REVIEW: Huawei Watch D2 with blood pressure monitoring

Do you suffer from high-blood pressure? It’s often dubbed the ‘silent killer’ and is the leading cause of heart disease in men.

The danger of High-blood pressure lies in its ability to damage the cardiovascular system without presenting obvious symptoms.

Regular monitoring is crucial, but conventional and traditional methods can be seriously inconvenient.

Watch how the airbag on the Huawei D2 inflates and deflates to measure your blood pressure.

This is how the airbag on the Huawei D2 inflates and deflates to measure your blood pressure. This is the worlds first medically certified ambulatory blood pressure monitor (ABPM) wearable 🙂#HuaweiWatchD2 #WatchD2 @HuaweiZA pic.twitter.com/jsmSVNw0yg

— 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚣𝚎𝚕 𝙿𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕 ⚡️ (@FaizelPatel143) October 19, 2024

Blood pressure monitoring

That’s where the Huawei Watch D2 comes in. It might look like a popular smartwatch, but it’s got a feature you won’t find in many other watches including Apple, Samsung, Honor and Garmin among others.

While these watch claim to measure blood pressure, the D2 is in fact, the world’s first smartwatch rated for Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) certified by China’s National Medical Products Administration and the EU’s Medical Device Regulation body. 

The new version is a lot more Apple Watch-esque and features a 1.82-inch AMOLED display. While not a stunning design by any means, it’s at least more agreeable on the eye

Blood pressure monitoring in big brand smartwatch models remains out of reach. Apple has been working on blood pressure monitoring on the Apple Watch for years. Most recently Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that the Apple Watch Series 10’s redesign caused a delay with the feature due to problems during testing.

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Airbag

The blood pressure monitoring on the Huawei Watch D2 tech is housed inside a revised chassis that’s slimmer and lighter than the original Huawei Watch D.

Like the previous model, the D2 houses a narrow mechanical airbag in its strap, and on paper, this is the ultimate wearable for anyone with blood pressure issues. 

To measure blood pressure, the watch inflates an airbag between the skin and the wristband; the pump is located in the case. Compared to its predecessor, the WatchD2 offers the new function of measuring over 24 hours using a schedule. The schedule can be adjusted via the app.

A measurement every 30 minutes is suggested by default. During the day, a vibration reminds you of an upcoming measurement. At night, the watch starts the measurements automatically.

Health glance and battery

The Huawei Watch D2 also incorporates a Health Glance feature that allows you to measure six crucial body indicators with a single tap and generate a comprehensive report.

These indicators include (take a deep breath): heart rate, blood oxygen, stress levels, skin temperature, sleep breathing awareness and sleep monitoring.

Unlike its predecessor, the Watch D2 can be used to make calls. The microphone and loudspeaker are built in. It does not have its own LTE connection, so a paired smartphone must always be within Bluetooth range.

The smartwatch does not display all contacts of the paired smartphone. Individual contacts must be stored in the Huawei Health app, which can then be called from the watch.

Coming onto battery, If the 24-hour blood pressure measurement is activated with an interval of 30 minutes, the battery life of the Watch D2 is still impressive.

With the functions switched off, the powerful battery lasts up to six days on a single charge.

Verdict

The blood pressure monitoring on the Huawei Watch D2 is great, it has a sleek package considering what’s included and tracking is accurate.

However, some smartwatch basics like WIF and third party app which are not on the wearable. The Huawei app while performs and does what you want it to do, is not the greatest.  Huawei also remains banned in the U.S., vastly limiting its reach, and precluding the inclusion of Google’s Mobile Services.

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