Huawei picked an actual bizarre time to launch the Huawei Watch 3. On the one hand, you’ve got Samsung and Google fully upending the Android smartwatch house, whereas Apple firmly stays the smartwatch of alternative for iOS customers. Fitbit’s been wolfed up by Google. There isn’t an entire lot of house for flagship smartwatches working a proprietary OS, and but the Watch 3 runs Huawei’s HarmonyOS 2. What you find yourself with is a smartwatch that looks like it needs to choose up the place Samsung’s newly deserted Tizen OS left off, however falls brief as a result of circumstances outdoors of Huawei’s management. The result’s a smartwatch that’s by some means each spectacular and disappointing all of sudden.

Hardware Isn’t Huawei’s Problem

I’ll reduce to the chase: This is a handsome smartwatch. There are a number of variations of the Huawei Watch 3; the overview unit I examined is the bottom mannequin. The 1.43-inch AMOLED round touchscreen is beautiful, and notifications are a breeze to learn. Colors are vibrant, and the little animations for actions like charging are fairly fairly. It’s made from stainless-steel and ceramic, which feels good towards your pores and skin. All in all, I discovered it first rate for a 46mm smartwatch—which is to say it was tolerable, although lower than excellent for my tiny wrists. Like the OnePlus Watch, I discovered it a bit of uncomfortable throughout longer runs and needed to put on it a bit increased on my arm than I might a 42-44mm watch. (It is, nevertheless, lighter than the two.6-ounce OnePlus Watch at 1.7 ounces.) This is certainly a watch with a extra masculine aesthetic and is probably not well-suited for the extra petite-wristed amongst us. But aesthetic preferences apart, this can be a well-made smartwatch.

As far as specs go, the Huawei Watch 3 is stable. You have all the fundamental sensors, together with built-in GPS and coronary heart rate-monitoring, plus extra superior ones to measure SpO2 and pores and skin temperature. These allow health-tracking options like sleep-tracking, in-depth health insights, stress and blood oxygen degree measurements, and VO2 Max. The watch additionally has 2GB of RAM, which makes for snappy app loading and swiping between menus. It’s additionally swim-proof with 5ATM of water resistance and helps Bluetooth, LTE, and wifi. (Note: I couldn’t check mobile connectivity, as eSIM help was unavailable when paired with my iPhone.) It is lacking just a few issues, although. For occasion, NFC funds are a no-go, and Huawei’s Celia voice assistant doesn’t work within the U.S. In truth, a number of options aren’t out there at launch, together with gesture controls and a hand-washing timer (a la Apple Watch). Others are restricted relying on the place you reside or what telephone you’ve got. For occasion, Huawei’s MeeTime calling is barely out there in some European and Asian international locations, in addition to Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Right now, the Huawei Watch 3 isn’t truly out there within the U.S., due to the Trump-era ban on the corporate doing enterprise Stateside. It is, nevertheless, out there within the UK for £350.

The Watch 3 has an estimated battery lifetime of three days, however in actuality, I solely ever acquired round two days with regular utilization. That’s not too shabby, although, particularly when you think about the Apple Watch nonetheless solely will get a day and Samsung’s watches additionally solely get round two days of battery life. While on trip, the watch managed to trace a 90-minute 3.5-mile stroll by way of Newport’s Cliff Walk with lower than 30% battery and didn’t crap out on me till I acquired again to my lodge a number of hours later. As for charging, going from zero to 100% takes about 90 minutes, which is par for the course for the common smartwatch.

So so far as the fundamentals go, Huawei’s made a reasonably good system. I’d go so far as to say the {hardware} is definitely glorious. But the {hardware} was by no means going to be the Huawei Watch 3’s downside.

It’s Tizen OS All Over Again

The Huawei ban is just too lengthy of a saga to recap in a smartwatch overview. The in need of it’s former President Trump issued an government order in 2019 that banned Huawei from utilizing U.S.-made tech of their devices. That means it reduce Huawei’s entry to Google’s Android operating system and Google Mobile Services. So actually, Huawei had no alternative however to construct HarmonyOS 2. Taking that into consideration, I’m extra inclined to be beneficiant about HarmonyOS’s failings—however solely barely.

But first, right here’s what’s good about HarmonyOS. Huawei has clearly studied what labored about watchOS, Wear OS, and Tizen OS. When you press the rotating crown (one other component it pilfered from Apple), it brings up an app grid that’s simple to navigate and perceive. Meanwhile, while you swipe left you possibly can entry 4 customizable widgets. Swiping up brings up notifications, swiping down will get you a fast menu to settings, and swiping proper brings up the climate. Everything is blazing quick, and for those who’ve ever used a smartwatch, utilizing the Watch 3 gained’t require an excessive amount of of a studying curve.

Setting up the watch on iOS was additionally simple, as you possibly can obtain the Huawei Health app straight from the App Store. The course of just isn’t really easy for non-Huawei Android telephones, which requires you to obtain the Huawei App Gallery first. For lots of people, that’ll be extra hassle than it’s value given it’s a lot simpler for Android customers to entry the Google Play retailer. I used to be spared this grief as I examined with my iPhone 12 Pro Max, although you possibly can learn an in-depth account of how annoying the method is here. This is clearly due to the Huawei ban, however iOS customers aren’t fully exempt from that have. During setup, I needed to grant so many permissions and scroll by way of prolonged phrases of service for every single function.

