Huawei Watch 3 Review: Outstanding Hardware, Good Battery Life

Huawei has been releasing smartwatches for a long time now. I've personally reviewed a lot of the company'southward offerings in the last couple of years. I've always felt similar Huawei nailed the hardware, but needs to work on the software. Well, that'southward kind of the case here as well. The Huawei Watch 3 is an excellent smartwatch from one perspective, and a half-broiled 1 from another. Its software is unlike this time effectually, as it comes with the company's HarmonyOS. That's something we'll definitely talk about in this review.

Huawei changed up its design from last-gen smartwatches, and that's not a bad matter, not at all. The company got inspired to create something a scrap unlike, and it as well added a rotating crown on the side, which does dilate the feel. There's a lot to talk about when it comes to the Huawei Lookout iii, so let's become started, shall we. We'll kick things off with its design, equally that's one of the major changes this time around. Do annotation that nosotros're reviewing the Lookout 3 Active Edition. The company also released 'Classic Edition' and 'Elite Edition' variants.

One of the best-looking, and all-time-congenital watches on the market

The Huawei Scout 3 looks gorgeous, well, at to the lowest degree in my apprehensive opinion. The sentry all the same has a circular brandish, though the bezels are quite thin this time around. It'southward a completely different story with the 'Pro' model, that variant has a lot thicker bezels. Huawei as well included curved glass on height of this display, which made swiping and using the brandish actually enjoyable. The visitor did a great job in that regard.

Huawei combines metal, glass, and ceramic here

The Huawei Lookout man 3 is made out of metal. To be more than accurate, its frame is made out of stainless steel, while ceramic is applied on the dorsum. On the variant we reviewed, Huawei included a nice silicone strap, which is very comfy on the mitt. Y'all can supersede that strap with any standard one, merely make sure you get the size right. Information technology does come up with a quick release system, so you don't need whatever boosted tools to take it off.

A rotating crown has been added, and it'south groovy

This smartwatch has two buttons on the right side. The top button doubles as a rotating crown, while the bottom one is a quick action button. That quick action button is customizable, yous can fix it to launch your conditioning carte, music, or any else you desire. The crown is clickable, and it's a joy to utilise, actually. When you lot use the crown, yous'll get really prissy, subtle haptic feedback from the watch. Its sensitivity is also spot on, it'southward non too mushy, merely also not too rigid either.

A speaker is besides included

This watch does come with a speaker, which is placed on the correct side as well. Well, information technology'south more towards the lesser of that side, but nonetheless. Yes, Huawei also included a microphone here, so you can make calls using the watch. That does make sense considering that an eSIM is included besides. At the very bottom of the watch, the company included a heartbeat sensor, which works really well.

Information technology's comfortable to wearable

The Sentry three is a joy to wear. It'due south non exactly light, just it's not too heavy either. It weighs 54 grams without the strap. It'due south comfortable on the hand, and it's not likewise thick either. This is one of the best-looking smartwatches I've seen this yr, hands, and also i of the best ones in terms of build quality.

A great, punchy display with proper sensitivity

The Huawei Scout 3 features a round display, which measures 1.43 inches. We're looking at a resolution of 466 x 466 here, with a PPI of 326. This is an AMOLED display, by the way. As you can run into, this panel looks great on paper, and that reflects to real-life usage every bit well. The display is more than precipitous enough, while its colors are punchy and vivid. Viewing angles are also really good, and the fact that at that place's curved glass on top of that display simply enhances the experience. Sliding your finger beyond this console feels as it should.

Impact sensitivity is only correct

This display is also very touch sensitive, using information technology feels merely right. That probably has something to do with HarmonyOS equally well, every bit information technology feels a lot nicer to use than what Huawei had on its watches before. The responsiveness is on indicate hither, that's for sure. This display is a joy to apply no matter what mode you lot spin things. It's responsive, abrupt, vivid, offers great viewing angles, and it's plenty large for a smartwatch. We don't accept a single complaint here. This panel is nifty, and its sparse bezels only heighten the feel.

Overall, the performance on the Hauwei Watch 3 is really expert

The general performance of this watch is bang-up. By 'full general', I mean that the watch is not stuttering, not at all. It's really extremely fluid, noticeably more than fluid than its predecessors. Huawei did a nifty job of adapting HarmonyOS to piece of work well with the hardware implemented here. That side of things is excellent. The rotating crown is likewise well-adjusted, and it blends well in the general social club of things.

HarmonyOS still needs work

HarmonyOS itself is the issue, well, part of the consequence. Huawei all the same has a lot of work to practise on this OS, information technology seems, at least based on my experience with this watch. In that location are not many bugs, the watch is withal lacking some features that should exist there. Also, some functionality choices are rather odd. Moving forwards, we'll talk a bit almost the performance, and I'll definitely mention LiteOS a couple of times. LiteOS is the software Huawei used prior to HarmonyOS, and parts of information technology did pour over to HarmonyOS.

