Huawei Watch 3 Pro
Design and display
- 1.43-inch screen with a resolution of 466 x 466
- Straps can be made of leather or metal links.
- The case is 48mm and weighs 63g.
Huawei’s gotten very good at making wearables that look like watches. Big, bold, round faces, small bezels, and buttons on the right side. For the Huawei Watch 3 Pro, these buttons include a familiar rotating crown. This gives you all the scroll-wheel familiarity of an Apple Watch, but none of the WatchOS rectangular vibes.
The Watch 3 Pro can be bought with either a leather strap or a metal link strap, like the one we tested.
The AMOLED screen on the Huawei Watch 3 goes up to 1,000 nits, which makes it easy to see outside even in direct sunlight. The 60Hz screen and automatic brightness make scrolling and menus feel and look very responsive. The 1.43-inch AMOLED screen with 326ppi screams quality, and the curved glass on top makes it easy to swipe with a finger.
The titanium body, which is on all sides of the watch and even on the lugs, is a feature that stands out. This makes it very resistant to drops, scratches, and the weather, especially in places with harsher weather. It can also stand up to water, which makes it perfect for running outside or keeping track of how well you swim.
The leather strap is a good choice for people who want a more classic look, but it isn’t really good for things like going to the gym or running outside. Since the 22m straps are easy to change, we would keep the leather look for the office and everyday wear and switch to a different band for working out.
The rotating crown on the side of the Watch 3 Pro is a nice touch that lets you zoom in and out and quickly move between options. The fact that the crown is etched with “Huawei Watch” shows how much detail Huawei put into this small part. It’s easy to use and move around with, which is a nice touch. Like the Apple Watch, when you scroll with the crown, you get a little bit of haptic feedback.
Below that is a second button. By default, it starts the workout mode, but it can be set to do other things, like play music, send alarms, call people, and so on. You can also hold it down for a while to use the digital assistant, which we’ll talk about later.
The size and weight of the watch do make it feel a little strange on smaller wrists, but that’s just something you’ll have to deal with for this Pro version. The slight awkwardness is made worse by the fact that the Watch 3 Pro can also track your sleep. We were very aware that we were wearing it when we were trying to sleep, and you have to be careful not to hit your partner with it in your sleep.
Software
The operating system is the main difference between the Watch 3 Pro and the Watch GT 2 Pro. It now runs on HarmonyOS 2.0, which adds to the features it already had. Huawei kept the design simple by just making the font bigger to fit the bigger screen. The icons are the same.
The voice assistant Celia, Huawei’s answer to Siri and Alexa, works with the smartwatch because it is part of the Harmony ecosystem. Their Watch 3 Pro needs to be connected to the internet in order to work. This can be done through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or the eSIM inside.
People who don’t use Huawei phones are already familiar with the pre-loaded apps, such as Heart Rate, Sleep Tracking, SpO2 measurements, and breathing exercises. The difference is that it works with Huawei AppGallery, which has apps that can run on their own or with other apps you already have on your phone. The store doesn’t have many apps yet, but the service is still pretty new, so we hope to see more in the future.
The Watch 3 Pro doesn’t need a SIM card to work, so Huawei moved some features from the Huawei Health app, which you need to use the watch to its full potential, into the watch itself. The Alarm is one of these features. Drain is another cool feature that makes a high-pitched sound to force any liquid out of the speaker cavity.
Huawei has finally decided to let you choose whether your apps are in a grid or a list. The first one lets you see more apps at once, while the second one gives you a sense of order, but you have to scroll, which might be too much if you have a lot of apps installed.
Fitness
- A new sensor for temperature
- Over 100 workout modes
- Detection of a fall with an SOS call
The Huawei Watch 3 wouldn’t be a competitive smartwatch without a strong focus on health, but it’s the first mainstream smartwatch with a temperature sensor built-in, so you can track another part of your health throughout the day.
During the day, the temperature sensor worked pretty well, but a big caveat is that it’s not meant to give an accurate reading of your body temperature. Skin temperature can vary a lot, and Huawei is quick to point out that this and the other trackers on the Watch 3 Pro do not make it in any way a medical device. The readings were off by a few degrees from what a real thermometer showed, but they could still be useful for a rough idea of the temperature now and then.
