© Lemon squeezer
It's hard to deny the obvious similarities between this new Huawei Watch Fit 3 and the latest Apple Watch Ultra. If the two watches are visually very similar, the latest from Huawei has a strong argument: its price.
Sold for €159, it presents excellent value for money on paper, but what is it in reality ?
As we told you above, this Huawei Watch fit 3 draws its inspiration from the Apple Watch Ultra. Like American watches, we find a square format with a 1.82 inch screen. On the right, a crown and a flat physical button allow you to navigate the interface.
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The watch is relatively thin and light: 43.2 × 36.3 × 9.9 mm for 26 g (without the bracelet). Once placed on the wrist, it is quickly forgotten and can be worn for several days without problem thanks to its very good battery life (we will come back to this).
For its part, the screen is one of the real strong points of the watch. Despite its low price, this Watch Fit 3 has an AMOLED panel. This makes it easy to read a notification, even in direct sunlight. The absence of a real functionality “always-on display” is the only real black point to note. We can, at best, keep a screen on for 20 minutes, but battery life logically suffers due to lack of suitable technology.
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If the watch is intended to be rather successful, the same cannot be said of its OS. Although Huawei has made great efforts in recent years on this point, the Chinese brand's operating system is still too limited. It is in fact impossible to install third-party applications and native solutions, although complete, do not meet all uses.
Like Garmin products, everything must be done from the services already offered by the brand. Although Huawei offers numerous applications to meet most uses, you can quickly feel limited, especially since the movements within the watch are not all very natural.
If Huawei resumes the presentation of applications with “bubbles” like on the Apple Watch, navigation in the menus is slightly different with gestures swiped on the screen, which are not always very intuitive. The side button seems almost useless as it is possible to use the watch without having to use it. Ultimately, it only serves to automate the launch of activities, saving a few seconds before the start of a sports outing.
Finally, it is mandatory to use the Huawei Health application to use this watch. The latter must then be downloaded and is not present natively on our smartphones. iPhone users might therefore prefer an Apple Watch, whose connection is more fluid with a native application in the smartphone.
The application nevertheless remains very well constructed: it displays the data collected for a more precise analysis. It is also possible to configure certain aspects of the watch from the application, such as the dials or the workouts.
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One of the key features of a connected watch is its monitoring of health data and sports activities. By wearing the watch for several days, we realized during this test the very good quality of the different sensors.
The heart rate data and even pace data during sports outings turned out to be very similar to other models, although they were significantly more expensive. This Watch Fit 3 is also capable of measuring blood oxygen levels, a feature generally reserved for more high-end products.
The sensors on the back of the watch are, however, not capable of producing an ECG, a small downside for this Watch Fit 3 as this option has become a must-have for connected watches in recent years.
For sporting outings, the watch is therefore convincing. We were able to carry out training sessions and activities with high-quality monitoring.
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As for battery life, the watch can run for days without problems. Indeed, during our test, we were able to use the Watch Fit 3 during this very large bridge of the ascent without taking a charger with us.
The watch held up perfectly and it only went through the recharge box on Monday evening, exactly 10 days after its last full charge. This autonomy is announced as the “high limit” by Huawei which goes down to 7 or 4 days depending on the level of use of the watch.
In any case it is much better than its twin sister the Apple Watch Ultra which rarely exceeds two days of use on a single charge. Ultimately the only downside in this sector is recharging. While it's fast, Huawei's use of a proprietary magnetic port (and lack of wireless charging) adds yet another charging cable to our collection . We could have done without it.
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Finally this Watch Fit 3 from Huawei is one of the best connected watches on the market for less than 200 euros. It offers everything that one could reasonably ask for with a design and a screen to match.
The biggest criticism to make of this watch is its ecosystem, but it is a situation suffered by Huawei which, due to the American embargo, is forced to do without Google services.
So yes, there are still a few features missing to make it the perfect connected watch (ECG to name just one). But for a connected watch for less than 200 euros, the bet is more than successful for Huawei.
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Huawei Watch Fit 3
8.5
Global mark 8.5
We like
- A very good screen
- A successful design
- XXL battery life
- A real featherweight
We like less
- An air of deja vu
- An ecosystem that is too closed
- too many fingerprints