Harmony OS has finally arrived, and the first gadgets that also use it.The Huawei Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro are the standard bearers which must show the whole world what Huawei can do by itself.Unfortunately, the operating system gives the impression of being a little limited at the moment.

The Huawei Watch 3 Pro itself is also rough on the edges, literally and metaphorically.It is large and bulky, with many lively edges and hard lines, and the global user experience is far from fluid.We must expect missing features and unstable performance in a new operating system, but sometimes Harmony OS looks like a Liteos upgrade, at least on the Watch 3 Pro.

The price of the watch does not help either.At 599 euros, this is one of the most expensive smartwatches on the market, and with the GT2 Pro sold for 349 euros, the price increase simply does not seem justified.The ESIM functionality is only supported by Chinese mobile operators at the moment and certain features require a smartphone operating under Harmony OS.

Overall, the Huawei Watch 3 Pro could hardly sell and be reserved for the brand's hardcore fans.However, with appropriate updates and a world NFC/ESIM support, the Watch 3 Pro could turn into something completely different.

In the box :

Huawei Watch 3 Pro: Design

Let's start with the strong point of the Huawei Watch 3 Pro, namely its design.No doubt, she will not go unnoticed!Huawei uses titanium for the case as well as a leather bracelet (or a metal bracelet if you prefer), and this gives an excellent impression of quality.The watch simply looks classy and expensive, which is logical, given what it is.The titanium has a subtle aspect, so that it does not attract much attention, apart from the fact that it is quite tall.

Now Huawei has promised us a more refined and modern design in the Watch 3, but that does not concern the pro version of the device.The general design reminds me that of the Huawei Watch GT2 Pro with its flat sapphire glass on the front, the imposing ring around the screen and the cold gray shine in titanium.

Of course, there are differences, such as the rotary ring, which can be used to scroll through pages of different parts of the user interface, adjust the volume of the media and other commands adapted to this type of interaction,The secondary pill button, and the legs that hold the bracelet.

The right side of the housing has two buttons, one being the home button/menu and the other a shortcut button to any application, including the ones you install from the Huawei Appgallery.The home button also serves as a rotary crown.You will also find a speaker on this side of the watch, and it is actually surprisingly very strong for a device of this size.There is a hole for the microphone on the left and a loudspeaker on the right.

A ceramic rear

The back of the Huawei Watch 3 Pro is in ceramic, a good choice, because it is completely hypoallergenic and very soft for the skin.I review a lot of smartwatches with a plastic rear shell, so it's pleasant to see.Of course, the complete suite of body sensors is there, but one thing that is not, it is the charging pin.

The Huawei Watch 3 Pro (and the standard model also) takes care of wireless.

Huawei Watch 3 Pro: screen and components

The Huawei Watch 3 PRO has an AMOLED screen of 1.43 inch with a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels.This results in a pixel density of around 326 ppi, which gives a clear and clear image.Huawei boasts of a maximum brightness of 1000 nits.

These figures are in no way an absolute representation of how you will be able to read the screen on a sunny day.Sometimes 1000 nits are not enough, and I found myself fighting to see what was on the screen on the beach.Indoor, the Watch 3 Pro is sufficiently light.

Huawei was silent on the chipset used in the Watch 3 series, but a small research confirmed that it is the HI6262 Historicon equipped with LTE technology.The information on this chip is rare, to say the least, but it does the job most of the time.The Huawei Watch 3 Pro has 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage, but also with a large number of sensors.

In addition to the accelerometer, heart rate and standard gyroscopic sensors, it is equipped with a barometer, a SPO2 sensor and a thermometer!The Huawei Watch 3 Pro also supports a wide variety of satellite GPS systems and services, although it is sometimes difficult to get a locking, but I will come back to this later.

One of the big changes compared to the previous generation of Huawei watches is LTE connectivity - the Watch 3 Pro supports ESIM, but not surprisingly, this feature is only available in China for the moment.In theory, the watch should manage voice calls and also operate independently of a smartphone.

Regarding connectivity, the watch is equipped with 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2.The NFC is also present, but the payment options are limited to China once again, at least for the moment.

Huawei Watch 3 Pro: Software and features

Harmony OS is making his debut on a connected watch for the first time, and Huawei made great news.I must say that the software experience looks like a "work in progress", and there is little or no practical difference between Harmony OS 2.0 and Liteos, the latter equipping Huawei GT2 Pro.

Where to start ?The pairing process is anything but simple.I spent several minutes (literally) trying to connect the watch to my smartphone.You must download the Health application from the Huawei App Gallery, because the one on Google Play Store does not work.This means that you must first download Huawei App Gallery and this is another frustration experience.I even met some lags of the application.

When I finally managed to pass the CAP from the digitization of the QR code and the granting of authorizations, I rushed to the Huawei App Gallery of the watch to download a lot of applications.This is true, you can download applications directly on the watch, but you realize that none of them works independently.

