By Gerard Ramos / Lifestyle & Entertainment Editor
OF late, Huawei has been hitting it out of the park with smartphones that bring together design and technology in such handsome packages to rival even the best offerings from such tech heavyweights, as Apple, Sony and LG.
Its 2015 catalog alone already lists some of the best smartphones to come to market: from the stunning P8 back in April last year, followed in dizzying succession by more triumphs in the Mate S, Nexus 6P (a collaboration with tech giant Google) and the Mate 8.
Only recently, the Chinese multinational unveiled what could only become another runaway winner: the gorgeously crafted P9 and P9 Plus, both packed with the imaging muscle of the legendary German optics specialist Leica. (A review will be forthcoming.)
Not surprisingly, Huawei has been disinclined to rest on its smartphone laurels, throwing its hat in the nascent wearable-technology market with the release of the Huawei Smartwatch last September.
The Huawei Smartwatch is powered by Android Wear, a derivative of Google’s mobile operating system that powers most of the smartphones in the world, and which has been designed for smartwatches and other wearables. Thanks to the company’s local office, we have been playing around with the Huawei Smartwatch for a few weeks now.
Like the company’s acclaimed smartphones, the Huawei Smartwatch is a handsome piece of technology, fashioned from cold-forged stainless steel and scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass, and measuring 42mm in diameter and 11.3mm in thickness. Obviously, its dimensions are bigger than your standard-issue timepiece, but those numbers make it a tad more compact—and, yes, more wearable—than many other smartphones in the market.
Even better, Huawei has also minimized the bezels surrounding the display to just 0.6mm thick, giving you more display real estate too—1.4 inches in all, minus the “flat tire” found in the Moto 360. The AMOLED capacitive touchscreen has a 400×400 resolution with a 286 ppi, which, with the exception of the LG Watch Urbane Second Edition, are the best numbers to be found on any Android smartwatch, including the upcoming Tag Heuer Connected. And with a contrast ratio coming in 10,000:1, the Huawei Smartwatch’s display produces vibrant colors and is readable even under the sun.
The Huawei Smartwatch comes in gold, silver or black, with fine-grain leather and cold-forged stainless steel strap options.
What this smartwatch lacks that some of its rivals have is an ambient light sensor, which means you will have to adjust the screen’s brightness levels manually, according to the environment you find yourself in. Moreover, it also doesn’t have standalone GPS functionality, which could disappoint running enthusiasts who might be looking to this for assistance on those daily runs.
Huawei mitigates these oversights with such goodies, as Wi-Fi connectivity, iOS compatibility (yes, you can pair it with the latest iPhones), support for Jawbone’s UP platform, and IP67 certification, which means the smartwatch has water- and dust-resistance. Moreover, it boast of a battery life that will assist you on your work and fitness tasks for 1.5 days, and comes with a fast-charging dock that brings the battery from zero to full in just an hour. Not shabby at all, we must say.
You can know more about the Huawei Smartwatch at http://goo.gl/EzjstO.
