Huawei GT3 PRO vs Xiaomi S1 Active: Which Will You Choose
In this latest comparison article I will be providing some interesting information about the Huawei GT3 PRO in comparison to the Xiaomi S1 Active. The major difference is the gap in the price range, and it’s expected as the Huawei GT3 PRO is the flagship model for Huawei smart watches, and the Xiaomi S1 Active is a more affordable device.
How much so?, well, here in New Zealand the Huawei GT3 PRO is three times the price I paid for the Xiaomi S1 Active, and that’s probably true where ever you are in the world. There is an old catch phrase that you are probably familiar with which is “you get what you paid for” and based on my final results, that truly reflects that.
When ever I test a smart watch I put it through it’s paces in six different categories. I have created my own rating system that provides a more unbiased result, and gives you an idea what technologies are available in the market. In the end the Huawei GT3 PRO wins in a clean sweep 5-0-1, here is a final summary of my test results.
| Sector | Winner |
| Smart Features | GT3 PRO |
| Health Features | GT3 PRO |
| Third Party Apps | GT3 PRO |
| Workout Mode Ability | GT3 PRO |
| GPS Tracking | Draw |
| Battery Life | GT3 PRO |
All though that the score is very lopsided, it does not mean that the Huawei GT3 PRO is better. I do think that the Xiaomi S1 Active does serve a purpose for anyone that is after a low cost smart watch and I will explain that in detail at the end of the article.
If you are not familiar with my articles, I dont do comparisons based on specifications. My comparison articles are based on my testing results, and user experience. Also I will only provide a quick summary of what features doe the device has over the other, so if you want to see my testing results I will provide a link for you to view the full article. I do have to point out is that my device is based in my region of New Zealand, which will be a different experience to everyone else’s.
Smart Feature Ability : Winner Huawei GT3 PRO
| Level | S1 Active | GT3 PRO |
| Strength | Strong | Strong |
| Beginner | 4/5 | 5/5 |
| Intermediate | 3/5 | 4/5 |
| Advanced | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Final Score | 10/15 | 12/15 |
- Article : Xiaomi S1 Active – Smart feature ability is very good
- Article : Huawei GT3 – smart feature ability is very good
Smart feature ability is getting better over the year’s and many smart watch user’s love the convenience of some form of automation, and that is what I call smart feature ability. The S1 Active should have scored a lot higher, how ever based on my testing results, it did not performed reliably and consistently, which is why the Huawei GT3 PRO is the winner. All though the Huawei GT3 PRO is the winner in this category, there are a few things that the S1 Active does better. I will provide a quick summary
List of Features that one Device has the Advantage
| S1 Active | Huawei GT3 PRO |
| Ability to send SOS Message | Ability to answer phone calls |
| Digital assistant (Alexa) | Ability to make phone calls |
| Connect to Smart home devices | Ability to provide directions |
| Contactless pay* | Contactless pay* |
Before I address the quick summary of the smart features, I just want to point out the one feature in common that could be a problem for you which is the contactless payments. Both devices have a NFC chip built in, but the real issue is you need to check with your bank if Huawei Pay or Xiaomi Pay is supported in your region.
S1 Active Advantage’s : it’s pretty good, with Alexa it makes the experience far better as you can activate smart features with your voice, which is a real pity that the Huawei GT3 PRO does not have this. Connecting to smart home devices is really handy, only if it’s compatible with Alexa, which is really fun to do. The ability to send a SOS message isn’t very reliable in my opinion. To activate works very well, but the real worry is no secondary message like a SOS text message or fall detection in case you dont have the ability to make a SOS call.
Huawei GT3 PRO Advantages : To answer phone calls and make phone calls directly from your watch is a very handy smart feature. I was hoping that we would get a larger contact less but unfortunately it’s the same with 20 contacts, and still a very reliable feature to use. The other feature is the ability to provide direction, which is a advanced smart feature. Huawei has Petal maps which is similar to Google maps and it works fantastic.
