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I reviewed the 42mm Huawei Watch GT 3 back in November 2021, and in May this year, Huawei launched the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro.

Like previous iterations, the Pro model is essentially the same as the GT 3, but you now get premium quality materials in the form of a titanium body and sapphire glass.

Komoot / Runtastic / Strava / Third Party Support

I am highlighting this first as it is one of the most important aspects of the watch (for me).

The official press release for this watch indicates that there is third party app syncing:

Among the over 100 workout modes is the intelligent running planning feature. It helps create a personal running plan based on an individual’s physical and running history, combined with their performance goals. It assesses data such as pace, heart rate, distance, and professional advice which evolves with the runner; and synchronises this data with other compatible devices, including over 60 workout apps from around the world, such as Runtastic and Komoot. This makes it the perfect companion for training.

For me, this is huge, not being able to sync with Strava has been one of the main reasons why I wouldn’t wear a Huawei watch for my personal use.

However, the only two services I am able to link up are Adidas and Komoot, not Strava.

The best explanation I can find is that I have not set my Huawei ID to a country that supports Strava. I have seen at least one review with a screenshot with Strava under the services setting, so it is definitely there for some people.

I hope/expect the third-party services are coming soon as this will make the watches far more appealing to the fitness crowd.

Design & Build Quality

Previously I reviewed the 42mm Huawei Watch GT 3, so the overall design of the 46mm GT 3 Pro is quite different.

However, as far as smartwatches go, this looks and feels amazing. If you select an appropriate watch face, this watch does a good job of looking like a traditional automatic watch.

The titanium shell and sapphire glass mean that this should easily fend off scratches that many wearables are prone to.

The watch uses 22mm quick-release release straps, and they have a wide range of straps you can buy. All the straps work with the 46mm Watch 3, GT2 & 3, GT2e and GT2 Pro.  

I assume any 22mm quick-release strap should work with this watch, and there are plenty of choices on Amazon or Etsy is a good choice if you want something more premium or unique.

The 42mm model has had a more dramatic makeover compared to the standard GT 3. It now has an attractive white case and face using ceramic rather than titanium with either a gold or silver coloured trim.

HarmonyOS – Features & Apps

The GT 3 series uses a slimmed-down version of HarmonyOS, which is a significant improvement over LiteOS, the older GT models used.

There are still few useful apps within the AppGallery, however, the number has increased to around 32 apps compared to the 24 when I reviewed the GT3 in November.

Petal Maps is probably the most useful app. There is also the Hue Essentials app to control Philips Hue devices.

Huawei Wallet / Payments

There is an NFC chip in this, and it supports Huawei Wallet, so in theory, you can use this for contactless payments. However, in my case, it states that my current wearable does not support this service.

I assume this is another regional issue.

Outdoor Fitness / Strava Syncing

As I wasn’t able to get native third-party syncing working, I had to resort to the Health Sync app. As always, this is a less than ideal solution. In my case, I struggled to connect the Huawei Health app properly when using the Health Sync on the Honor Magic 4 Pro. I had to dig out my old Huawei P30 Pro and got it syncing through that.

And, as usual, the Health Sync app under reports distance. Apparently, this is due to the way Stava calculates distance when you import GPS data. I am not sure how it manages to consistently under-report distance, but it does, and you should factor this in for any races or PB attempts you might be doing.

There are two new activities, but it is unlikely you will use them. Golf is exclusive to the Chinese market, and the other is freediving.

Importing Routes with Komoot

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro supports routes, these can be imported manually off the phone or you can import them via Komoot. The process is quite simple:

  • Go to the Me tab
  • Select My Route
  • Import from Kommot
  • Link the accounts
  • Select the route

With the route imported, you can:

  • Select the route
  • Press the four dots in the top right
  • Send to wearable

On the watch:

  • Go to the start activities page
  • Scroll to the activity you want and press the cog
  • Scroll down to routes and select the route you would like to do
Routing is quite basic

How to connect third-party services, including Adidas and Strava

It took me far too long to work out where the third-party settings were and when I did find them, I wasn’t able to connect the 60 workout apps that the press release states. I had just two options, Adidas and Komoot.

This looks like it is a region-specific problem. However, to access the third-party services, you need to:

  • Go to the Me tab
  • Go to Privacy Management
  • Go to Data Sharing and authorisation
  • Select the service you want and link the account.

Optical heart rate accuracy during exercise

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro has the same optical wrist heart rate sensor as the GT 3, and the accuracy is about the same.

With my bony and hairy wrists, I have always had problems with wrist-based heart rate, but the Huawei Watch GT 3 and GT 3 both perform better than average, in my opinion.

