fitness tracker
Smartwatches at Warentest: In the most important point, Huawei surprisingly cracks the Apple Watch
Smartwatches are not only useful for sports
© jacoblund / Getty Images
For a number of years, the first place in the fitness tracker test by Stiftung Warentest has firmly belonged to the Apple Watch. So far, it has been clearly ahead, especially when it comes to measuring fitness data. Now Huawei is in for a surprise.
How fast was I, how high was my pulse? More and more people are relying on fitness trackers or smartwatches to keep a better eye on their everyday movement or sport. Stiftung Warentest has now examined ten smartwatches and six fitness bands and reveals which ones are really worth it.
The testers spared no effort. To ensure that the subjects did not have to freeze too much in February, the test was carried out on Lanzarote for the first time. The test was carried out with a clear focus on sport: How well the watches and wristbands measure pulse, distance and calorie consumption accounted for 40 percent of the overall grade, handling (30 percent) and the smart additional functions (15 percent), stability (5 percent) and data protection (10 percent) are weighted significantly less.
Smartwatches at Warentest: Apple remains at the top
This weighting now ensures that Huawei can come surprisingly close to Apple. Admittedly, she stays Apple Watch Series 7 as a total package with the final test result of “good” (2.0) clearly in first place. But Huawei is pushing ahead: With the overall rating “good” (2.2), the Huawei Watch GT3 not only before Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 (Overall rating: “good”, 2.4) and thus second place in the current test. The watch is also in fourth place in the overall ranking of all sports watches and trackers tested since winter 2020. Before that, Huawei was not even in the top 10.
The fact that the Huawei Watch GT 3 performs so well is mainly due to its strong measurement performance. As the first tested watch, it even overtakes the Apple Watch. In terms of calorie consumption and route length, both are still on par, but because Huawei’s watch records the heart rate more precisely, it can win the important fitness category. In terms of smart functions, however, the Apple Watch does not come close. While Apple delivers an almost perfect result here. Huawei clearly weakens when displaying incoming messages and, above all, the navigation function.
More choice for customers
The result shuffles the cards once again – especially for users of Android devices. While the Apple Watch Series 7 remains the measure of all things for iPhone owners, they now have a decision to make: Do I want to use the watch for precise sports tracking or are the smart functions more important to me? In the first case, the Huawei Watch GT3 is now the most attractive choice. In terms of smart functions, however, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 is almost on par with the Apple Watch – but it does slightly worse in fitness tracking. The difference in price is noticeable, but not huge: the Huawei Watch GT3 is around 200 euros, the Samsung model is available from around 150 euros.
If it’s all about fitness, the Huawei Watch GT3 is also interesting for Apple users. While it’s somewhat limited in terms of smart features when paired with an iPhone, it doesn’t affect the fitness measurement. Because the price is still well below at least 380 euros for an Apple Watch Series 7, it can be an attractive alternative.
No recommendation for fitness bracelets
By the way, Warentest does not want to recommend a fitness bracelet as a savings tip. Although the straps are usually significantly cheaper than smartwatches, none were able to convince in the test. Sports tracking, of all things, makes the good watches consistently better. Even the best bracelet in the test, that Honor Band 6, only scored “satisfactory” (2.8). The only advantage of the 40 euro band: the battery life is significantly longer.
You can find the full test for a fee at test.de
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