Huawei’s WATCH GT 3 Pro available in Canadian stores including Best Buy and Amazon.ca, is raising eyebrows for those seeking an elegant and high-performing timepiece.
It walks the walk with features no watch brand can match. Even Huawei’s previous models.
Like up to 14 days between wireless charges or one month as a time peace with sensors turned off.
The GT 3 Pro series is a prime example of Huawei Canada’s focus change from phones to an impressive line of watches, earbuds, high quality monitors, mice/ wireless charging pads, speakers, networking mesh routers and more.
Down to 30 Meters in Salt Water
Huawei likes to boast of technology firsts, like reverse charging from a smartphone or cramming a long telephoto lens sideways using periscope technology.
But moonshot features found in the GT 3 Pro series are clearly ahead of the competition. Like the Free Diving mode in the GT 3 Pro series that works in salt water down to 30 meters (yes, you read that right). Free diving, which is gaining popularity does not use an oxygen tank, relying on how long you hold your breath under water, often minutes long. So whether you are just snorkeling or deep diving, the GT 3 Pro measures depth, time as well as motion speed as you explore sunken treasures, statues and shipwrecks. It also tracks multiple dives to keep them apart for proper rest between dives. The included apnea training guide, with customizable tables, helps as a personalized training assistant for improving your breath-holding capability.
The GT 3 Pro comes in two sizes and models with impressively bright 326 PPI (pixels per inch) screen resolution. There are two models:
HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro Titanium Edition
The HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro Titanium edition $549 CAD, has a beautiful premium design. It’s equipped with a 1.43-inch AMOLED high-definition colour display. The larger face with 466 x 466 high-definition resolution offers even more clarity than previous versions, so all data and images can be read clearly, even in full sunlight.
The strong but lightweight titanium case is designed to withstand the test of time and has been polished for a three-dimensional finish. The display is made of sapphire glass, a material as hard as a diamond and the high-tech ceramic at the back which goes through over 60 processes to take it from zirconia ceramic powder to the finished product. These materials can transmit even the slightest changes in body temperature among its other accelerometer, gyro, heart rate, barometer, compass and SpO2 sensors.
Both models feature a tactile 3D rotating crown in the style of a traditional watch. It allows the user to zoom in and out, slide through different interfaces, or adjust settings, all through clicking and rotating the crown.
HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro Ceramic Edition: Exploring the aesthetics of technology
The Watch GT 3 Pro Ceramic Edition $798.99 CAD is another Huawei moonshot. It has an elegant design, with the simplicity of ceramic complimenting the charm of metal. Huawei claims its designers were inspired by Botticelli’s masterpiece, The Birth of Venus, evident in the gold and silver seashell pattern bezel and 24 exquisite wave pattern designs, which elevate it from a watch to a work of art. This truly is a show-off watch.
The Nanocrystalline ceramic body and watchband and sapphire watch dial have undergone an extreme high temperature of 1500℃ finished by diamond powder polishing to achieve a pure-white and flawless texture.
Every HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro Ceramic Edition has undergone 10 days and 13 processes of grinding and polishing with diamond abrasives before leaving the factory. Thanks to the state-of-the-art craftsmanship, each watch shines with a natural lustre in dazzling white, so refined like a natural born art piece.
Like the Titanium Edition, the Ceramic Edition has a hard sapphire glass lens, making it highly resistant to scratches and shatters. Sapphire glass is also used in the sensor of the ceramic back shell, for better light penetration and accurate heart-rate monitoring. Skin-friendly materials allow for automatic detection of any change in your body temperature. Also like the Titanium Edition, it features the 3D rotating crown but perfectly adapted to the feminine and elegant style of the Ceramic Edition.
The included classic style wristband is ceramic too, feeling frictionless unlike plastic or metal bands.
The watch is available with a range of watch faces and comes with a smaller 1.32-inch AMOLED HD coloured display with 466*466 HD resolution, with the same visual experience as its larger sibling. The flower dial face changes over the hours.
Performance
HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro’s precision-engineering contributes to flawless health monitoring and sports performance. The craftsmanship is impressive.
- The GPS functionality is impressive. The built-in dual-band five-system GNSS features five major satellite systems: GPS, Beidou, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, spanning the entire globe, featuring anti-interference performance, minimizing the likelihood of any error. Repeated walks were dead accurate and consistent in distance with impressive detail like my short hill zig zag pattern on a recent walk (see photo).
- After more than 200 rounds of water pressure testing, the watch complies with the engineering standard EN 13319 and achieving unprecedented diving-level water-resistant performance, which can support free diving up to 30 metres deep even in salt water. Imagine how good this watch is in normal inclement weather or swimming.
- A menstrual cycle management function, keeps track of your cycle reminding you in advance, so you never get caught short. The device also brings a health assistant – Healthy Living Shamrock. Through personalized settings, users can receive regular reminders on health challenges, daily water intake, medication reminders, daily mindfulness. I found the early sleep reminder and other healthy hints useful.
- The watches inherit ultra-long battery life, typically provide the larger and heavier HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro Titanium Edition with a 14 days’ battery life (or 8 in heavy usage scenarios) while the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro Ceramic Edition has 7 days’ battery (or 4 days with heavy usage). Wireless charging and a 30% faster charging speed compared with WATCH GT 2 Pro make it quick and easy to charge when you’re on the go.
- The HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro comes with new, more accurate health features than before. The HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro features HUAWEI TruSeenTM 5.0+ that supports continued SpO2 monitoring during sleep or workouts or single spot readings. HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro has a whole host of other health features to help monitor your general wellbeing. Oxygen readings were as accurate as my dedicated iHealth quality finger oximeter readings.
- Among the over 100 workout modes is the intelligent running planning feature. It helps to create a personal running plan based on an individual’s physical and running history, combined with their performance goals. It assesses data such as pace, heart rate, distance, oxygen levels and more to offer professional advice which evolves with the runner. I felt I had a real personal assistant looking over me. Data is synchronized with other compatible excersize devices like rowers and bikes including over 60 workout apps from around the world, such as Runtastic and Komoot. Nice!
- Other workout modes range from golf (with more than 100 real courses) to cross-country skiing to free training. There’s plenty of storage space, easily accommodating a double album of songs using Bluetooth to playback. Forgot your esrbuds? The speaker quality is impressive little boombox, loud enough to listen to encouraging performance achievements in noisy environments.
- You can make and receive calls from call a history or contact list from Bluetooth range of your phone.
- HUAWEI Watch GT 3 Pro series is able to work independently of a phone, with ample tips storing a plethora of workout data and graphs and most importantly not charging for extra long term storage space for any hostphone.
- In most cases it will be paired with a smartphone with larger display screens than the watch. The smartwatches can be easily synced with every smartphone running Android or iOS. The best functionality is with a Huawei phone, but I found Android is a close second. iPhones have the most limitations.
- Both watches run on Huawei’s HarmonyOS so you have to have it installed using the packaged QR code. There’s a wide selection of watch faces to choose from including a fun smooth day and night transition, based on sunset and sunrise information from the weather app on the watch.
The HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro Titanium Edition $549, and HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 Pro Ceramic Edition $798.99 feature a limited time offer: Canadians who purchase a Watch GT 3 Pro will also receive FreeBuds Pro ($271 CAD) or HUAWEI FreeBuds Lipstick ($348 CAD.