Last year, we were immensely impressed by the Huawei Watch GT2 Pro (Review) which in our opinion, is easily one of the most value-for-money premium smartwatch in 2020.
After almost a year of anticipation, Huawei will soon be back to the local smartwatch scene with the brand new Huawei Watch 3 Pro which has many firsts to it’s own name: first HarmonyOS smartwatch, first Huawei smartwatch with eSIM support, among others.
With all the latest software and upgrades onboard, the Huawei Watch 3 Pro not only offers a fresh user experience that’s different from any of it’s predecessors, but also boasts significant improvement in many aspects.
Although the official pricing and availability of the Huawei Watch 3 Pro has yet to be announced by Huawei Singapore, but let’s go ahead and check out what the new smartwatch has in store in our Huawei Watch 3 Pro review!
Classy & Stylish Design
You can easily tell that the Huawei Watch 3 Pro is an incredibly classy smartwatch at a single glance. From it’s high-quality leather strap to it’s Titanium watch case, the Watch 3 Pro looks and feels premium in every way.
The adoption of a Titanium watch case promises extra durability and greater comfort thanks to it’s lightweight nature. With a featherlight weight of just 64 grams (excluding it’s strap), the Huawei Watch 3 Pro feels weightless on the wrist, and doesn’t cause any discomfort even if you wear it through the day or when sleeping.
Just like last year’s Huawei Watch GT2 Pro, the underside of the Watch 3 Pro is also constructed with ceramic material that feels gentle and smooth on the skin. It sports the usual dome-shape centre which houses most of the key sensors like optical heart rate sensor and temperature sensor.
The Classic Edition Huawei Watch 3 Pro that we received for review arrives with a leather strap which boasts a more classy outlook (hence it’s name) than the Elite Edition model that comes with a Titanium strap.
As usual, it’s a 22mm leather strap can be easily removed and interchanged with other official or third-party strap whenever necessary. This means you can change the strap to a silicon one when exercising, or any other straps that matches your outfit of the day.
Excellence Display & Software
Coming to what matters most, the Huawei Watch 3 Pro sports a 1.43” AMOLED display which offers an ultra-sharp 466 x 466 pixels screen resolution. Along with it’s vibrant and punchy colors, the watch’s display is certainly a delightful visual treat for it’s users.
Naturally, having an AMOLED display also means that the Watch 3 Pro supports Always-On Display. Some of you might be glad to hear that the watch is pre-loaded with a good selection of AOD styles for you to pick from as well.
According to Huawei, the Watch 3 Pro can also get extremely bright with an impressive peak brightness of up to 1,000 nits. As such, you can be well-assured that the screen will remain visible even during a bright daylight.
On the software side of things, the Huawei Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro are the first batch of Huawei wearables that are driven by the company’s proprietary HarmonyOS operating system, instead of LiteOS.
The new HarmonyOS puts forward a brand new Grid-style app menu that feels more lively and interactive than the traditional list-style menu. Likewise, the new Grid-style menu also makes it easier to look for app without the need to scroll through a lengthy list.
Interestingly, you can pinch in and out (of the screen) to zoom in and out of the orderly arranged apps. Otherwise, you can achieve the same by simply rotating it’s rotatable crown situated along the right edge of the watch.
Besides interacting with the app launcher, rotating the crown also allows you to scroll up and down a list without the need to swipe the screen. It’s a handy feature that really helps especially when your hand is sweaty during a workout.
Sitting directly below the crown is a secondary button which serves as a shortcut for the list of workout modes by default. However, you can choose to map this button to other function or feature via the watch setting.
Among the most notable addition in HarmonyOS in my opinion, is the availability of AppGallery which allows you to gain access to a good selection of apps, both official and third-party, which you can download directly onto the Watch 3 Pro. This means you wouldn’t even need to be connected to your smartphone to download these exciting apps.
