The blood pressure watch finally slims down

Introduction

The Watch D3 is arguably Huawei’s most important smartwatch because it represents a major milestone in health tracking from the wrist.

Unlike smartwatches like the Samsung Galaxy Watch or Asus Vivowatch 5, the Watch D3 can take blood pressure measurements without needing to be calibrated regularly with a cuff-style monitor. That’s because the cuff is neatly built into the strap.

With the first-generation Watch D, Huawei proved the concept and that it could deliver medical-grade blood pressure monitoring. The Watch D2 signalled a shift to make it less of a health watch and more of a smartwatch in look.

The Watch D3 continues to evolve the design, while adding new blood pressure features to make this the smartwatch to wear if you care about blood pressure and don’t want to strap on that cuff around your arm again.

Design and screen

• Smaller and slimmer design than Watch D2
• Adds a larger and brighter display
• Still not suitable for submerging in water

I’ve tested both the Watch D and the Watch D2, and there was a dramatic shift between those versions in terms of what Huawei’s blood pressure smartwatch was like to look at and, more importantly, to wear.

The Watch D3 certainly continues to push closer to the weight and size of Huawei’s other smartwatches, all while trying to integrate the cuff element of the strap in a more elegant fashion.

Huawei has dropped the single case size from a 48mm one to a 46.5mm one, which makes a huge difference in terms of the stature of this smartwatch. That means the case size is the same as the one found on the largest available Apple Watch Series 12. While Huawei says this weighs the same 40g as the Watch D2, that number doesn’t factor in the strap.

This is the element of the watch that makes it feel less svelte than wearing an Apple Watch Series 12. Slimming down to a 11.33mm body compared to a 13.2mm one certainly helps to make the D3 more manageable to wear. I’d still like things to get slimmer and lighter and no doubt it will get there in a few generations time.

The colour options help to bring the Watch D3 closer in line with Huawei’s other smartwatches. It’s available in black, white and gold, and I admit to being a bit surprised how nice the rose model looked on my wrist.

Smaller and slimmer case aside, Huawei is now also giving you more screen to glance at. There’s a noticeably larger 1.92-inch, 480 x 408 resolution AMOLED touchscreen. While Huawei hasn’t ramped up the resolution, there is an improvement in overall brightness. You now have a screen that can hit a peak brightness of 3,000 nits.

What I noticed more than the bump in brightness is that the screen fills the case more than it did on the Watch D2. There’s still a sliver of black bezel to contend with, but it doesn’t infringe too much on that increased screen estate.

A couple of less desirable design elements remain with the Watch D3. The first is that water resistance hasn’t changed. It is technically IP68, but you still can’t swim or shower with it on, which again seems to be tied to the more unconventional cuff strap.

That strap, while comfortable to wear, simply doesn’t give you as snug a fit as a regular strap. I also still find it awkward to adjust the fit, as you need to adjust both the watch clasp and the cuff clasp to do that.

Performance and software

• Runs on the latest version of Huawei’s HarmonyOS
• Offers watch face store access
• Lacks Wi-Fi connectivity

Huawei’s aim is to provide as much of the same software experience on the Watch D3 as its other smartwatches that lack that blood pressure monitoring capability. It runs on HarmonyOS 7.0, which is the latest version of Huawei’s smartwatch operating system.

It’s compatible with Android and iOS devices via the Huawei Health app.  When paired to an iPhone, you do miss out on some features. Most notably, the lack of access to Huawei’s AppGallery storefront and the ability to reply to some notifications. You can still download additional watch faces as well as check your notifications, load on music and there is NFC on board to enable contactless payments.

What you’re mainly missing out from other Huawei watches is seen on the connectivity front. You don’t get Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity. I imagine those are the types of features people mainly concerned with tracking their blood pressure might be able to live without, though a health watch that can stand alone could have its advantages too.

Interacting with the Watch D3 does feel a lot like wearing one of Huawei’s other smartwatches. You can access notifications from the same place, you can view the app layout screen in two different views, and there should be enough non-fitness and health features to satisfy most.

If you want to use the watch for making payments, this is a relatively new addition to Huawei watches. I’d say it’s arguably not the slickest payment support available on a smartwatch. Firstly, support does vary by region. It also requires Curve Pay to enable payments, which extends the process of getting it set up.

