Huawei Watch GT3 Pro review: noble smartwatch with ankle monitor

Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro Titanium release date and price

The Huawei Watch GT3 replaces the Watch GT2 Pro from the year before last—and somehow also the Huawei Watch GT3 from a few months ago. You will undoubtedly get a smartwatch with a really sophisticated look again, because the GT3 Pro's casing is made of either titanium or ceramic.

Huawei's HarmonyOS is fun to use on the Watch GT3 Pro—whether in everyday life or during sports—and that also applies when you use the smartwatch with an iPhone like I mostly did during the review period. I have always liked Huawei's Health app and it clearly displays the various health data.

Good price-performance ratio or not: The Watch GT3 Pro is no cheap pleasure. The titanium version shown below with a 46 millimeter case and the titanium wristband is being sold currently on Amazon for $399. There is also the white ceramic model that costs around $100 more.

Design and display

Our Huawei Watch GT 3 in the titanium version looks incredibly chic—and the display is beautiful. That not only applies to the size and display quality, but also to the robustness: The sapphire glass does not have a single scratch after two months of relentless testing.

Likes:

• enormously chic, robust design
• large, bright display

Dislikes:

• -

Once again, Huawei does not show any weaknesses in terms of design: Whether in a titanium body or in bright ceramics including gold-plated details: The Huawei Watch GT3 Pro is eye-catching. Every detail of our 46-millimeter model with its metal wristband feels like it has been manufactured to a high standard. The wristband is almost scratch-free after several weeks and looks almost like new. The clasp snaps snugly into place and did not accidentally open once in the test.

The case itself also feels enormously solid. It is waterproof up to 5 ATM and certified according to IP68. In addition, the Watch GT3 Pro also complies with the industry standard DIN EN13319—like the Apple Watch Ultra, for example. This ensures that you can dive up to 30 meters deep with the Huawei watch (That is, only if you can dive anyway. I mention it for safety's sake beforehand!).

On the front, you'll find sapphire glass, which proves to be extremely scratch-resistant in the test and really didn't collect the slightest scratch during the test. On the top right is the rotating crown, which is made of titanium on our model and gold-plated on the ceramic model. The watch can be pleasantly operated via it, with gentle vibrations accompanying the turning.

We received the larger titanium model for testing. Its AMOLED display has an excellent resolution of 466 x 466 pixels. The screen diagonal measures 1.43 inches, resulting in a pixel density of 326 ppi. The ceramic model with an identical resolution and a screen diagonal of 1.32 inches offers a slightly higher pixel density of 352 ppi.

Software and features

The Watch GT 3 Pro runs HarmonyOS, which convinces with a well-designed interface. However, the Watch GT 3 Pro only has limited smartwatch functionalities in contrast to competing smartwatches.

Likes:

• colorful, chic interface
• Works with Android and iOS

Dislikes:

• no access to App Gallery via iOS
• partly illogical operation
• no LTE option
• no mobile payment

In our review of the Huawei Watch GT3, we praised its easy handling and the clean look. Not much has changed here at first glance. Unfortunately, this also applies to the app selection. Huawei is trying to attract more developers, but it is obviously a tough struggle—especially in the U.S., where apps are entirely banned on the Watch GT3 Pro with not even watchfaces being allowed. But even if you live outside the U.S., you'll only have access to a low three-digit number of apps, including a lot of "small stuff" like calculators or holiday calendars, but at least there's also a Nuki app and Philips Hue Essentials.

The voice assistants Alexa, Google Assistant or even Siri do not run on the Watch GT3 Pro, which means that—apart from a few exceptions—it is not suitable for smart home control. It is a pity for iOS users: Currently, they cannot access the already sparsely populated App Gallery at all, since Apple still does not accept third-party app stores on its devices. And this is everywhere in the world, not just the U.S.

Basically, the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro is compatible with all smartphones from Android 6.0, Harmony OS 2 or iOS 9.0 and supports Bluetooth 5.2. Everything you expect from a smartwatch and what you know from the predecessors is of course on board again. You can accept calls and text messages, have e-mails, calendar entries, social media and much more in view. What is new is that you can now reply to WhatsApp via Quick Reply—but that only works on Android. If you live outside the U.S., you can at least enjoy more than 70,000 Watch Faces.

The Huawei Watch GT3 Pro also lacks a few other typical smartwatch features. For example, there is no option for mobile payments. The GT series also does not have an LTE version—you will have to buy the Watch 3 Pro (review).

Sensors and tracking

The Huawei Watch GT3 Pro offers a variety of sensors and tracking features—from pulse and sleep to ECG and stress to GPS and various running metrics. However, the accuracy is often only moderate. One problem with our test device is that the length of the titanium strap with buckle cannot be easily adjusted. Therefore, the watch usually sits too loosely on the wrist during sports if you don't want to fumble an element out of the link bracelet and then back in again every time before training. It's easier to replace the whole bracelet—so consider getting a second bracelet for sports.

