The Huawei Watch GT 4 is a strong health watch, which can help you keep tabs on your vitals.
It’s not quite as packed as the Huawei Watch 4, which offers ECG and the new Health Glance with respiratory checks – but as an all-round look at heart health – it’s a strong offering.
Smartwatches have become crucial health and wellness tools, which if used correctly, can help everyone become fitter and healthier. But there’s also a serious element, and stories of people becoming aware of serious conditions because of their smartwatches are commonplace.
Read on for a list of the Huawei Watch GT 4 heart health features – with explanations on what each metric means, and how to extract the maximum use.
> Read our full Huawei Watch GT 4 review
TruSeen 5.5+
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This is commonly mistaken as simply the heart rate sensor – but TruSeen 5.5+ also refers to the algorithm and analysis done by the Huawei Watch GT 4.
Both aspects have been upgraded for better heart rate results in colder conditions, which can affect optical sensors. It’s also better suited for active workouts, where there’s more movement.
TruSeen 5.5+ also powers the watch’s stress-tracking features. This can be done via the Stress app on the GT 4, but you can turn on continuous stress monitoring in the settings.
Atrial fibrillation detection
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The Huawei Watch GT 4 will automatically check for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib) – a common condition that causes an irregular heart rate. AFib is one of the leading causes of strokes, as well as heart failure and dementia if allowed to go undiagnosed.
The Huawei Watch GT 4 uses the PPG sensor to scan for possible signs of AFib, using its Pulse Wave Arrhythmia Analysis feature. If detected, it can be a prompt to speak to your doctor.
Crucially, this is different from AFib detection via smartwatches with an ECG sensor – such as the Huawei Watch 4 and Watch Ultimate.
While ECG spot checks will generate an ECG graph to show your doctor, continuous AFib detection, as found on the Watch GT 4, means there’s a higher chance of the condition being detected in the first place.
Resting heart rate
Resting heart rate is an excellent metric that can offer a window into your current state of health – and progress toward your fitness goals.
As you work out and get fitter and healthier, your resting heart rate will decrease, and tracking these over weeks and months is a clear indicator of your progress.
But spikes in resting heart rate can also be an indicator that something is wrong. Fatigue and alcohol can raise resting heart rate as can illness – so keeping an eye on trends can be an early warning to take things easy.
Blood oxygen (SpO2)
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The Huawei Watch GT4 also comes with a SpO2 sensor, which will keep tabs on blood oxygen levels.
This is a good metric to check your overall health especially if you have a respiratory virus. It can also be useful if you spend any time at altitude, and guide you to acclimatising.
However, when used during sleep, it can become an important tool in the detection of sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a breathing condition that affects millions worldwide, many of whom will never know they suffer from it. And it can lead to a host of complications.
By monitoring blood oxygen levels during sleep, the Huawei Watch GT 4 users can check for signs of sleep apnea via the Breathing Quality metric and Sleep Breathing Awareness feature.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.