With over 100 different workout modes, the Watch 3 Pro really shines when it comes to fitness. Whether you lift weights, ride a bike, swim, or run, the Watch 3 Pro can keep track of all of them and your progress. GPS tracking is also great for keeping track of routes, but we found that it worked much better when the watch was connected to a smartphone than when we just wore it by itself. If you often use the Watch 3 Pro while swimming, there’s a cool Drain feature that makes the watch speaker make a high-pitched sound to help drain water from the watch.The Watch 3 Pro now also has a fall detection feature, and the watch will let you know if you need to call 911. You can also do this by pressing the crown five times, which gives you a list of emergency services you can call directly.
Battery life
- Health tracking is available in both the smart and battery-saving modes.
- In smart mode, the battery can last up to five days.
- Charges without wires
The Huawei Watch 3 Pro comes with a small magnetic charger, but you can also use Qi charging to charge it wirelessly. We had mixed results with this. The watch charged perfectly with the charger that came with it, but we had trouble getting the battery to charge past 70% with two other Qi wireless chargers. It’s probably best to use the charger that Huawei gives you. The Watch 3 Pro can also be charged by Huawei smartphones that are able to do so.
In smart mode, the Watch 3 Pro says it will last five days, but we only got about four and a half days before the watch told us to charge it. This was done with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth always on, the display on auto, and heartbeat and SpO2 monitoring going on all the time.
If you want to keep it going for more than five days, you can turn on ultra-long battery life mode. This will extend the battery life to 21 days, but most of the smart features will be turned off. This pretty much makes the Watch 3 Pro useless, but you can still turn it on if you want to. For everyone else, Huawei’s claim that the battery will last five days is pretty accurate, though your mileage may vary, especially if you have the Always On screen mode turned on and are constantly monitoring your health.When the battery is completely dead, it takes just under three hours to fully charge. However, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever run out of power on your watch, so a quick charge every other day or so would be fine.
Buy it if…
You want a smartwatch with style.
Even though the Watch 3 Pro is on the bigger side, it still looks great for everyday wear, and you can easily switch out the straps to use it in the pool or at the gym.
You like to work out.
The number of exercises that can be tracked is very impressive, and the eSIM feature means that you can run while wearing the watch instead of bringing your phone.
You need long-lasting batteries.
With a battery life of five days when used regularly, the Watch 3 Pro is a great choice for tracking and fitness use every day.
Don’t buy it if…
You have an iPhone.
On iOS, the Watch 3 Pro doesn’t do as well. There aren’t as many watch faces, the battery life isn’t as good, and there aren’t as many notifications.
You want something that costs less.
The price of the Watch 3 Pro is definitely on the high end, so if you’re on a tight budget, choose the original Watch 3 or something else on the market.
You want Android to work better.
You might not like that there aren’t any apps that work with it and that you can only view notifications. If that’s the case, a Watch OS device would be better for you.
Specification
- 1.43in circular (466×466) 60Hz AMOLED display
- 316L stainless steel/titanium casing (standard/Pro)
- Ceramic back
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB storage
- Accelerometer
- Gyroscope
- Geomagnetic sensor
- Optical heart rate sensor
- Ambient light sensor
- Barometer
- Temperature Sensor
- Speaker
- Microphone
- 100+ workout modes: 19 ‘pro’ modes, 85 custom modes, automatic workout detection for 6 modes
- 5ATM water resistance
- eSIM (LTE)
- Bluetooth 5.2 + BLE
- WiFi (2.4GHz-only)
- NFC
- GPS+GLONASS+Galileo+Beidou/GPS-L1+GPS-L5+GLONASS+Galileo+Beidou+QZSS (standard/Pro)
- Battery: Up to 3/5 days – Smart mode (standard/Pro), 14/21 days – Ultra-long battery mode (standard/Pro)
- Wireless charging
- 5V 2A magnetic USB wireless charger
- 54/63 grams w/o strap (standard/Pro)
- 46.2mm x 46.2mm x 12.15mm (standard)
- 48mm x 49.6mm x 14mm (Pro)
- Compatibility: Android 6.0/iOS 9.0 or later
| Pros | Cons |
| Excellent extended battery mode | Limited app availability |
| Temperature sensor is novel | Notifications aren’t interactive |
| Premium design | Limited iOS functionality |
| Product | Expected Price |
| Huawei Watch 3 Pro | Rs 65,000 |
