Verdict
The Honor sentinel GS 3 is a better sports and fitness watch than smartwatch , pop the question decent electric battery sprightliness and an attractive design and video display to equal . If you ’re on the lookout for the good smartwatch at this cost , though , there are stronger pick uncommitted right now .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
With the Watch G 3 , Honor forebode to put a sleek , fashionable smartwatch on your radiocarpal joint , minus the large Leontyne Price tag .
The Android - friendly watch , which will manifestly work with iPhones at some head , comes in at under £ 200 , provide a comme il faut selection of features for that mid - range cost . You get anAMOLEDdisplay , the promise of exact outside tracking , and a bucket - load of summercater modes . There ’s a music instrumentalist , too , actionable notifications and battery animation that can go for weeks .
It ’s a smartwatch that still feels very “ Huawei ” , despite the Chinese tech colossus deal off the firebrand back in 2021 . Things are becoming competitive at this end of the smartwatch marketplace , so does the Honor GS 3 do enough to impress ?
Design and Screen
The Honor GS 3 does n’t reinvent the wheel as far as smartwatch intent is concerned , but what it does have feels well built and comfortable to don 24/7 . In addition , you get a reasonably telling presentation .
The 45mm - sized typeface is made from metal and has a plastic rear , while the 22 millimetre strap is obliterable and crack - sluttish to switch out . Honor put up the GS 3 in three colours : Midnight Black ( pictured ) , Ocean Blue and Classic Gold . The latter two come with the Napa leather shoulder strap as opposed to the more practice - friendly silicone polymer one on the black model I was testing .
invention - wise , Honor plays it good then , with the screen clearly the standout feature of speech . It ’s a slightly curved 1.43 - column inch , 466 x 466 declaration AMOLED touchscreen that ’s surrounded by a slim smutty bezel . laurels does a decent job of bear on the bezel into the screen background when it ’s matched up with most of the preloaded watch faces .
This is n’t an always - on display , and there does n’t come along to be raise - to - waken motion support here , either . As such , you ’ll call for to press one of the two physical push on the side of the watch ’s face to fire up it , which is n’t idealistic .
The screen is exceptionally bright and precise , though , with the kind of pleasing deep blacks you ’d connect with a character AMOLED concealment . That slenderly curved intention raise the overall look of the scout , too – although those look for the silken interlingual rendition of the watch are advise to opt for the slightly more expensive spicy or Au models .
If you want a sentinel that can come with you on a swim , you ’re good to do that here . The Honor Watch K 3 carry a 5ATM water - resistant paygrade , which means it ’s safe to be submerge in water up to 50 metres in profoundness .
Features and Performance
honour may no longer be part of Huawei , but the watch software come along to recount a different history . laurels does n’t detail the operating scheme on which the GS 3 ladder , but it ’s clearly a proprietary one that ’s very Huawei Harmony OS and Lite OS in display and experience .
It currently only works with Android phones ; iOS support will be add as an OTA update , although currently there are no details about when that will happen . You ’ll need the Honor Health smartphone app to pair , sync and Scomber japonicus with the picket ’s preferences and – surprisal , surprise – this looks rather like Huawei ’s Health app .
pureness does n’t divulge any processor details here , either , but it does n’t take too many swipes of that CRT screen to discover it is n’t super - wily . There ’s some minimal lag , which does n’t massively hinder the experience of using it day - to - day , but it is noticeable .
There are a nice aggregation of static watch faces usable , with more you’re able to install and synchronise from the Health app . Notification support is well optimised to the screenland and offers the power to post agile replies to messages – or a reception to an incoming call on your phone that you do n’t want to deal with at that mo . However , the lean of support apps from which you could receive notification did n’t seem all that broad through testing .
Along with music playback controls , which do n’t hugely differ from previous Honor watches , the M 3 also includes a music instrumentalist , with part of the onboard 4 GB of storage usable for storing your own music . Much like Huawei ’s watches , you ’re only able to sync music you own , and it needs to be on your phone to do that . If you want to sync over playlists from services such as Spotify or Deezer , you ’re out of fate here .
Honor does admit some nicely detailed weather forecasts and some standard features such as being capable to do alarms , timers and a stop watch function . The chance My Phone mode is utile , as is the Torch mode , which ferment the screen into a more vivacious and bright white light . You ca n’t make payments with the Watch GS 3 , nor do you get copious third - party app backing or a voice - found smart assistant – and that ’s despite the presence of a microphone and speaker .
Overall , it ’s a smartwatch experience that find good enough . However , around this monetary value it ’s possible to find smartwatches that offer a more comprehensive software system – and , crucially , models that do so without the slight slowdown you ’ll encounter using the GS 3 .
Fitness Tracking
The thou 3 get across most of the areas you ’d wait for trailing natural process , whether that ’s daily step counts , tracking runs or swims , and monitor your eternal sleep time too .
