Verdict
It’s an Apple Watch clone at half the price, but the Huawei Watch Fit 3 gets a lot right. Smart, unisex, and comfortable, it’s also a great workout-tracking companion. It lacks third-party apps/payment support but benefits from brilliant battery life that makes it easy to recommend.
Pros
- Great price
- Solid workout performance
- Light and comfortable with good battery life
- Love the nylon strap
Cons
- Sleep tracking not the best
- No apps
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New designThe change from rectangle to square is designed to be more comfortable for slim wrists and makes for an attractive smartwatch. At just 26g, it’s lightweight but doesn’t feel cheap. -
Strong battery lifeI easily got 4-5 days with everything turned on, which offers much better battery life than a Pixel Watch or Apple Watch SE 2, at half the price. -
Platform agnosticThe Huawei Watch Fit 3 works with iPhones and Android devices, so you don’t need to be tied to one OS.
Introduction
When I first set eyes on the Huawei Watch Fit 3, I was surprised at how boldly Huawei had embraced the design language of the Apple Watch.
For most of its wearable tech tenure, Huawei has rarely impinged on the design and feel of its biggest rival – but this evolution not only makes sense, but is one of the most easily recommendable smartwatches in the Huawei lineup.
Huawei told me that it moved away from the upright, rectangular look of the Fit and Fit 2 based on user feedback – especially from women. This meant opting instead for a design that resembles the Apple Watch and moving away from the awkward shape of its predecessor.
The Fit 2 was neither a clear fitness tracker nor a smartwatch. The Fit 3, however, makes its identity clear. It’s a smartwatch, packed with fitness and wellness features, decent battery life, and a competitive price of £139. Huawei’s reputation in the wearables market is strong, and the Fit 3 showcases its capabilities well. Let’s dig into what it gets right – and wrong.
Design
- Light and thin
- New square design is much more unisex
The Huawei Watch Fit 3 is designed to be unisex and slim, and I think it largely succeeds.
I tested the silver version with a nylon Velcro strap and found it comfortable. There are other silicone and leather strap choices, but I personally recommend nylon for the look and how easy it was to get a good, secure fit.
The strap is easy to adjust, but its 18mm width leans towards female wrists. The 44mm aluminium case, at 9.9mm thick, feels slim and doesn’t look cheap or plasticky, though its light weight of 26g is a plus.
The AMOLED screen is comparable to the entry-level Apple Watch SE 2, though not as advanced as the Series 9 or Pixel Watch 2. The black bezel around the screen is visible at certain angles, but it doesn’t feel budget, like you’d get on an Amazfit Bip 5.
The Fit 3 includes a rotating crown for navigation, reminiscent of the Apple Watch, and I found it useful for scrolling through widgets.
Huawei has improved the design of many data screens with colour gradients (an element of watchOS copying that does feel a little too over the top), but Harmony OS still feels a bit low-budget in some areas. Despite Huawei’s marketing, I don’t think there are enough sophisticated watch face options available.
The Fit 3 is water-resistant up to 5ATM, making it suitable for swimming and showering. Huawei’s focus on industrial design has resulted in a lightweight, competitive smartwatch that feels good on the wrist.
While the Huawei Watch Fit 3 loses out on originality and feels like a copy of an Apple Watch, the lightweight, quality build and excellent nylon strap make for a great watch to live with – and a big upgrade on the Fit 2.
Health and wellness
- Sleep tracking sensitivity needs improving
- Heart rate accuracy is good
The Fit 3 comes with a comprehensive set of wellness features, but not the more advanced health features like ECG and respiratory tracking. It uses TruSeen 5.5 heart rate tech, which is not far from its current generation found on the Watch 4 Space Edition, and TruSleep 4.0.
The latter, as I will explain, does need some work. I found the heart rate accuracy consistent with my established baselines and it matched well with other devices like Whoop and Oura. It also tracks SpO2 levels, which are displayed on the dashboard – and while certainly not proven for medical purposes, I didn’t see any deviations from other devices.
However, sleep tracking accuracy did come up a little short. Huawei’s sleep tracking is certainly detailed, offering a sleep score along with data on sleep stages and various metrics. It’s a medley of data points that those who love deep stats will find appealing. However, its sensitivity can be an issue.
During a recent trip to China, the Fit 3 failed to register sleep during the outbound flight – when the Whoop 4.0 and Oura Ring that I was wearing did pick up 3-4 hours. On the return flight, sleep tracked was also significantly under-tracked.