There’s nothing mistaken with how HarmonyOS 2 capabilities. Apps launch! They do what they’re purported to! It’s the methods during which HarmonyOS 2 is proscribed. There are not any actual apps to obtain, for example. No Uber, no digital pockets, no social media, no Strava—nada. That’s not essentially horrible. It type of looks like utilizing a fancier model of FitbitOS, minus any recognizable third-party apps. It simply means there’s not lots this watch can do outdoors of Huawei’s native apps. For occasion, there are not any music apps I can use for offline playlists. While Android customers would possibly have the ability to use Huawei Music, this merely isn’t an possibility on iOS. So regardless of the actual fact this technically helps eSIM, has built-in GPS, and Bluetooth equipment, I can’t truly go away my telephone at house throughout a run.

It additionally means you’re barely restricted with regards to notifications. You can obtain them, certain, they usually’re extremely readable. You also can obtain calls. However, neglect about fast replies or launching the corresponding app in your wrist. These may be mere quibbles or full deal breakers, relying on the way you wish to use your smartwatch.

HarmonyOS looks like a mish-mash between FitbitOS and earlier iterations of Tizen OS. Everything works, however the lack of third-party app help means that is merely a extra visually interesting, glorified health tracker. Once once more, you’ve got a proprietary OS that’s truly an interesting various to the present Wear OS… nevertheless it simply doesn’t have room to develop. It’s actually Tizen OS once more. That would possibly’ve labored if Wear OS had continued on its trajectory of the previous few years. However, now that Samsung’s thrown within the towel on Tizen and is working with Google to create a unified platform, I’m unsure these weaknesses will fly beneath the radar within the new Android smartwatch period—especifically not if Google and Samsung ship.

Good Health-Tracking, If You Don’t Mind Some Quirks

While testing the Watch 3’s well being and health options, I believed lots in regards to the OnePlus Watch, which is objectively the worst smartwatch I’ve ever had the distress of testing. This is each and unhealthy factor.

The good is that is in all probability what I believe the OnePlus Watch was making an attempt to be. It truly works. The unhealthy is that it sometimes has a number of the similar issues.

Take sleep-monitoring. When sleep information syncs to the Huawei Health app, you truly get an in depth breakdown of your sleep levels, a sleep rating, and a few perception into what the metrics imply. When it syncs. Some days I’d get up and see that on my wrist the watch had clearly recorded my sleep. When I opened the Huawei Health app, it was a toss-up as as to whether that data would sync. Most nights it did! Just occasionally, it wouldn’t or would pop up hours or a number of days later. That’s not precisely useful to search out out my information from final Thursday lastly uploaded per week later. At that time, I’m past caring.

Another quibble is that irrespective of what number of occasions I set my models to Imperial, the Huawei Health app would all the time swap it again to metric. It’s as simple as re-setting it to Imperial however that’s so irksome—and I say that as somebody who’s first rate at changing Imperial to metric after spending a number of years overseas.

GPS was additionally wonky on my overview unit. My watch was by no means fairly in a position to lock onto a sign earlier than beginning a exercise, and lots of occasions it was unable to fetch the climate for a similar purpose. This in the end didn’t matter a lot as a result of on all my recorded runs have been solely ever a few tenth of a mile off in comparison with my Apple Watch SE and telephone. It was simply puzzling. As for coronary heart charge, I seen the Watch 3 was all the time about 5-7 bpm increased than my Polar H10 and Apple Watch SE. That’s minor however maybe a factor to notice for those who like coronary heart charge zone coaching.

The absolute worst, and I imply worst health function, was the watch’s tendency to broadcast my metrics each 10 minutes in a disembodied robotic voice. I’d be 10 minutes right into a energy exercise on the gymnasium and I’d hear a loud readout of my coronary heart charge. Or, I’d be on a run outdoors and catch the bewildered stares of passersby. You can flip this function off, fortunately, however I nonetheless embarrassed myself in public a handful of occasions.

Otherwise, the well being monitoring is on par with different health trackers I’ve examined. My SpO2 readings have been about the identical as those I’d get on the Fitbit Luxe, as have been sleep breakdowns—although it wasn’t fairly pretty much as good at detecting when my pets woke me up in the course of the night time. The stress metric is just like those on the Zepp smartwatches, in that you just get a rating that’s not significantly actionable. What I discovered extra helpful have been exercise efficiency breakdowns, the place I might see how a lot cardio and anaerobic stress I’d placed on my physique, my VO2 Max, and the way a lot time I ought to relaxation earlier than my subsequent session.

Bottom line: It’s an honest well being and exercise tracker, as long as you’re OK with the occasional quirk or wonky app sync. Just flip that silly broadcast function off.

Is There Hope for the Huawei Watch 3?

This is often the place I discuss whether or not a smartwatch is definitely worth the worth, and who it’s finest fitted to. Except, for Gizmodo readers within the U.S., the Watch 3 isn’t an possibility. And that’s a disgrace as a result of, for all its quirks, this can be a stable smartwatch. This is very true for those who’re searching for extra of a health tracker in a smartwatch physique.

But for those who occur to be dwelling within the UK, or in some other nation the place you possibly can truly purchase this watch, the worth just isn’t completely proper both. At £350, that is bordering on premium flagship costs. And, if each marketed function have been out there, that worth can be extra value it. However, you’d must do some digging as as to whether your mixture of smartphone OS and watch would help the options you need. For most individuals, that’s an excessive amount of effort when there are a number of glorious finances smartwatches, hybrid analogs, and even “premium” health trackers on the market.

Right now, I don’t suppose this watch has a lot of an viewers outdoors of China. However, it’s good to see Huawei hasn’t completely given up. It’s made some good smartwatches previously and this can be a class that isn’t going away any time quickly. What’s so irritating in regards to the Watch 3 is you possibly can clearly see how good this smartwatch might have been if given the possibility. Maybe sometime quickly we’ll get to see a Huawei smartwatch that isn’t held again by commerce restrictions. Until then, this must do.