Health Features : Winner Huawei GT3 PRO
When it comes to tracking your health, both devices can provide heart rate tracking, sleep tracking, general health tracking like water intake, stress management and women’s health, which is very good.
The Huawei GT3 PRO gets the edge because it has some advanced health racking features which is
- snore detection (very low level in comparison to Fitbit or Apple Watch)
- ECG tracker
Third Part App Ability : Winner Huawei GT3 PRO
- Article : Huawei GT3 PRO – Third party app ability is very good
- Article : Xiaomi S1 Active – Third party app ability could be better
| Feature | S1 Active | GT3 PRO |
| Strength | Weak | Strong |
| Connection Type | Bluetooth | Bluetooth |
| App Stores | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| In Direct Ability | 0/5 | 5/5 |
| Direct Ability | 1/5 | 4/5 |
| Final Score | 3/15 | 11/15 |
When it comes to interacting with third party applications there is only one clear winner, and that is the Huawei GT3 PRO. It’s a very lopsided score in favour of the GT3 PRO, because the device performed consistently and reliably. In regards to the Xiaomi S1 Active, it’s the weakest score that I have given to any device that I have tested, and in reality it deserves this score. The Xiaomi S1 Active does not have any advantages, so I will explain what advantages the Huawei GT3 PRO has over the S1 Active
Huawei GT3 PRO Advantages.
Before I explain the advantages, I want to quickly summarise my experience with the third party app gallery. To be fair both brands dont offer many options and depending where you are in the world, some of the third party apps that are available may not work in your part of the world. I experienced that a lot during testing, and that’s for both devices.
Also some of the third party apps are only compatible within it’s own operating system, so if you didn’t have a Huawei or Xiaomi phone, you wouldn’t be able to use those particular apps. If third party app integration is important to you, please take the time to read through my articles and review my test results.
- In direct ability : This is where you share your tracking data from the Huawei Health app with a third party app via partnership. The Huawei GT3 PRO performed very well and that is good news to anyone with a premium level subscription to popular apps like Strava or Komoot. As for the S1 Active, it was a complete opposite. I found it very hard to find apps that can connect via partnership, and when I did, the data took two days to synchronise the information from Huawei Health.
- Direct ability : This is where you can download a app from the app store and control the app directly from the watch. Some of the apps I tested did not work because it’s unavailable in New Zealand. Also some of the apps can only work within like for like ecosystems, so I was limited for choices. The ones that did work, performed really well.
Workout Mode Ability : Winner Huawei GT3 PRO
| Criteria | S1 Active | GT3 PRO |
| Strength | Average | Very Strong |
| Speciality | Smart Apps | Activity |
| Basic Level | 5/5 | 5/5 |
| Intermediate Level | 1/5 | 5/5 |
| Advanced Level | 0/5 | 3/5 |
| Final Score | 6/15 | 13/15 |
When it comes to tracking your workouts, there is only one clear winner in this category, and that’s the Huawei GT3 PRO. With another category with a lopsided score in favor of the GT3 PRO, the Xiaomi S1 Active is really a basic fitness tracker, that does it very well and therefore has no advantages over the GT3 PRO in this category.
The Huawei GT3 PRO has many advantages over the Xiaomi S1 Active especially when it comes to intermediate and advanced level workouts, which is more suited for a runner that’s looking to improve performance or anyone that wants to manage their training load. There are so many features that the Huawei GT3 PRO has built in, and in my experience they all performed reliably and consistently.
The Xiaomi S1 Active is more suited for anyone that’s looking for a basic fitness tracker, nothing more and nothing less and it’s got over 100 different workout modes. If tracking your workouts is important to you when deciding on a smart watch, please click on the links to view my full testing for each device and what I test for to rate a device.
