This was very nearly the shortest lived review I’ve done. Not quite as short as the rugged smartphone that smashed following a drop, but close enough. It took several attempts to get my iPhone – a 13 Pro – and the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro to pair. It was frustrating: the app gave clear instructions, the Bluetooth connection was established, the watch tried to pair with the app, and then… nothing.
But if all else fails, delete the app and try again. A fresh install of the Huawei Health app and we were ready to go. But it did highlight one of the main issues with this otherwise great smartwatch: if you aren’t using a Huawei smartphone, the process isn’t as seamless as you’d like.
That’s not to say that the Huawei GT3 Pro isn’t worth buying if you are using an iPhone or another manufacturer’s Android phone. Let’s be clear: it’s a great watch, it does almost everything you’ll need, and the Pro version looks great. It runs Huawei’s Harmony OS, rather than Android Wear. But if you are on iOS, you lose some features, such as the ability to install other apps to the watch, and adding music to your watch to take with you. On Android, getting the Huawei Health app requires going outside the Play Store and temporarily disabling a security setting on your phone, something I’ve done plenty of times but that won’t sit comfortably with some people.
The watch is essentially a fancier version of the Watch GT 3 that launched in Ireland a few months ago, with a slightly higher price tag to match. So why go for the GT 3 Pro over the standard GT 3? The new version comes with a more premium finish and two sizes, offering a 43mm ceramic version in white, and a 36mm titanium edition. They look more high-end than the GT 3, which didn’t actually look cheap by the way, and are also supposed to be more durable. The ceramic version – reviewed here, with the leather strap – in particular is lightweight enough to make it worth the extra money, in my opinion.
It comes with a 1.32-inch Amoled display, which is impressively bright, even in strong sunlight. It also has an IP68 dust and water resistance rating, and is dive-proof to 30m, if that takes your fancy. The last links in with a new free-diving mode on the watch, which is something I personally would never use but with the ongoing craze for sea swimming, who knows what we’ll all be into next year. (Note: I have never gone sea swimming, currently have no plans to ever do it and definitely don’t own a dryrobe).
Another new addition is the driving range mode, which will monitor your golf swing, as long as the swing is hard enough and your posture is correct. I would be more likely to use the other workouts on the watch, which is something Huawei has been featuring for a while now, such as the running courses, or a cross trainer. One thing I found disconcerting was the voice feedback – it is loud and unexpected through the device’s on-board speaker – but that can be disabled from your wrist, something I’d recommend unless you want everyone in earshot to hear your cheery trainer urging you on at various intervals.
There are some features that vary by market, most notably the ECG feature that would put the watch on a similar footing as its Apple and Samsung rivals; it’s not available in Europe yet but if it is approved for release here, it will be part of the heart health section. For now, you will have to content yourself with wrist-based heart rate tracking, blood oxygen levels and VO2 Max readings, skin temperature, a gyroscope, barometer, magnetometer and Bluetooth 5.2.
The always-on display isn’t turned on at set-up; you’ll have to do that through the watch’s settings yourself. There are reasons for not doing this, battery life being the most obvious one as having the display active all the time, even in a limited capacity, will inevitably reduce the time you get out of the battery. But I’ve been using an Apple Watch and Garmin watches for long enough to have adapted to the always-on display, and being able to glance at the time on your wrist without having to make an exaggerated lifting movement with your arm is one of the fundamental uses of a watch. When the display is blank, I assume the battery has died. So on it goes.
If your chosen watch face has an always-on display version, the watch will use that; if not, it uses the default. The nice thing about the Huawei watch is that you get to choose that default from the options loaded on to the watch.
The good
Huawei’s Pro version of its watch is lightweight with a great screen and covers all the basics when it comes to health tracking. It looks great too, like a regular watch with the rotating crown, and battery life – about a week – is fine for most users, with that shortened to four days for heavy users. The price, while not as cheap for the ceramic version, is also a lot lower than other similar pro-version watches.
The not so good
If you aren’t on an Android phone, you miss out on some features, but the apps aren’t going to be a deal-breaker for a lot of people as the basics are covered. The music may be a bigger issue, as iPhone users can only control the music on their phone rather than transfer tracks to the watch’s internal storage.
My install issues were frustrating, but they were easily solved and are unlikely to occur with those who are pairing a Huawei Watch for the first time.
The rest
The ECG function is still not available to European users, although it is expected to follow.
The verdict
Android users should definitely give this watch a second look.
