Huawei Watch Fit 3 review: A cheaper Apple Watch alternative

Huawei Watch Fit 3: One minute review

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 is a brilliant mid-range smartwatch that is specifically targeted towards fitness enthusiasts. Over 100 different sports modes take center stage and allow for a range of activity tracking, including running, walking, cycling, and swimming, to name a few.

Even though the Fit 3 is designed for exercise, it is very much fulfilling the broader smartwatch feature ethos. It remains to be seen whether the Watch Fit 3 will make it into our best smartwatch guide but with great fitness features and well-implemented smartwatch functionality, there could be a place for it.

Smartwatch features include notification support, a weather widget, and a number of different watch faces. Each of these is masterfully designed and works seamlessly with the rest of the watch. I particularly loved receiving navigation directions while I was cycling. This saved having to mount my phone to my bike, which is what I normally do.

At AU$222 / £139.99 UK, the Watch Fit 3 sits at the more affordable end of the smartwatch and fitness tracker market. If you're on the lookout for a reasonable fitness tracker that mirrors some functionality from your phone, then this is one of the best options available at the moment.

Huawei Watch Fit 3: Price and availability

• AU$222 / £139.99 UK
• HUAWEI Extended Warranty For £28.00

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 is available now, priced at AU$222 / £139.99 UK. Choose from a range of strap colours including Black, Pink, Green, Moon White, Grey, Pearl Grey. Also included in the box is a USB-C charging cable.

If you want to enjoy free repair for a longer period of time, then you can purchase the HUAWEI Extended Warranty for £28.00.

If you'd like something more premium, then you could upgrade to the Apple Watch SE for $249 / £219.

Unfortunately, Huawei's Watch Fit 3 is not available in the United States.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Huawei Watch Fit 3: Design

• Very similar design to the Apple Watch
• Bright AMOLED screen
• Comfortable nylon strap

The Watch Fit 3 is the first of Huawei's watches to deviate from a traditional wristwatch design. Rather than a circular design, they have followed the Apple Watch design ethos and opted for a rectangular face with curved corners. The result is an easy-on-the-eye design that looks great but isn't going to turn any heads.

I particularly love the crown roller button located on the right-hand side of the watch, which on my test sample was bright red and looked great offset against the aluminium alloy strip. It is simple to use and rotates with ease, providing a great level of functionality across a number of the watch's features. The haptic feedback it provides has the additional benefit of helping to enhance the user experience. This roller can also be used to wake the watch up should the motion detector fail.

The 1.82-inch AMOLED display delivers 480 × 408 pixels and 347 PPI, which all contribute to a screen that is not only big enough to display a range of health and fitness metrics with ease but also bright enough to be clear even when outside on a bright day. The AMOLED display over and above an LCD alternative consumes less power and provides a more vivid picture.

In terms of waterproofing, Huawei has kept the same 5ATM-rated level as the Fit 2. Not that most people will take advantage of it but this rating makes it water-resistant to 50 meters in depth (for 10 minutes).

The nylon strap is also comfortable to wear, even 24 hours a day, and is wipe-clean should you get any marks on it. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this type of strap, as getting the velcro into the right place every morning requires a bit of trial and error.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Huawei Watch Fit 3: Features

• Runs on Harmony OS
• Compatible with Android and iOS

The Watch Fit 3 runs Huawei's latest operating system, Harmony OS 4.2. It's a very capable OS and you'll also find it running on its Watch 4 series of smartwatches. The OS is compatible with Google Android and Apple's iPhone, so it doesn't matter what phone you own or whether you need to swap platforms at any time.

First and foremost, this is a watch that is aimed at people interested in fitness. Over 100 different sports modes allow for a wide array of activity tracking, including running, walking, cycling, and swimming, to name a few.

One additional feature that I really like is the 'warm-up' feature that the watch can run you through for each specific exercise type. There are different warm-up exercises dependent on the activity, with each one lasting different amounts of time. The watch speaks to you as you work through the warm up but unfortunately, the voice is rather loud and annoying. This voice is present during activities as well, something that is just about bearable if you're solo-exercising but not if you're working out in the gym.

During fitness tracking, the watch is able to track specific measurables, including heart rate and blood oxygen levels. These statistics and more are all visible through both the watch and the app, enabling users to track their progress over time.

The watch also offers a range of smartwatch features, including notification support, a weather widget, and a number of different watch faces. If you want anything particularly fancy in terms of watch faces, then you'll need to pay for one of their customized options. Notification support is well implemented and I particularly liked receiving navigation instructions while cycling. I would have liked to have been able to see photos in messages but that isn't supported.

The watch doesn't support too many third-party apps but the ones it does are nicely presented in a dock interface that is easy and intuitive to navigate around.

To get the full feature experience, you'll need to use Huawei Health on your phone. This app provides a neat and tidy interface, displaying all of your fitness and health statistics as recorded on your watch. I know a lot of people would like to see the app undergo a serious makeover but I don't mind it too much. It does everything I need it to and finding your way around the menus is pretty intuitive.

• Features score: 4 / 5

Huawei Watch Fit 3: Performance

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 performed very well during all of my tests. The run tracking was able to keep an accurate handle on my distance, pace, and heart rate. All stats are presented on the display. The only problem was that it kept going to sleep so I kept having to force the motion sensor to turn it back on again. There is also the added annoyance, as previously mentioned, of the man intrusively giving updates. This can be turned off and I would recommend doing so if you don't want to get interrupted.

It is possible to cycle through different displays for the tracking information. There is even a readout that displays how quickly you should be moving based on your preset goals. That's a nice feature to have but whether anyone will ever use it is questionable.

The Watch Fit 3 also tries to guess when it thinks you might have started an exercise activity. I like this in principle but in reality, I found that the watch thought I was beginning a run or a cycle when in fact I was just doing some household chores. This does beg the question of whether this watch or any smartwatch, in fact, is able to correctly identify exercise types and report accurately.

One of the best things about the Fit 3 is its battery. The advertised 10-day maximum battery life allows for 30 minutes of Bluetooth calling per week, 30 minutes of music playback per week, heart rate monitoring always on, HUAWEI TruSleep™ enabled at night, 90 minutes of exercise on average per week (GPS enabled), message notifications enabled (50 messages, 6 calls, and 3 alarms per day), and the device screen turned on 200 times per day. My specific tests were fairly light on Bluetooth calling and music playback, giving me more like 14 days of use. This is such incredible performance that each time the watch needed charging, I was almost taken aback.

The nylon strap is comfortable to wear, even while sweating or in hot weather. I was able to wear it for days on end without it becoming uncomfortable or making me feel like I needed to take it off. I also spilled something on it and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could easily wash it off.

All in all, the Watch Fit 3 is a fantastic smartwatch for its price. It tracks exercise, delivers notifications, and keeps going beyond most of its competitors.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Scorecard

Huawei Watch Fit 3: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

Coros Pace 3

The longest-lasting running watch in its price range, although the screen on the Garmin 165 is better.

Read our full Coros Pace 3 review

Polar Pacer Pro

The aluminum case on the Pacer Pro provides a premium feel, and it's very competitively priced: essentially the same as the Forerunner.

Read our full Polar Pacer Pro review