According to Honor , the optical heart pace sensing element that features in the Watch GS 3 benefits from an eight - duct heart rate AI locomotive engine that bear an overall core rate truth of over 97 % . It ’s also capable of endlessly enchant rake atomic number 8 data point and require on - the - spot measuring if you need to check blood O level throughout the day . That optical bosom pace sensor also unlocks the ability to monitor stress continuously .
channelise outside and you ’ll be able-bodied to make employment of the equipment ’s compass and strain imperativeness sensor , along with build - inGPS ; it also includes a dual - frequency GNSS musical mode . This is something we ’ve seen before on watches from Huawei , Amazfit and Coros , and is designed to ameliorate the accuracy of outdoor employment pass over for activities such as running and cycling in areas where grab a reliable sign from supported orbiter system can be a struggle .
When it ’s meter to protrude tracking , simply hit the bottom physical button or jump into the workout silver screen , which looks identical to Huawei ’s workout covert . There are over 100 sports mode corroborate here , and also included are both running courses and fitness grade that have featured on Huawei ’s smartwatches , with the latter offer animation to guide exploiter on how to correctly perform physical exercise .
For run , you’re able to ready target goals , receive reminders when you come to a certain heart and soul rate , for instance , and set up automatic or manual split . I put the Watch GS 3 up against the very impressive multi - band mode on Garmin ’s Epix 2 for truth , find it fall a bit brusque on distance trailing and clock me in at a dull average pace . Heart tracking accuracy on unwavering paced runs was broadly speaking fine against a heart rate monitor pectus shoulder strap , although for some hilly interval time , the Watch GS 3 was 4 - 5bpm off a bureau shoulder strap for both average and maximum heart rate readings .
I took the Watch GS 3 into the pool for a swimming and on an indoor rower to ascertain data truth was very good in general , which show it has all the feature of a more than competent smartwatch for tracking exercise .
Honor also provides additional training and recovery perceptiveness , largely fuelled by tracked physical exertion and metric such as your pith pace . you may see suggest recovery clock time , training load and VO2 max scores , but these felt more like free guidance than anything to actually live on by when making decisions about your breeding .
If you ’ll primarily be using the gimmick as a fitness and sleep tracker , then it performs fine in both areas . There ’s a dedicated lookout man widget to expose daily activity tracking advance and step tracking . Up against stair trailing on the Oura Ring 3 wise band , casual totality were close . For nap , it proffer similar core data to Oura ’s strong nap trailing support . Sleep continuance typically was 30 moment longer on the GS 3 , with sleep leg breakdown and slumber scores similar . It was the same story for bewitch respiration during that sleep time .
If you wish about your heart health , I found perch warmness rate and low center charge per unit data to be in melody with datum capture on the Oura and the reliable uninterrupted pump rate trailing of Garmin ’s Epix 2 . It entail that features such as tension tracking , power by data captured by the optic sensor , were useful , with a dedicated screen clear displaying nerve-wracking and unagitated parts of your day . Average blood oxygen levels were typically 1 - 2 % out from a pulsing oximeter and the SpO2 sensor on the Oura , ride out in a range that can offer honest insight .
Battery Life
The Honor ticker GS 3 is a smartwatch that assure weeks of battery life-time – and can drive home just that . Under sullen usage , where you ’re making use of uninterrupted blood oxygen and heart rate monitoring , battery life is more like a week ; but overall , battery life sentence carrying out is solid .
There is n’t a Brobdingnagian daily drop - off when it comes to day - to - daylight use , and shelling consumption with GPS for outside tracking was n’t as severe as I ’d venerate , with the Watch GS 3 capable of replicate the performance of Huawei ’s watches on that front . That claim 30 hours of Global Positioning System bombardment life feels utterly possible .
In addition , Honor does also volunteer some nimble - charge , delivering a day ’s play from a five - minute top - up . The watch uses a pretty conversant hockey puck - way charging rocker and cable that clips securely onto the buttocks of the equipment .
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Should you buy it?
The G 3 perform pretty well from both an bodily function and sports - tracking point of view , and these would be key reason to consider opting for this gadget .
While it ’s pretty good on the sentinel , the Honor Health app is n’t the slickest ; it ’s missing some obvious software element and that slightly slow software system does n’t avail matters , either .
Final Thoughts
The Honor sentinel GS 3 is a surprisingly competent smartwatch , which definitely has a strong health and fitness focus – and it ’s in those area it impresses most .
Is it thebest smartwatch ? No . However , it remains another decent option for Android users – and , if Honor can refine the software system and bring in some richer smartwatch features , it could match stronger alternatives from Huawei and Amazfit at this Leontyne Price .
Trusted Score
How we test
We thoroughly test every smartwatch we review . We apply industry stock examination to compare features properly and we use the picket as our chief machine over the review period . We ’ll always tell you what we find and we never , ever , bear money to review a production .
FAQs
presently , the Honor Watch GS 3 is only compatible with Android smartphones , with iOS support stated to shore at a later escort .
you’re able to take calls from the Watch yard 3 , as long as the smartwatch is paired with your speech sound over Bluetooth .
