Goodbye rectangle, hello square. For its third iteration, the Watch Fit takes the step from advanced connected bracelet to real watch. In making this movement, there is no doubt that Huawei was very inspired by the Apple watch: rounded corners, arrangement of the crown and button on the right side, speaker on the left. This is always amusing to see, but we can’t really complain about it as the form factor of the Apple Watch has proven itself.
Despite everything, the attention to detail is not quite the same. We notice, for example, that the black outline around the screen does not have the same horizontal and vertical thickness. The interface is not to be outdone with the rings representing the progress of the objectives and the application grid with its characteristic round icons. So much for the first impression which is therefore very (too?) inspired to go unnoticed.
A beautiful, very bright screen
Despite the model’s rock-bottom price, its assembly is well-made. The materials used are classic: aluminum for the frame, 2.5D glass to protect the screen, plastic back and fluoroelastomer strap. The dimensions and weight remain contained: 43.2 × 36.3 × 9.9 mm for 26 grams. The 1.82-inch Amoled screen delivers a brightness that is rare in this range: 1,500 nits. This makes it very readable even in bright light, but we would have liked it to darken more in the dark to avoid lighting up your room when you go to bed, for example.
The interface is relatively classic for this type of watch, mixing tactile gestures and buttons. For the screen:
- Swipe up: Notifications;
- down: quick settings;
- to the left: widgets (customizable);
- to the right: AI Voice (only with a Huawei smartphone) or music playing and weather.
For the crown and button:
- Quick press on the crown: list of applications or return to the main dial;
- double tap: manage multitasking between all open applications;
- long press: power off or restart menu;
- quick press on the lower button: list of workouts;
- long press on the bottom button: AI Voice (again only with a Huawei smartphone).
No NFC, no CB
The first use of each application is painful, since each requires validation of Huawei’s privacy management policy. Honest, but perhaps not very reassuring to see these messages multiply. We would have preferred a single validation to gain practicality, in the absence of transparency. HarmonyOS offers all the classic apps that are generally found on connected watches: from the weather, to exercises and even sleep analysis. The latter is also very complete and precise. We are a little less delighted about notifications which only display their content without giving the possibility of interacting (replying to a message for example). Another fault of the watch, without an NFC system, it cannot offer a contactless payment system, although it is so practical when it comes to using a connected watch.
For music, you will need an Android smartphone to transfer files to the watch. With an iPhone, only the song playing on the phone will be displayed. Important reminder: since the American embargo on the Chinese brand, you have to go through a QR code to go to the AppGallery and download the Huawei Health application. Absent from the Google Play Store, it is nevertheless available on the Samsung Galaxy Store.
Complete sports features
The application is comprehensive and allows you to obtain the entire summary of health data, access the history and details of exercises, adjust some settings of the watch and download new dials. It can also be connected to Health on an iPhone or Strava and Komoot, although you can’t use their applications directly on the watch. This is one of the major flaws of this model, the application store of which only provides about ten, which are more like gadgets.
Even if it does not have an ECG – not surprising at this price level – the Watch Fit 3 wants to go all out when it comes to sports practice. We did not fail to submit it in this sense by carrying out several exercises, mainly running and road cycling training.
The heart rate monitoring proved to be quite effective and almost as accurate as that of our Apple Watch Series 8 used as a comparison. The same is not true, however, of the GPS track, which is not as accurate. As our illustration shows, it tends not to go completely straight, extending the actual distance traveled even more. On our training taken here as an example, we therefore obtain an average cycling speed of 27.47 km/h instead of the 26.7 km/h measured by the Apple watch. Not necessarily a problem over our distance of just over 40 kilometers, but which can seriously distort things on longer outings of a day.
Autonomy up to par
Autonomy, on the other hand, is one of Huawei’s great successes with this Watch Fit 3. Before testing it, we first chose to leave the screen activated all the time. To do this, you must go to the watch settings and configure the “Watch face” option. A minimalist version of the home screen will then remain displayed, practical for checking the time, for example, without having to raise your wrist. Note also that the watch is very responsive in this case and activates the dial instantly as soon as you point it towards you.
We also manually launched the sleep analysis every night. An automatic mode is offered, but it takes too long for our liking to detect that we have gone to bed and thus leaves the dial activated in complete darkness. We also performed several exercises during this test, for a total duration of just over 3 hours. With such use, the watch thus worked for a full week between two charges thanks to its 400 mAh battery. An excellent performance that places it well ahead of the Apple Watch from which it is so inspired and which has a maximum autonomy of a day and a half.
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