vivo Watch 3
From RM899
Pros
- Vibrant OLED display
- Waterproof at 5ATM
- Call features
- Good battery life
- NFC is available
Cons
- Can't change font size
- Prone to scratches (a little bit)
- Need more realistic watch faces
Few anticipated the profound influence smartphones would have on our daily lives when they first became indispensable. Now, smartwatches are stepping into the spotlight, seamlessly merging practicality with elegance in a compact design. Countless brands have entered the competition to create the perfect smartwatch, aiming to harmonize aesthetics and performance. Yet, none quite succeeded in achieving this balance—until the arrival of the vivo Watch 3.
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the vivo Watch 3, examining its design, durability, battery life, fitness features, and day-to-day functionality. Our hands-on experience with this device sheds light on both its highlights and a few hiccups, helping you decide if this high-tech wearable is worth the investment.
Design & Durability: Form Meets Function
One of the first things you notice about the vivo Watch 3 is its eye-catching design. Featuring a robust 1.43-inch AMOLED display with a sharp 466 x 466 resolution, this smartwatch showcases a beautiful, always-on screen that’s rich in color and clarity. The compact yet crystal-clear display ensures that all notifications and apps look sharp, without any pesky pixelation or fragmented visuals that some wearables suffer from.
Surprisingly, vivo made a bold choice with its screen design. Rather than recessing the screen slightly into the watch case to prevent accidental damage, the screen protrudes just a bit. While this could seem risky, it actually enhances the aesthetics, giving the device a modern look. The watch case is crafted from sleek aluminum alloy, and vivo went a step further by reinforcing the screen with Schott Up, a durable glass that can withstand daily wear and tear.
Another key feature is its water resistance, which allows the watch to withstand submersion up to 50 meters (5 ATM). This feature makes the vivo Watch 3 suitable for swimming, showering, and dealing with unexpected rain showers. The watch offers two strap options, each catering to different lifestyles and tastes: a sophisticated Moonlight White leather strap for formal settings and a rugged Asteroid Black rubber strap for sports enthusiasts. Both straps are easy to swap out using the quick-release mechanism, making it simple to switch between them.
The hardware design also includes an aluminum alloy crown on the upper right side, which doubles as a multi-functional button. Twisting this crown lets users scroll through menus effortlessly without excessive screen swiping. Below the crown is a button designed for quick access to fitness tracking features—a thoughtful addition for active users.
The Vivo Watch 3 also supports call functionality, adding a practical communication feature to its repertoire. The call quality is commendable, allowing for clear and audible conversations even in moderately busy public settings. However, the experience is noticeably better in quieter environments, where background noise is minimized, ensuring both parties can communicate without interruptions. This feature is particularly convenient when you’re on the go and need to take a call hands-free, giving you a futuristic, almost sci-fi-like experience—reminiscent of talking into a wrist communicator straight out of Star Trek.
Battery Life
Battery life is one of the standout features of the vivo Watch 3. After charging it to full capacity, we managed to get about 14 days of battery life with regular use—almost reaching the advertised 16 days. While we didn’t quite hit vivo’s maximum claim, a few battery-saving adjustments could easily make this goal achievable.
For those who prefer always-on features and functions, enabling the eSIM functionality cuts battery life down to about seven days. Though this is shorter, it’s still impressive given the number of features at your disposal. This long battery life sets the vivo Watch 3 apart from competitors that may require daily or every-other-day charging, making it an ideal choice for users who dislike frequent recharging.
Fitness Features
The vivo Watch 3’s fitness and health monitoring features are particularly robust, making it a great choice for fitness enthusiasts. The device includes what vivo calls “advanced multi-channel star ring health monitoring,” a complex system with 8 channels for heart rate and 16 channels for blood oxygen monitoring. This setup provides highly accurate health tracking, monitoring vital signs like heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, stress levels, breathing patterns, sleep quality, and more.
The watch leverages an advanced heart rate algorithm that processes PPG signals (Photoplethysmography) to deliver accurate and reliable data, whether you’re going for a leisurely walk or pushing through an intense workout. This precision allows the watch to recognize subtle differences, like the intensity of a walk versus a brisk run, automatically adjusting its tracking to better reflect your activity.
For those who engage in multiple types of exercise, the vivo Watch 3 offers 100 different sports modes, covering a wide range of activities like walking, running, cycling, swimming, and even niche sports like badminton. This diverse selection allows users to tailor their fitness tracking specifically to their routines, helping them stay motivated and on track.
Each sports mode on the vivo Watch 3 provides tailored metrics to suit the activity. For outdoor running, for example, the watch monitors several key stats: average pace, stride length, cadence, pace per kilometer, and even altitude. One of the best features is the built-in GPS, which tracks your running route and logs it after each session. While this is helpful, it lacks kilometer markers on the map to help gauge your timing between points. As it stands, you’ll need to rely on the detailed pace-per-kilometer stats for interval tracking.
