Huawei Smartwatch Looks Good, But Not Nearly Good Enough
At the 2015 Mobile World Conference today, Chinese mobile tech manufacturer Huawei showed off its Android Wear watch.
The device was designed to ride the line between luxury styling and functionality. Unlike, say, the Apple watch, which leaves no question as to its purpose as a wearable smart device, Huawei’s watch looks like more traditional, round-faced watch.
The watch, which features a sapphire crystal face, is cased in stainless steel and will be available in silver, black, and gold. Information is processed by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm APQ8026, and is output via its 400 x 400 286dpi display. It runs Android Wear, so it handles operations like Facebook and instant messaging.
In terms of pure appearances, the Huawei Watch strikes me as the slickest Android Wear device to date. But that’s not really saying much, as the Moto 360 and LG G Watch R (or the latter company’s new Watch Urbane) aren’t exactly oozing with style and sophistication. Of course, neither is Huawei’s poorly-scripted and amateurishly-acted reveal video, which is probably a funner watch than the product its hawking. (Incidentally, I’ve never heard “bezel” pronounced as “beezle” before, but it seems to be an accepted form. Which is so silly that I vow to say the word this way from now on.)
It’ll be interesting to see how Huawei positions itself in the forthcoming battle for smartwatch scraps, and I’m looking forward to the “Round vs. Square” debate. I expect most Android offerings will go the circular route, if only to immediately differentiate themselves from Apple.
Or from Pebble, who will probably prove to be their biggest competition.