Huawei Watch Fit 3 review

The Apple Watch is a great smart tool, but it doesn’t come cheap. The trouble with strapping an expensive wearable to your wrist is that you then become paranoid that you’re going to knock it against a table or scratch it against a wall. It can make you wish there was a cheaper option available that would do most of the things you wanted without costing an arm and a leg.

Insert the Huawei Watch Fit 3 into the equation. The third iteration of the Watch Fit unashamedly takes its cue from the Apple Watch and offers similar looks, functionality, and features for a fraction of the price. But, does it pull it off? As an Apple Watch owner of many years, I put the Huawei Watch Fit 3 through the paces to find out.

Huawei Watch Fit 3

Recommended

A smartwatch that unashamedly bases its design on that of the Apple Watch, and offers a lot of the same features, too. The Huawei Watch Fit 3 has far superior battery life, however, and a much lower price tag.

Pros

• Great value
• Stylish (and familiar) design
• Great battery life

Cons

• No NFC payements
• Frustrating charger
• Lack of apps

Price, availability, and specs

If you’re in the US, there’s some good news and some bad news. The good news is the price of this watch is very competitive. It costs £140/€159, which is significantly less than you’d pay for the equivalent-sized Apple Watch SE, which starts at £250/€309. The bad news is that, thanks to the ban on the sale of Huawei products in the US, they aren’t directly available for sale from US companies.

However, it is possible to get your hands on a Watch Fit 3 through non-US sources, although you may see higher pricing and need to pay additional customs fees. If you’re outside the US, you can buy directly from the Huawei website, or through sites like Amazon.

The Watch Fit 3 is available in six color options: Black, Pink, Green, Moon White, Gray (with a nylon fabric strap), and Pearl White (with a leather strap). Let’s take a look at some of the key specs.

What I liked about the Huawei Watch Fit 3

A lot of features at a great price

There’s a lot to like about the Huawei Watch Fit 3. First off, aesthetically, it looks great. The overly tall design of the Watch Fit 2 has gone, replaced with a screen that’s virtually square, and looks, let’s face it, almost exactly like an Apple Watch. The standard watch strap also includes a traditional buckle, which I found to be much nicer than the pin-and-tuck fastener on the standard Apple Watch bands. It also has more notches, so you’re able to adjust the fit more easily.

It’s not just the looks that are replicated here. The Watch Fit 3 includes many of the best features of an Apple Watch, including health and fitness rings to try and close, a remote shutter to control your phone camera (provided you’re using an iPhone or Huawei phone), and a beautiful AMOLED screen with responsive touchscreen controls. The screen is really bright too, and easy to read even in direct sunlight.

Battery life is where the Watch Fit 3 stops trying to copy the Apple Watch. The Watch Fit 3 blows the Apple Watch SE out of the water, being rated for up to seven days of battery life in normal use, compared to just 18 hours on the Apple Watch SE. I found that, if anything, Huawei’s estimates seemed to underplay how long the battery can last. You can easily go a week between charges without issue, and even with the always-on display turned on, the Watch Fit 3 was easily able to outlast my Apple Watch.

There are plenty of workout options to choose from, including indoor and outdoor walks, runs, cycles, and swims, as well as other activities such as skipping, rowing, or using a cross trainer. I tried an indoor cycle wearing both the Watch Fit 3 and my Apple Watch, and the heart rate tracking was usually within a beat or two across both devices. There are also warm-up and cool-down exercises suggested for each type of workout, too.

There’s a range of watchfaces to choose from, with some that look great and some that are less appealing, but there are more available to purchase through the companion app. One of the stock options is a really clever watchface that shows an image of a flower that slowly unfurls its petals as you work towards a health target such as your step count. It’s genuinely motivating, as it’s easy to equate the poor state of the flower to your own physical health, giving you a greater urge to get up and take some steps. It’s something I wish I had on my Apple Watch as it’s a constant reminder of when you’re too sedentary.

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What I don’t like about the Huawei Watch Fit 3

No NFC payments and a frustrating charger

There are a few issues I had when using the Watch Fit 3. Firstly, the bezels are narrower at the sides than at the top. It’s not a huge deal, but once you notice it you can’t really ignore it. There’s also currently no option for NFC payments. As it’s something I use my Apple Watch all the time, I would definitely miss it if I switched to the Watch Fit 3.

Another annoyance is the charger. It’s a two-pin charger that connects magnetically to the watch, but the magnet isn’t particularly strong. I found that it would often detach when I tried to put the watch down to charge. For some reason, it only fits one way around, too, which makes it even more janky.

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There are some great health features, including Health Clovers that you fill by completing tasks such as doing a breathing exercise or hitting your step count. One of the options is drinking water, and it’s frustrating that there’s no way to quickly log your water intake on the watch; you have to use the companion phone app instead. There’s also a limited app store, and if you’re paired with an iPhone, there’s no way to install additional apps at all. iPhone users are also unable to upload music to the watch for offline listening.

Sleep tracking offers a lot of detail, but the results were wildly different from my Apple Watch, which tends to show me not getting enough deep sleep. The Watch Fit 3 showed me getting plenty of deep sleep. It’s hard to say which device is more accurate, so I’m taking both with a grain of salt.

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Should you buy the Huawei Watch Fit 3?

If you’re outside the US, and you like the idea of owning an Apple Watch but not the price tag, then you can’t go wrong with the Huawei Watch Fit 3. It looks great, has decent performance, and includes a lot of the features you find in more expensive wearables. The battery life is also excellent, meaning you can easily go a week between charges.

For the price, it’s a great product. Even if you’re in the US, with the customs fees and shipping costs, you’re still likely to see considerable savings compared to an Apple Watch SE. There are a few gripes such as the lack of NFC payments and sub-par charger, but if these aren’t huge issues for you, then the Watch Fit 3 is definitely worth your consideration.

Huawei Watch Fit 3

Recommended

A great value Apple Watch alternative

A smartwatch that unashamedly bases its design on that of the Apple Watch, and offers a lot of the same features, too. The Huawei Watch Fit 3 has far superior battery life, however, and a much lower price tag.