At a glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Sleeker look than Watch D
- Ambulatory blood pressure tracking
- More complete smartwatch experience
- Quick charging
Cons
- Slightly awkward to take on and off
- Some small smartwatch quirks
Our Verdict
The Huawei Watch D2 is now a great health watch that’s much nicer to wear and is more in line with the firm’s other top smartwatches. It’s the best choice for blood pressure monitoring.
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The Huawei Watch D2 is the follow-up to Huawei’s health-focused smartwatch which introduced its groundbreaking blood pressure monitoring technology. This time, it’s refining how those blood pressure smarts work and adding more smartwatch features from other Huawei watches.
Along with new health insights, Huawei’s adding smarts like Bluetooth calls, richer notification support, and more workout modes than the Watch D.
It’s a Huawei smartwatch that, like its predecessor, isn’t cheap at £349/$399. It’s made some big changes here though, which should make this version of Huawei’s blood pressure tracking smartwatch a more attractive buy over watches with blood pressure monitoring like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7.
Design & Build
- Available in two colors
- Smaller case design
- IP68 water-resistant design
The first Huawei Watch D was a hulking smartwatch with its boxy, 51mm-sized frame that gave it the look of a medical device with an AMOLED screen.
Thankfully, the Watch D2 has shrunk in size to a more manageable albeit still large 48mm aluminum case design that at 13.3mm thick is just slightly slimmer than the Watch D too.
Mike Sawh
It now comes in your choice of black or gold (with a white band) looks with the option of a fluoroelastomer or leather strap, which helps to make the Watch D2 feel and look more like a smartwatch you’d want to wear.
It’s still undeniably a big watch, and I’d still like it to get smaller and lighter. For now, though, this is the step in the right direction for the Watch D.
There are still two physical buttons in place with Huawei ditching the top one for a rotating crown that you can use to scroll through screens, adjust volume and launch into the app screen.
Huawei unfortunately hasn’t budged from the level of protection of water you get on the D2 with the IP68 rating making it more suitable for showering than taking it for an open water swim.
Mike Sawh
The other big design aspect here is the integration of the inflatable cuff, which sits inside the fairly wide strap that conceals it. You’ll find medium and long-length straps alongside same-sized airbags that deliver the cuff-style blood pressure measurements.
I found the combination of the two made putting the original Watch D quite awkward to put on. While that feeling hasn’t entirely gone away here, it’s definitely been a more comfortable combined strap and airbag design to get in place.
Screen & Audio
- Larger AMOLED screen
- Display can be set to always-on
- Includes microphone and speaker
While the size of the Watch D2 has shrunk, the screen has actually grown. It now boasts a 1.82-inch, 480×480 pixel resolution AMOLED screen.
That’s a significant jump from the 1.64-inch, 456×280 one used on the Watch D.
Mike Sawh
The result is that you’re getting a screen quality more in keeping with Huawei’s other smartwatches. It’s exceptionally sharp, the colors are nice and accurate, and it offers those deep blacks you associate with good quality AMOLED displays.
It’s a nicely responsive screen too, with no horrible lag, and while there is some black screen bezel to contend with, it’s not eating too much into the available screen estate.
Like the Watch D, there is a microphone included, and Huawei’s now added a speaker, which now means you can make calls over Bluetooth and listen to audio via the built-in music player. The speaker offers plenty of volume and strong clarity for music streaming and calls.
Software & Features
- Runs on Harmony OS
- More smartwatch features added
- Support for customized watch faces
The Watch D2 runs on Huawei’s HarmonyOS 5.0 and is compatible with Android and iOS devices. I’ve been using it with an iPhone mainly with some time spent paired to a Samsung Android phone, and I’ve found the pairing and syncing experience good on the whole.
The Huawei Health Europe companion smartphone app is a pretty busy place, and it pays to spend some time getting to know it because there’s a lot to play with here on the settings and features front.
Mike Sawh
One of the biggest criticisms you could level at the Watch D was that it was a more scaled-back smartwatch than Huawei’s other smartwatches, but that’s something Huawei’s clearly sought to address with the D2.
It’s still not matching the best that Huawei has to offer on this front, but it’s certainly giving you more with Bluetooth calls, a music player, and the ability to take screenshots being the most notable ones. You still don’t get LTE or access to Huawei’s AppGallery storefront, however.
Using it with an iPhone still means some limitations, like the inability to act on notifications or make use of the music player. Viewing notifications is fine on the Watch D2, though I did notice it didn’t always display the correct app icons for where the notifications were sent from.
The music controls (media playing from your phone) are well integrated, and there’s a good mix of watch faces where you can either make those health features the center of attention or not.
Health & Fitness Tracking
- New ambulatory blood pressure monitoring
- New Huawei TruSense system
- Over 80 exercise modes
While this is a watch that has the sensors and features to track exercise, steps, and sleep, the Watch D2 is really about its ability to offer serious health monitoring led by its built-in blood pressure monitoring.
