News & Reviews:   Huawei smartwatch

Last month, we reported a rumour that Huawei was planning a new Huawei Watch for the ladies and it turns out to be true. Two new variants, the “Elegant” and “Jewel” Huawei Watch were revealed at the CES 2016 and my, they sure look beautiful. 

There’s no new tech specs on the new Huawei Watch, so it’s safe to assume it retains the same specifications as the current one. However, the Elegant and Jewel version are slightly larger than the original Huawei Watch with 44mm (42mm is the original). 

According to new rumours, a new Huawei Watch is currently under development and the wearable will be aiming at a new target audience - the ladies.

Reports suggest the wearable design will be “rounder”, more elegant and coming in “feminine-looking” bands. Watch faces will also be designed to fit the female audience’s taste, don’t be surprised if the colour options are gold and rose gold which has been quite popular among the women. 

Apart from their Huawei Mate S and Huawei G8 smartphones, Huawei also announced that their very premium looking Huawei Watch will soon be shipping globally. Granted, Malaysia may not see it this month in September 2015 but we should be getting it in the next couple of months. Featuring a round watch face and 1.4-inch AMOLED display with 400 x 400 pixel resolution the Huawei Watch looks like a traditional watch with a physical crown. The diplay also has two layers of scratch resistant sapphire crystal glass while the body is made from 316L stainless steel. Tech specs will include a a Snapdragon 400 processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB storage, WiFi, Bluetooth, a heart rate monitor and a 300 mAh battery which can last about 2 days on normal use. Bands include black leather, steel link, stainless steel mesh and stainless steel and black link bracelet, alligator pressed brown leather and rose gold plated link bracelet. The body also comes in Black DLC coated stainless steel or Rose Gold-plated stainless steel with pricing starting from $349 (RM1473) to $799 (RM3384). No specific Malaysia release dates but it will begin shipment on 17 September 2015. Stay tuned and we'll keep you updated.

While it did get unveiled by ads a little too early, Huawei officially announced their first Android Wear smartwatch with the Huawei Watch. Powered by Android Wear, the Watch is round and made into a 42mm diameter cold-forged stainless steel frame. Other tech specs and features include a Snapdragon 400 processor, 512MB RAM, Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity, 1.4-inch touch-sensitive AMOLED display, scratch proof sapphire crystal lens, heart-rate monitor and 6-axis motion sensors. The 1.4-inch round AMOLED display offers a 400 x 400 pixel resolution with 10000:1 contrast ratio while the body features a crown as well. It is coming in black, gold and silver, with various interchangeable metal, leather and other material straps. The Huawei Watch is compatible with both iOS and Android devices and comes with the usual health tracking features but the sensors should offer some other features as well. Unfortunately, no Malaysia release dates or pricing details yet. It is headed for Singapore with the first batch, so we expect third-party sellers to have the Huawei Watch available first for now.

A few weeks back, Huawei had confirmed a new Android Wear smartwatch for 2015. This was from a teaser image which leaked the company's product road map for this year.  Now, the company has released a new teaser image on Weibo, which could hint at this upcoming smartwatch. Huawei released two different images via its Weibo account yesterday, both showing off a crescent shape with a little something at the end. In the first image, it looks like the company is trying to show a strap of the watch. The second image could hint at the watch's time piece. Huawei has left it to its readers to unravel this puzzle and find out what's coming next. This could be the teaser for the company's new smartwatch because both images come with the punch line, "Next is here". A smartwatch is a logical upgrade for Hauwei since it launched a smart band last year. Another feature revealed by the image is 4G LTE. This new device will feature the high speed 4G LTE network which probably means it could be a standalone smartwatch which directly competes with the Samsung Gear S watch. Huawei has announced that it will reveal the device at MWC 2015, which is just a few days away. 

Huawei has a number of devices in its pipeline for 2015. In a recent event in China, the company teased a picture which shows off some of the devices that it will announce this year. The image reveals new updates in the Huawei Mate and Huawei P series lineup, both of them flagship devices featuring high end tech specs. There will be other smartphone releases too in the Huawei Honor and the Huawei G and Y series. The company also has some tablets in store for the year. According to the picture, the new Huawei X series tablet and M series tablets will debut in a few months. The former is targeted at providing the best experience on a large screen and the M series devices will be aimed at delivering the best audio visual experience. However, the highlight of the teaser will be the new smartwatch from Huawei. The company has confirmed its entry into the smartwatch industry this year and it will run on Google's Android platform optimized for wearables. There will be a new flagship smartband launch too. Both these wearable devices will focus on fitness apps and features. More details are expected at the upcoming MWC 2015 event to be held in Barcelona in March although other reports indicate that we could see the Huawei P8 later sometime in July. Stay tuned for more developments.

Word that Google was working on an extension of Android designed for wearables has been around for quite some time. In a surprise move, Google have announced Android Wear, a mobile operating system for wearables. The main focus of Android Wear looks to provide location and context related information when and where you need it while offering voice commands, much like the current Google Now. Rather than use buttons, most of the interface that we could see relies on gestures like swipes. Both LG and Motorola have already announced their Android Wear driven smartwatches and we're thinking other smartwatch devs like ASUS, Samsung, HTC and Huawei could be developing Android Wear wearables as well. So far, most Android Wear devices seem to be smartwatches, and there is no information yet on how it might run smartglasses or a different kind of wearable, but these are still early days. For now, check out the videos in this article.

As rumoured, Huawei recently came out with their first smartwatch called the Huawei TalkBand B1. Featuring a bended 1.4-inch OLED display, the TalkBand B1 looks more like a smartband than a smartwatch with a silicon band that should fit most wrists. While the TalkBand B1 functions in the same way as other bluetooth companion devices, one of it's main features includes the ability to take out the OLED display and use it as a Bluetooth earpiece.

Everyone seems to be jumping on the smartwatch bandwagon and Huawei is no exception. Rumours have cropped up that Huawei could be coming to the Mobile World Congress or MWC expo 2014 with it's first smartwatch. Other products coming along with the smartwatch also include several tablets along with a smartphone. So far, the only definite device seems to be one of the tablets which could be the Huawei MediaPad X1, which is a 7-inch tablet with 1080p display. All the other devices don't seem to have any other tech specs to give them away, but we're hoping that Huawei being Huawei will result in a more affordable yet innovative smartwatch offering. Since this is just a rumour still, there are no details on pricing or Malaysia release dates just yet. As always, take this rumour with a pinch of salt as we wait for 24 February 2014 when the MWC will officially begin.