Huawei took to the stage at MWC to
announce its second generation
smartwatch, the Watch 2. However, while
the original model was for the fashion conscious
this has more of a focus on exercise and fi tness.
Price
While Huawei announced the €329 (or €379 if
you opt for 4G) Huawei Watch 2 during its event
at MWC 2017, we’re still awaiting confi rmation on
a specifi c UK launch. While it has been confi rmed
that the Watch 2 will be headed to the UK, Huawei
MWC: Huawei Watch 2
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doesn’t have the greatest track record when it
comes to release dates – when it announced the
Mate S in September 2015 with an October 2015
release date, the phone didn’t appear until many
months later.
It’s a similar story with a UK price, as that is also
yet to be announced by Huawei. We expect it to
fall in line with the £289 fi rst generation Watch.
Design
In terms of design, the Sport variant of the Huawei
Watch 2 is quite a step away from the fashion
focused fi rst-generation Huawei Watch. Gone
is the thick metal body of a traditional watch, Drastic ds emulator apk as the Huawei Watch 2 boasts a rather generic
sporty smartwatch design, complete with vibrant
interchangeable wrist straps and an aluminium
body featuring a double chrome design.
Those that yearn after the classic watch look
can opt for the Huawei Watch 2 Classic, although it
doesn’t boast the connectivity that the Sport variant
does – we’ll come to that in more detail below.
In terms of dimensions, the circular display of
the Watch 2 is fairly large at 45mm with only one
size available, meaning it may look a little bulky and
awkward on smaller wrists. In fact, the display was
fairly disappointing, lacking any real brightness or
vibrancy, and we don’t think it could stand up to
the display of the Apple Watch Series 2.
Overall though, the build quality of the Huawei
Watch 2 was great and the metal body of the Watch
gives it a more premium feel than other fi tnessfocused
smartwatches, although we’ll have to see
whether this has an irritating e ect on sweaty skin.
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Hardware
So, what can the Huawei Watch 2 o er that the
original didn’t? It of course has a heavy focus on
fi tness, and aims to be your fi tness companion,
o ering helpful stats and professional fi tness
advice. While the Watch 2 features preset exercises
(cardio, fat burn, and so on) that you can select
on-the-fl y, you can also use the Huawei Wear app
to create your own custom workout plans based
on your goals. It’ll coach you during your exercise,
giving you stage guidance (warm up, high intensity,
and so on), speed guidance, lap reminders and of
course, goal process reminders and more.
The Watch 2 has a heart-rate monitor that
provides a real-time heart rate zone to keep your
heart rate in check while exercising, as, contrary to
popular belief, having a high heart rate can have
a negative e ect on your workout. If it is too high
during your workout, the Watch 2 will let you know.
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It doesn’t stop there though, as it also o ers
in-depth stats following your workout, available
on your smartphone. It’ll break your workout into
di erent areas, o er post-workout reports for
VO2Max, training e ect evaluations (for long-term
comparison) and recovery time advice depending
on how hard you’ve pushed yourself.
The best part? The Huawei Watch 2 features
not only a built-in heart rate monitor, but also GPS,
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 4G connectivity, allowing for
standalone use. This means that you can use the
Watch for exercise and even to make and receive
calls without your smartphone being in range.
It’s worth mentioning that the 4G connectivity is
exclusive to the Sport variant, and isn’t available
as part of the Classic range.
As part of the standalone nature, the Watch
2 features 2GB of storage that can be used to
store music. Alternatively, the Watch 2 comes with
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Google Play Music support, and even o ers users
a two-month free trial to the service when they buy
the Watch, allowing users to browse and download
music to the Watch on the go.
In terms of battery life, Huawei claims that the
4G-connected Watch 2 will last for two days on a
single charge, while the non-4G variant will last
an extra day with a three-day battery life with
average use. If everything is in use constantly
(GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G connectivity) like
when using it to track workouts, the Watch 2
will reportedly last 11 hours.
Software
In terms of software, the Huawei Watch 2 comes
with the latest version of Android Wear, 2.0. Due
to the standalone capabilities o ered by the
new version of Android Wear, it also features its
own built-in app store for users to browse and
download apps directly to the Watch without the
need for a paired smartphone.
Of course, it also includes Google Assistant
support, with users able to long press one of
the two buttons on the Watch 2 to activate it.
Interestingly, there’s also talk of o ering Amazon
Alexa support like the US variant of the Mate 9,
although this is yet to be confi rmed for Europe.
Verdict
While the Huawei Watch 2 seems to be a huge
improvement over the fi rst-generation smartwatch,
we’re withholding our verdict until we get one
back to the o ce to properly put it through its
paces. Chris Martin
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