T E S T E D H U AW E I WAT C H 3
Where Huawei now? The Chinese tech giant has decided to reset its wearables business with its first ‘proper’ modern smartwatch – sporting a completely refreshed UI 1
[ Words Andrew Williams ]
from £350 / stuff.tv/HW3 Huawei has made wearables for years, but the Watch 3 is the first one since 2017 that we can really call a proper smartwatch – that is, without following up with a bunch of apologies about how you can’t make calls with it or install third-party apps. Take a Huawei Watch 2, crash it into an Apple Watch Series 6 and you get something resembling the Watch 3. (Well, that or a couple of broken wrists.) We’re not enamoured with the drop in battery life from two weeks to two days, or with the waiting game to see if Huawei’s ever-expanding HarmonyOS platform is really worth investing in; but for a first crack at this tricky old game, the Huawei Watch 3 is something of a success. It has a great party trick too. This is a watch with two very distinct personalities – because with a few swipes you can turn it into a dedicated fitness watch, and one that bumps battery life back up to two weeks again.
GOOD MEH EVIL
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Finally, third-party apps
The nixed day Huawei says the battery can last 3 days, but we only got 2 even without GPS. Apparently it drops to 1.5 days with an iPhone. Ouch!
The screen genie The Huawei Watch 3 has glossy curved glass holding a gorgeous screen with slimmer borders than some (1). The sides are tough stainless steel and the back is ceramic. To get close to this kind of construction from Apple you’d need to pay well over £600.
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App-solute beginners In contrast to recent Huawei efforts, you can download apps from the company’s AppGallery right there on the watch (2). There’s also an eSIM version for making calls from the wrist, and even a teeny keyboard for typing search terms on the screen. It’s no fun, but you can do it.
Golden ears? You can talk to Huawei’s Celia assistant as you would Siri or Google Assistant… but there are teething problems. We kept being asked if we wanted to start a workout while 10 minutes into a tracked run; ask “What is the time?”, meanwhile, and she doesn’t understand.
The graphing gnome Celia aside, this is a great exercise tracker. The vibrant screen ramps up brightness outdoors (3) and the heart-rate sensor stacks up well against chest-strap accuracy. The Watch 3 can also measure your blood oxygen saturation through the day and even log your skin temperature 24/7.
Let’s not dance Apple’s and Samsung’s latest wearables can do ECG readings; this one can’t. Its rivals also have better music support, because Huawei wants you to sign up for its own streaming service – but hey, it’s still relatively early in HarmonyOS’s development as a wearable platform.
Really slick interface
Neat rotating crown
Limited music support…
…and a limited app library…
…and limited battery life
