The annual extravaganza of mobile technology – the Mobile World Congress 2015 – has begun in Barcelona, and the first major announcement of the event comes from Huawei. The Chinese giant has introduced the first of its Android Wear-brandishing smartwatch and it is a thing of beauty.
The smartwatch, which is aptly being called Huawei Watch by its maker, has a 1.4-inch full-circle display. It boasts an AMOLED screen with 400×400 px. resolution. Huawei proudly calls the Huawei Watch the “most vibrant Android Wear smartwatch in the world” thanks to the 10,000-to-1 contrast ratio of its 268ppi display. It also promises a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal display cover, and the touchscreen display responds to gloves-covered or wet hands as well.
These 120+ components out of which the Huawei Watch is made are housed inside a Grade 316L stainless steel body. The dial features a crown-cum-press button placed at 2 o’clock position.
Moving on from looks to the guts, the smartwatch has plenty of tech and sensors to boot. It has a Qualcomm 1.2GHz processor, 4 GB of internal storage, 512 MB of RAM, and Bluetooth 4.1 support. The sensors include a 6-axis gyro to detect and differentiate between the types of user activity (walking, cycling, biking etc.), a heart-rate monitor, and a barometer. A combination of hardware and software features will keep the user updated regarding their workout details, such as number of calories burned, climbing height, and total travelled distance.
The Huawei Watch comes with Android Wear, the dedicated Android operating system variant for smartwatches, and includes all the standard software features such as SMS, email, calendar, phone call, notification, and dedicated apps support. There are 40 watch-faces available out-of-the-box as well for an enhanced customization experience.
The Watch itself will be available in three colors: Gold, Silver, and Black. Consumers will be able to select a band made out the material of their choice to go along the dial, like leather, steel, etc. The standard packaging of the watch will include a magnetic charging dock. Unfortunately, there are no wireless charging or variants with added storage available.
The Huawei Watch will soon be made available in over 20 markets worldwide including Asia and Middle East, and the prices for each market will be revealed alongside individual market-specific announcements. Given the materials of which the watch is made, it is likely to cost around $200 – $250 (~PKR 20,400 – 25,400) in the western markets.
