Huawei Watch Review - A Touch of Class

There was a time when “made in China” was a label that everyone avoided and a product manufactured in this country was often described as having really poor quality.

Times have changed, though, and now not only do the majority of tech companies have their own manufacturing plans here, but Chinese firms themselves have started building very advanced devices that excel in terms of design, build quality, hardware, and features.

Huawei and Xiaomi are definitely the best examples in this case, and as far as the former is concerned, there's one particular market where it's very close to its US-based rivals: smartwatches.

The so-called Huawei Watch comes with the price of a premium device and costs more than almost any other smartwatch on the market, including the Apple Watch. You'll have to spend $349.99 (€320) on the cheapest model, the same as on the entry-level Apple Watch, while the top-of-the-range version, which features gold-plated stainless steel casing, is available for $799 (€730). The “gold” edition doesn't cost as much as the Apple Watch Edition, that's true, but all the other versions are more expensive than their Apple counterparts.

So here we go, a Chinese smartwatch that has a bigger price than a product made by Apple. That's certainly something you don't see every day, and since it's not very common for Huawei to sell such expensive devices, we wanted to find out on our own what this is all about.

We tested the new Huawei Watch in black with a leather band, and at first glance, the combination looks terrific. Continue reading to discover all our findings regarding the device.  

There's no doubt the Huawei Watch is one of the most eye-appealing smartwatches currently on the market. And there's just one very simple reason this is happening: it looks just like an analog watch. This means this smartwatch feels almost as natural as a traditional watch.

Basically, it has the same look and shape as your old “dumb” watch, and when wearing it, you might not even say there's a difference in terms of comfort. Because, yes, the Huawei Watch is one of the most comfortable smartwatches currently out there, and it's almost as good as the Apple Watch when it comes to this. At some level, it's pretty much the Apple Watch of Android Wear.

The Huawei Watch uses the same round shape as the Moto 360 but does not suffer from the flat tire syndrome. And again, there's one reason for this, but you won't be pleased. There is no ambient sensor available, which means no automatic brightness adjustment is offered. Moto 360 (2015 edition) comes with the ambient sensor right at the bottom of the round case, so you basically get a round watch without a round display.

As far as the Huawei Watch is concerned, the Chinese decided to go for looks instead of functionality, so you get a much prettier device that has no ambient sensor. That's not so much of a problem, though, if you prefer to adjust brightness on your own.

The device comes with a 1.4-inch AMOLED display covered in Sapphire crystal glass, which means that it's almost impossible to scratch or break. We said almost impossible, so it's better not to put its durability to the test. But it's certainly reassuring to know it's there.

“Classy, smart and sassy. ”

The case is made of stainless steel, also pretty durable, and is IP-67 certified, so it can last for around 30 minutes in 1-meter-deep water. Again, don't test it, as Huawei itself says that it's better to avoid it.

Depending on the version you choose, the watch can weigh between 60.5 grams and 136 grams, so it's clearly a matter of choice here. But in almost every single case, the device feels really comfortable on the wrist, and with a leather band, it has a premium look too.

The 42mm watch seems just the perfect choice for medium-sized hands, and although we were afraid it could be a little smaller at first, it's not. The Moto 360, for instance, is clearly too big, and the 42mm size, wrapped in the black case, makes for the perfect choice for men hands of average size.

All in all, Huawei did a pretty good job of designing this watch, and it's very clear from the beginning that it's all about the looks. It makes you feel good when you wear it, and some people can barely make the difference between this and a traditional watch. Especially when being used with the always-on display.

In terms of hardware, the Huawei Watch doesn't really excel when compared to the others, as it comes with already-traditional configuration that's available on other Android Wear smartwatches.

The device features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor (quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex A7), 512 MB of RAM, and 4 GB of internal usage. Nothing out of the ordinary, but the result is definitely better than on the Moto 360, for example, as the watch feels fast and responsive all the time.

