Every smartwatch on the market has workout modes in order to monitor your
performance and vital statistics. But if you've ever used an off-brand watch, you
know that sometimes it feels like they might as well be just guessing. So, how
do the leaders in the space do better? For Huawei, who sponsored this video,
the answer is in the building behind me, where we're going to be the first
Western media to ever check out the science behind the sport modes of their
GT6 Pro and Ultimate 2 watches. They've
got indoor facilities for rock climbing, basketball, golfing, and even swimming.
Plus, an outdoor bike route through a [music] European style village, whatever
that means, for developing and validating their workout modes that rely
on GPS and mapping, like their new virtual power feature. I'm almost afraid
to find out how much power I generate. Let's hope it's not too embarrassing.
Let's get into it. This place is like the ultimate adult playground for tech
enthusiasts and gym rats alike. In the center of the 200 meter track that runs
outside then back inside the building is their motion capture court. It's set up
for basketball in badminton right now, but nothing prevents it from being used
for other sports. It's got a ring of 30 10,000 frames per second motion capture
cameras all around the outside of it with millimeter level accuracy. And in
the past, they've also used specialized 3D scanners, even higher speed cameras,
and 3D force platforms along with a compute system that belongs to the
Chinese Sports Authority to work with Team China Olympic athletes. I'm no
Olympic athlete, but I told them I would love to try out the motion capture.
Apparently, it takes about an hour to get started, so uh we better get going.
They've got to put down a reference point, set up some regular cameras so
that we have actual video and not just the motion capture dots. I've got to put
this over my swoosh. Not because they're worried about the branding, but because
it could interfere with the tracking. And then this was kind of cool. They
just have this wand that they kind of wave around in order to calibrate the
system. I had to take my earrings off because the motion capture cameras are
looking for these reflective dots. So, those of you in the audience who have been asking for this for all these
years, you're finally getting your wish.
Regular viewers might know that out of all the sports we're testing today, badminton is the only one that I really
play. So, while I wait for them to build my model, I'm going to go ahead and do a
couple of quick footwork drills just to try out their badminton mode. It's got
to be ready to move anywhere on the court at any given moment. That was not
very good footwork, but I have not done
enough footwork lately. [gasps] And
[sighs] stop >> highly aerobic and fat burning. Anyone
who thinks badinton is not exercise, it's not playing it right.
I apparently sweat so much during that short session that we're having trouble
getting the dots to stick back on me. Um, under normal circumstances, they
would use a bodysuit for this. Like you can see, they're sticking to my clothes just fine. But we had to get a little
creative here. Hey. All right. So, I go do my shot. I
go do my other shot. I go up. Scissor
kick. Lift. Oh, that's so cool.
Dang. So you can see the hip triangle right
there. Got the leg wireframe.
Now to do it properly, they need to do
post-processing and post analysis. So we're working on maybe getting the file
for this, but in the preview alone, you can see how something like this could be
very useful for form analysis. The motion capture system supports all kinds
of different sports that can be played on a flat surface, including court games
like basketball. This one I don't know how well I'm going to be able to demo,
though. Imagine the basketball skills of a shortweight Canadian. Now, imagine
that he isn't Steve Nash.
Come on.
>> [screaming]
>> Fortunately, there's lots more to see. Like the courts, this treadmill is
packed to the gills with sensors for biometrics and motion capture and
analysis. It supports the obvious things like walking and running, but also some
less obvious stuff like biking, skiing,
and even skateboarding. Can I try skateboarding on it?
>> Okay. >> He really didn't want me to do that before we rolled the camera, but we
talked him into it. I'm not a skateboarder, so this is going to be
something. Uh-huh.
Safety. Step one is to get into the harness that acts as an emergency stop.
So, if I pull down on this, the treadmill cuts out. Go.
>> Started. >> Okay. We'll start with a light walk.
Okay, that's not really a light walk anymore. Heart rate increasing. 95 97.
Going a little faster.
I don't know how fast that is, but now it's starting to get pretty fast. Give
me a little bit more. And that's probably about as fast as I can run. Oh
boy.
[laughter] Yeah. So, that was a minute of running.
[panting] I might need more cardio in my life.
Obviously, I didn't run enough to get a real workout. That's why I'm not
sweating right now. But, it was enough for us to get a little bit of analytics
here. And apparently, my ground contact time is excellent. Now, let's see how
quickly I contact the ground on a skateboard. Okay.
