Together with the Huawei Watch 3, the Chinese manufacturer is also launching the Huawei Watch 3 Pro. There are small differences between the two smartwatches, which may just be decisive if you are in doubt between this or the regular model. Or is it actually better to ignore this smartwatch line altogether?
Huawei Watch 3 Pro
Price From € 499,-
Colors Silver with a choice of two watch straps (leather and titanium)
Display 1.43 inch OLED (466 by 466 pixels)
Weight 63 grams without strap
Operating system Harmony OS 2.0
Battery Wireless charging via Qi standard
Dimensions 48 by 49.6 by 14 millimeters
Other Waterproof (5ATM), Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, Heart Rate Monitor, Blood Oxygen Monitor, NFC, E-SIM, Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz, Environmental Sensors
Website www.huawei.com 5 Score 50 
- Pros
- AMOLED screen
- design
- Activity meters
- Negatives
- Duration
- Harmony OS 2.0
- Missing apps
- Format
The Huawei Watch 3 Pro has a price tag of about 499 euros. It’s not about the specifications. A large AMOLED screen of 14.3 inches, a resolution of 466 by 466 pixels (with a corresponding pixel density of 326 pixels per inch), 2 GB of RAM and no less than 16 GB of storage space provide a modern smartwatch experience. This time the operating system HarmonyOS is also available, Huawei’s own system.
The smart watch features sapphire glass, a titanium case and a ceramic back. You can use an e-SIM, it is waterproof up to fifty meters underwater and there are connections such as WiFi, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS and all kinds of different sensors. The battery has a capacity of 455 mAh. There is also a loudspeaker, there are microphones (for calling) and an NFC chip is present. So far there are very few differences to note compared to the Watch 3.
Nice specs, but…
And what exactly does the Huawei Watch 3 Pro do with those specs? Very few special things, unfortunately. The smartwatch does what you can expect from a smartwatch. You receive (fast) notifications on your wrist, from almost all apps on your phone. I have not come across an app on my smartphone that cannot send a notification. You check the time and can have different sports performances and more body functions and characteristics recorded in an accessible way.
The large AMOLED screen is of course also a touchscreen. Where Samsung has the handy rotating ring and associated software, we see that Huawei is looking a little more at Apple. On the right is a rotary knob that allows you to zoom in and out on your collection of apps in the main menu, while you can navigate through the menu in other parts. All fine in itself, but it is not a real Apple Watch replacement. The second button is a shortcut for the sports measurement functions.
When you click on it, you will immediately end up in the very extensive sports menu. You choose the activity and can immediately start with what you are planning. Because the Huawei Watch 3 Pro is quite hefty, it does not always lean very well on the wrist during exercise. As soon as you start to sweat, the strap starts to irritate (that is partly due to the strap, we received the leather version) and you notice that the colossus sometimes gets in the way.
The size is fine for everyday use. I don’t have the thinnest wrists, but luckily they aren’t very thick anymore (an additional tip: you can lose weight in the kitchen). Nevertheless, I think the watch looks nice and it fits comfortably during the day – and more importantly, doesn’t get in the way. But that is very personal. For example, my colleague Rens writes that he finds the size of the Huawei Watch 3 unpleasant; his wrist is therefore slightly smaller than mine.
The screen and HarmonyOS
The screen and the operating system go hand in hand. Those two parts make up for the most part the experience you have with the Huawei Watch 3 Pro. The amoled screen has many advantages. It is energy efficient, displays the interface and its options nicely and the colors pop off the screen. You can clearly see what happens in direct sunlight, although it could have been a little brighter. Now I sometimes had to turn my wrist slightly to really observe what is happening.
The smartwatch has different modes. You can enable an always-on screen, which will always show the time. That does cost a lot of battery life: the maximum operating time is then reduced by fifty percent. Plus, very oddly, when you set up a watch face, it may not appear. That has something to do with the theme, something Rens also noticed. In addition, there is the mode that turns on the screen when you raise your wrist.
The HarmonyOS on which the watch runs is anything but special. In fact, putting that system into use is quite a hassle. Not only do you miss apps in the AppGallery, you also have to constantly indicate that you give permission for the use of certain data. You have to do that every time you use a new function. It’s good that Huawei is transparent about this, but the constant emphasis on data collection makes me wonder if I’m doing the right thing by sharing everything all the time. And whether it is necessary that I use the smartwatch.
In addition, it is also true that installing apps is really a chore. You have to do that via your smartwatch and that tiny keyboard. And even then you have no guarantee that everything will be synchronized properly. Incidentally, the incoming messages also do not offer answer options. Admittedly, it is and remains easy to quickly see who is sending what via messaging – but that’s not necessarily a plus that is unique to the Huawei Watch 3 Pro.
And there are still some small things that still irritate. For example, you must have Huawei Health on your phone. And if you have the wrong Android phone (I’m using a OnePlus 9 Pro), then you also need the malfunctioning Huawei Mobile Services app, which constantly crashes. I don’t want to claim that the use of the smartwatch and service software is an outright nightmare, but during my use with the device I did become quite disturbed by those aspects.
Health and other functions
The Huawei Watch 3 Pro has some nice health-related features, which are often present on other smartwatches. What you can measure: your heart rate, skin temperature, stress level, blood oxygen level and your sleep. Four of the five functions are turned off by default to protect the battery life and you must therefore either manually activate it on the smartwatch or activate it within the app. The more you turn on, the less the long the full battery lasts.
You may wonder aloud whether you need all this kind of data. It seems more like an answer to the question of which functions can be added to a smartwatch more than the question which functions are actually useful. But who knows: you may need to regularly check your skin temperature. Incidentally, such functions provide an indication and have no medical value, it should be noted. So again, what’s in it for you?
We can ask the same question about the e-sim and nfc functionality. With e-sim you can load a digital version of your SIM card onto the smartwatch and use the device completely without your smartphone. Nice idea, but not every provider is supported. In addition, you cannot use the nfc chip for contactless debit cards, for example… Perhaps such a functionality will be added at a later date, but the question is whether that will not be too late.
Finally, we mention the battery life. How long it takes the Huawei Watch 3 Pro to run out of battery depends entirely on how you use it. Which sensors do you constantly use? Do you turn on the always-on screen? And do you use e-sim, which means that the screen is regularly turned on? These are important factors that play a role, so that on average you probably put the smartwatch on the wireless charger every two days. That’s acceptable; but the longer the better.
Huawei Watch 3 Pro – conclusion
There really is a lot to like about the Huawei Watch 3 Pro. The HarmonyOS suffocates instead of strengthened, the various (new) functions are not all equally handy or usable and the differences between this and the regular model are minimal. On the other hand, there is a nice large screen and a sleek, tough and premium appearance, for what it’s worth. Unfortunately, the smart watch will not convince you if you have not yet taken the plunge.
Are you interested in a smart watch, do you prefer not to pay the top price and are you still looking for extensive fitness functionalities? Then consider an Apple Watch SE, the previous Huawei smartwatch or – and this may sound strange – a fitness tracker. You don’t have a large screen and you may miss some extensive functions here and there. But for the athletes among us, this is a better alternative, if only because such a tracker is much more compact and less in the way.
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