Want to know the time. Ask Michael Fereday with his Huawei Watch
The Huawei Watch brings together the functionality of a watch, fitness tracker and a two-way link to a smartphone, whether of the Android or iOS persuasion. Befitting its title of 'Watch', this device’s appearance could easily be mistaken for a traditional wrist-watch with its matte-black casing and leather strap. There's even a small, protruding knob whose sole purpose is to revert to timekeeping mode from other views supported by this product. The watch element has a diameter of 9.42mm and a thickness of 11.3mm, which makes it slightly larger than my usual Casio timepiece.
At the heart of the Huawei Watch beats a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with access to 512MB of RAM. You get 4GB of internal storage for downloaded apps and the like. Protected by a layer of sapphire glass, the Watch’s AMOLED screen delivers a resolution of 400 x 400 rated at 286ppi. With a contrast ratio of 10000:1, the screen produces bright clear images in various lighting conditions, despite the fact that Huawei took the decision not to include an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust screen brightness.
While there's no ambient light sensor, other types of sensor have been included. There's a gyroscope and an accelerometer, which combine to provide six-axis motion functionality. Also built into the Watch are a barometer, vibration motor, step counter, calorie usage and a heart rate feature. Unlike the other sensors, which automatically carry out their tasks, the heart rate sensor needs to be manually activated. As I have an irregular heartbeat, I was not too surprised that this feature produced figures that were variable.
When setting up this device, I opted to pair it with an Android smartphone (Huawei P8), although it would have been possible to use a member of the iPhone family. In order to complete this task I needed to download and install the Android Wear app. The pairing process is carried out via Bluetooth. Using a combination of the app and prompts displayed on the Watch display, various settings can be established, with swipe gestures being required to work through different screens.
While some might regard it as merely window-dressing, the Huawei comes with a choice if 41 different faces. If that's not enough, then others can be downloaded. You can choose your particular favourite or switch as the mood takes you. Even though some of the faces are familiar, there should be enough differences for a reasonable selection choice. I tended to opt for time displayed digitally in the lower half of the screen with the upper half showing available battery capacity, plus steps taken and calories used.
Once set up, the Huawei Watch can receive notifications from the paired smartphone. It can also provide a link in the opposite direction. You can use the Google Speak feature to direct commands to the attached smartphone. These commands can cover various features such as running a music-playing app.
In tests, I found that the best I could hope for was 32 hours of light use as the 300mAh battery went from fully charged to completely drained. Recharging the Watch is carried out use a supplied charging unit that connects magnetically to the device. Charging is reasonable quick, with a full charge taking just over two hours. With this product I would suggest a routine of charging the Watch on a nightly basis. Michael Fereday
A stylish device that requires almost daily recharging.