Software got better, but it's nevertheless not not bad

So, in general, the Os looks really nice. Information technology's actually similar to LiteOS. Huawei did implement an Apple tree Lookout man-like filigree for the app drawer, which you can change to a list, if yous want. That grid works great with the rotating crown, though. The general fluidity of the Os is great, but it'south notwithstanding defective in a number of aspects. I'll start with the setup first, as it wasn't the greatest of experiences, plus there are some syncing problems.

The setup process was a bit disruptive

And then, the whole setup process for the watch is a hurting. It had as well many unnecessary menus, and to make things worse, I had to download an app from Huawei'due south AppGallery. I didn't take that app on the phone, so I had to download it from a website, and so download Huawei'south Wellness app from it. The Huawei Health app from the Play Store does not comprise this smartwatch in its lineup, so I was unable to connect information technology. I'1000 non sure if this was an issue because I received the lookout man ahead of fourth dimension for review, then they were unable to update the app withal, or if information technology volition work like this in general. If it's the latter, it volition annoy many people, as it complicates things quite a bit. I also had bug syncing my watch with my Huawei ID account.

That did not affect how the app tracked my workouts, issued notifications, or anything of the sort. The app did connect to the lookout, so everything except the conditions info worked for me. The picket didn't want to testify me the weather info due to the sync effect. I couldn't get this to work to save my life, I even tried resetting the sentinel.

The UI looks squeamish

One time you finally set up upwardly the watch, you'll exist greeted with a rather squeamish-looking UI. For those of you who owned previous Huawei watches, and are familiar with LiteOS, y'all'll exist glad to know that yous tin finally remove those widgets from the home screen pages. So, if you swipe to the correct, you'll come across your heartbeat widget, Sp02 widget, and so on. If you become to the last screen, you'll see the 'Custom' option. From there, you'll exist able to remove / add screens. The options are extremely limited, you can essentially add only the ones that were on there. Let's hope Huawei will update this list presently.

It doesn't have many free lookout face choices

Options for watch faces are also really bones. Well, if you're willing to pay, yous'll exist able to find much more than. The gratuitous watch faces on the watch are really express, and quite frankly, Huawei needs to offer more variety in that regard. Some watch faces do let yous to edit actionable parts of them, so you can insert some functionality inside some watch faces.

The music control aspect is… clunky

The music control aspect is also weird. When you kickoff playing something on your telephone, the music app on the watch won't recognize that. Y'all'll need to swipe from the left to right, to reach the weather screen. From there, you'll demand to swipe up, as you lot'll meet a small glowing indicator at the bottom. That manner you'll get access to control music on your phone. I constitute that on blow, I wouldn't even know it's there otherwise. This doesn't brand any sense whatsoever. I was able to command music playback via the music app on the watch in the by, all I had to practice is cull that setting in the Huawei Health app. That pick is now gone, at least in the version of the app from the Huawei AppGallery, which was necessary to use the scout.

The entire notification organisation is still a sore point, simply improve than before

Notifications are still the biggest problem of Huawei's wearables. Luckily, in comparison to LiteOS, Huawei did fix some things. For example, the watch did non clone notifications on its ain, that was a huge effect on LiteOS. You can likewise delete notifications more than easily now, but swipe them away. On LiteOS, yous had to tap on a specific notification first, and then swipe abroad, to delete that notification only. Also, the lookout man does group notifications now, from the same app, which is a pregnant stride forward.

You'll have to dismiss notifications separately

The notifications also arrived in time, just the affair is, they do not sync with the phone. Permit me explicate, when y'all remove a notification from the watch, it won't be removed from your notification shade on the phone, and vice versa. You'll need to remove them separately. Icons for some apps are nevertheless not portrayed equally they should be. For example, Viber and Google Letters icons are not displayed on the watch. The watch will brandish a generic conversation icon for both of those apps. It does display proper icons for most apps, though.

Notifications are not actionable, and there re still issues

Notifications are not actionable, in the sense that you cannot answer a phone call, reply to a message, and so on. You lot cannot really do anything when it comes to notifications from a watch, except remove them. Let'due south hope that Huawei will, at least, offer bones functionality in that regard moving forrad. Another small tidbit that was a bit annoying is the fact that if you accept notifications, that doesn't show on your dwelling house screen. Samsung, for example, shows you lot a dot, Wear Bone also has an indicator at the bottom. HarmonyOS, on the Huawei Sentry 3, does non take anything.

So, if yous missed a vibration, or simply want to raise your hand and see if there are whatever notifications, you lot can't do that. You have to swipe from the bottom of the screen. You cannot even move the rotating bezel in order to admission notifications. Yous'll need to swipe offset, and then you tin can use the rotating bezel to ringlet through your notifications. Needless to say, Huawei needs to better the whole notification arrangement more than. It is better than information technology was, no uncertainty about that, but it needs more functionality. Many people buy smartwatches for the notification functionality, in addition to music controls and workout / health features.

