If you’ve been watching the smartwatch space (pun intended), you’ll notice that the big guns are upping the game. Gone are the toy-like form factors, now looking more refined and elegant. One maker to watch (pun intended, again), is Huawei. At the media reveal of the much-anticipated Nexus 6P smartphone in Malaysia, Huawei sprung a surprise with the Huawei Watch.
Part of the beauty of the new crop of smartwatches is that they don’t look like smartwatches. Infusing expertise from traditional watchmakers, they look astoundingly like ‘real’ watches, yet hiding the tech within.
The Huawei Watch, revealed together with the Nexus 6P is beautiful. Possibly the most beautiful smartwatch in the market today. Since we’ve yet to see the likes of the LG Watch Urbane (another stunning smartwatch), I’d hand the Huawei Watch the tiara and sash, for now.
Fashion embraces Technology
More fashion accessory than tech device, internationally, Huawei has made its presence felt in the fashion industry. Recently at Milan Fashion Week, it revealed a special edition Huawei Watch – a collaboration between the brand, Vogue China and Fornasetti.
The Huawei Watch features a full circle face, utilising a classic 42mm diameter sizing. You’ll love the cold-forged 316L stainless steel casing, hand-polished to perfection. A scratch-resistant sapphire crystal keeps it clean and clear when you interactive on the multi-touch 1.4-inch HD AMOLED display. A single ergonomic button is placed at 2 o’clock.
There are three variants – Stainless Steel, Black-plated Stainless Steel and Rose gold-plated Stainless Steel.
If I would to nitpick, it would be that the watch is a little thick. At 11.3mm it’s probably the thickest smartwatch out there. Not a downside, just a matter of preference.
You’ll get a choice of fine leather and stainless steel straps. The straps use a standard 18mm lug width. To start, there’s the stainless steel Mesh Strap, Stainless steel Link bracelet and genuine strap. Dress it for every occasion, matched with bespoke watch faces to choose from.
What’s underneath
Under the hood, it runs a Qualcomm 1.2GHz processor with 512MB RAM and 4GB storage. There’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 BLE connectivity. The beauty about the Huawei Watch is that it plays nice with both Android (4.3+) and iOS (8.2+).
Tracking you 24/7 are the 6-Axis motion sensor (gyro + accelerometer), hear rate sensor, barometer with an addition of a vibration motor. Wherever you go, there’s heart rate tracking, auto pattern-based recognition or single activity tracking.
The watch of course, runs Android Wear which gives you updates at a glance. Pair it to your favourite smartphone and get notifications, control your music, book your Uber ride or quickly check your messages. It’s fully integrated with Google Now, so you’ll always have a personal assistant with you.
There’s over 40 customisable watch faces built-in. So go crazy.
The built-in battery gives you up to 1.5 days of battery life. The fast charge battery can get you from 0-80% in just 45 minutes.
Pricing and availability
The Huawei Watch will be available from 10 December with a choice of three variants. The stainless steel link bracelet or black leather strap variant is priced at MYR1,799, while the black-plated stainless steel case with black stainless steel links bracelet retails at MYR1,999.
In love with the new Huawei Watch? You can grab one from Vmall.my.
