Huawei Watch Fit 3 Review: Enter a new era of stylish fitness tracking

The latest wristband fitness tracking watch from Huawei has touched South African shores to not only introduce a new era for what a fitness band will do for the user but also how a mid-range watch fit has found new ways of exploring style, battery power, and overall decent functionality.

Huawei introduces the Huawei Watch Fit 3, an interestingly square-shaped fitness tracker, watch, and a possible phone alternative for calls.

We looked at the latest Huawei Watch Fit with interest since Huawei has steered away from the predecessors’ shape to introduce a square-shaped design and a device notably lighter with longer-lasting battery power.

The latest iteration in Huawei’s line of fitness trackers boasts a smooth design, some health features , the option to sync your cards, pulse wave arrhythmia, weather, and the option to add contacts in order to make Bluetooth calls straight from the Huawei Watch Fit.

We were pretty interested to see how this midrange contender was punching way above its weight class when looking at how it’s thinner than a Fitbit Versa 4 and Apple Watch SE with a screen that’s lighter and brighter than a Fitbit Charge 6.

Design and Display:

It’s ultra-thin at 26g and 9.9mm meaning it’s thinner than a Fitbit Versa 4 and Apple Watch SE with a screen that’s later and brighter than a Fitbit Charge 6.

It boasts a super-large 1.82-inch hybrid AMOLED display, with 347PPI and automatic brightness adjustment up to 1,500 nits.

The Watch Fit 3 ditches the rounded design of its predecessors for a more modern, square-shaped face.

It’s compatible with Android 8 and later as well as iOS 13 and up, is water resistant, and is notably lighter on the wrist than some competitors.

Fitness Tracking:

It boasts a built-in GPS for accurate outdoor activity tracking and supports over 100 workout modes, including running, cycling, swimming, and HIIT.

The heart rate monitor makes an appearance and provides continuous tracking, while features like sleep monitoring and blood oxygen (SpO2) measurement offer additional insights into your overall health.

Battery Life

Huawei claims the Watch Fit 3’s battery at 400 mAh can last up to 10 days on a single charge, and in real-world usage. This was almost true on our part but fell short at around 6.5 days considering the list of other features that we enabled that put a pinch on the battery life. Despite that, we did have a watch that makes it hard to switch to another brand considering the speed at which it charges and the duration of battery usage.

Smartwatch Features:

While the primary is on fitness, the Watch Fit 3 does offer some basic smartwatch functionalities. You can receive notifications, control music playback, and even make contactless payments. This does depend on the region you’re in and needs users to download an app to access it.  The need for a third-party app for support was a bit of a cringe but it can only get better from here.

You cannot reply directly to messages, but pre-added texts help you quickly reply to texts you can use.

Our watch came in the colour black and Huawei introduces a series of strap colours to choose from to dress the watch in whichever personality is convenient for the user. Users will have to buy the strap themselves as they’re not included in the box. Do I wish they were?  No. We all have different colour aspirations. If I’d like a strap I’d like to pick and choose material and color.

We appreciated how Huawei included a feature to track women’s cycles and the addition of a rotating crown that allows users to zoom in and out of the app grid and even adjust music. volume. This latest addition sets the watch further away from previous watches in the same range.

The function button under the crown can be preset to whatever the user chooses. While it still needs some minor adjustments on accuracy some vocal requests like “play music were executed exceptionally well while others had the watch a little confused. This is only the beginning and one has to remember that this feature padded watch is still midrange. I did forget this fact at some point, which signifies a well-thought-out device.

Bluetooth calling was a delicious addition and made the watch enter a different era for watches in the same price range.

It’s a decent option for the fitness enthusiasts and mountain bikers like myself who really appreciate a watch that keeps up. Our watch took a knock when we took a curve too soon coming down a steep hill but a slight chip may have Huawei calling us to ask what happened. Let’s declare early, cross our fingers, and appreciate the fact that Huawei unpacked a notably impressive Watch Fit 3.

Priced at R 2 999, one does forget that it’s a midrange watch that offers some access to higher-tier functioning when we look at some of Huawei’s older flagship models. This Watch Fit 3 could arguably compete with a lot of predecessor watches as it does comes ready to offer convenience as well as style.

Also read: Huawei Watch Fit 3 gets industry nod