Posted at 11:00 a.m.
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Rather discreet these days in North America with its phones, Huawei, on the other hand, wants to be hyperactive with its smartwatches, launching four models in one year. Here is the newcomer, the Watch GT 3 Pro, offered in two coatings, titanium and ceramic. It is this first version, which costs $250 less than the second, that we tested.
It is a round watch, with a diameter of 46.6 mm, 10.9 mm thick and a weight of 100 g, metal bracelet included. The controls are limited to two possibilities: a clickable button with a scrolling crown and a key that displays a hundred sports activities.
As Huawei has made a specialty of it, this watch has an absolutely unbeatable autonomy of 14 days, or 12 days in permanent screen mode. We are very, very far from the 18 hours guaranteed by an Apple Watch 7 or the 40 hours of a Galaxy Watch 4.
It looks great, this Watch GT 3 Pro in titanium, with a slightly dated look and a bright AMOLED touchscreen in sapphire crystal, which we assure cannot be scratched.
Pairing is done with the app Huawei Health, available on the App Store for an iPhone. On Android, on the other hand, you must first go to Huawei’s AppGallery from a web browser, as the app is not available on the Google Play Store.
We first have the choice between 14 different free clocks. If this rather slim choice doesn’t satisfy you, you have access to dozens more at prices ranging from $0.96 to $4.49.
Listing everything that can be displayed would be tedious, let’s go over what is used the most. In addition to the time and date, we have the weather, the next appointment on the agenda, the number of steps, physical activity reports, heart rate, phases of the moon and times for sunrise and sunset, all phone notifications. If a call is received, the caller’s name and number are displayed and can be answered directly on the watch.
The Watch GT 3 Pro shows skin temperature, atmospheric pressure, can be used as a compass and remote camera shutter.
When you start a physical activity, you choose from the hundred offered and the watch identifies a GPS signal. After a few seconds, we see the display adapted to the activity, with the classic distances traveled, the pace and the heart rate. This watch is IP68 rated and can withstand 30m depth for scuba diving.
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Sp02 measurement, like Huawei Wallet payment, is not available in Canada.
The only way to allow the Watch GT 3 Pro to control the music is to transfer its songs to it, the watch having a storage memory of 4 GB. This transfer is totally impossible for iOS, so you have to go through a android phone.
Compared to smartwatches from Apple and Samsung, Huawei’s is quite alone when it comes to controlling a third-party application.
Huawei’s App Gallery for its watch is made up of 33 totally unknown apps, at least as far as we’re concerned.
This watch is expensive: $548.99 for the titanium version and $798.99 for the ceramic one.
One buys ?
Let’s first settle the case of those who shouldn’t buy the Watch GT 3 Pro. If using third-party apps is important to you, forget it. An iPhone owner, moreover, will have to deal with many missing features. Unless you are seduced by the autonomy and design of this watch, it is difficult to see how you could prefer it to an Apple Watch, which remains the device best suited to the Apple ecosystem.
There are still those who will want to take advantage of the still respectable sports capabilities of the Watch GT 3 Pro, useful functions that will ensure that you will take out your phone much less often to read emails and notifications, answer a call, start a timer or take a look at the weather forecast. In this regard, the Watch GT 3 Pro defends itself well: if Samsung’s smartwatches are more complete, those of Huawei are more beautiful and enjoy remarkable autonomy.
Sheet: Watch GT 3 Pro
Manufacturer: Huawei
Price: $548.99 (titanium) and $798.99 (ceramic)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5