Huawei announces first Android Wear smartwatch

BARCELONA: Chinese technology major Huawei has unveiled its maiden smartwatch as it looks to compete with global giants like Samsung, Apple and Motorola in the nascent, but growing wearables market.

' Huawei Watch' has been launched in classic, business and sporty versions powered by Google's Android Wear operating system.

Featuring the lead of Motorola, Huawei has also chosen to go with the round-face look, which has received favourable reviews from fashion-conscious youth over square-faced smartwatches.

"Wearable devices will remain one of the most significant trends in the industry, and by leveraging Huawei's technology and innovation, Huawei Consumer BG aims to be a leader in the wearable space," Huawei CEO Consumer BG Richard Yu said.

The Huawei Watch features a 1.4 inch AMOLED, scratch & water-proof display, that can be paired with a smartphone running Android 4.3 or higher.

The device comes packed with health tracking functions and has a built-in advanced heart rate monitor sensor and built-in microphone.

According to research firm Gartner, the global wearable electronic devices for fitness shipments are forecast to reach 91.3 million units in 2016 from 73.01 million units in 2013.

Huawei has also launched other wearables, including TalkBand B2 and TalkBand N1.




The second generation of Huawei's TalkBand products showcases a more business-like professional design with smarter fitness tracking functionality, while the Huawei TalkBand N1 is a stereo and Bluetooth headset featuring 4 GB of local MP3 storage.

The TalkBand B2 will retail at 169 euros (about Rs 11,700) onwards, while TalkBand N1 will be available for 119 euros (about Rs 8,200).

Huawei has also unveiled its MediaPad X2, which it claims is the world's first ultra-octa 64 bit 4G phablet. Featuring a 7-inch HD IPS screen, it has a 2GHz ultra-octa chipset, 5,000 mAh battery and 13MP rear and 5MP front-facing camera.

The Huawei MediaPad X2 will come in two versions - standard version of 2 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM and a premium 3 GB RAM and 32 GB memory. The devices are dual-SIM and offer 4G network support.