At the moment, there are hundred of apps that are available for download from AppGallery, ranging from maps, radio services, dictionaries, and even games. More apps will certainly be added along the way, but we’re already impressed by the variety of apps, considering AppGallery for wearables is still in it’s infancy.
Coming to the connectivity-end, the Huawei Watch 3 Pro comes with all the staple features like GPS, Bluetooth 5.2 Wi-Fi, NFC and eSIM support. However, what really sets the Watch 3 Pro apart from it’s predecessors will be the support for Wi-Fi connectivity, which allows the watch to tap any available hotspot whenever you need an Internet connection.
Anyway, for the benefits of those who may not know, having eSIM support means that the Huawei Watch 3 Pro can make or pick up calls even when the watch is disconnected from the phone. Touching of this, calls can be made directly via the watch’s microphone and speaker itself, or through an external bluetooth headset.
Last but not the least, the Huawei Watch 3 Pro also comes with Huawei’s own voice assistance Celia which may sounds familiar for those who happen to be a Huawei smartphone users. However, you do need an active Internet connection to take advantage of this feature.
All The Health & Fitness Tracking Features You Need
As a premium smartwatch, we aren’t surprised at all by the vast variety of health monitoring features that are available onboard the Huawei Watch 3 Pro.
These features include the all the widely used ones like 24hr heart rate monitoring, around-the-clock SpO2 measurement, stress levels monitoring, sleep tracking, daily calories burnt, as well as steps tracking.
Apart from the aforementioned features, the Huawei Watch 3 Pro also comes with a new feature known as skin temperature measurement which does exactly what it’s name implies.
It doesn’t actually measures your body temperature, but rather the surface temperature of your skin which might offers some useful insight on potential fever or perhaps help to identify heat stroke when there’s an abrupt rise in temperature.
To test out the accuracy of it’s heart rate and SpO2 measurements, I compared the readings taken on the Huawei Watch 3 Pro against my all-time favorite Huawei Watch GT2 Pro.
Most of the time, readings differ by a really fine margin of 1 to 2 beats for heart rate monitoring and around one percentage point for SpO2 readings. The slight different in readings I believe, is due to the adoption of the new TreSeen 4.5 heart rate monitoring technology which is said to provide better accuracy for heart-rate monitoring.
As for workout, the Huawei Watch 3 Pro features more than 100 different workout modes which covers all the main ones like outdoor run, indoor run, outdoor walk, indoor walk, outdoor cycling, indoor cycling, pool swim, open water swim and hiking.
Some of the more uncommon, but nice to have workout modes include skiing and snowboarding which will come in handy when you visit a winter country during for vacation.
Superb Battery Life
Huawei wearables are always known for their superb battery life and the new Huawei Watch 3 Pro epitomized that once again. During the past three weeks I spent using the Watch 3 Pro, I was able to churn out 6 to 7 days worth of battery life under heavy usage and around two weeks under moderate usage.
So long you disconnect the watch from your phone whenever it’s not needed, turn off NFC and Wi-Fi when not in use, and disable the always-on display feature, I’m sure you can easily get more than 10 days battery life even with heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking turned on everyday.
To charge the Huawei Watch 3 Pro, there’s a bundled magnetic 10W wireless charger that’s capable of delivering a full charge from 0 to 100% in around 3 hours. That’s pretty decent if we take into account of it’s battery capacity.
Verdict
The Huawei Watch 3 Pro is no doubt one of the most promising smartwatch we have this year, with it’s timeless design and feature-rich internals that make Huawei smartwatches smarter than ever.
The greatest improvements of the new Huawei Watch 3 Pro in my opinion, come from the connectivity-end especially the addition of eSIM and Wi-Fi support which allows the watch to be less dependent on a smartphone, and also functions better as an independent device.
For Huawei fans, the new HarmonyOS is also another notable highlight of the Watch 3 Pro as it allows users to finally have a first-hand experience of the company’s proprietary operating system on a wearable.
