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Huawei Watch 3 Pro is a beautifully made product, but not everything is correct

For some time, Huawei’s smartwatch has been a favorite among expert reviews, but the quarrel with Google means that it hasn’t updated its flagship Huawei watch model for some time. However, this year-provided by the company's own Hongmeng operating system-Huawei Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro have arrived, and they have many uses. 

Stable battery life, smooth performance, gorgeous design, and decent fitness tracking capabilities mean that they are a powerful alternative to Android users and can replace Wear OS watches. They even work well with the iPhone, although only a longer battery life may attract iPhone users away from the new Apple Watch, because Apple's wearable devices are much more comprehensive.

I received a high-quality Huawei Watch 3 Pro for this review. It is very beautiful, with a brushed bronze titanium case, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass lens and brown leather strap. There is also a more expensive model with a steel chain wristband, but in my case, the Classic model has a more refined appearance.

The price is quite high, at £500-much more expensive than the £350 non-Pro Huawei Watch 3-but this will give you a larger and more beautiful wearable, longer battery life and some additional features, including Mobile connection support via eSIM. But please note that if you want a hands-free connection with this watch, you must switch to Vodafone, as this is the only supported network in the UK at the time of writing.

Users on other networks can still make and receive calls on the watch via Bluetooth, but you need to place your phone nearby to do so.

Huawei Watch 3 Pro has only one size, and the 48mm size will look a bit bulky on a small wrist. Despite its small size, I found it comfortable to wear on my skinny wrist. However, you may want to change the leather strap to something more elastic for exercise to keep fit and comfortable. Since the quick release spring pin of the watch is a standard width of 22 mm, this is easy to do.

Read next: Our guide to the best smartwatches

Several physical controls can be found on the right edge of the watch, including a rotating, clickable crown and an elongated button directly below it. The bright and vibrant 1.43-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels is beautiful and sharp, and it also has automatic brightness-although there is no always-on display option like the Apple Watch. It also has 5ATM water resistance, so you can wear it in the rain or swimming without worry.

Huawei Watch 3 Pro has many things to like, but the most important thing is its responsiveness and ease of use.

Most navigation is done through the touch screen, and you can swipe left, right, up, and down to access the main parts of the operating system. Clicking on the crown will launch a view of all the apps installed on the watch, while rotating it can zoom in and out or scroll up and down, depending on the mode you are in. Every action you take is accompanied by fast, smooth animations.

Press the button under the crown to enter the exercise mode of the watch. This is my favorite part of the Huawei Watch 3 Pro. Although this is not comparable to dedicated fitness wearables such as Coros Pace 2 or Garmin Forerunner 245, there are many things you can put into use.

For starters, this watch is equipped with all the sensors you would expect from today's high-end smart wearable devices. In addition to GPS and all-day heart rate monitoring through Huawei’s TruSeen 4.5 sensor array, there are also all-day blood oxygen (SpO2), skin temperature and pressure monitoring, air pressure sensors, gyroscopes, accelerometers and digital compasses.

Naturally, the watch uses these to track all core indicators, such as sleep, steps, and calories, but Huawei has also done a very good job in exercise-centric functions. It is packed with more than 100 different tracking modes, including some basic ones. Couch-to-5K training plan. I like the way all statistics are displayed in the Huawei Health App: there are many details and the layout is clear.

Since this is a smart watch, you can also install apps on the watch through the Huawei App Library. The current options are quite limited, of course compared to Google and Apple stores (although the number is steadily increasing), but for smartwatches, this is more important than mobile phones, especially when the built-in fitness tools start well.

Read next: Our guide to the best fitness trackers

There are a variety of watch faces to choose from, and hundreds of paid options can complement the pre-installed options. Most of them are reasonably priced, at 99p or lower, and you can even try the watch face before you decide to buy it, which is a good choice.

There is also third-party fitness platform synchronization support, although it is currently limited to Adidas' Runtastic app, and it seems that it can only transmit GPS data (distance, duration, pace, and map), not heart rate data.

The battery life is very good, at least according to Apple Watch and Wear OS standards. I found that the Watch 3 Pro can usually be used for four to five days, and in the full smartwatch mode, it can be used for about three to four hours of GPS exercise per charge. There is also a power saving mode, which is impressive for 21 days.

GPS accuracy, both in distance and speed, is excellent, mainly due to its dual-frequency GPS radio. I found that compared with other wearable devices I tested, I found that this watch often takes longer to capture the signal, but once locked, it is very close to my Stryd tripod, which averages over seven training sessions. Only 1.2% short of operation. This is a very good result.

Alas, I am not very impressed with the accuracy of the heart rate monitor, and rarely find it matches the ECG chest strap I wear as a control. During the same seven runs, I found that the average heart rate reading it returned was always about 10% higher than the expected value.

It's not great, but it's worth noting that other reviewers found it to perform better, so your mileage may vary. It is also more accurate to read your heart rate while you are sitting down, so it is clearly doing it right.

This is my biggest dissatisfaction with Huawei Watch 3 Pro, but there are other minor issues. The first is notifications, which are displayed on the screen, clearly and easily readable on a bright display, but cannot respond like Apple Watch or Wear OS wearable devices (such as Mobvoi's TicWatch series).

It is also disappointing that eSIM connection is only supported in the UK through Vodafone, while the wallet function currently does not support bank cards in the UK. In addition, music playback is limited to Huawei music or MP3 files that you download to the watch.

It’s also worth noting that if you pair your watch with your iPhone, some functions will be unavailable, including paid watch faces, SMS replies, and Huawei Music. When used with the iPhone, the battery life is not so good. In a "typical scenario", the battery life is halved from five days to two and a half days. You can view the complete list of compatibility issues on the Huawei website.

Finally, in terms of fitness, although you can set time, distance, and calorie goals, and even set up a "smart companion" to help you keep up with the game, there doesn't seem to be any way to use the app to create a custom structure exercise.

In some respects, these flaws mean that Huawei Watch 3 Pro is difficult to recommend. It is expensive, heart rate monitoring accuracy is not the highest, and eSIM connection is limited to a UK mobile network.

But Huawei Watch 3 Pro is correct in many respects. It is made of high-quality materials, looks great, is comfortable to wear, and has the battery life that Apple Watch users would crave. In addition, its GPS performance is one of the best I have encountered on any wearable device. Considering that it is not a dedicated sports watch, its fitness features are impressive.

At a lower price, I might want to give it a recommendation, but for now, it is a bit too expensive, and it has too many shortcomings.

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