Huawei Watch GT 3 Smartwatch in Review: Classy looks and impressive battery

The new Huawei Watch GT 3 comes in an elegant casing made of stainless-steel. The back, where the sensor is centrally located, is made of plastic. We tested the 46 mm version of Huawei Watch GT 3. It is also equipped with a considerably larger battery compared to the more compact 42 mm variant. The case is 11 mm thick (42 mm variant is slightly thinner) and weighs a good 42 g (42 mm: 35 g) without the interchangeable and 22 mm wide strap.

For our test, we had the Classic Edition with a silver-colored case and the elegant brown leather strap on hand. It looks especially good with classy outfits. We also find the more expensive Elite Edition with a stainless-steel strap quite classy, while the Active Edition with a black fluoro-elastomer strap looks much sportier.

The smaller 42 mm variant, which is aimed primarily at female customers, is available with either a black fluoro-elastomer strap, white leather strap, or gold-colored Milanaise strap, and a matching case.

A microphone and a speaker are integrated for the telephony function discussed below. Besides the smartwatch itself, the scope of delivery includes a manual and the charger. The charger has an approximately 80 cm long USB-A cable and is magnetically attached to the underside of the watch. A power adapter is not included. Alternatively, any Qi charger or reverse charging function on the smartphone can be used, which is quite practical.

The Huawei Watch GT 3 is equipped with a rotatable and pressable crown at the top and a button positioned below it on the right side of the case. The crown calls up the menu when pressed, while zooming in and out is done via rotary motion. Various functions can be assigned to the lower button in the settings such as to start a workout, for example. Feedback is provided by a light vibration, which is also easily noticeable in everyday use. The voice assistant, the activity rings, and other widgets appear via a swipe to the right or left.

The Huawei Watch GT 3 is not available in an LTE version. However, it is does come equipped with a speaker and a microphone. The wearable can also be used for short conversations with the smartphone within reach. The audio quality is logically not the best, but it is sufficient for the purpose.

Notifications on the smartphone are usually immediately displayed on the smartwatch as well. Different notification types (e.g., WhatsApp, social media, etc.) can be activated and deactivated via the app. Longer messages are unfortunately not displayed completely on the wearable. It is also not sufficient for reading emails. A reply function is not available apart from predefined quick replies to SMS since a recent update (not under iOS). Emojis (e.g., for Skype) are also not displayed correctly. In addition, there were occasional problems with synchronization with an iPhone.

The Watch GT 3 supports the AI Voice Assistant, but requires a Huawei smartphone. Access to Google Assistant, Siri and the likes is not possible.

The Huawei Watch GT 3 displays daily activity targets in the familiar rings that we know from Apple Watch and co. These include steps, sports, and movements. In addition, it also provides various tips and incentives for a healthier life with Healthy Living — not a bad idea, especially in the home-office scenario these days.

Compared with a Polar H10 chest strap as a reference device, there were no differences in the resting heart rate in our test and only a deviation of one percent in activity. Thus, the Huawei Watch GT 3's heart rate sensor works very accurately.

Blood oxygen saturation is measured reliably, either on command or continuously depending on the setting. The latter results in a progression curve over the day comparable to the pulse. A data export option is not available.

If you also wear the Huawei smartwatch at night, you can monitor your own sleep. No special app or mode needs to be started; the watch detects this automatically.

The length of sleep is displayed in the morning. A detailed but unfortunately not very clear evaluation of sleep phases and quality is only available in the Huawei Health app on the smartphone. A few more details directly on the wearable would be nice and would save the detour via the smartphone app.

The Huawei Watch GT 3 features over 100 sports modes, around 20 of them directly on the smartwatch. In addition, there is an AI running trainer as well as other free courses and plans. Thus, numerous sports can be recorded — from running, spinning, and rowing machine to free training. The selection of the sport is done via the menu. For outdoor activities, a GPS connection is first established after which you can start the workout.

The watch tracks different measured values depending on the sport. For jogging and walking, for example, these are the distance covered as well as the course (can be viewed via Huawei Health), the speed, the duration, and of course the heart rate. A colored bar with a marker arrow also shows at a glance which area the user is currently training. That is practical. A detailed evaluation is only available on the smartphone here as well. The smartwatch can also determine the VO₂max value, which is interesting for runners, among others.

After stopping the workout recording, a more detailed view can be seen in the app on the smartphone. If desired, the smartwatch can also measure recovery after exercise within two minutes and thus provide insights into the current training status. We tested the workout recording during a brisk winter walk in icy temperatures, among other things, where the tracking worked well.

An unspecified ARM Cortex-M with 32 MB of main memory and 4 GB of mass storage is installed. While the software of the predecessor, the Huawei Watch GT 2, with LiteOS still had some weaknesses, the installed HarmonyOS 2.1 runs smoothly and mostly without problems on the new Watch GT 3. The watch responds quickly to inputs and apps start quickly. Only the activation of the display when turning the wrist did not always work reliably in the test. Unfortunately, benchmarks are not available for HarmonyOS.

At the time of our review, the Huawei Watch GT 3 is available from €229 (~$249) at Notebooksbilliger and other stores. The tested version with 46 mm and brown leather strap is available from Huawei or Amazon (DE) for €269.