The Huawei Watch 3 is the latest premium smartwatch from Huawei. Powered by HarmonyOS, it features an updated design, a series of health functions, eSIM compatibility, and up to 14 days of battery life.
We spent a couple of weeks using it and we’re here to share why we think its one of the best smartwatches in the market right now. Let’s dive in.
Price and Availability
The Huawei Watch 3 is priced at Php 18,999. It is now available online on the Huawei Store, Shopee, and Lazada, and offline on Huawei Experience Stores and authorized retail stores.
Design
On my initial review, I have nothing but high praise for the Huawei Watch 3 design. My opinion has not changed. The smart watch is a beauty with a very clean and premium aesthetic. Huawei did an outstanding job of blending stainless steel and ceramic materials for a premium finish.
The watch has a 1.43-inch AMOLED display with 466 x 466 resolution. It’s bright with deep blacks and punchy colors. Visibility is generally good, although it is hard to read under very bright sunlight. To be fair, most device don’t fare well in similar conditions.
The watch casing and the lugs are made of stainless steel and measures 46mm. It’s a good size, but smaller wrists might find it too big. It also has a 5 ATM rated water resistance of up to 50 meters, meaning you can bath or swim with it in a pool or ocean.
Just make sure to wipe it down or shake out excess water before charging. It also has a drain feature where it emits a beeping sound to clear the speaker grills of water.
The backplate is made from a ceramic material. The fluoroelastomer strap measures 22mm. It is replaceable, and can be detached using a switch to unclip it.
There’s a functional rotating crown on the 2 o’clock position and a Side Button on the 4 o’clock position. The crown rotates smoothly with no clicks or resistance, but it does provide haptic feedback to simulate the sensation of clicks. You can assign an app for the Side Button for quick access.
Performance
The Watch 3 runs on HarmonyOS 2.0. The interface was revamped with the addition of a WatchOS-like grid of apps as opposed to a list. The OS itself looks good and feels very refined. It is intuitive and surprisingly responsive, and the animations are butter smooth.
Swipe downward from the top of the screen to access the quick menu. Swiping from the left shows the weather, while swiping from the right will bring up the health apps, which you can customize depending on your needs.
The watch can monitor a series of exercises, including running, swimming, cycling, golf (driving range), and more. It also keeps a record of your fitness activities.
I used the watch while working out to monitor my heartrate and temperature. It seems to work well in this regard. I found the Sp02 monitor is a bit slow to record. And its a but finicky at times, where it fails to get a measurement.
One of the more interesting features I tried is the breathing exercises. You can adjust the pace and length of a session. It has an animation that you can follow to guide you.
You can also use the watch to answer calls, and control music. I recommend that you pair it with the Huawei Health app, available for iOS and Android devices.
During testing, I got almost 3 days of battery life on smart mode. You’ll have to charge it in the afternoon of the third day. That was with some notifications, two days of workouts, and health monitoring functions.
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The Watch 3 also has an ultra-long battery life mode. Here, I got around 11 days with workouts and health monitors. On this mode, the smartwatch will be on a default watch face. You’ll also lose some HarmonyOS 2.0 features and flare that goes with it.
Conclusion
Huawei has always had good smartwatches and wearables. And in my opinion, the Huawei Watch 3 is one of their best. The premium smartwatch is as handsome as they come. It has a stylish design, a premium build, an intuitive OS, and a host of useful health features fit for modern times.
For most of us, its a bit on the expensive side at Php 18,999. But it’s well worth your money if you’re on the market for a smartwatch that checks a lot of boxes.