The device includes quite a few health-related features / sensors

Many of you are probably interested in the health and fitness aspect of this watch. So, the Huawei Watch 3 is actually well-equipped in this regard, that goes for both its software and hardware. The picket has a heart rate sensor on the dorsum, which can keep track of your center rate all 24-hour interval. Blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitoring is also available, while the watch tin also keep rail of your peel temperature. The watch can even alert your emergency contact if it detects something is seriously wrong. On pinnacle of that, you can quickie press the upper physical button (the crown) 5 times in lodge to call emergency services. It's basically an SOS call. The scout volition go on track of your steps, calories burned, sleep quality, stress levels, and more. It can even proceed rails of your catamenia cycle.

There are over 100 conditioning modes available here

That existence said, the Huawei Watch iii has over 100 workout modes available. Whether you're going running, planning on doing some exercising indoors or outdoors, or going swimming, this watch has y'all covered. Out of all those modes, I've tried only a couple, biking and running. They both worked well. I did notice that the scout has been counting a flake more steps than it should, at to the lowest degree based on my experience with other watches. Information technology was a lot more accurate than Huawei'southward previous devices, though. 1 of the shortcomings of Huawei's wearables was always somewhat inaccurate workout tracking, only that has been improved here, it seems. Even so, do note that this is not a dedicated fitness lookout, similar a watch from Garmin, or something of the sort. It volition do the job for the vast majority of people, though, equally it'due south quite proficient at what it does.

A 3-day battery life on regular usage beats the contest

When it comes to battery life… well, it'due south proficient… in comparing with other smartwatches in the market. Still, information technology's a lot worse than it was with the Huawei Spotter GT2, GT2 Pro, and several other watches from the company. What does that mean? Well, in regular employ, this watch volition provide with near three days worth of bombardment life. That'due south what the company is marketing, and that's the experience I got. I was able to squeeze out three-iv days of utilize, but without an activated eSIM, which is included. So, I didn't have a cellular connectedness with the watch. That would farther impact the battery life. I did, however, leave everything else on, including constant aka continuous heart charge per unit tracking, etc.

You tin can clasp upward to ii weeks worth of battery in a special mode

You can squeeze a lot more than battery from the watch if you lot utilize the ultra-long battery life mode. Huawei is using some sort of smart power-saving algorithm to make this happen. I didn't test this for the whole elapsing of a charge, but I did exit information technology on for around 24 hours. Do note that you lot won't accept full functionality if you opt for this, so… utilize it only if you really need it. Information technology's definitely non a feature that you lot'd use in regular usage, but when you're purposely trying to save battery life.

Wireless charging is supported, but…

In regards to charging, this sentinel does support wireless charging. That is an improvement over Huawei's previous watches, which utilize charging pins, and custom connectors. It should support your regular Qi charging, merely I was unable to charge it on my Qi charging plate from Xiaomi. I'grand not certain why that is, just it just didn't want to charge information technology. Perhaps it'southward considering of the shape of the watch, it does protrude on the back a scrap, even though not by much. So, keep in listen that you may have to utilize the charger that Huawei ships with the watch, or utilise some sort of a Qi charger that has a unique shape for charging smartwatches.

It even has a practiced speaker, and a solid microphone

The Huawei Watch 3 does come with a speaker. Surprisingly, that speaker is bully at all. I hateful, it'southward definitely not for listening to music on information technology, as it gets quite tinny when the music gets louder, but it'due south good in regards to what it is, a speaker on a lookout. Y'all tin can use it to talk to people without headphones, without a trouble. At that place is also a microphone on the lookout man for that purpose. People I talked to said I sound a bit different, just non bad. You tin can definitely use this matter for phonation calls, if you lot want.

The Huawei Watch 3 is considerably better than its predecessors

The Huawei Sentry 3 is definitely an improvement over the Watch GT2 and Watch GT2 Pro. HarmonyOS feels much more fluid in comparison to LiteOS, and the visitor besides managed to fix quite a few bugs here. It offers better fettle tracking than its predecessors, and the improver of the rotating crown only benefited the scout. The battery life is solid, the functioning is good. The sentry does have its downsides, which are generally software-related. If you are looking to get something that is non WearOS, or Tizen, but likewise not a hybrid watch, the Huawei Picket 3 is a really adept alternative. HarmonyOS could get not bad on wearables, if Huawei continues to offering dandy support for it. A couple of updates could brand this watch fifty-fifty better. There are other great options at this price point, though, so exist sure to consider them all.

Source: https://www.androidheadlines.com/huawei-watch-3-review-specs-price-features

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