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Huawei GT 3 : Is it Worth Buying?

I have owned the Huawei Watch GT 3 for about 2 months now and there are a lot of things I like about it, and there are a few minor things I don’t like.  Nevertheless the pro’s totally out way the cons, and my overall experience using the Huawei Watch GT 3 has been very good.

So is the Huawei Watch GT 3 worth buying? In my opinion yes,  I would rate it better than the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4.  However, if limited options on quick messaging and third apps is a deal breaker for you then you may want to read this article.

Here is a list of things that I did like and some of the things I didn’t.  I will be explaining each point in detail so you can get a better idea of the Huawei GT 3 is the watch for you.

Pros

  • Workout modes offer really great insight to your Activity
  • Accurate GPS tracking
  • 3 days Battery Life with Heavy GPS Usage
  • Power saving options for my favourite workout mode : Hiking
  • 5 days battery Life no GPS Usage
  • Fast charge Battery

Cons

  • Quick messaging could be better
  • Third party app limitations

Workout Modes Offer Great Insight To Your Activity

If you have never owned a Huawei smartwatch or fitness tracker, the workout modes are excellent.  Not because the watch offers so many workout modes but in terms of your fitness level and overall health it’s great.  Also the level of insight to your fitness is dependent on the Huawei device you own.  The more high end your watch is, the greater the insight will be.  Above the Huawei GT3, is the GT3 Pro and the GT Runner, so that will give you an idea where the GT 3 sits on the Huawei smartwatch hierarchy.

The workout modes don’t just offer you calories burned, or the duration of workout, The TRUsport analytics kick in and begin tracking your workout specific to your workout.  The workout modes that I typically use are crossfit, hiking, strength, walking, elliptical trainer and yoga (for stretching).  If I take hiking as an example, at the end of the hiking session, my exercise record syncs to my phone when in range and gives a recorded feedback of my route.  It has the highest elevation, heart rate range specific to my location especially at its highest, and 2 dimensional elevation range.  The dynamic tracking is a feature I like the most as you get to see your route playback from the GPS tracking.

Lastly, one other thing I like is the recovery time post workout.  If you are not familiar with this feature, it’s basically a timer that counts down.  The counting down is your recovery time until your next workout session.  The more time you spend in the aerobic or anaerobic heart rate zones, the longer your recovery will be.  I see it as a great way to manage my training load, especially when I am training twice a day.

Some of my favourite workout modes in sequence on the Huawei GT 3

Battery Life is Good, Sometimes

I have already written an article about my battery life experience, but all in all the battery life of the Huawei GT 3 is pretty good.  At times I get 5 or 2-3 days battery life.  Why?, well it’s the number of minutes I use for GPS tracking during workouts.  If you don’t use GPS tracking, then you are more than likely going to get at least 5 days (not as it is stated on the label)

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I like to do hiking at our local trail on the weekends, and I tend to hike for at least 3 hours, which will burn around 15% battery life off the bat.  So this will give you some idea of how much battery usage when hiking.  I am also doing the beginner level running program which normally goes for 20 minutes at a time, which burns close to 10% battery life.  Especially when you have broadcasting on, so I can follow the running program.

If you are a person who do a lot of the following activities, you will get around 2-3 battery life

  • Outdoor Running
  • Outdoor Cycling
  • Open Swimming
  • Hiking
  • Mountain Hiking
  • Outdoor Walking

Not to mention, if you are a person who likes to use the metronome, or interval training with GPS activities, expect to get around 1 and a half days battery life.  I have used the metronome feature for outdoor cycling and hiking.  Depending on the workout length, you could end up charging the watch at the end of the workout.

Huawei GT 3 battery life

Huawei GT 3 : Battery Life Isn’t What It Seems

The battery capacity states you can get at least 8 days battery life. In my experience I get at most 5 days, and most of the time 2 days battery life. GPS tracking consumes a lot of battery life so anyone into hiking, cycling, running and open water swimming need to read.

Power Saving Options For My Favourite Workout Mode

The power saving options only apply to the workout modes that use GPS tracking, because it consumes a lot of battery life.  With the Huawei GT 3 the power saving option only applies to one workout mode, which is hiking.  There are only 2 different battery saving options available to you, and both options are pre set, so you simply just pick and choose.