I also found that when tucked up in bed on a normal night, the Huawei Watch Fit 3 had the opposite problem. It tended to overestimate my sleep duration by about 30 minutes compared to Whoop and Oura. So clearly, the sensitivity of the algorithms around sleep are not world-class.
Casual observers of sleep data might not find this a problem – and it’s a personal preference. But getting the basics of sleep wrong calls all of Huawei’s sleep data points into question. This analysis does hold the Huawei Watch Fit 3 back from achieving a higher score – even if it does cost just £139.
The Fit 3 also supports calorie tracking through food logging, though I found this to be a fairly tedious process. The Huawei Health app displays your calorie balance on a graph, which can help with accountability if you’re diligent about logging your meals.
The Fit 3 includes a stress monitor that assigns a daily stress score. It offers guided breathing exercises to help reduce stress. I am usually very critical of stress tracking on wearables, but looking at the data from the Watch Fit 3, I did notice increased stress levels around my trip to China. So there’s certainly some good data here.
As ever, smartwatches are very poor at showing stress in real-time, but if you do use the data properly and look over week or month trends, you might see changes that could prompt you to take action. So this gets a tentative thumbs up from me, if you’re able to use the app to see meaningful trends.
Fitness
- GPS accuracy is good, but sometimes slow to connect
- Lots of data, but VO2 Max and predicted finish times are worlds apart
As a workout tracker, the Fit 3 performed impressively – and this is where I really recommend it.
The Fit 3 has built-in GPS for outdoor activities and supports numerous workout profiles. Despite lacking the more advanced and accurate multi-band GNSS technology, it performed well in running tests against devices like the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Garmin Fenix 7S across 5K to 10K distances.
Heart rate accuracy during workouts was also comparable to a chest strap, especially with the snug fit of the nylon strap. The Fit 3’s data was consistent with a Garmin HRM-Pro, making it reliable for fitness tracking. The Huawei Health app is good for reviewing workout data, and it can sync activities with Strava, enhancing its appeal as a running smartwatch at a reasonable price.
The Fit 3 also features fitness analytics like the Running Ability Index and VO2 Max. However, I noticed that predicted finishing times for races were inconsistent with its VO2 Max estimates, suggesting some discrepancies in its data interpretation.
While committed athletes might be looking at mid-range Garmins, casual runners early in their journey can find real value in the Huawei Watch Fit 3 as a run and gym tracker.
Smartwatch features
- No apps
- Huawei Pay doesn’t support UK banks
- More granular control over notifications would be nice
The Huawei Health app has improved over the years, offering a solid interface for health and fitness data management. However, due to well-publicized issues with the US, its app ecosystem is limited – and that’s not going to change any time soon.
Harmony OS doesn’t support third-party apps or Western banks for Huawei Pay, limiting its functionality compared to other smartwatches.
I also feel that notification management could do with some work. I could toggle on/off notifications for calls, messages, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Netflix, but all other apps fall under a general “Other” category.
That’s not granular enough for me, and I had to turn them all off at the source, as I hate being buzzed relentlessly…and I don’t have the time or energy to edit how they appear on my smartphone.
Battery life
- Generally good battery life
- 7 days without always-on display enabled
- 4-5 days with always-on display enabled
Huawei smartwatches are known for good battery life, and the Fit 3 is no exception. Huawei claims 7 days of heavy use, which I found to be accurate.
With the always-on display off, it lasted a full week. With the display on, I found it would last 4-5 days, including a few hours of GPS-tracked workouts and nightly sleep tracking.
Compared to more expensive models like the Apple Watch SE 2 and Pixel Watch 2, which last only a day, the Fit 3’s battery life is impressive.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You want an affordable fitness tracker
With GPS, accurate heart rate data and oodles of data, the Watch Fit 3 offers a great fitness tracking experience on a budget.
You want a proper smartwatch experience
The Huawei Watch Fit 3 is marketed as a smartwatch, but without any kind of third-party app support or bank support for Huawei Pay in the UK, its smart functionality is limited.
Final Thoughts
With good features, a slim build, and a great price, the Huawei Watch Fit 3 gets our approval. If you’re looking at the likes of the Pixel Watch 2 or Apple Watch SE 2, it’s a really strong competitor. Sleep tracking accuracy is passable, and the ecosystem is basic, but this will suit plenty of people.
How we test
We thoroughly test every smartwatch we review. We use industry-standard testing to compare features properly and we use the watch as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Tested for at least a week
Thorough health and fitness tracking testing
Worn as our main tracker during the testing period
FAQs
Sadly not, and with no support for Google Play, there’s no way to use Google Wallet either.