Partly responsible for this is the 1.4-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 400x400 pixels and pixel density of 286 ppi. We found the display to be super responsive all the time and have decent readability in sunlight, which is pretty important for those who want to wear it both indoors and outdoors.

Truth is, depending on the face you pick, it might be more difficult to read the displayed information in direct sunlight when the watch is in standby mode and uses the ambient mode with no colors (available via the always-on display), but it's a compromise that you must accept for longer battery life. If you can't deal with it, simply rotate your wrist and the display lights up, so you can see the face at full brightness.

The device also comes a 300 mAh li-ion battery, which is pretty much the average on the market right now, but we'll detail its performance in a dedicated chapter below (spoiler: it easily gets you through the day).

Other than that, you get a heart rate sensor, a barometer, and a 6-axis motion sensor that includes a gyroscope and accelerometer.

One less known thing is that the device also comes with a speaker and mic, so while it can be used to talk “on the phone” and actually replace your handset completely, it's not possible right now because of the limitations of Android Wear. Support for phone calls via Bluetooth is expected to be added in the OS with a coming update, so at that moment, Huawei Watch could also offer the feature that's currently available on the Apple Watch and other few devices.

So overall, it's the standard package with a little extra that simply does its job and a bit more. It's certainly not the kind of thing that can make a difference, so it's once again very clear that this watch is all about the looks.

As far as the smartwatch capabilities are concerned, there's no surprise here. You get the full notifications package that Android Wear can provide you with, so simply set up the device, connect it to your phone, and you're good to go.

All notifications that land on your phone are displayed on your watch too, and one interesting thing is that, despite the fact that the smartwatch vibrates on your wrist, the handset rings too, so you can read the notification on either on them. The notification is then removed from the other.

When you receive a phone call, you have the option to answer, reject, or send a message from a pre-defined list to the caller. For the moment, you cannot pick up the call and talk straight from the watch, but a speaker is available, so as soon as Android Wear gets support for this feature, you should be able to do that too.

The device gently vibrates when receiving notifications, and we've found that, at certain times, you might not feel the vibration, so adjusting intensity or patterns might be a good idea. This can be done with third-party Android apps in the store, and there are plenty of them.

Additionally, you can install a number of Android Wear apps as well and receive notifications right on the watch too. For example, if you're a football fan, you can install a live score application and get alerts whenever one of the teams scores a goal. Plus, you can get driving directions from Google Maps or search the web with Google using voice commands.

Overall, as far as smartwatch capabilities are concerned, Huawei Watch is an excellent device, and it does its job very well. It does the same thing as all the other smartwatches on the market, so you're not left behind when comparing it to an Apple Watch, for instance.

“You just won't use it for fitness or exercise tracking.”

In terms of fitness capabilities, we're going to say this loud and clear: Huawei Watch is not supposed to be used this way. Not with a leather band, that's for sure.

But this doesn't necessarily mean that it cannot cope with the standard tasks. In fact, thanks to Google Fit integration, which is independent of your phone, it can track the usual stuff, such as steps you took in a whole day, the number of times you got up from your desk, and your heart activity.

Some of the information is not entirely accurate, such as the number of times you got up, pretty much because the gyroscope might detect some arm moves incorrectly, but it's still good enough to have a view of your daily activities.

It doesn't have GPS, and this is both good and bad at the same time. First of all, it's a good thing because GPS is one of the main battery hogs on smartwatches right now, and it's bad because fitness-obsessed users out there would love to get more accurate statistics.

In the end, the Huawei Watch does what it's supposed to do, so it's not in any way close to a Microsoft Band or Fitbit Surge. But it's pretty clear that it wasn't designed for this kind of things.

The Huawei Watch comes with a 300 mAh lithium-ion battery life, which, according to Huawei, can last up to one day and a half. And the Chinese are not lying, that's for sure.

The one-day-and-a-half battery life estimate is extremely accurate, and that's exactly our average during the test, with notifications turned on and display set to always-on.