I haven't even attempted to ride a skateboard since I was probably in high
school. Okay, we ready? This is going to
be disastrous. It's a little funky cuz it's more of a
like, you know, a push type of sport and
the treadmill is consistent, you know.
Okay. Can I Uh-huh. Yeah, sure. I could skateboard.
Whoa. Okay. [laughter]
I can tell from all the marks on the wall, that's not the first time that happened. Just like everything we've
seen so far, their rock climbing wall was built so that they can compare the
data that they get off of their watches to the data that they get with a golden
standard like motion capture or in this case climbing against a calibrated
height which is exactly 10.5 [music] m.
Personally, I just think he really likes rock climbing and he wanted to expense
this wall. But they won't confirm that.
Oh god. Yeah, I'm not going to do well at this.
No, no, no. I am totally using my arms
too much. I know it and I'm still doing it. What the heck?
Yay. Okay. Woo.
Now, one of the coolest safety features of the GT6 Pro is of course its fall
detection. But while you can measure
climbing altitude with sensors and real people, you can't exactly drop real
people off the top of the structure. So, what do they do? That's where my good
friends comes in. Let's just get this watch on you there, buddy.
Nice.
>> [snorts] >> You okay, buddy?
So, in an emergency, the watch will automatically call emergency services,
either [music] through ESIM, if available, like it is on the Ultimate 2,
or through the Bluetooth connection to your phone, like with the [music] GT6
Pro. Now, this is cool. They built a small pool that can be temperature
controlled anywhere from 5 to 45° C and
has a paddle at one end that can create a current of up to 1 and 1/2 m/ second.
It's designed to simulate real world conditions and uses a combination of
underwater sensors and cameras to track your speed, heart rate, calorie burn,
and even your stroke form for later analysis. Let's see how I do with the
Watch Ultimate 2. Right now, it's set to 1 m/s. So, uh, let's see how I farro.
Look at that. It even knew what stroke I was doing. Warm up. Come on, man. I'm
trying here. Let's turn it up to maximum.
That's pretty fast. I wouldn't be able to do that for very long. Yeah, the
heart rate went up a little faster that time and it says I'm not just warming
up. Thank you, watch. Appreciate you.
Another use case they can test in here is scuba and that's a major focus for
the Watch Ultimate 2. It's rated for submersion to 150 m and has all kinds of
essential features like a compass and dive tracker. Another really cool
feature is called divercoms. It allows you to send underwater pre-programmed
messages, emojis, and SOS to other Huawei Watch Ultimate 2 users using
Sonic Pulses. This is pretty huge. I
don't know if you guys know this, but my wife almost died in a dive accident once
because, as it turns out, the gestures for come here and share air look
basically the same when you're doing a night dive. Fortunately, by the time she
said out of air, I had already come here and I was able to give her my backup
rag. So, I am very pro anything that enhances underwater communication.
This is cool. Who needs Top Golf when you have Huawei Golf? All we do is fire
up the golf analysis on the watch, hit this button, and we're ready to go. I um
have not golfed much.
And it shows. We can do better. WE CAN DO BETTER. OH,
THAT'S SO MEAN. It says I suck. No, I'm kidding. It doesn't say that. Okay, I'll
try hitting the ball this time. That'll be good. Okay, ready.
Yeah, that's a little low and to the outside. Even worse than last time. Oh,
that's cool. It shows you the video of your last stroke. Check this out. The
watch includes little coaching insights like how to grip the club and how to
swing. Or maybe for most people it doesn't, and that's just cuz it saw how
I did it. Unsurprisingly, given the sport's popularity in China, there are
two table tennis setups. One that has an automatic ball tracking system and a
second out on the motion capture floor with an automated feeding robot. Okay,
this I have to try. Oh my god.
Ah, okay. Well, we found yet another sport I
suck at, but I'm told not to feel too
bad because apparently this can be configured to feed with the same spin
and placement as a professional coach. So, I don't think that was the highest
level we were on just now, but let's ignore that. Apparently, we're not
moving on. We're going to do the professional
No. What the What the heck?
