The Huawei Watch 3 is a stylish smartwatch that thrives on fitness tracking and can do much more

The Huawei Watch 3 is a stylish smartwatch that is the first to feature Huawei’s proprietary HarmonyOS. It’s silky smooth, but it’s not quite polished yet, as you’d anticipate. There are only a few additional apps to download, and third-party service support is limited.

Nonetheless, if you have an Android phone (or one of Huawei’s own), the Watch 3 is a wristwatch worth considering and it’s only going to get better as the ecosystem develops.The Watch 3 is designed with fitness tracking in mind, and it comes with a robust set of capabilities for tracking your daily health (such as sleep, step counts, and SpO2) and your exercises.

During rigorous training sessions, we found its heart rate monitoring to be a little erratic, occasionally reporting unexpected peaks during interval sessions. Still, location tracking and pace, and cadence were all accurate during our pre-measured run.

The Watch 3 has many potentials; the technology is remarkable, and the watch’s brilliant display would be ideal for on-screen navigation and guided workouts with animated guidance. Harmony will grow into its own over time, with a more extensive selection of apps and increased support for critical third-party services.

The cost and the availability

• It’s available now.
• There will be no release in the United States, but a pro version will be offered.

The Huawei Watch 3 will be available in certain regions in 2021, with a starting price of £279.99. That works out to around $390 / AU$530, although no US releases are planned, and no Australian release date has been set.

We tested the standard Huawei Watch 3, but the Huawei Watch 3 Pro has a few extra features, including dual-band GPS for better accuracy and longer battery life. It also comes at a much higher price, starting at £499.99 (about $690 / AU$940).

Design

• Crown that rotates
• Case of a large size
• AMOLED display that is bright and clear.

With a vast, glossy face, lower bezels, and glass that curves towards the corners to meet the case, the Huawei Watch 3 changes significantly from the hefty Watch 2. Instead, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the Watch GT.

The Huawei Watch 3 active edition (tried here) has a 46mm casing and a black silicone band that isn’t as soft as the Apple Watch 6 but still comfortable. The band is secured with a traditional buckle rather than the loop-and-tang style fastening that is becoming increasingly common with smartwatches and fitness trackers, and it features quick-release pins so you can convert it to something a little more attractive.

Only two physical controls are included on the Huawei Watch 3. A small button that navigates backward through menus or returns you to the home page, and a crown that you can use to select settings and apps or turn to scroll through text and menus, a feature that the Huawei Watch 2 lacks.

It’s a suitable mechanism, and scrolling with the crown is fluid and responsive. It’s also just big enough to type on the Watch 3’s on-screen keyboard, though it’s still a little tricky; you’ll be grateful for the autocorrect option.

Features of a smartwatch

• Support for eSim
• Tools that help you save time
• A couple of more apps (so far)

The Huawei Watch 3 is essentially fitness-focused (which we’ll get into later). Still, it also offers a good range of tools that make it a practical everyday wristwatch, especially if you have an Android phone and an Apple Watch isn’t an option.

Without an active Bluetooth connection to your phone, you can make and receive calls, play music, and download apps with an e-Sim installed (great for working out without your phone), but even without that, there’s a lot to admire especially when it comes to time-saving.

You may accept or mute calls with hand movements that take advantage of the watch’s accelerometer; clench your fist, then release it to accept the call, or tilt your wrist sideways to mute it.