes changes in the hormone cycle based on skin temperature and learning algorithms, allowing for more precise predictions of fertile phases and cycle patterns, which is beneficial for women who want to manage their health, fertility, or training.
The watch is equipped with a range of sensors and interfaces, including an acceleration sensor, gyroscope, compass, barometer, ambient light, temperature, and depth sensors. It uses Multiband GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS) for highly accurate location tracking. Connectivity is provided by LTE with eSIM, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 LE, and NFC. It supports mobile payments through Curve Pay, which is easy to set up by installing the Curve app on both the watch and the smartphone.
The Ultimate 2 offers an impressive battery life of up to five days with regular use and about an hour of training per day, outperforming many current Wear OS watches and the Apple Watch. In energy-saving mode, it can last up to ten days, according to Huawei. The watch is priced at 899 euros for the black model, 999 euros for the blue and white version, and 899 euros for the new green and white model.
In summary, the Huawei Watch Ultimate 2 is a robust smartwatch for extreme conditions, suitable for diving up to 150 meters and featuring a sonar messaging function underwater. It also excels on land with its bright display, precise location tracking, and comprehensive health features. The X-Tap sensor measures oxygen with a finger tap, and it includes ECG, arterial stiffness detection, and HRV measurement during sleep. It supports LTE, eSIM, and mobile payments, making it functional without a smartphone.
However, the watch is quite large and may not be suitable for slender wrists. Its battery life is competitive but not as long-lasting as some Garmin or Huawei GT models. The app selection in the Huawei AppGallery is limited, and the corresponding smartphone app is only available through indirect methods on Android. For those seeking robustness and smart features, the Ultimate 2 is a strong option, especially for divers, offering a viable alternative to traditional dive computers.