[snorts] They've got lots of options for cycling. Exercise bikes, the multi-purpose
treadmill we saw before, and of course, the orange track. All of those can be
used for the same kind of analysis we've discussed already. Something we can't do
in the lab, though, is simulate actual realworld movement. And that is where
the European Village comes in. This was a themed construction project for their
R&D center and offices, but it also happens to be a picturesque biking
route. So, we're going to be checking out the true sport system on the GT6 Pro
in real time. Now, obviously, it relies on biometrics like your heart rate,
blood oxygen, ECG, all that kind of stuff. But it also relies on
environmental factors like your real world speed and even the type of bike
you're using in order to get an accurate calculation for your virtual power. Now
all that remains is to see what kind of score I can get ripping through here.
I don't remember the last time I rode a bike, but hey, you know what they say, it's like riding a bike. [snorts]
Let's go. Don't mind me in my European village.
Dude, this place is incredible.
Maybe I'm coming around to the LMG town idea after all.
Okay. Okay, I had enough for now. Let's
check the virtual power. My longest ride, 1.3 km. No way that was
1.3 km, was it? Can't be. Was it? I
don't know. Who knows? Okay. stretch blah blah speed. Okay, what do we got?
Total elevation gain. Where's my virtual
power? Maximum heart rate 150. 0 minutes
in extreme heart rate.
Virtual power. All right. I peaked at 289 watts of virtual power. [music] And
actually, if my cycling machine at the gym is anything to go by, that's
probably about right when I'm going really hard. I'm not like a professional
athlete or anything like that. Pretty cool. Lots of information in here. With
the lab tour complete, it's time to take a closer look at the products that we
feature today. And what better place to do it than Huawei's flagship store in
Nanchan. Man, I'm trying to imagine the meeting with the architect for this
place. We want it to look hyper modern, but we needed to be functional. We want
customers to be able to interact with small electronic devices like laptops,
smartphones, and wearables. Oh, and also much bigger ones like cars. And it
should have an interactive smart home showcase powered by AI. Also, could you
squeeze in some stadium seating for large group meetings? That would be great. Thanks. And yet, somehow they
understood the assignment and absolutely nailed it. Let's start with the watch we
were using during our cycling test and on the climbing wall, the GT6 Pro. The
design of this watch was laser focused on athletic users. It's got sapphire
glass for high durability and a wide variety of bands, both sportfriendly, so
uh not [clears throat] sweat absorbent, and also more fashion oriented. It
offers up to 21 days of battery life in its most power conservative mode, and
features a 3000nit display for outdoor use. It's got altitude monitoring and
what they call sunflower navigation, which basically means it can connect to
up to six different navigational satellites for sub 8 meter positional
accuracy. That is super important for uses like jogging and cycling where it's
hard to say exactly how hard you're working if the watch can't tell where
you are and where you're going. The other one we feature today is so new
it's not even on the showroom yet, the Watch Ultimate 2. In a nutshell, it does
everything the GT6 Pro does, but better. So, it's still a highly capable sport
watch just with a touch more style and some extras. The underwater
communication that we saw in the pool, which is great for diving. That's
exclusive to this model. It also has ESIM and more accurate blood monitoring
thanks to a sidemounted sensor that they call XTAB. Another product we were using
today, but has been hidden away in my pocket, is the Mate X6, which is damn is
that ever a thin foldable phone. and yet
it still manages to have a 5100 milliamp
battery. It comes with a variety of different back materials including
leather and IPX8 water resistance. Also,
they're extremely proud of how flat their hinge folds. On the subject of
foldable devices, the Matebook Fold here is a China only laptop that uh I
wouldn't mind having in North America. The screen is 13 in in clamshell mode,
but it's got a party trick where it expands to 18 in in its kickstand mode.
It supports multitasking and pretty incredible gesture-based window
management that really shows how far Harmony OS has come in the [music] last
few years. Now, we're in for a special treat. We're in the Ito M9 and we're
going to be checking out its advanced driver assist features that allow us to take our hands completely off the wheel,
which I got to say, seeing the traffic patterns here sketches me out a little,
but hopefully it's all good.
>> And this, I think, makes my point about the traffic patterns.
And it's packed with other features. Some you might expect, like large
interior displays and support for [music] phone projection, but others you
might not expect, like support for projection at all. There's a theater in
the back, [music] and the seats recline all the way.
>> What? That was super cool. If you guys want to learn more about Huawei's
products, we're going to have them linked in the video description. You
hold them down. I'll beat him up. Come on, Howard. Take [music] that.
Get beat up, Jeffrey. >> It's quality time with my boss.
[laughter]