Is it the best Huawei smartwatch for use outside of tracking? No. Does it give you enough of a good experience? I’d say absolutely yes.

Tracking and features

• New pre- and post-exercise blood pressure mode
• Pulse Wave Arrhythmia analysis introduced
• Health Community sharing

While the Watch D3’s primary use is to monitor blood pressure, it has plenty on offer in the way of exercise tracking and monitoring your general wellbeing. You can also take it to bed if you want to track your sleep.

There’s the usual array of sports tracking, with outdoor tracking supported by a solid-performing dual-band GPS sensor. That said, the nature of the D3’s design and integrated cuff make it unsuitable for tracking your swims like previous generations of the Watch D.

It’s good to see that Huawei has included its very beginner-friendly mini workouts mode to make it easier to squeeze in a workout when you’re short on time or have been stuck at your desk for a while.

While there are definitely sleeker Huawei watches to take to bed, the sleep tracking on the D3 held up well against other sleep trackers, including the Oura Ring 5. Particularly with sleep stage breakdowns and capturing sleep duration.

I like Huawei’s approach to tracking your emotional wellbeing as well, making changes in those more stressful and more relaxed periods of your day very glanceable.

You’ve still got an ECG sensor to tick off another serious health monitoring feature, and Huawei has added a Pulse Wave Arrhythmia analysis feature that uses the optical heart rate sensor to detect signs of atrial fibrillation.

The blood pressure tracking support is pretty much the same as found on the D2. You can take on-the-spot readings or choose to enable the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring mode.

The ambulatory approach involves taking regular readings throughout the day and night when prompted to draw more detailed trends into changes in your blood pressure data. Huawei has now also added a mode that brings blood pressure data into your workout life. The pre- and post-exercise blood pressure measurement is designed to help ensure you’re in good shape to tackle a workout.

I’ve been mirroring measurements from the watch with a dedicated, cuff-style blood pressure monitor to first see how accurate the data was. The first thing I’ll say is that it’s much more reliable to capture measurements with fewer failed measurements than previous Watch D smartwatches.

Taking measurements as demonstrated on-screen is key to getting data much closer to that on a traditional cuff-style monitor. I didn’t always see all measurement numbers match up, and the D3 had a tendency at times to report lower readings in general. In general, readings looked reliable.

With the new pre and post-exercise mode, you need to make sure you’ve remembered to capture post-exercise measurements not long after a workout has been completed; otherwise, the opportunity will expire.

It currently only works with select workout modes and simply presents pre and post data side-by-side. I compared readings to a dedicated monitor and again while data wasn’t identical, the numbers weren’t far off.

Another new health-related feature is the Health Community mode, which allows you to share real-time alerts of your blood pressure data with close friends and family. Those you choose to share that data with will need the Huawei Health app on their devices to be able to see that real-time blood pressure data among other key metrics.

You’re basically getting some added uses of the blood pressure technology, with some pretty simplified insights. I do wonder if these are features that could end up rolling back to the older Watch D2.

Battery life

• Up to six days battery life
• Up to a day with ambulatory blood pressure mode
• Around two to three days of battery in always-on display mode

Most of Huawei’s smartwatches can last for weeks, especially if you’re willing to forgo keeping the screen on at all times. The Watch D3 doesn’t quite last as long away from the charger as the likes of the Huawei Watch GT and Fit series.

It actually promises and delivers the same level of battery life as the Watch D2. So that’s up to six days, which I found drops to around two to three days when you enable the always-on display mode and using the richest health, sleep and fitness features on offer.

While it definitely won’t go for weeks, I also never felt the daily and nightly battery drain too painful, and it does last longer than Apple Watch or Google Pixel Watch in between charges.

The battery is quickly drained when you enable the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring mode, though that’s because you’re taking regular blood pressure readings. That sees the battery drop to around 24 hours.

Charging is done by what has become Huawei’s customary white charging dock. That dock fully powers up the D3 in just over an hour, so if you did use that more demanding ambulatory BP mode, it doesn’t take you long to get back to 100%.

Should you buy it?