Huawei Watch Fit 3 Review: Third Time's the Charm

Published: May 10, 2024, 8:52 AM

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Huawei Watch Fit 3 Intro

My initial plan was to title this review "It's hip to be square," but as science has proven time and again, independent minds constantly give birth to the same ideas. So, yeah - another tech media stole that one, but its deeper meaning is for everyone to ponder.

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 is the third iteration of the midrange, stylish smartwatch from the Chinese company, and this time around we have a square design that is reminiscent of another hugely popular smartwatch.

Even though the design of the Watch Fit 3 may raise some eyebrows, the smartwatch offers a very robust set of features, especially when we consider the starting price of £139.99/€159. It has a very bright screen, a long battery life, and a comprehensive health and fitness tracking.

So, let's dive in and see if the third time's really the charm for Huawei and the Watch Fit.

What’s new about the Huawei Watch Fit 3:

1.82-inch AMOLED display with 1,500 nits peak brightness
400mAh battery with up to 10 days of battery life
Single-band, GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou/Galileo/QZSS
5ATM water resistance
New square design with a 77.43% screen-to-body ratio
Rotating crown
Huawei's TruSeen, TruSleep, and TruSport packages

Table of Contents:

Unboxing
Specs
Design and Sizes
Bands
Software
Battery and Charging
Models and Prices
Voice Calls and Haptics
Competitors
Summary

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Unboxing

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Review: Third Time's the Charm

The Watch Fit 3 comes in a white box of paper, and there's not much case candy inside, to be honest. You get the watch with a silicon strap pre-attached and a USB-A charging cable with two magnetic pins at the end.

Then again, for 159 euros, you can't expect fancy leather or steel spare wristbands, charging bricks, or other cool stuff. I only wish the charging cable was type-C, as it's becoming the standard nowadays.

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Specs

Here's a quick specs sheet for the Huawei Watch Fit 3:

Specs	Huawei Watch Fit 3
Screen	1.82 inches, AMOLED color screen 480 x 408; Aspect ratio: 1.18:1 Screen-to-body ratio: 77.43% PPI: 347 1,500 nits peak brightness
Software	Harmony OS 4.2.0
Battery and Charging	400mAh battery Typical use: 7 days Maximum: 10 days Magnetic charger, 100% in 60 mins
Sensors	HR, blood oxygen
Connectivity	Wi-Fi, 2.4 GHz, Bluetooth 5.2 supporting BR and BLE
Price	£139.99/€159

Looking at the specs, the thing that stands out the most is the screen. It's quite big at 1.82 inches, and the 480×408-pixel resolution (347PPI) also looks great in person. The watch is only 26 grams (without the strap), and this 400mAh battery also looks pretty hefty, considering the compact size of the watch (only 9.9mm thickness).

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Design & Display

Inspired by…

Look, there's no way around this, so I'm just gonna say it. The Huawei Watch Fit 3 looks very similar to a second generation Apple Watch SE.

That being said, there are differences. The aspect ratio is different, the aluminum frame isn't rounded but quite angular, and the button under the crown is not flush with the body. However, during my time with the Huawei Watch Fit 3, several people asked me what model of Apple Watch I was wearing. So there's that.

There are five color variants of the Watch Fit 3: Grey, White, Green, Pink, and Black. The Gray and White models have a bright red rotating crown, while the others use a crown that matches the overall color of the frame. To me, the Pink and Black variants look the best, but it's up to personal preference.

There's a Leather option (slightly more expensive) that uses lugs for strap attachment rather than the quick-release button mechanism of the normal model, and it's available with a white leather strap or a grey nylon one.

The display deserves a mention here as well. It's a gorgeous 1.82-inch AMOLED that can go to crazy brightness numbers, and it remains legible even under direct sunlight on a very sunny day. The resolution is also great, and everything looks really crisp and detailed.

There are tons of watch faces, and most of them work really well in always-on mode. You can customize the complications on some of them, choose different colors, and so on. Overall, the Watch Fit 3 is a very stylish and expensive looking device with a great display. It's also lightweight and comfortable to wear.

The real shame is that the aforementioned similarities with the Apple Watch SE might draw the focus and attention of people toward a negative and unwanted direction.

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Bands & Size

One size to rule them all

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 comes in just one size, which is 43.2 × 36.3 × 9.9 mm. Thanks to the square-ish design, it looks good on most wrists, barring the most extreme cases.

The band situation at the moment is pretty vanilla. As we already discussed, there are four silicon (fluoroelastomer) straps—Green, White, Pink, and Black—for the regular models. The Leather model uses metal lugs and two different strap materials - leather and nylon.

If you opt for the Leather version, you will be able to fit standard 20mm straps, the ones with a pin and a quick-release mechanism, so I highly recommend that version if you like to change your style often.

Huawei promises to add multiple independent strap color options soon, such as Vibrant Black, Vibrant White, Vitality Activity Ring strap, and Starlight Color strap, so if you're patient, you'll get some strap options.

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Software & Features

Harmony and balance

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 runs on Huawei's proprietary operating system, Harmony OS (version 4.2.0), and you pair it to your phone using the Huawei Health app. This app can be found on the App Store and Google Play Store as well, so the old software hurdles have been alleviated.

