The Apple Watch SE and Huawei Watch Fit 3 are two excellent entry level smartwatches
The Huawei Watch Fit 3 and Apple Watch SE (Gen 2) are natural competitors for those choosing an’ affordable’ smartwatch.
They got excellent 4-star reviews in their Wareable testing (see links below) and offer a good range of fitness and health features.
We’d usually recommend an Apple Watch to users of an iPhone without hesitation – but at £139 (US price TBC), the Huawei Watch Fit 3 is really appealing. And what’s more, it has much better battery life too.
If your research has led you here – read on for a guide to the key decisions.
Huawei Watch Fit 3 review | Apple Watch SE 2 review
Design
Apple Watch SE 2: The Apple Watch SE 2 boasts the classic Apple Watch look that everyone’s familiar with. It uses an aluminum case and you can choose 40mm or 44mm sizes. But it’s the older shape compared to the Series 9, and not quite as sleek as the newest Apple Watches.
The Retina screen is still excellent, but it leaves a substantial area of black around the edge, and controversially, there’s no always-on display option.
Huawei Watch Fit 3 The Huawei Watch Fit 3 has been redesigned, and it bears huge similarities to the Apple Watch, with its shape and digital crown.
It uses a fairly unisex 43mm case, but there’s only one option, unlike Watch SE which has a 40mm option. It also features an aluminum case that’s impressively lightweight and slim, designed for comfort. The rotating crown adds a tactile control element, although its design feels slightly less premium compared to the Apple Watch SE.
Winner: The Apple Watch SE is a little more dated, and the screen is smaller. But we like the choice of case sizes. The selection of watch faces is much better on Apple Watch. A dead heat.
Price
Apple Watch SE 2 Priced at around $249, the Apple Watch SE is a more wallet-friendly Apple Watch option – but it’s still a big price tag for some last-gen tech.
Huawei Watch Fit 3 The Huawei Watch Fit 3 is more budget-friendly at approximately £139 (about $175), making it an attractive option for those seeking a capable smartwatch without a high price tag. It’s not being launched in the US…but it will be available eventually as all Huawei Watch models are.
Winner: Huawei Watch Fit 3
Health Features
Apple Watch SE 2 The Apple Watch SE 2 is a slightly downgraded suite of health features compared to the Apple Watch Series 9. There’s no ECG, Fall Detection, car crash detection – but it will monitor your heart rate for abnormal high/low bpm. Blood oxygen monitoring is also missing.
The Apple Watch will track sleep natively, with duration and stages reported. It’s quite simplistic, but we do find it accurate.
It’s all tracked in Apple Health, which is full of graphs and charts, but very light on actionable information, and leaves you to analyze the data yourself.
Huawei Watch Fit 3 The Huawei Watch Fit 3 includes heart rate tracking, sleep monitoring, stress tracking, and SpO2 monitoring.
Like the Apple Watch SE 2, it also doesn’t offer advanced health features like ECG or respiratory checking. You have to buy a more expensive Huawei Watch 4 for that.
The Huawei Health app has evolved to be a decent place to track your vitals, and it’s a well-designed interface.
Sleep tracking is way more advanced and data-filled than Apple Watch, but we did find issues with accuracy – with durations tending to be more generously tracked than Apple Watch.
Winner: Huawei Watch Fit 3: A tight run thing, but the Watch Fit 3 has more data points and a more engaging look at health data.
Fitness Features
Apple Watch SE 2 The Apple Watch SE 2 excels in fitness tracking with numerous workout modes, GPS. It’s benefited from most of the new fitness features that have launched in watchOS 9 and 10, and it’s an amazing sports tracker in its own right.
Runners are especially well served, and there are built-in features such as racing previous PBs on known routes, building custom workouts, getting live running power, and more. You can also dive into the Fitness App for features like Cardio Fitness and VO2 Max scores.
You also get seamless integration with Apple Fitness+.
The three Apple Watch activity rings have got a bit stale, but there are new updates in watchOS 11, which will bring daily readiness and health monitoring insights to the Watch SE this Fall.
Huawei Watch Fit 3 The Huawei Watch Fit 3 offers good workout tracking capabilities, built-in GPS, and a variety of workout profiles.
Huawei has done a good job with its workout modes, particularly for runners. Its fitness analytics, such as Running Ability Index and VO2 Max estimation, offer something extra for runners to get into.
We ran with the Huawei Watch Fit 3 extensively and had no issues with the accuracy of GPS or heart rate.
Winner: Very close, but the improvements that have come with watchOS makes the Apple Watch SE a potent workout tracker.
Apps and ecosystem
Apple Watch SE 2
With watchOS and Apple’s ecosystem behind it, the Apple Watch SE 2 has a mind-boggling array of apps and services. If it doesn’t do something you want, there will be an app to install.
There’s also Apple Pay, which is one of the best-supported payment services going.
Huawei Watch Fit 3
Huawei doesn’t boast an app store, and its on-going disputes in the US have limited its development of services. So you don’t get the same bells and whistles.
Winner: Apple Watch SE hands down
Battery Life
Apple Watch SE 2 With typical usage, the Apple Watch SE 2 lasts about 18 hours, requiring daily charging, especially if using features like GPS and workout tracking extensively. We could usually push it closer with 30 hours, but essentially, it needs charging every day, and that can make sleep tracking problematic.
Huawei Watch Fit 3 The Huawei Watch Fit 3 offers 4-5 days with the always-on display enabled.
Winner: There’s no competition – Huawei wins for longevity.
Conclusion
Choosing between these two is a really close call, and given that the Apple Watch SE is two years old, and likely due to an update. So it might be a safer bet to buy the cheaper Huawei Watch Fit 3, and maybe upgrade next year.
On face value, the Apple Watch SE has the apps and ecosystem. The Huawei Watch Fit 3 has the battery life, while health and fitness features are a dead heat.
Buy the Apple Watch SE 2 if: You’re looking for a premium, feature-rich smartwatch with extensive health and fitness capabilities, especially if you’re invested in the Apple ecosystem.
Buy the Huawei Watch Fit 3 if: Ideal for users seeking a budget-friendly, lightweight smartwatch with solid fitness tracking and impressive battery life, although it falls short on advanced health features and app ecosystem compared to its competitors.