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The power saving options are performance and power saving.  The power saving option can reduce energy consumption 2 fold, and you will see this when you choose the options.  You will see in the image below how much energy you can save, and you will notice that the battery capacity is doubled.  I don’t know for certain how much battery life you can save so I’m going to write a future article, performance versus power saving and see how much battery life you can actually save.  Look out for that in the future.

HGT3 battery saving options hiking
Battery performance option in the settings of Hiking workout mode.

Fast Charge Battery 

I really love this feature.  It’s not as quick as the Huawei Band 7 which takes 1 minute to charge 1% of your battery life, but the Huawei GT 3 takes 1 minute and 10 seconds to charge 1% of battery life.  If you were to compare the Band 7 and the GT 3 on recharge rates it will be as follows.  

  • Huawei Band 7 – 100 minutes to full charge, 1 min per 1% battery life
  • Huawei GT 3 – 117 minutes to full charge, 1 min 10 sec per 1% battery life

Which are pretty good rates when recharging, and in comparison to the Fitbit Charge 5, and the Galaxy Watch 4 the recharge rate is massive.

  • Fitbit Charge 5 – 200 minutes to full charge, 2 min per 1% battery life
  • Galaxy Watch 4 – 250 minutes to full charge, 2 min 30 sec per 1% battery life.

Quick Messaging Could be Better

For a high end smart watch I thought that the quick messaging would be a better experience than the Huawei Band 7.  However this is not the case, and the quick messaging feature is the same across all Huawei wearables.  You have the same number of messages you can store, and with the same customisable options either a short text or an emoji.  What I find with the quick messaging experience is the default quick replies don’t always work with the type of response you want to make.  So you have to constantly play around with it to get it somewhat right.

I find that on the Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch both have a qwerty keyboard and voice to text options.  Both of these features are so useful when doing a quick reply.  The Galaxy Watch’s voice to text is probably the best out there, especially with Google assistant built in as it makes it so much easier to reply to messages.

Third Party Apps Limitations

My experience in using third party apps isn’t the greatest.  What makes it worse is I don’t have a Huawei Phone so my experience takes a further nose dive.  I don’t find third party apps useful when browsing through the app gallery.  The types of apps available are

  • Horoscope
  • Prayer app (suited for musilims)
  • Gossip
  • Calculator
  • Radio
  • Non english speaking apps
  • Train scheduler (useful in Singapore only)
  • Weather
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I did an article recently testing a few of the apps, so you can go check that out.  In comparison to the Galaxy Watch 4, it’s well below par.  The Galaxy Watch 4 offers a lot of options, including popular third party apps on the market.  If you have a premium subscription to a third party app like Strava, then the Galaxy Watch 4 can support a bigger range of third party apps.

In my experience with the Huawei GT 3, you don’t need to rely on third party apps.  The native systems work really well.  I never rely on third party apps with the Huawei GT 3 because the Huawei Health App offers everything I need, whereas with the Galaxy Watch 4, the work out modes activity tracking is at a basic level.  I would rely on third party apps a lot when using the Galaxy Watch 4 for better insight to my fitness tracking.

HGT3 can you download apps 3
A snap shot of the types of apps that are available to you in the App gallery
Huawei GT 3 can you download apps

Can You Install Apps On The Huawei GT 3?

All you need to know about downloading apps on the Huawei GT 3 via App gallery. If you hold a third party app premium subscription, you need to know this before you decide to buy.

Final Conclusion

The Huawei GT 3 is a fantastic watch. In comparison to the Galaxy Watch 4 & 5, I would rate the Huawei GT 3 above both Galaxy Watch series. I kind of felt that the Galaxy Watch series had very clever marketing. Then you go to use it, the experience never meets that expectation as promised with a very expensive price tag. I just want you to be aware of this before you decide to buy.

Normally when I test watch’s I will put it away if my experience isn’t the greatest, but the Huawei GT 3 experience was different because it’s the perfect companion to my day to day activities. Honest truth, it’s probably the reason why I would recommend the Huawei GT 3

Huawei’s native system never disappoints, whether it’s on the lower end or towards the high end it’s almost level par. So is the Huawei GT 3 worth buying, my answer is a definite yes.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you find this article useful