Android Wear powered Huawei Watch is now official

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We must admit the name is a bit “meh” but so is Apple Watch. Don’t get us started on weirdos like… never mind. You know what’s not boring? The watch itself. It’s quite something. It’s a breath of fresh air from whatever we’ve seen so far from everyone starting with Apple on one end of the globe to Samsung on the other end. It is too early to judge the Huawei Watch but truth be told, they’ve got everything right with the design even if they decided to just spoil the guessing game fun by deliberately “leaking” the watch themselves last night.

The Huawei Watch will come in classic, sporty and business versions and since it runs Android Wear, the expected Google integration is there. Google Now cards for the weather, responding to Hangouts on the fly, notifications, answering calls etc. In addition, it will also cater to the health-conscious as it has a built-in pedometer and a heart rate monitor sensor. A barometer sensor also joins the heart rate monitor sensor and the 6-axis motion sensor. It may not be a standalone smartwatch like Samsung’s Gear S but it will surely get the job done. Besides, smartwatches are still in their nascent stages and a standalone watch doesn’t mean so much at the moment. Smartwatches will for a while act as companion devices to smartphones; complementing rather than replacing smartphones.

huawei watch on stage at mwc15
Huawei’s Richard Yu showcases the Huawei Watch on stage at the press event in Barcelona

Here are specs of the Huawei Watch:

  • 1.4 inch AMOLED 400×400 pixels (286 ppi) display
  • An unnamed Qualcomm chip clocked at 1.2 GHz
  • 4 GB internal storage
  • 512 MB RAM
  • Bluetooth 4.1

The most standout feature of the Huawei Watch is the display. There’s a scratch-proof sapphire crystal lens on top of it that finishes the cold-forged unibody stainless steel build of the smartwatch. Buyers of the watch will have access to over 40 built in watchfaces to enjoy on the 42mm diameter watch. Its lug width measures just 18mm.

Huawei’s first ever smartwatch will be available in gold, silver and black in over 20 countries including the US, UK, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Norway, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UAE at dates and prices that will be announced later in those respective countries. We expect premium pricing on the device though not Apple-level madness premium pricing. Just a considerate sum.

Motorola’s Moto360 timepiece is the current darling of the Android Wear crowd, will the Huawei Watch manage to top that?

 

Photo: Huawei