Seven days after the ECQ in Metro Manila was scaled back to allow outdoor exercise, I've recovered two minutes from my three-kilometer morning run, according to my Huawei Watch 3, which has largely kept me company through the lockdown.
One month using Huawei's answer to the Apple Watch and Samsung's Galaxy Watch, I've come to depend on the Watch 3 for my daily run-work-train-work-work-sleep-repeat routine, all while trying to stay sane and healthy.
Smartwatches of course are not without drawbacks. Here's what I like and didn't like about the Huawei Watch 3.
Pros
- It feels nice to wear, understated in black without losing the premium feel. After all, the Huawei Watch 3 costs P18,990. That's still a lot, though cheaper than the Apple Watch.
- It lasts long, up to 14 hours on ultra power saving mode. It charges fast.
- It pairs seamlessly with Huawei devices. Wearables are part of the company's 1 + 8 + N strategy that bets on the smartphone as the gateway to IOT devices.
- It works with the iPhone with the functions that you will need -- health, notifications, even phone calls. I've gotten actual phone calls on the watch when my SIM was in an iPhone.
- In the 15-day ECQ when outdoor exercise was not allowed, the watch helped me track my circuit training and runs up and down the fire exit.
- Paired with a Huawei phone, the watch can be used for MeeTime calls (their answer to FaceTime).
- The watch has eSIM support, which will be more useful when the feature is widely available locally.
- It can stream Wish 017.5 FM and support the JoyRide motortaxi-hailing app soon.
Cons
- There's a wide selection of watch faces but there are just a few to choose from for those who want to keep it minimalist. I default to one for running and another for the rest of the day with a shark that looks like the one from Cocomelon because it reminds me of my nephew.
- The ultra-power saving move squeezes out every little bit of juice, but at the cost of some features.
- The built-in pacer is too loud and when I'm running, it plays from the watch speakers instead of my earphones which can be jarring for those who will hear YOU HAVE REACHED, THREE KILOMETERS...
- The bundled charger needs to connect to a USB-A port, instead of USB-C. This means if you are WFH on a mac, you'll need to find an old power brick to juice it up or get a USB-C adptor to avoid yet another cable in your life.
There's more nice things to say about the Huawei Watch 3 that to complain about. It's a solid smartwatch that works for me because it helps me track my attempts to get fit (I dented a corner with a kettlebell, sorry Huawei) and give me one place to check my notifications without getting in front of my computer.
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