It has been quite a while since I reviewed a smartwatch. That’s why I got excited when vivo sent me a review unit of the new vivo Watch GT.
This smartwatch boasts a battery life of up to 21 days or 3 weeks! It also packs a lot of AI-enhanced health and fitness features which vivo hopes will entice young professionals, fitness buffs and health-conscious individuals.
What’s in the vivo Watch GT box?
The vivo Watch GT comes in a small rectangular box about the size of two Toblerone bars.
Upon unboxing, you’ll immediately see the main watch body or “watch case” along with an inner box that contains the straps and magnetic charging cable.
It’s quite easy to attach the straps and there is no charging adaptor in the box. This is normal for wearables since you can plug it in any USB port for charging.
Aesthetic and lightweight smartwatch
The vivo Watch GT is aesthetically pleasing.
It has a square watch face with rounded corners and curved edges for a sleek look. The screen itself is bright with clear graphics and smooth animations.
There’s a stainless steel crown on the side for a classic feel and a choice of leather or rubber strap to match your personality. However, I would have liked more options to choose from for the straps.
The watch case is slim and light weighing 33 grams only. I had no qualms wearing it while asleep unlike the chunkier watches of the past years.
Its AMOLED display looks bezel-less with the right watch face design, those with dark backgrounds. Lighter themed designs can make the bezels stand out though.
Overall, I give a thumbs up to the vivo Watch GT for its design. I feel like the Cloud White color variant looks too chic though. The Summer Black colorway might be a better match for my personality.
Feature-packed Smartwatch for Health & Fitness
Aside from its aesthetics, another big reason to consider the vivo Watch GT is its suite of AI-enhanced health & fitness features.
It can monitor heart rate, blood oxygen saturation or SpO2 level, sleep including naps, stress levels, steps taken, standing frequency, calories consumed and more. It uses a quad-band sensor underneath the watch case for these features.
You can also use it to track menstrual cycles. Although that needs manual input whenever your period starts.
While most smartwatches also have these capabilities, the vivo Watch GT takes it a step further by using AI to show useful notifications that can help you improve your overall health and wellness. For example, it will notify you when you’ve been sitting for too long.
It can also monitor workouts or exercises with more than 100 modes! There’s also support for racket sports which is not always the case with other watches. You can wear it while playing badminton, tennis or the popular pickleball.
For walking or running, the watch has a built-in GPS. Route tracking can be accomplished even if you leave your phone at home or in the car.
Detailed workout records and health charts can be found in the vivo Health app. It looks a bit sparse though… or that’s just the minimal design of the app.
Easy to Use, Smooth Performance and Intuitive Controls
Swiping down on the vivo Watch GT’s display shows the notifications and swiping up reveals the quick shortcuts. You can also go to the different features by swiping left and right.
Pressing the crown brings up the different apps and rotating it scrolls through different menus. It’s intuitive to use and frees up valuable space in the screen compared to simply swiping up and down.
The watch uses vivo’s own BlueOS software and it seems to be more than up for the task. The watch comes pre-loaded with several watch face designs. More are available to download in the vivo Health app. That’s also where software updates are managed.
One thing that irritates me when wearing a smartwatch to sleep is the flickering green light from its sensors. That’s solved by the vivo Watch GT by automatically switching to non-visible infrared sleep tracking so there’s less distraction for my much needed sleep.
It also supports Bluetooth calling when connected to a smartphone complete with its own microphone and speaker. It doesn’t have the best audio quality though.
It can also serve as a camera remote shutter and music controller. However, a few features are not supported when paired with iOS devices such as music controls which is a bit of a bummer.
One unique feature of the vivo Watch GT is NFC Access. It can serve as your security key to enter secure spaces like offices or hotel rooms given that your actual key card is compatible, i.e. non-encrypted.
Long Battery Life and 2ATM Water Resistance
Battery life is another aspect where the vivo Watch GT shines. It can last up to 21 days or three weeks on its regular mode or the out-of-the-box configuration.
Turning on more features such as continuous SpO2 monitoring and doing more GPS-assisted exercises can reduce the battery life to about 2 weeks which is still impressive for a smartwatch.
Recharging the watch is fast using any charger or regular USB ports and the supplied magnetic charging cable. It reaches 100% battery capacity in less than an hour.
Aside from the long battery life, the vivo Watch GT also has 2 ATM of water resistance rating. That means it can survive light rain and water splashes but not advisable to wear while swimming.
ATM rating in watches isn’t synonymous to Ingress Protection or IP rating commonly used in smartphones.
Pricing and Availability
The official price of the vivo Watch GT in the Philippines is ₱7,599 for the Summer Black version and ₱8,099 for the Cloud White version. It’s now available in vivo stores and kiosks.
These are reasonable prices since it’s not just a run-of-the-mill smartwatch like the ones sold on ecommerce platforms for incredibly low prices. It’s health and fitness tracking is fairly accurate with well-thought features that can help you improve your overall fitness. It also has unique features such as NFC Access, Infrared sleep tracking and support for racket sports.
Nevertheless, I would have loved lower prices and made recommending the watch much easier.
Conclusion
The vivo Watch GT is a good choice for a smartwatch with its many health & fitness features, long battery life, lightweight design and various unique features.
My only gripes are the limited strap choices but that may be fixed by third-party supplies. It also works best with Android phones for complete support for its features.
I recommend the Summer Black color variant for its lower price and I feel like it fits better for the fitness features. The Cloud White version looks better though.
vivo Watch GT Review Summary
With a 21-day battery life, the vivo Watch GT boasts long-lasting health monitoring!
