Who would have thought that a little-known Chinese smartphone manufacturer famous for budget smartphones would make the best Android Wear smartwatch going?
Huawei, which recently partnered with Google to make the excellent Nexus 6P phablet, announced its first Android Wear smartwatch in March, although it took another six months for it to go on sale.
Now, two months after the US, it’s about to arrive in the UK as one of the most expensive Android Wear watches, a direct challenger to the Apple Watch.
Timeless design
The Huawei is designed like a classic man’s watch with a stainless steel case, round screen and a button at the two o’clock position. Other watches, including the LG Watch Urbane and Motorola Moto 360 have similar designs, the difference here is that the Huawei Watch is a lot more slender.
The 42mm screen is circular – no flat tyre shape – and the bezel and lugs are small. It can easily pass simply as an attractive classic watch.
The Huawei Watch has the highest resolution screen yet fitted to an Android Wear watch, with a pixel density of 286 pixels per inch, which makes it sharper and clearer than any other. There are no jagged lines or other such give aways that the watch is smart, unless you want them.
The screen is also protected by sapphire crystal, which is used in high-end traditional watches as well as the Apple Watch. Sapphire is very hard and much more scratch resistant than hardened glass, such as Corning’s Gorilla Glass that is used on most other smartwatches.
The base model comes with a black leather strap, which has a classic look and feels comfortable on the wrist. The watch takes standard straps, which means you’re not confined to the collection offered by Huawei.
Specifications
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
- RAM: 512MB
- Screen: 1.4in AMOLED (286ppi) sapphire
- Storage: 4GB
- Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, heart rate sensor
- Dimensions: 42mm x 11.3mm
- Compatibility: Android and iOS
Two-day battery
The Huawei Watch runs as smoothly as all the other Qualcomm Snapdragon 400-powered Android Wear watches. Animations are fluid, the watch is responsive and its connection via Bluetooth to the smartphone is solid.
I also found its switching to Wi-Fi syncing when out of Bluetooth range of the smartphone was one of the smoothest of all the watches I have tested. The transition from Bluetooth to Wi-Fi and back again was not noticeable, which cannot be said for some of the others.
The Huawei Watch uses a high-resolution ambient mode when the screen isn’t active, which displays a crisp power-saving face that typically looks the same as the active face without moving elements or a background.
It lasted an average of two days of use with the screen on all the time and a dark face. The AMOLED screen consumes more power the brighter the display, which means a predominantly white screen drained the battery slightly quicker, typically only just reaching 9pm on the second day.
Charging the Watch takes over an hour via the magnetic dock, which latches onto the back of the watch with small metal contacts. It isn’t useful as a nightstand, but the watch can be charged with the screen off, while some others cannot.
Android Wear
The Huawei Watch runs the latest version of Google’s smartwatch operating system, Android Wear. Connected to an Android smartphone, it displays notifications as useful cards, runs Android Wear apps and games, and provides the usual watch features you might expect, such as timers, alarms and stopwatches.
For more information on Android Wear, please read:
Health-tracking apps
In addition to the standard Android Wear apps, Huawei includes three fitness-tracking apps.
Daily Tracking does what it says on the tin, tracking steps, runs, stair climbs and the various calories they consume. The app is attractive and adds stair climbing to the stats tracked by Google’s built-in Fit app.
Huawei’s Fitness Tracking is an ad-hoc exercise tracking app. Hit start, set a goal of calories or time and go for a workout. It works well enough as a basic run tracker, but better options from third-party developers are available.
The last app is Heart Rate, which allows users to take heart rate measurements, although I’m not sure why you would use it over the built-in Fit app. It does not take periodic heart rate readings throughout the day as some others do, such as the Moto 360’s Moto Body and the Apple Watch.
Price
The Huawei Watch is one of the most expensive Android smartwatches currently available. Starting at £289, it is £60 more expensive than the Motorola Moto 360. The Apple Watch costs £299 or more, and only works with an iPhone.
Verdict
The Huawei Watch is the best Android Wear smartwatch yet and one of the best cross-platform smartwatches. It easily passes as a traditional watch while providing access to information and notifications on your wrist.
It isn’t a standout “look at me” piece of technology, which is good if you’re more interested in function and classic design than showing off, and is comfortable to wear. The higher resolution sapphire screen is the best available at the moment and the battery lasted two days in my testing with the screen on all the time.
The watch is waterproof and feels like it’s built to last, but the utility of a smartwatch has yet to be proven for everyone.
Pros: sapphire screen, crisp display, fluid performance, comfortable, waterproof, standard watch strap support, two-day battery
Cons: same specifications as last year’s smartwatches, maybe too big for some, more expensive than the competition
Other reviews
- Motorola Moto 360 (2015) review: what the original should have been
- Apple Watch review: beautiful hardware spoiled by complicated software
- Sony Smartwatch 3 review: great design, good screen and decent battery
- LG Watch Urbane review: big, bold and a bit gaudy
- Pebble Time Steel: metal body and 150-hour battery life is how all smartwatches should be
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