Likes:

• Supports third-party chest straps.
• Versatile tracking features

Dislikes:

• Moderately accurate heart rate measurement
• Sleep tracking imprecise
• few conclusions from the data

Outdoor sports & GPS

The Huawei Watch GT3 Pro offers good conditions for outdoor athletes: The watch not only tracks the heart rate, but also all kinds of running metrics. GPS is also on board. However, the sensors are only moderately accurate in practice. The GPS tracks are blurry, corners are often cut short, even on wide forest paths. On a hilly forest run, for example, I measure a distance of 7.73 kilometers with 130.6 meters of ascent and 127.6 meters of descent with the Watch GT3 Pro. The pace is thus 6:50 minutes per kilometer.

With the Garmin Instinct 2, on the other hand, I get 8.02 kilometers and a page of 6:36 minutes per kilometer. Ascent and descent are slightly lower at 108 and 111 meters, respectively. A direct comparison of the recorded routes reveals that the Watch GT3 Pro records significantly fewer measuring points. This means that corners and edges in particular are shortened, which is probably the main reason for the difference of almost 300 meters in my run.

There are differences in the pulse as well: with the Watch GT3 Pro, I get an average of 158 beats per minute. The Garmin watch with a chest strap comes to an average of 151 beats. Both smartwatches determine the same cadence of 153, and the stride length of 95 versus 97 centimeters is a bit shorter on the Watch GT3 Pro—which is logical considering the shorter total distance. Those who value precise heart rate measurement can pair a Bluetooth chest strap with the Huawei Health app—or ensure a tighter fit as mentioned above.

Indoor sports & fitness

Of course, Huawei has also thought about indoor athletes. You will find the usual sports modes for treadmill, elliptical trainer, yoga, etc.—but interestingly none for weight lifting. Accordingly, there is no automatic exercise recognition like you'd find in most Garmin smartwatches—or the Amazfit in the new GTR4 (hands-on). Thus, the general "Training" mode remains here.

During fitness training with body weight, dumbbells and machines, the Huawei Watch GT3 Pro has the usual problems of smartwatches with optical heart rate sensors. As soon as the wrists are heavily stressed or bent, the blood no longer flows unhindered and the pulse measurement becomes inaccurate. Especially during high-intensity exercises, such as burpees, the measured pulse is clearly too low. The link wristband of our review sample exacerbates this problem because the watch cannot simply be tightened—shortening or lengthening the wristband is quite fiddly.Nevertheless, you can pair the Watch GT3 Pro with a third-party chest strap and solve the problem that way.

Finally, Huawei itself offers numerous fitness lessons in its incidentally excellent Health app. The manufacturer divides these by goal: There are the categories health, weight loss, running, toning, muscle building, and jumping rope (aha). Currently, however, the number of workouts is in the low double digits. There's more choice when it comes to running: Here you can have detailed running plans tailored to your personal needs based on distance and pace goals. Very nice.

Sleep, recovery and more

The Huawei Watch GT3 Pro does a decent job in sleep tracking. The results of the sleep tracking largely correspond to those of a Garmin Instinct 2 worn at the same time and the subjective fall asleep and wake-up times. However, the smartwatch—like the vast majority of devices, by the way—has problems recognizing a continued sleep or nap during the day.

There is also a tracking function for stress, but I found it rather meaningless in the test. Even during very high stress (e.g. my own wedding), I never exceeded a daily maximum of just under 40.

Furthermore, the Huawei Watch GT3 Pro offers a function to detect arterial stiffness. However, due to a lack of comparison options, I can do little with the normal value of 7.5 m/s that was determined for me.

Finally, the Huawei Watch GT3 Pro also measures the skin temperature. However, I am still not sure what conclusions to draw from this. During a Corona infection with fever, I could not determine an increased skin temperature—and the app does not tell me what I can do with the values. The Apple Watch Series 8 or Watch Ultra, for example, is much more specific here.

The bottom line is that the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro offers a broad set of fitness features. However, the results are often inaccurate and cannot keep up with the pure sports watches from Garmin & Co. However, users who want to track a few workouts here and there and do not analyze the data in detail should be satisfied with the tracking features.

Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro Titanium battery

According to the manufacturer, the Watch GT3 Pro offers a battery life of up to 14 days for the large and up to seven days for the small ceramic model. Even with intensive use, the manufacturer still promises eight days for the large model. These values are downright bombastic for a smartwatch—and are even realistically achievable in practice.

Likes:

• Excellent battery life
• Quite fast charging

Dislikes:

• -

Well, okay. I did not reach the 14 days in the test. But even with the Always-On display enabled, regular workouts including GPS tracking, and notifications turned up all the way, I easily manage a week with the large Titanium model. I consider Huawei's promise of eight days of intensive use to be fulfilled. You can probably still expect about four days of runtime with the smaller model when you use the watch intensively.

Charging is also pleasantly fast with the wireless charging puck. It takes about 30 minutes to charge the large Watch GT3 Pro from 10% to 50%, which is enough juice for a long weekend of intensive use. According to Huawei, a full charge should take 85 minutes, which is quite a realistic value.

Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro Titanium

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