Huawei Watch Review

The fi rm certainly could have, and probably should have, come up with a better name for the device but when it looks this good we don’t really care. Perhaps the Chinese tech company wants to compete directly with Apple by simply branding it with the name and the type of device it is. What we don’t know when it’s going to launch, however our prediction of the £300 mark to match the new LG Watch Urbane looks pretty good. MobileFun has announced the black and silver models will cost exactly that while the gold option will cost £50 more. We got a good fondle with the silver model but the Huawei Watch will also be available in a nice looking black model and a shiny gold one for those after a more bling fi nish. There are also two straps to choose from, either leather or stainless steel.

Interestingly, Huawei has places the physical button at 2 o’clock rather than 3 and this seems to make sense meaning you don’t need to twist your wrist as much to push it (the wrist not wearing the device). Like many smartwatches, the Huawei Watch is big so you’ve got to be prepared for this – just take a look at it next to the Withings Activité. It seems no one is following Apple’s lead of producing two sizes for those with smaller wrist which is a shame. The stainless steel case and sapphire crystal front look great, even if the device is a bit chunky at 11.3 mm. We’re used to some Huawei devices being cheap and made from plastic but this couldn’t be further the other way. It’s easily one of the most premium and desirable Android Wear wearables around, in fact smartwatches in general.

With specs matching other Android Wear watches, the design is hugely important in diff erentiating from rivals. Talking of specs, the Huawei Watch fi ts in with the standard set of hardware for Android Wear devices. This means it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 4GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM and Bluetooth 4.1. It also has various sensors like an accelerometer, barometer and heart rate monitor. The screen, however, is a little larger than rivals such as the LG G Watch R at 1.4in but this is smaller than the Motorola Moto 360 so it’s not the biggest around.

Round screens are quickly becoming the norm for smartwatches with a few exceptions like the Sony SmartWatch 3. Huawei’s is full round so doesn’t have the ‘fl at tire’ eff ect found on Motorola’s. It looks great although we weren’t able to test the display out fully as it was in a demo mode. What we are a little worried about is battery life as the Huawei Watch only has a 300mAh battery which is pretty small. The fi rm claims it will last for one and half to two days on a single charge so we’re looking forward to testing this out.