On my 8-mile run, the GT 3 Pro matched up with my Polar Verity Sense up until around 42mins when the readings started to stray a little. This coincided with my effort increasing to the point of my threshold heart rate.

There were not significantly inaccurate readings, about 4bpm apart at its worst, and the average HR was almost identical.

GPS Accuracy

I’d say that the GPS accuracy was about the same as my Garmin Fenix 6 Pro. Neither was perfect, but I can’t see any lines that are significantly far from my routes. GPS lock-on time is roughly the same as the Garmin too.

Health Tracking

Health tracking is also the same, and it is quite good, and I would say comparable to Garmin.

I have weird sleeping habits, and Huawei gets confused with me going to sleep before 8 pm. I normally fall asleep around then, but on one occasion, while using this, it tracked a nap from 7:30pm to 8pm and then started tracking sleep as normal. This is a bug that is unlikely to affect most people.

Huawei advertises this as being able to do an ECG, but it appears that this is another feature not available yet.

Battery

Battery life is always superb with Huawei. Huawei claims 14 days with normal use. I had all the settings enabled, including SPO2 and skin temperature and I use GPS a lot. I was getting roughly a week worth of use out of it, and it easily outperformed my Garmin Fenix 6 Pro.

It charges wirelessly and is compatible with normal wireless chargers. However, it needs to sit flat, and I found the charging to be quite slow when using random chargers I had lying around. It is still preferable to the proprietary chargers Garmin uses.

Price and Competition

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro is £379.99 on Amazon for the model I reviewed, but the model with a grey leather strap is just £299.99, and you can get a further 17% off via the on-page voucher.

The attractive 43mm model is £430. Then the 46mm Titanium strap model is £429.99.

On the Huawei website, both the Black and Grey models are £299.99, and you get some free Huawei Freebuds Pro.

The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is just £164, but this lacks any form of installable apps or navigation.

The standard Huawei Watch GT 3 is currently £229 and has a 22% voucher available.

The Huawei Watch 3 (not GT) is also £229.00, or the Pro model is £340. This will have more smartwatch functionality, but the battery is only 5-days in the full smartwatch mode.

The Xiaomi Watch S1 and S1 Active are roughly £180 and £200. They are good watches but nowhere near as good as the GT3 models.

The Garmin Venu 2 is just shy of £300, and this is far superior for a sports watch, but I’d say not as good as a smartwatch.

Overall

The Huawei Watch GT 3 felt like a significant upgrade from the GT 2 series. It offered some of the improved smartwatch functionality of the Huawei Watch 3 without the high price or reduced battery life.

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro doesn’t bring much new to the table other than premium materials and a different aesthetic, but it doesn’t cost too much more either. I think the titanium body and sapphire glass justify the cost, they make the watch far more durable, and this is one of the best-looking smartwatches on the market.

With Komoot courses now available and the potential for syncing to 3rd party services, the Huawei Watch GT 3 series is starting to look much more appealing to fitness enthusiasts.

The main issues with this is the various missing features and slow progress with the AppGallery. Now that Huawei has finally allowed third-party syncing, it seems madness that some of these services appear to be region dependent. With Huawei Wallet not functional in the UK (and I assume everywhere other than China), I think the app should just not display any reference to it. As for the AppGallery, it seems bizarre that there are a bunch of random apps like Love Test, S7 Airlines and two separate prayer apps, yet there are very few genuinely useful apps.  

Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro Review Rating

Summary

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro doesn’t bring much new to the table other than premium materials and a different aesthetic, but it doesn’t cost too much more either. I think the titanium body and sapphire glass justify the cost, they make the watch far more durable, and this is one of the best-looking smartwatches on the market. While not all the features were available, I am very happy to see that Strava and other services will be available soon, and this will make Huawei watches much more appealing to fitness enthusiasts.

Overall
85%
85%
  • Overall - 85%
    85%

Pros

  • Superb build quality and one of the best-looking smartwatches on the market
  • Third-party activity exports should be possible to Strava, Runtastic and others
  • Courses with imports from Komoot

Cons

  • Quite a few features unavailable due to regional differences
  • AppGallery hasn’t grown to include many/any useful apps

Last update on 2024-03-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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One Comment

  1. We fixed the issue with under reporting distance when syncing from Huawei Health to Strava using Health Sync. By default Health Sync now syncs the distance shown in Huawei Health to Strava. Users can select an option in the Settings menu of Health Sync to use the Strava distance calculation instead of the Huawei Health distance calculation.

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