Now, Huawei has a new watch that looks a lot like an old friend. It’s called the Watch Fit 3. What it tries to do is be stylish, light, and have a long battery life. It costs a lot less than 200 euros.
The Fit 3 looks a lot like different Apple Watch types. There is no doubt that the screen is rectangular, even though the sides are rounded. There is a lot of work that Huawei has put into making its wearable tech look better. The company even calls the Watch Fit 3 a stylish model.
The watch will be sold for real on May 27. Prices start at 159 euros. It has a fluoroelastomer strap and is available in pink, black, and white. The top style has a leather strap and costs 199 euros. This type, which has a gray fabric band, was tested and costs 169 euros.
What’s in the box and the strap experience?
There is a charging puck with a fixed wire inside the box with the watch, along with a small booklet with information about the product and the warranty. Huawei also gave us a gray woven fabric strap to try.
The braided strap is easy to wear and can be bent. It’s simple to make small changes since it seals with Velcro, and it doesn’t get sweaty like rubber ones do. The strap is also very light, so it’s easy to wear for a long time. It looks sporty, so it might not go with every dress.
Because the strap has a quick-release method, you can change it out quickly. However, there is no standard for how to mount it. So, at first, you’ll have to use Huawei’s straps. However, Huawei has shown an adapter for other straps, but it’s not clear when it will be available.
Design, build, and controls
The Watch Fit 3 feels very light, weighing only 26 grams without the strap. 36.3 x 43.2 x 9.9 millimeters is how big it is on the outside. It has a red accent crown that gives it charm and makes it feel good when you turn it. At first press, a button below the crown brings up the Workout menu.
You can wear the watch in the rain because it is waterproof up to 10 ATM. The case is made of metal. After being used every day for three weeks, the case and the 2.5D bent screen didn’t look worn. You could see a small crack in the plastic piece that holds the glass to the bezel, even though it hadn’t been hit hard during tests.
The buzzing motor feels cheap compared to Huawei’s more expensive phones, and it’s not very loud.
Setup and connectivity
To set up the unit, you need the Huawei Health app. The unit that was tested had a Beta version that could see the new model. The watch was connected to a Samsung phone so that it could be tested. You can’t find the app in Google Play. You can only get it from Huawei’s website or the AppGallery.
Bluetooth is the only way for the watch to talk to phones. There isn’t Wi-Fi or LTE. Watch Fit 3 models with NFC don’t work in Finland because Huawei Wallet payments aren’t there. This means that NFC can’t be used to pay there.
The app is simple and easy to understand, but the information is spread out in several places at times. Everything about health is now in one place, which is good.
Display and watch faces
The Watch Fit 3’s 1.82-inch AMOLED screen is a good size and has thin edges. When it’s very bright, the screen can reach 1500 nits and has a resolution of 480 x 480 pixels (347 PPI). I like how the auto-brightness tool works. But the maximum brightness seems a bit too high for normal use. The screen can still be read in bright sunlight.
You can make the screen stay on all the time. The watch already has simple AOD faces loaded, and at night, the main face will dim or turn off so as not to bother you. When AOD is turned on, the power draw almost doubles.
Huawei added some new watch faces to the Fit 3. Some of them can be changed so that users can change how functions are shown. A lot of them are fun.
Heart rate, GPS, and fitness tracking
Huawei says that the heart-rate monitor TruSeen 5.5 is now more stable. At the test time, the Huawei Watch GT Runner and the Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic were walked on and given a few light runs.
The Watch Fit 3 didn’t quite do this. The machines that it used to measure heart rate didn’t always agree with its readings; sometimes they were off by more than 10%. Four more runs were done: three fast walks and one jog. This was done after the change was seen. The Fit 3’s numbers were usually either higher or lower than those of its peers.
The Fit 3 stood out from other Huawei and Samsung watches that track heart rates because it was different. Almost 20% could be different at the start of the events. They stopped going up as the practice went on, at about 5%. When the watch was worn on the right hand, the differences seemed to stay the same. The Fit 3 was not the same as the others in some ways, but the results were the same for about a quarter of the extra test time. Heart rate changes were picked up by the watch, which is what you’d expect from an optical wrist monitor.
Every time, the GPS worked the same way. Most of the time, the watch will lock its position in seconds if you start in the same spot. The lock time can be slowed down by about 30 seconds when switching between starts. The screens for workouts have been made better so that you can see the most important information faster. Heart-rate zones stand out better when the colors are changed.
This watch, like the Watch GT 4, also has daily exercise goals and a much better way to track sleep. When you sleep, the watch records your heart rate, how fast you breathe, and how much you breathe. It wasn’t always easy to keep track of sleep the first night, but it got better and started making sense after a few nights. One big change is that the Fit 3 doesn’t miss alarms like some older Huawei watches did.
Software and on‑watch experience
What the watch runs is HarmonyOS 4.2, and it’s easy to use. It will be easy for people who already have a Huawei watch to use.
Setting changes are quick to make when you swipe down, and alerts always appear on time when you swipe up. When you read a text message on your watch, it stays on your phone. You can get to smart help and your favorite apps with a side tap.
You can change what the bottom button does, and the crown can be hit or turned to scroll through apps with nine or twelve big icons. There are new apps when you double-press the crown. While tests are being done, movement is fast and stable, with no stuttering.
Built-in are a flashlight, timer, clock, stopwatch, weather app, compass, workout logs, barometer, and Petal Maps (not on iOS). AppGallery has more apps, but they don’t work with third-party apps as well as they do with apps that compete with Apple Watch and Wear OS.
Battery life and charging
Huawei says the battery will last about a week, and in the best cases, it will last up to ten days. Tests went well with that.
Before it turned off, the watch worked for seven days and a few hours. Tracking and messages were turned on, but the GPS didn’t stay on for long periods of time. After 24 hours of light use, the watch used about 10% of its battery. These numbers are great, especially considering how small and light the watch is. They back up what Huawei said.
You can still expect to go about three days without charging in that mode, even with AOD on and GPS tracking on for about an hour. Daily usage stayed around 25%. The cord that came with the battery let me charge it quickly. It took one hour and five minutes to go from empty to full. The small magnetic charger is easy to connect the wrong way, which suggests that it was made to be easy to use rather than accurate.
Verdict
There are lots of good things about the Huawei Watch Fit 3. The best things about the watch are how light it is and how the cloth strap on the test unit makes it almost unnoticeable when worn. The screen is clear and bright, and it’s easy to use. The red crown is a nice touch, and the style that looks like Apple makes it feel more expensive than it is.
The fabric-band type, which costs 169 euros, has a great price-to-feature ratio. It’s a good mix of comfort and value.
Some things are wrong with the watch, though. The unique strap mounting makes third-party options restricted. The vibration motor feels cheap, heart rate readings aren’t always correct, and the app ecosystem isn’t as strong as competitors’. These flaws make the Fit 3 less than ideal as a top choice.
Best for: someone who is always on the go, cares about style and battery life, and wants a cheap friend who doesn’t need to be charged very often.
