Huawei Watch D3 vs D2: The upgrade is smaller than it looks

If you were expecting Huawei to completely rethink its blood pressure watch for the D3, it hasn’t. The new model is slimmer, gets a bigger and much brighter screen and adds a few useful blood pressure tricks, but the D2 already did most of the clever health stuff.

That is worth keeping in mind because the Huawei Watch D2 was already quite unusual. Instead of trying to estimate blood pressure from optical sensors, it has a tiny inflatable airbag built into the strap and uses the oscillometric method, much like a traditional cuff. The Watch D3 sticks with that approach rather than replacing it with something new.

You can view both of these devices on Huawei’s website.

For some context on how Huawei’s inflatable-cuff approach compares with other blood pressure wearables, our recent BP Doctor Fit review and Wellue BP Watch review both look at the same basic idea of putting a real air cuff on the wrist.

Huawei Watch D3 vs D2 tech specs

The broad specification list looks very similar because these watches share most of their sensors and smartwatch features. The main differences are in the size, display and some of the newer blood pressure and health software.

You can also dig through our full Huawei Watch D3 vs 2 specs comparison if you want every field side by side.

The D3 is noticeably less bulky

The physical redesign is probably the part you will notice most. The D2 was already surprisingly wearable considering there is an inflatable blood pressure cuff hidden in the strap, but at 13.3 mm thick it was never going to disappear on your wrist.

D3 trims that to 11.3 mm and narrows the airbag strap from 26.5 mm to 25.5 mm. The watch body itself still weighs about 40g, although Huawei says the new strap is 7.5g lighter. That is particularly useful here because this is a watch you may deliberately wear through the night while running ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. 

The display also grows from 1.82 to 1.92 inches. More noticeable than that small increase is brightness, which jumps from 1,500 nits on D2 to 3,000 nits on D3. Resolution barely changes in practical terms, so this is really about getting a larger and much brighter screen rather than more detail. 

Blood pressure tracking is better, but the basic idea is unchanged

Both watches use a mechanical airbag and oscillometric blood pressure measurement, and both support 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. D3 does not suddenly make D2’s main feature obsolete. 

What Huawei has done is expand where and how those readings can be used. D3 adds dedicated blood pressure measurements before and after exercise, with support for running, walking and cycling indoors and outdoors. Huawei has also tied its 24-hour monitoring more closely to European Society of Hypertension guidance on measurement intervals and the number of successful daytime and overnight readings. 

That makes D3 the more complete blood pressure watch, but it is worth being precise about some of the other health features. Pulse Wave Arrhythmia Analysis, the Beat-by-Beat ECG app and Health Community are not D3 exclusives. D2 already has all three, despite some early comparisons of the two watches suggesting otherwise. 

There are smaller improvements elsewhere. Health Glance moves from up to 10 indicators on D2 to 11 on D3, and the newer model gets Huawei’s TruSleep 5.0 algorithm. D3 also expands sports tracking from more than 80 exercise modes to more than 100. 

Battery life has gone nowhere

Oddly enough, making the watch thinner has not cost it anything on battery life, but it has not improved matters either. Huawei rates both D3 and D2 for up to six days of typical use, dropping all the way to one day when 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is enabled. 

D3 does at least have a stated charging time of around 75 minutes. Beyond that, there is little separating them here, so battery life is not a reason for an existing D2 owner to upgrade.