Swiping up from the home screen brings notifications up, swiping down takes you to a quick setting menu, left is a smart assistant, and swiping right goes through different tiles that you can customize, add, or remove (you can have a total of six active).

The rotating crown takes you to the main menu and back to the home screen if you're anywhere else inside the software, while the button below the crown can be mapped to pretty much anything you want (it takes you to workouts by default). Here are some of the new features on the Watch Fit 3.

Enhanced sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, and fitness tracking

The Watch Fit 3 comes with Huawei's TruSeen, TruSport, and TruSleep technologies. TruSeen 5.5 brings more precise cardiovascular readings for analyzing workout performance and daily health, based on AI algorithms and work with various Chinese health organizations.

TruSleep 4.0 provides detailed sleep information, such as sleep structure, sleep quality, and sleep health, including newly displayed physiological indicators during sleep like heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and breathing rate. It's an upgrade of the previous version found in all Huawei watches, and it works really well.

TruSport is Huawei's fitness tracking technology, and in the Watch Fit 3, it introduces four new modes: football, basketball, padel, and e-sports. There are over 100 sports modes, including indoor and outdoor activities, and you can also use personalized training plans based on the user’s Running Ability Index (RAI), which include pace, heart rate, running distance, and other key factors.

New Stay Fit App

There's a brand new Stay Fit app that helps you control your weight. If you've ever used such apps (LoseIt, MyFitnessPal, etc.), you will find yourselves in familiar territory. The app lets you set a goal weight, log your meals, and track your calories throughout the day. It automatically adds the burnt callories from exercises and shows everything in a nice and comprehensive way.

Activity Ring Tracker

Huawei previously used a system called Health Clovers to track your progress at various tasks throughout the day (hydration, exercises, step count, sleep, etc.), but the Watch Fit 3 introduces a new system called Activity Ring Tracker.

This sounds and looks familiar and also tracks the same metrics—move, exercise, and stand—as other smartwatch brands out there. Health Clovers are still present, but if you want to keep things simple, now you can close those rings. Enough said.

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Battery and Charging

Solid battery life, frustrating charging method

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 comes with a hefty 400mAh battery inside, which should translate to a long and healthy battery life. Huawei cites up to 10 days (7 days typical) on a single charge, and I was able to get out five days of heavy use out of the watch, including several hours of GPS tracked exercises every day, a couple of calls, sleep tracking, and continuous heart-rate monitoring.

The charging method is pretty frustrating, though. The magnetic pin connector has to be aligned properly to attach, and the hold is not very strong. The pull of the cable often detaches the connector; there's no cradle to support it or anything to make snapping it to the watch easier. The charging time is about an hour, from zero to full (I got 69 minutes, to be exact). No wireless charging.

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Storage and Performance

Huawei doesn't say specifically how much storage the Watch Fit 3 has available, but if you try to add more songs than the watch can take, a message pops up saying, "The watch only has 1520MB of storage available."

That's enough for about 300 songs with decent quality, so bear this in mind when you're deciding on buying the Fit 3, especially if you want a music background for your training sessions.

Performance-wise, the watch works fairly smoothly. There's an occasional millisecond of hesitation from time to time, but it's not something that will drive you crazy. The GPS lock is fast, and scrolling through tiles on the home screen is also pretty smooth.

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Voice Calls and Haptics

You can use the Huawei Watch Fit 3 to make and receive calls, but only through Bluetooth pairing. Meaning, you're using the watch more like a Bluetooth headset/speaker. That being said, the quality of the speaker and mic in this watch is really good.

The call audio is loud and clear, and the other side can also hear what you're saying even in a noisy environment. You can also use the speaker to play music and listen to the guidance of your personal trainers when you sweat away that winter belly.

The haptics are very impressive as well. The crown has a nice and tight vibration when you turn it, and all notifications and alarms buzz your hand pretty strongly. Of course, you can adjust the level of the haptic feedback if it gets annoying (there are three options: strong, soft, and off).

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Competitors

The obvious one here is the Apple Watch SE, as you might've guessed. The SE is much more expensive, especially in Europe (starting at €279.00, which is almost twice as expensive), and to be fair, you don't get much added value for that kind of money.

Another close competitor would be the Fitbit Versa 4, which costs almost the same and also comes with very similar features. The Watch Fit 3 has a better display and better UI experience due to the rotating crown, so there's also that.

You can go cheaper with the Garmin Venu Sq if you don't care much about a high-res display and modern UI. The watch offers a similar square design, GPS tracking, Garmin Pay, and Garmin's expertise in fitness tracking.

Huawei Watch Fit 3 Summary and Final Verdict

There's a lot to like about this device, from the very bright and crisp AMOLED screen to the excellent build quality and the extensive health and fitness tracking capabilities. The battery life is also great; even if you push the watch to its absolute limits, you'll still get a couple of days on a single charge.

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 punches way above its weight, especially when it comes to design and feel. Ironically, this strong side is somewhat tarnished by its similarities with the Apple Watch SE. If you can live with that and the fact that people will constantly mistake the Fit 3 for an Apple Watch, this affordable smartwatch can give you a lot in return.

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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.