The device charges insanely fast, and it reaches 100 percent in a little over 60 minutes, but otherwise, thanks to fast charging, it can go from 0 percent to 80 percent in just 45 minutes.

One thing that's worth mentioning is that, as compared to the majority of devices that are using inductive charging, the Huawei Watch plays it classic and relies on a magnetic charger. That's why the charging process goes insanely fast, but at the same time, you should really make sure every single time that you've attached the charger correctly.

The charger pins need to connect to the ones on the back of the watch, and only when you hear the click, the process starts. The display also turns to a green mode that shows the progress of charging.

Huawei Watch runs Android Wear, and although this particular platform hasn't yet reached its maturity, it still comes with plenty of options that outclass the competition.

While the operating system as a whole is quite user-friendly but less eye-appealing, Android Wear's ace up the sleeve is the customization level it offers to users.

Apple Watch comes with a rather limited selection of watch faces, and there's no doubt that this one of the biggest problems of the platform. Should Apple remove this restriction, the Apple Watch store would get thousands of faces overnight, but for the moment, its users have only 10 different faces to choose from (or to create custom ones that look pretty basic).

“Android Wear still has limitations but offers stunning customization options.”

On Android Wear in general, and Huawei Watch in particular, there's an overwhelming selection of faces. Huawei offers a plethora of them when you set up the device, but you can get many others from the store. And with apps such as WatchMaster, the customization level goes beyond your expectations.

These apps create a new entry in your Watch menu, and it's being used to display one of the faces that you find in the store. You can download multiple on your phones, but only one is displayed on the watch.

But this is not in any way a problem because there are so many to choose from that it's nearly impossible to decide which one to use. And yet, finding the right theme could be quite exciting, especially because this way you can match the smartwatch to any outfit.

Some of the faces, including those digital or analog, come with further customization themes, so you can also configure colors, dials, size of displayed information, widgets, or other details. Keep in mind, however, that in order to see the weather on your watch face, location needs to be enabled on your phone (this is one of the limitations that are really hard to understand right now, but it's the same on all Android watches).

Another little yet annoying thing is that the “OK Google” voice command shows up on your watch face whenever you unlock it. To simply get rid of it, it's enough to say “OK Google” three or four times, and then it goes away all by itself.

Android Wear also works on iOS, so you can use the Huawei Watch with an iPhone, but your customization options are limited. You won't be able to get new themes from the store, and installing apps is obviously impossible, since they require an Android phone. Notifications will work, though, for apps on your iPhone.

Overall, Android Wear comes with what Apple watchOS doesn't: customization power. There's no doubt that Android Wear might be going in the right direction, and with significant UI overhauls and feature improvements, it could become the smartwatch platform of choice for the majority of users.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: Huawei Watch is all about the looks and nothing more. It looks good, it feels good, and it does its job very well.

It's not a fitness tracker, so you can't compare it with a Microsoft Band, for example, but nobody wants to do that anyway. Instead, you get a pretty smartwatch that looks like a traditional analog one but features plenty of customization options and notifications from the smartphone.

One of the biggest problems with smartwatches these days is the rather limited battery life. The Huawei Watch, however, can get you through the day quite easily, but we still recommend to charge it every night.

If you're the kind of user who likes to sleep with the watch on the wrist, you could do that too because it has very gentle alarms that don't wake up the rest of the house and feel much better than a typical ringtone. If you do that, you can quickly charge the device in the morning while taking a shower or brushing your teeth because the charging process is so fast that it completes in approximately one hour.

The only bad thing about the Huawei Watch is the price, as it's fairly expensive right now, especially because Huawei still can't be considered a premium device manufacturer. This is a very controversial aspect right now, but a lot of people out there find it impossible to spend nearly $400 on a Huawei smartwatch and would rather buy an Apple Watch instead, just because it's made by Apple.

But in the end, Huawei Watch brings excellent value for the money, and the chances are that you won't be disappointed. It's currently “the watch-est” of all smartwatches, and it offers nearly uncompromising experience.