The rotary crown works really well - it has a soft and pleasant mechanical sensation, like a well -oiled mechanism.The haptic return of Huawei is actually a very short vibration that you feel when you scroll through the menus and options.You can click on the crown and this brings you back to the home screen.

The pill -shaped button serves as a shortcut for your training, but you can customize it to launch different features and applications.You must always slide to the right to return to the menus and tap the screen to move forward, so navigation is far from ideal.

You cannot move without touching the screen and for me, this should be the case when a device boasts of things like a pleasant digital crown and a reprogramable secondary button.A simple click on the crown to launch or move forward, and on the button down to go back would have been so much more pleasant.

A very pleasant speaker and microphone

I could not test the ESIM functionality, but the Watch 3 Pro can act as Bluetooth headphones, and the quality of the calls is excellent.You can also listen to music on the watch using the speaker, and it's not too bad either.The microphone also captures your voice very well and people were able to hear me loud and clear during the calls.

You can receive notifications on the Huawei Watch 3 Pro, but you cannot respond to SMS, cats or emails.Unfortunately, there are no quick answers available.And sometimes you cannot open the email or the cat to really see the message.You only receive a notification "Check new messages", and you cannot click on it or do anything.It’s frustrating, especially because sometimes you get the full text, and sometimes not.

There is an intelligent assistant, but unfortunately, I failed to make it work.Huawei showed some interesting features during the official presentation, such as Meetime and Remote Shutter (for your smartphone's camera), but they are either "available in certain countries" or require a smartphone with Harmony OS to work.Just a quick note on Meetime, because it is quite useful.This application allows you to take or make calls on your Watch 3 Pro, and also to make video calls, or to divert calls between a range of devices-tablets, speakers, and Smart TV in the ecosystemfrom Huawei.

When you slide to the left from the home screen, you scroll different "tiles" showing your heart rate, your body temperature, SPO2 measurements and your activity.

Monitoring of physical form and health

The monitoring of physical condition remains more or less the same compared to the Watch GT2 Pro.It is not a bad thing in itself, there are more than 100 training modes, including 19 professional modes and 85 personalized modes, including 13 running routes with vocal guidance to give you more suggestions forBetter training.

Sleep monitoring is really good, but that means you have to wear this 63 gram titanium plate on your wrist while you sleep.

The temperature sensor is not very practical and I think it is there for reasons of public relations.The temperature of your wrist varies enormously (the application itself indicates that it can vary between 20 and 42 degrees Celsius) and these are not useful data.You can have a fever and have cold wrists, or vice versa.

Huawei Watch 3 Pro: Autonomy

The Huawei Watch 3 Pro battery has a capacity of 790 mAh.Huawei specifies a maximum autonomy of 21 days for the energy saving mode, which it can also reach.In this mode, Huawei deactivates mobile data, Wi-Fi and certain applications such as the Gallery app, among others.However, many things continue to work, such as monitoring health from the PPG sensor and the recording of training sessions.The telephone application is absent, but incoming calls can always be accepted and made from the connected watch.

On paper, the Huawei Watch 3 Pro should last up to 5 full days in intelligent mode.During the day, the battery empties 1 % per hour, and it is a little better when you sleep or you are inactive.As with other Wearables, autonomy decreases considerably when you activate the Always-On Display.If you then also choose a live dial with a moving background, the battery capacity is exhausted even faster.In the test, the battery has barely held more than a day in such a scenario of active use with an hour of use of GPS and some short telephone calls.In practice, it is therefore important to find a good compromise between autonomy and the use of comfort functions.

With a capacity remaining 5 %, the battery still holds 6 hours in standard mode.The energy saving mode carries the remaining autonomy at 25 hours with limited features.The return of the energy saving mode requires restarting.

The Huawei Watch 3 Pro recharges with an inductive load adapter.Unlike the Watch GT 2 Pro, the adapter does not have a USB-C port, but is firmly connected to the cable to connect it to a standard USB port.Huawei declares a charging time compared to almost 3 hours.

Huawei Watch 3 Pro: Verdict

From the user's point of view, the manipulation and interface of the Huawei Watch 3 Pro have hardly changed compared to its predecessors.On the other hand, mobile connectivity is a big change.Users who do not need it because they generally have their smartphone with them anyway would have certainly liked to save a few euros here;On the other hand, the undecided do not have to balance the supplement and the functional added value as with the Apple Watch.

The other two innovations, the control of the functions from the Huawei Celia vocal assistant and the Gallery app, are also positive if you are using a smartwatch intensively.The shop is not much to offer for the moment, and we can only hope that it would change in the near future;You can find some interesting applications.

The battery life is also a very positive point.As the energy saving mode does not limit features much, the watch can be used for several days in this mode.

The fact that nothing in the Huawei Watch is really innovative, but that Huawei rather implements concepts known for a long time, especially in Apple, is not reprehensible, but of course feeds discussions between fans.

Review Overview

Summary

8.3 Very Bonla Huawei Watch 3 Pro is a healthy, fast and precise health monitoring smartwatch, but you have to be over a seriously off -putting configuration experience.