Honor just launched a smartwatch boasting 23-day battery life and 'industry-first' heart tracking feature

Honor has officially unveiled the Watch GS 5, confirming the full spec sheet via Weibo after weeks of teasers and leaks.

On paper, it’s offering the two things people keep asking budget smartwatches to do better - that is - last longer between, and take health tracking a bit more seriously.

Battery life is perhaps the main draw here, though, with Honor saying the GS 5 will last up to 23 days on a single charge. That's the kind of number you normally only really see in more spenny, premium watches.

Still, even Honor’s own figures suggest around nine days with the always-on display enabled, which is still comfortably ahead of most AMOLED rivals.

The Watch GS 5 comes in a 44mm case that’s just 9.9mm thick, and it weighs 26g thanks to a lightweight aluminium composite build. It’s also rated to 5ATM, so it should be fine for swimming and general water exposure.

Up front, there’s a 1.32-inch AMOLED display with a 466 x 466 resolution and a claimed peak brightness of 1,500 nits. In real terms, that should mean crisp watch faces and good visibility outdoors, even in bright conditions.

The rest of the feature list is pretty solid, too. There's built-in GPS, NFC, speaker and microphone hardware, an AI voice assistant, and over 100 sport modes for the usual mix of gym, run, cycle and everything in between.

Ambitious heart tracking features

Where this watch gets really interesting, though, is in the health stuff.

Alongside standard heart rate tracking, Honor says the GS 5 offers alerts for irregular rhythms, potential atrial fibrillation, and sleep apnoea risk.

But one report also claims Honor is introducing an “industry-first” sudden cardiac arrest screening feature. It apparently looks at longer-term heart rhythm trends and something called “heart deceleration capacity”, a more clinical-style metric linked to how well your heart can slow down and recover.

As ever, Honor’s careful to frame these innovative features as risk assessments as opposed to diagnosis tools. And then still, we don't know if they'll even be cleared for wider use outside China.

For now, though, the Honor Watch GS 5 is available in China priced at 699 yuan - roughly about £75 / $95 / AU$150, depending on exchange rates.

There’s no word yet on global availability, but if the previous GS watches are anything to go by, a wider launch could follow in the coming months.