The health-focused watch is available now in China—but there’s now word yet on a global rollout
Honor has officially begun teasing its next flagship smartwatch, the Honor Watch GS 5, and has confirmed that pre-orders are now open in China (from January 19).
While full specifications are still trickling out, the company is positioning this latest release squarely as a medical-grade health watch, rather than just a standard fitness tracker.
The standout feature is a new ‘sudden cardiac arrest screening’ capability, which the brand describes as an industry-first. It utilizes the watch’s sensor array to analyze heart rhythm trends and ‘heart deceleration capacity’—a metric that measures the heart’s ability to slow down and rest.
While standard heart rate variability (HRV) is now very common on trackers, deceleration capacity is typically associated with clinical risk assessments.
Meanwhile, in terms of design, the GS 5 will be significantly slimmer than the GS 4.
It weighs just 26g and measures 9.9mm thick, likely a deliberate move to make it comfortable for 24/7 wear. And despite the slimmer chassis, Honor is promising up to 23 days of battery life.
Advertisement
While this almost definitely refers to a cycle using all available power-saving modes, it still should last, we would imagine, between 7 and 14 days with the always-on display enabled and ‘regular’ use.
The Wareable view
The cardiac features are fascinating, but the big question—as ever with watches released initially in China—is regulation. Honor is promoting these as serious health tools, but whether it can secure medical device certification (MDR) in Europe or FDA clearance in the US is a different story.
Since the last-gen GS 4 landed in Europe and the UK a few months after its China launch, there’s every reason to expect the same cycle will occur for the GS 5 over the coming months. However, it may simply be retooled slightly, as is common with releases from other Chinese brands.
This could simply be a rebadged, more wellness-focused version of the health features, or they could be stripped completely. Only time will tell on that front. Stay tuned for more.