GPS Tracking : Draw
| Criteria | S1 Active | GT3 PRO |
| No of Sensors | 5 | 5 |
| Extra’s | Dual band | Dual band |
| Basic test | 5/5 | 5/5 |
| Hard test | 1/5 | 1/5 |
| Very Hard Test | 4/5 | 4/5 |
| Final score | 10/15 | 10/15 |
When it comes to GPS tracking both devices have been very reliable, and based on m test results both devices have been rated the same. The only issue is the hard level test I did which shoes a very weak score for that test.
In the Hard level test, the main obstruction is tall buildings within a small town. At least 80% of my planned route is through a township with tall buildings which resulted in a poor score. Every device that I have tested, never performs in the hard test, so just be aware of that.
I guess the Xiaomi S1 Active has the advantage over the Huawei GT3 PRO in this category based on price. You can get the same level of accuracy at a third of the cost of the Huawei GT3 PRO.
If GPS accuracy is important to you, please check out my full article on GPS tracking accuracy for both devices. You will get to see images of the testing results including how I go about rating a device’s level of accuracy and how each device ranks in the market.
Battery Life : Winner Huawei GT3 PRO
| Tests | S1 Active | GT3 PRO |
| Battery economy without GPS Tracking | 2/5 | 4/5 |
| GPS Battery consumption | 5/5 | 5/5 |
| Final score | 7/10 | 9/10 |
When it comes to battery life both devices are very strong in this category, however the Huawei GT3 PRO performed much better and almost got a perfect score. When it comes to battery life testing I do two test’s, the first test is based on my typical usage, and the second test is based on GPS battery consumption which is a massive battery drainer. Im only going to present to you my final results but please take a look at my articles if you want to know how I rate a device for battery life, including test results.
- Article : Huawei GT3 PRO – Battery life is absolutely amazing
- Article : Xiaomi S1 Active – Battery life is reasonably good
Battery Economy based on my typical usage without GPS tracking
All of my tests are based on my typical usage which is as follows
- All day heart rate tracking including sleep tracking
- AOD : 20-25 screen activations
- 50 minutes workout tracking
- 20 messages
- 1 hour of GPS tracking
Battery Economy without GPS tracking
- test ends once 90% of battery life has been used
- The Huawei GT3 PRO is 29% more efficient than the S1 Active
| Criteria | S1 Active | GT3 PRO |
| Battery economy without GPS Tracking | 14% | 10% |
| No of days | 6 | 9 |
| Star rating | 2 | 4 |
GPS battery consumption
- test ends once 90% of battery life has been used
- The Huawei GT3 PRO is 16% more efficient than the S1 Active
| Criteria | S1 Active | GT3 PRO |
| Battery economy without GPS Tracking | 14% | 10% |
| GPS battery consumption per hour | 5% | 6% |
| Total consumption | 19% | 16% |
| No of days | 5 | 6 |
Final Conclusion
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have learnt a lot about both devices in comparison. The six categories that I test for each device is the overall package that a smart watch device can offer. In this article the Huawei GT3 PRO was pretty strong in each category, whereas the S1 Active really performed well in smart features and GPS tracking categories only.
Going back to the old age saying that you get what you paid for earlier, I hope the results that I presented to you gives you some idea of what to expect when if you do decide to buy the Huawei GT3 PRO.
The only weakness I see with the lower end Huawei devices is generally in two categories, which is health and battery life. The extra money you fork out for the PRO version is invested in those area’s, including more advanced analytics for anyone that wants to improve on their running performance.
So is the Huawei GT3 PRO better than the Xiaomi S1 Active? clearly that is a yes, from my testing perspective, but from a user intent perspective that is really up to you. I do believe that the S1 Active does have it’s purpose in the smart watch market so you may want to check out my article Xiaomi S1 Active : is it worth buying
I think it’s important to read this article if you still have your heart set on buying the S1 Active. In this article I build a character profile that I think would get the best value in buying the S1 Active, and I also discuss some of the pros and cons before you decide to buy. Once again thank you so much for reading and I hope you found great value in reading this article before you decide to buy.
