Huawei Watch 3 puts HarmonyOS and LTE on your wrist

Huawei today announced the Huawei Watch 3, its first smartwatch running HarmonyOS as opposed to other smartwatch operating systems such as Android Wear or Huawei's own LiteOS. As described today, the Huawei Watch 3 comes with a feature set that you'd more or less expect out of a modern smartwatch, though there are some extras like eSIM functionality and LTE connectivity that will help make it feel like more of a standalone device.

The Huawei Watch 3 comes outfitted with a 1.43-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 466 x 466 for 326 pixels-per-inch. With that eSIM functionality and LTE support, the Watch 3 can be used to place calls, stream music, and download apps without being paired with a phone. Even with Huawei focusing on making the Watch 3 function as a standalone smart device, it's still very much meant to slot into the Huawei ecosystem, as it's compatible with other Huawei smartphones, speakers, and Huawei Vision TVs, allowing it to use MeeTime to place video calls.

As we'd expect from most smartwatches these days, the Huawei Watch 3 comes outfitted with a slate of health-centric features, including a skin temperature detector, SpO2 tracking through TruSeen 4.5, heart rate monitoring (once again through TruSeen 4.5), and emergency SOS support. The Watch 3 also offers activity, sleep, calorie, and stress tracking, along with fitness tracking tracking and a number of workout modes through the Huawei Health app.

The Huawei Watch 3 is compatible with phones running Android 6.0 or later or iOS 9.0 or later. It comes with 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM. The amount of battery life users can expect largely depends on how they use the watch – Huawei's spec sheet doesn't reveal a battery size, but the company does say that the Watch 3 can last for around 3 days in smart mode. The phone also has an ultra-long battery life mode that seems to turn off LTE and the Bluetooth connection with your phone that can stretch battery life to 14 days. When paired with an iPhone, Huawei says that expected battery life tops at only around 1.5 days.

In addition to the standard Huawei Watch 3, the company also announced the Huawei Watch 3 Pro today, which comes with a more "professional look" and different band options. There doesn't seem to be too many differences between the Huawei Watch 3 and the Watch 3 Pro outside of aesthetics, but it is worth noting that the Watch 3 Pro has an expected battery life of 5 days in smart mode and 21 days in ultra-long battery life mode. Pricing and release details haven't been revealed yet, but we'll keep an eye out for more information on that front.