HUAWIE WATCH
WHAT IS THE HUAWIE WATCH ?
Despite Huawei launching a plethora of good-looking, high-spec'd and generally well received smartphones over the last couple of years, the Chinese company is struggling somewhat to establish itself as a desirable brand outside of its homeland.
Its first few cracks at the wearable market – most notably its duo of TalkBand trackers – were pretty naff, so we raised an eyebrow when it unveiled what looked like being a real jewel in the Android Wear earlier this year.
Huawei Watch: Design and build
The Huawei Watch packs scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass, like theApple Watch, and a cold-forged, stainless steel unibody design. It comes in gold, silver or black and there are both fine-grain leather and cold-forged 316L stainless steel strap options.
This is no rubber and plastic hatchet job - the Huawei Watch is stylish and well-made. With a diameter of 42mm and a thickness of 11.3mm, it's a touch more compact than the new 42mm Moto 360. The bezels are also just 0.6mm thick, so you get more display real-estate too – 1.4 inches compared to 1.37 on the littler Moto.
The rose-gold plated model – that we've also spent some time with – features a bezel with an extra textured finish, making it an altogether prettier wearable than the two plainer, minimalist watches. It glints in the light and feels more like a piece of - admittedly fairly weighty jewellery.
Essential reading: Top smartwatches for 2015
Clearly Huawei is aiming to be the first genuine premium smartwatch from the Google stable but, while the hardened glass and the mix of leather and stainless steel are a million miles from the original Wear models from 2014 – we don't expect Tag Heuer to be shaking in its boots.
High-end it may well be – luxury is certainly is not. Yes, it may be a touch fancier than the likes of the LG Watch Urbane and the ZenWatch 2, but it's not all that different, and certainly not as superior as its price-tag suggests.
HUAWIE WATCH DISPLAY
The Huawei Watch walks the round LG display path, rather than limping along Moto 's 'flat-tyre' avenue – in reference to the black dead area at the bottom of the 360's screen. The AMOLED display is a 1.4-inch 400 x 400 one with a ppi count of 286. That's the highest on any Android Wear device to date – although the soon-to-launch LG Watch Urbane Second Edition will trump it with a 480 x 480 panel at 348ppi.
Huawei's effort is made all the more impressive thanks to a 10,000:1 contrast ratio. Colours are vibrant, text appears crisp and it even holds up pretty well under bright-lights.
Side by side with the smaller Moto 360 2 – its closest rival in terms of aesthetics – it's evidently a better display. Not just because it offers genuine 360-degree visuals, but because everything just looks sharper. There's no ambient light sensor, however – so you'd always have to have the display to a preset brightness setting that doesn't account for your situation.
The display is always-on and there are almost 50 pre-loaded watch faces, not counting the hundreds officially on offer from Google Play. The supplied faces range from a little boring to quite vibrant, and certainly support the overall build quality.
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