Huawei Band 10 review: Is it better than Galaxy Fit 3?

[/su_table

Huawei Band 10 review:

Design and build

• 43.45 x 24.86 x 8.99 mm, 28 gm
• 5 ATM water resistance
• Polymer or aluminum alloy case

I’ll explain exactly what I mean throughout this review, but first, I wanna talk about the design of the Huawei Band 10 and the Galaxy Fit 3. Which shouldn’t take long because there isn’t much to talk about how they look. The Huawei Band 10 has a slightly slimmer design with that classic fitness band aesthetics… while Samsung chose a more modern style with the Fit 3.

But other than that, they’re mostly similar.

I also love how Samsung and Huawei weren’t chasing “form over function” ‘cause both of them still carry a physical button for easy navigation. I’ve used a bunch of wearables with just touch controls and they’re just… super frustrating to get around. So thank God!

Oh, and I can even customize what app or shortcut I want to launch by double-pressing the button on the Galaxy Fit 3, by the way. Which is missing on the Huawei band.

I didn’t have any problem with their comfort either.

I was basically wearing these two 24/7 and I never felt the urge to take ‘em off due to any sort of discomfort or skin irritation. The bands themselves are super lightweight, the straps feel just as cozy — and thanks to 5 ATM water resistance — I never had to worry about water damage either. I should tell you that the Galaxy Fit 3 is also completely sealed against dust because of its IP68 rating… although I think Huawei simply skipped that one to save some money.

‘Cause you know… you gotta pay to get officially IP certified.

And one more thing. So while both these fitness bands have an aluminum case with a cold, metal feel, that’s actually an optional upgrade with the Huawei Band 10. Which means its base variant still has the same old plastic case. I really, really doubt this is gonna be a dealbreaker to anyone but I felt like you should know about it anyway.

Display

• 1.47-inch AMOLED panel
• 194 x 368 pixels, 282 PPI pixel density

So yeah… I don’t think there is one clear winner between these two in terms of design. But the Galaxy Fit 3’s display is clearly better compared to the Huawei Band 10 for two important reasons:

• First off, it’s got a larger display itself. At 1.6-inch versus Huawei band’s 1.47-inch.

That means all the texts, the animations, and pretty much every other UI element look so much nicer on the Fit 3. Whereas on the Huawei band, you’ll often notice how certain components of the UI can feel a bit… crammed. Or even hard to read.

• And unlike the Huawei Band 10, the Galaxy Fit 3 also has a smooth 60Hz refresh rate.

This was the one upgrade I was desperately hoping Huawei would bring to its latest fitness band… but nope. The Band 10 still feels somewhat stuttery every once in a while.

Don’t get me wrong. They both have a nice AMOLED display that gets… sufficiently bright outdoors for budget fitness bands, there’s also always-on display and auto-brightness support, but yeah. A larger display + a smoother 60Hz refresh rate means I’m picking the Galaxy Fit 3’s display over the Huawei Band 10 any day of the week.

I guess the only complaint I have with it is that the choice of watch faces here is just… not that good. At least for my taste. I’m sure some of you will disagree with me on this one but “cheaply designed” is the one thought that keeps ringing in my head whenever I look at any one of Samsung’s watch faces for the Galaxy Fit 3.

Software

• HarmonyOS 5.0
• Compatible with both Android and iOS

Now, before I get into all the juicy details about how their health and fitness tracking is, I wanna briefly talk about the software experience on the Galaxy Fit 3 and the Huawei Band 10.

And what you need to know is that the basic layout of UI is almost the exact same on these two. There’s a quick settings panel, an app drawer, a separate compartment for all the incoming notifications, and a widget-based UI on the homescreen to quickly access different apps or shortcuts. Pretty standard stuff, right?

What’s interesting is that while the Huawei Band 10 runs on a custom HarmonyOS 5 platform, Samsung went with “FreeRTOS” for the Fit 3. You might be thinking that Samsung’s software experience sucks since it’s running on the same software platform as most other budget smartwatches… but think again. ‘Cause compared to the Huawei band, I actually found the Fit 3’s software experience to be richer and more refined too.

Let me give you an example.

So the Band 10 only lets me add up to 5 widgets versus up to 12 on the Fit 3. That means instead of opening up the app drawer and scrolling down to the app I wanna open every single time, I can simply swipe to its widget more easily on the Galaxy Fit 3.

It can even decode emojis on my notifications, I can also block notifications right from the band — and I know what I’m about to say is gonna sound like such a small thing but man — I absolutely love how the Fit 3 loads the album art of the song I’m playing as well.

Health and fitness tracking

• 100+ workout modes
• Heart rate, stress, SpO2 monitoring
• Advanced sleep tracking, Emotional Wellbeing Assistant

Okay.

So like I mentioned at the very beginning, both the Galaxy Fit 3 and the Huawei Band 10 are excellent fitness trackers. They can log over 100 sports modes and they support everything from all-day heart rate and stress monitoring to sleep tracking. And also women’s health tracking.

