Huawei unveils its first Android Wear smartwatch (update: our hands-on!)
Huawei didn't just unveil one wrist-worn wearable today; it announced two. Huawei has just revealed its first-ever Android Wear device and, appropriately enough, it's called the Huawei Watch. As was teased and leaked over the past few days, the Watch looks to have a rather premium pedigree, with a circular display and a design that's more reminiscent of a luxury timepiece than a geeky smartwatch. Indeed, Huawei took pains to say that it modeled the watch after classic designs -- it even has an ergonomically placed crown on the top right. Boasting a sapphire crystal screen (the first Android Wear watch with such a display), the Watch is encased in a "cold-forged" scratch-resistant stainless steel housing, available in gold, silver and black. As for the size, Huawei told us that the watch is a compact 42mm, which is apparently friendlier to those with smaller wrists. It also has a standard 18mm lug width and you have the choice of either metal or leather straps.
Like other Android Wear watches, the Huawei Watch has the usual features, such as a heart rate monitor and fitness tracking, plus a six-axis motion sensor and a barometric sensor. It has a 1.4-inch AMOLED screen -- with a 400 x 400 resolution, 286 ppi and a 10,000:1 high contrast ratio. And if you've ever wanted a choice in watch faces, you'll have plenty of them here -- Huawei is providing over 40 different customizable watch faces with the Watch. As for pricing, well, we don't know that just yet, but we do know that it'll be available in North America and Europe, as well as over 20 countries. The Watch will be available "in the middle of this year."
Update: We've just tried the Huawei Watch and... it's pretty damn nice. The display is super-crisp, but it's the thin bezels -- especially when compared to LG's G Watch R and the Moto 360 -- that really make this look special. If we have one complaint about the way it looks, it's that, like most of its competitors, the Watch is a little thick, a fact that's exacerbated by how svelte a design Huawei has achieved in general.
The Watch seems well put together and the two straps we tried -- one stainless steel, one leather -- both felt premium enough. It is worth noting that, while our models worked fine, a journalist standing next to us managed to break the crown on their Watch. Hopefully these are early teething problems, or an extremely clumsy pair of hands at work.
In terms of functionality, if you've seen one Android Wear watch, you've pretty much seen them all. The two models we tried were both stuck in Wear's demo mode, so we'll have to wait until we get a retail model to give you more detailed impressions there.
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Aaron Souppouris and Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