An important detail that took some time to notice: when using the sports interface, notifications don’t remain accessible. While notifications will briefly pop up, they’re easy to miss if you’re focused on an exercise. To review notifications, you need to exit the sports interface temporarily by pressing the home button. Fortunately, the watch keeps tracking in the background, and you can quickly return to your workout stats by pressing the dedicated exercise button beneath the home dial.
Ideally, it would be more convenient if the sports interface included a dedicated page for notifications, allowing easier access during workouts. Hopefully, this is a feature vivo will consider adding in future updates to BlueOS.
Day-to-Day Functionality
Navigating the vivo Watch 3 is straightforward and intuitive. If you’ve used a smartwatch before, you’ll find this experience quite familiar. Swiping right from the main screen brings you to fixed widgets like weather updates and music controls, which are set by default and cannot be customized. Swiping to the left, however, opens up a series of customizable “cards” where you can personalize your widget layout. Each card can display up to four widgets, arranged neatly in square or rectangular tiles. Personally, I like to keep my health stats and fitness ring on the first card for easy access, followed by a quick-start exercise widget for convenient workout tracking.
To view notifications, simply swipe down from the homepage. Unfortunately, the vivo Watch 3 lacks an on-screen keypad and quick-reply functionality, so while you can see incoming messages, you won’t be able to respond directly from the watch.
One feature that really stands out on the vivo Watch 3 is its ability to store and play music files directly on the device. You can even pair the watch with Bluetooth headphones, giving you the freedom to leave your phone behind if you want to listen to music while you’re out. This is especially handy for runners, as it eliminates the need to carry a bulky phone. As for how to source your music files, we’ll let you figure that out on your own.
However, the process of transferring music files does take a few extra steps. First, you’ll need the files on your phone since the only way to transfer them to the watch is via the Vivo Health app. In the app, go to “Devices,” select “vivo Watch 3,” and scroll down to find the “Music” section. From there, tap “Add Music” to choose and upload the mp3 files you want on your watch.
The vivo Watch 3 offers an impressive variety of fresh and stylish watch faces available through the vivo Health app, allowing you to personalise your watch to suit any occasion. Whether you prefer the classic elegance of an analog-style display or the sleek, data-rich appeal of digital layouts, there’s something to match your taste. You can explore and download countless watch faces, making it easy to coordinate your smartwatch with your outfit of the day (OOTD) effortlessly.
Adding to its versatility, the vivo Watch 3 is equipped with a 22mm interchangeable strap system. With various colours and materials available, you can customise the look of your watch to reflect your style. The convenient quick-release clasp makes swapping straps a breeze, letting you switch between a sporty, casual, or formal look in seconds.
Final Verdict: Stylish, Functional, but Not Without Flaws
The vivo Watch 3 has a lot to offer, particularly for those who value a sleek design, exceptional battery life, and robust fitness tracking capabilities. Here’s a quick recap of the pros and cons:
Pros:
- Elegant Design: The AMOLED display and premium materials make the watch visually appealing.
- Durability: The aluminum alloy and Schott Up glass provide solid durability, and the 5 ATM water resistance is a plus.
- Long Battery Life: Lasts up to 14–16 days with regular use, making it perfect for those who dislike frequent charging.
- Comprehensive Health Tracking: Advanced heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, plus 100 sports modes, make it an ideal companion for fitness enthusiasts.
- Call Features: High quality audio while taking calls even in noisy environments.
Cons:
- Intrusive App Permissions: The companion app requires many permissions, making it potentially intrusive.
- Compatibility Issues: The full range of functions may be inaccessible to non-vivo phone users, limiting the appeal of this smartwatch for users with other phone brands.
So, should you consider buying the vivo Watch 3? Overall, it’s a solid smartwatch with plenty to offer. It stands out with its excellent features, impressively long battery life, and compatibility with a wide range of phones, regardless of brand. Though we haven’t fully confirmed its functionality with iOS, it seems likely that it would work there too.
In terms of pricing, the vivo Watch 3 does fall on the premium side, starting at RM899 for the silicone strap version and RM999 for the leather strap model. Compared to other Wear OS smartwatches, the price point does raise some considerations. For instance, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch comes in at a similar price, but it’s optimized primarily for Samsung devices and doesn’t match the Vivo Watch 3 in battery longevity, although it does pack a few more features.
Ultimately, the vivo Watch 3 is an attractive, feature-packed smartwatch that’s perfect for vivo phone users and fitness-focused individuals. If you’re already within the vivo ecosystem or are willing to navigate some potential app issues, the vivo Watch 3 is a worthy investment. Otherwise, users may want to consider other smartwatches with a more streamlined app experience and better compatibility across devices.
More info: vivo Watch 3 | vivo Malaysia