The Band 10 is even capable of keeping score of my emotional wellbeing, by the way. Or my SpO2 levels throughout the day… unlike how the Galaxy Fit 3 can only continuously read my blood oxygen levels when I go to bed.

I guess this move does make sense since you need to stay incredibly still to get a proper SpO2 reading and that’s obviously not possible all day long.

And on the Huawei band itself, I’ve seen it fail to properly record my SpO2 levels all day… even though I was wearing it the entire time.

The good news is that I found the heart rate and SpO2 readings from both of them to be quite accurate. And also incredibly similar. Whether I was just sitting still, taking a casual walk outdoors, or when I was working out, the Galaxy Fit 3 and the Huawei Band 10’s data really aren’t that far apart. As you can clearly see from these screenshots.

I was also super impressed with how similarly these two logged my heart rate zones in different kinds of workouts… but did you notice anything strange in all the screenshots I just showed?

No? Take a look at their calorie numbers once.

‘Cause no matter what type of workout it was, the Galaxy Fit 3 and the Huawei Band 10 recorded wildly different numbers of calories I burned. With the Fit 3 often exceeding Huawei’s numbers by 40 – 50% on average.

So… which one should I trust, you ask? It’s the Huawei Band 10. Oh most definitely.

I say so because I’ve recorded the exact same workout routine on Huawei’s more expensive Watch Fit 4 series — and even on Samsung’s more expensive Galaxy Watches — and both their numbers are much closer to the Band 10 than they are to the Fit 3. Which means if you’re trying to lose weight and are keeping track of active calories during workouts, the Huawei Band 10 is gonna give you much more dependable data.

And man… the way this thing motivates me to stay active is something else as well.

So there’s the basic activity ring, right?

Which takes things like my active calories, exercise duration, and how often I stand into consideration to paint a picture of my daily fitness. The Galaxy Fit 3 also has a similar feature, but the Band 10 goes a step further with something called “Health Clovers”. And that thing considers my stress levels, how much water I drink, how much I smile? (…what?) and even my sleep habits to help me stay healthy.

That reminds me. I found the Band 10’s sleep tracking to be slightly more reliable too. ‘Cause the Galaxy Fit 3 would often get the time I went to bed and the time I got up wrong by a few minutes. Not just that but the Huawei Band 10 is simply more in-depth with my sleep data since it also measures my heart rate variability — aka HRV — throughout the night.

The Huawei Band 10 gets more in-depth with my sleep data.

In case you didn’t know, HRV is basically the time interval between each heartbeat. And it can be a pretty good indicator of your sleep quality and also your overall physical health. So… kudos to Huawei for bringing such an important feature to a budget fitness band.

The only thing I found weirdly missing on the Band 10 is that it doesn’t have an “auto-pause” feature for workouts. It’s not there on the band, not on the app… I checked. More than once. I do get a prompt to pause or end the workout if I’m staying still for too long — but unlike the Fit 3 — it can’t automatically stop recording the workout.

So yeah… I guess it’s pretty clear that the Huawei Band 10 is the superior fitness tracker of the two. Especially to fitness enthusiasts or just about anybody who is serious about staying on top of their health. The Galaxy Fit 3 is a perfectly fine fitness band for most folks, but the Huawei Band 10 has that… X factor, you know?

How’s the app?

And this is something you’re gonna notice with their respective apps as well.

They’re both well-designed and all… but the Huawei Health app is just… so much more informative than Samsung Health. Almost to the point where it can feel like “information vomit” to those who just wanna check their basic health data.

Battery life

• 208 mAh battery
• Up to 14 days of maximum use

Finally, let’s talk about battery life.

So both Samsung and Huawei claim that their latest fitness bands can last up to two weeks… but I knew I was never gonna clock in those numbers once I had them keeping track of all my health data as frequently as they could.

With the Galaxy Fit 3 managing to go exactly a week before giving up, while the Huawei Band 10 lasted me a little over 9 days before I finally needed to plug it in. It also fills up much faster — hitting 100% in like 45 minutes — versus how the Fit 3 takes nearly half an hour more to get the job done.

Huawei Band 10 review: Conclusion

Alright, I think now’s as good time as any to wrap up this review of Huawei Band 10 and Samsung’s Galaxy Fit 3. And for what it’s worth, I’m super impressed with both of them. They are both excellent fitness bands that I can comfortably recommend getting over most budget smartwatches in the market right now.

And if I were to summarize all my findings into a little table, here’s how it ends up looking.

• In terms of their design, I can’t say one is necessarily better than the other. It’s a tie.
• The Fit 3 clearly wins when it comes to the display and the software experience.
• Whereas the Band 10 has better battery life and better health and fitness tracking features compared to the Fit 3.

So in the end, it’s pretty clear.

If you’re not that serious about keeping track of your health and fitness routines, the Galaxy Fit 3 is a great fit for you. Pun intended. But for fitness enthusiasts and everyone else, you simply can’t go wrong with the Huawei Band 10. At least not for some NPR 7,000 in Nepal.

• Our video review of the Huawei Band 10 is coming up pretty soon

Huawei Band 10 review: Pros and cons