Tested Huawei Watch 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

Rtba (R7 000 est.) / huawei.com/za

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.

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 R12 000.

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.

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. 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.

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.

2

GOOD MEH EVIL

Finally, third-party apps

Really slick interface

Neat rotating crown

Limited music support…

…and a limited app library…

…and limited battery life

3

Tech specs

Screen 1.43in 466x466 OLED Connectivity GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Water-resistance 5ATM Battery life 2-3 days Dimensions 46x46x12.2mm, 54g

Glancinginthe street

It’s new and in need of some polish, but the signs for the smartwatch version of HarmonyOS are promising

■ Ziggy

The HarmonyOS wearable system includes smooth and slick transitions relayed at a much higher refresh rate than Huawei’s older watches, and an app screen that looks like it’s been lifted straight from an Apple Watch. ■ Stardust

It’s more fun to use than a WearOS watch, and for a first stab at a smartwatch interface it’s pretty great. The rotating crown is good too, letting you scroll down menus and zoom in and out of the app page without touching the screen.

■ Spiders

Two of the most useful apps in the AppGallery are Fitify and Home Workout by Leap Fitness. These offer step-by-step workouts when paired with their matching apps on your phone… but not the Play Store versions. ■ Mars

It’s tempting to use the OS’s low-maintenance mode to increase battery life, but then you’ll end up wondering why you bought this watch when Huawei makes bands that do the same stuff for around R1 700.

This is the most dynamic wearable Huawei has made in years, and given the totally new OS it works surprisingly well. It comes as a legit rival to Apple and Samsung, but at this stage it’s not the one we’d pick. It pushes you too hard towards services you probably don’t want, and the smart stuff doesn’t justify the meagre battery life.