The Apple Watch 6 is rumored to have a good amount of upgrades, but one place we don't expect it to improve is battery life.
It's part of the reason why we're so impressed with the Honor Watch GS Pro, which was just revealed at IFA 2020. This smartwatch promises up to 25 days of juice on a charge or 48 hours with GPS on.
We got our hands on the Honor Watch GS Pro ahead of its launch and we're very impressed with its design and rugged good looks.
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Honor Watch GS Pro price and release date
You can get the Watch GS from September 7 in the UK for €249.99 (roughly £233 or $295 when converting). Unfortunately this won't be coming to the U.S., since Honor is a part of Huawei, and Huawei is still feuding with the US government over accusations of insecure devices and infrastructure products.
Honor Watch GS Pro battery life
The GS Pro is the first smartwatch Honor's made that's designed for more extreme applications than just your average workout. That's informed many aspects of the design, including that head-turning battery life figure.
All that battery life is provided by a 700 mAh cell. The 25-day figure is for typical usage, as it can drop as low as 48 hours if you keep your GPS on. You can still get 100 hours of workout tracking out of the battery if you're a fitness fan, or just unable to get off the treadmill. And whichever number you take, it's still better than the sub-24-hour life you get out of an Apple Watch 5.
Honor Watch GS Pro design and durability
To give the watch a design that can withstand the most intensive activities, Honor has selected a polycarbonate body with a stainless steel bezel and a circular 1.39-inch (454 x 454) AMOLED display, which seemed to be plenty bright enough when I took it for a stroll outside. The device runs on a Kirin A1 chipset, the Huawei-designed wearables chip found in other smartwatches and audio products made by Honor and Huawei.
The body has a slightly rough surface that projects hardiness without feeling like sandpaper, while the metal bezel helps make it look smart enough to wear with more formal clothes, rather than just your sportswear. The back of the watch curves a little around the edges to help it fit snugly onto your wrist.
Combined with the plastic strap, the Watch GS Pro is unobtrusive, a pleasant surprise despite its size. Those materials certainly sound tough, and Honor's got the test data to prove it too, claiming the Watch meets several of the US military's MIL-STD-810G equipment standards.
For colors, you have Charcoal Black (seen here) and Marl White, which come with your standard fluoroelastomer strap; or Camo Blue, which has a braided nylon strap instead if you prefer something more colorful and softer to wear. Not that I've noticed any problems with comfort while wearing the watch.
Honor Watch GS Pro health tracking and sports features
You get the usual fitness tracking features on this watch, including sleep tracking, heart rate tracking and also SpO2 monitoring, which is going to be one of the big new additions to the Apple Watch according to the rumors.
Honor is really pushing its extreme sports functionality on the Watch GS Pro, with skiing, hiking and swimming being newly introduced workout modes. The Watch also lets you check sunrise/sunset times, tide details and moon phases, as well as the more common weather alerts, in order to help you plan your day out on the hills/dunes/slopes and so on.
If you happen to get lost while on an adventure, but don't want to drain your battery by switching your GPS on, you can make use of the Watch's Route Back feature. This tracks your movements during your activities, and when enabled allows you to follow a virtual trail back to where you started, giving you directions and distance information without risking your smartwatch dying on you (although that's not likely with that much battery life).
Honor Watch GS Pro outlook
The Honor Watch GS Pro is a smartwatch that's tailor-made for adventurers, from its rugged design and epic rated battery life to its outdoor sports features. And the price seems reasonable for what you get. We will bring you our final verdict soon.
