Smartwatches are slowly becoming an essential wearable, especially for those keen on monitoring their health and fitness. Luxury watches are cool and all, but wouldn’t it be nice if your precious timepiece can do more than just tell time? 

To this end, several smartphone manufacturers have crafted their own versions of a smartwatch. Most of which are designed to perfectly match the phone they’re selling. And over the years, we have gone from counting steps, all the way to adding heart monitoring and even an ECG function. 

With so many things to consider, how exactly do you decide which smartwatch is your match? In this article, we’re taking a look at the 46mm and 42mm variants of the latest from Huawei – the Watch GT 3 Pro. And we’re putting it up against the Apple Watch Series 7 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch4. 

Specifically, we’re looking at five aspects to determine whether the Watch GT 3 Pro is an upgrade over the wearables made by Apple and Samsung. These are Design, Display, Battery Life, Health and Wellness features, and Active Lifestyle. 

Design

Design is probably the most subjective of all the categories we listed. After all, it will ultimately come down to your personal preference. However, there are undeniable facts about how these wearables look. 

For instance, which of the smartwatches actually look like a premium timepiece? 

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro, much like its predecessors, is designed to look and feel like the type of watch you ask for as a gift or reward. The leather strap, the sleek titanium body, and the dial; they all evoke luxury in just a glance. 

You can’t exactly say the same for the variants of Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch4 we have on hand. Sure, you can buy straps to achieve a certain higher-end look. But you don’t have to do that with the Watch GT 3 Pro. This look is what you get straight out of the box. 

Titanium and Ceramic

The Titanium Edition, as the name suggests, is made of titanium making it light but strong. And the three-dimensional finish adds edge and character to this looker of a smartwatch. 

Meanwhile, the Ceramic edition was made with more than just the looks in mind. Ceramic is resistant to corrosion and heat. Premium attributes of a premium device. 

For a feature-packed smartwatch, the Ceramic edition is incredibly lightweight. You’ll barely notice you’re wearing it during your activities, especially when you use the stylish white leather strap which gives a more polished appeal to anyone who wears it.

Display

Here’s a quick glance: 

• Titanium Edition, Watch GT 3 Pro – 1.43-inch AMOLED HD display, Sapphire glass
• Ceramic Edition, Watch GT 3 Pro – 1.32-inch AMOLED HD display, Sapphire glass
• Galaxy Watch 4 – 1.4-inch Super AMOLED display, Corning Gorilla Glass DX+
• Apple Watch Series 7 – 1.9-inch OLED display, Sapphire glass

What do these mean exactly? Well, as far as display tech is concerned, AMOLED is superior to OLED in terms of power efficiency. When it comes to durability, Sapphire glass can endure more than Corning Gorilla Glass DX+. And guess what, the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro has the best of both worlds. 

Tough, power efficient, and all around sharp, vivid displays. Huawei’s latest smartwatch easily takes this one. 

Battery life

On paper, the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro promises the longest battery life – 14 days, to be exact. Meanwhile, the need to charge the Apple Watch daily has been well documented by plenty of reviewers. And the Galaxy Watch 4 lasts less than a day when you activate all the features + when you connect it to WiFi, Bluetooth, and background tracking/GPS. 

In practice, the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro doesn’t always reach the 14-day promise. However, it easily outpaces the smartwatches from Apple and Samsung.

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro (43mm) retained 80% of its battery life even after heavy usage – from tracking the workouts during the day, continuous connectivity to WiFi and Bluetooth, and always-on tracking of GPS.

This category might be the most runaway win, and the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro is ahead of the pack by a mile and then some.

Health and wellness

All these flagship wearable devices have come to a point that they now share pretty much the same health and wellness tracking features. 

The Apple Watch Series 7 finally added an always-on display missing in previous iterations. And then there’s heart rate monitoring as well as ECG. Plus, the well-documented helpfulness of the fall detection feature. 

Samsung, for its part, added a unique body composition tool that uses a technology called Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) on the Galaxy Watch4. They’re basically little charges shot through your body to tell how much is fat and how much is skeletal muscle.

It helps in understanding your body to determine what adjustments you have to make in terms of workout, diet, and your lifestyle to achieve the best results you’re going for.

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro, on the other hand, provides a holistic approach to tracking your health and wellness features, bringing features that are essential to your everyday lives. 

The Galaxy Watch4 and the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro basically have the same tracking features. The Galaxy Watch4’s advantages include its unique body composition tool and its fast and accurate sensors.

Even stevens?

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro, like the Apple Watch Series 7, offers measuring your ECG, temperature, stress levels, heart rate monitoring, and all day SpO2 monitoring. Built-in apps allow you to create a health plan, keep tabs on your sleep, practice breathing exercises, and   your air pressure.

All three have a dedicated Health app providing an overview of your status and condition, based on the data collected by the smartwatch. It has data on your activities for the day, water intake, calories burned, heart beat rate, blood oxygen level, sleep status.

In this regard, you might be better off getting the smartwatch that’s made by the manufacturer of the phone you’re already using. Unless, of course, you don’t like how it looks or have issues with its battery life.

Active lifestyle 

Like health and wellness monitoring, living an active lifestyle with the help of fitness tracking from each of these smartwatches should have you covered.

The Apple Watch Series 7 has a daily activity tracker that’s great for keeping you moving. On top of that, you can track activities like running, cycling, dancing, paddle boarding, and many more.

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro measures your running ability, has a barometer feature that lets you read atmospheric pressure to predict the weather which might affect your training. The same feature allows the watch to measure how many flights have been climbed throughout the day.

There’s even an all new diving mode as well as golf mode on top of the already sizable 100+ workout modes.

Huawei, in particular, is proud of its deep diving capabilities. The free diving mode lets the Watch GT 3 Pro function even at a 30-meter depth. This follows the EN 13319 engineering standard as well as the 5ATM water resistance.  This is a feature Huawei is proud of and has been thoroughly tested on their end.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch4 auto-detects walking, running, and cycling. Inside the smartwatch, it can track 37 more workout modes which include swimming, hiking, circuit training, treadmill, arm curls and extensions, deadlifts, and even yoga.

Through the Samsung Health app, you can add more than 50 workout mode. These are primarily considered sports such as archery, badminton, beach volleyball, boxing, bowling, horseback riding, golf, scuba diving, snorkeling, and even tennis.

Tied again?

In this instance, it’s best that you look up if your preferred sport or activity is supported by the smartwatch you’re eyeing. At a glance, though, it would appear that all three support a wide gamut of workouts that whatever you do is bound to be supported. 

Again, you’re left with choosing based on compatibility with your phone, battery life, and looks. The choice is ultimately yours. 

Is the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro an upgrade?

Based strictly on the categories we listed, it would appear that the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro is an upgrade. 

• Design +
• Display +
• Battery life +
• Health and wellness =
• Active lifestyle =

Its classic watch look may appeal to more people, its display is topnotch, and the battery life is far and away the best of the bunch. Everything else is just gravy at this point. 

Any of the three are fine choices. And there’s a legitimate reason to just choose the one that matches best with your smartphone. But you’re getting more juice and a few extra value if you opt for the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro. 

Additionally, the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro will work seamlessly with whatever OS your phone is using. Whether that’s Huawei’s own, Google, or iOS. And that’s not something you can say with all the smartwatches here.

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro Titanium Edition retails for PhP 16,999. Meanwhile, the Ceramic Edition is priced at PhP 24,999. 

Buy them here: HUAWEI Store | Lazada | Shopee

This feature is a collaboration between GadgetMatch and Huawei Philippines.