Introduction
Very similar to the smartphone market, smartwatches have come to a interval of relative standardization with related designs and options over the previous couple of years. Huawei determined to carry a breath of contemporary air to the market with the Huawei Watch Buds – a full-fledged smartwatch with magnetically connected wi-fi earbuds inside its casing. The ensuing product shouldn’t be the primary of its variety available on the market however it’s the primary one from a serious tech model and as such deserved our consideration.
Straight out of a James Bond film with the deployable earbuds cleverly connected under the display screen, the Watch Buds presents a flagship smartwatch expertise with Concord OS 3.0, energetic well being and sports activities monitoring in a chrome steel casing.
The entire idea appears nice for individuals who hate carrying their earbuds or tend to misplace them. However how does the added performance have an effect on the smartwatch and are these tiny earbuds any good? Right here’s what we discovered.
Design
Huawei Watch Buds is a big smartwatch and possibly not appropriate for these with smaller wrists. In reality, it’s the biggest smartwatch we’ve had for assessment with its 47mm casing measuring 15mm in thickness. After all, area comes at a premium and we’ve to issue within the presence of a pair of wi-fi earbuds contained in the smartwatch, that are 10mm thick on their very own. The mixed package deal weighs 66.5 grams – greater than the 46mm Huawei GT 3 Professional (54g) and even the chunky Apple Watch Extremely (61g).
The spacious 1.43-inch AMOLED show brings saturated colours and nice viewing angles. Like a lot of the premium Huawei smartwatches, you get All the time-On show (AOD) performance and auto brightness management. The casing is made out of stainless-steel and whereas the watch feels hefty, the burden is balanced properly.
The construct is nice and the supplies used on the watch casing and strap are top-notch and didn’t present any indicators of damage in the course of the assessment interval. There’s a clasp mechanism positioned under the 6 o’clock mark on the watch dial which props the display screen as much as reveal the earbuds. The mechanism is strong and doesn’t open by unintentional touches. The one different button on the casing is the crown button on the right-hand aspect. Not like the crown aspect on Huawei’s GT 3 sequence watches, this one doesn’t mean you can scroll.
Shifting on to the extra attention-grabbing bit – the compact earbuds housed contained in the watch. They’re bullet-shaped buds with a steel alloy casing that feels strong but light-weight. Every earbud measures 22×10×10 mm and weighs 4 grams. They’re remarkably tiny – as a lot as 4 silicone ear suggestions stacked on high of one another and it’s a real engineering feat how Huawei managed to suit the drivers, microphones, sensors and batteries in such a small package deal.
Watch Buds options an IPX7 score in its closed state whereas the earbuds are IPX4 splashproof. That’s a compromise in comparison with most premium smartwatches which help correct water resistance rankings and mean you can go for a swim with none worries. Then once more there aren’t that many watches on the market which have a compartment inside them with a pair of wi-fi earbuds.
One private gripe by way of the packaging is the absence of a second silicone watch strap. Huawei ought to have added an additional strap within the field as this watch is geared towards runners and energetic individuals and the leather-based band will certainly age poorly with an intense exercise routine.
Options
Smartwatch
As a smartwatch, Huawei Watch Buds presents the anticipated well being monitoring characteristic set together with 24/7 coronary heart fee monitoring and SpO2 monitoring through Huawei’s TruSeen 5.0 optical PPG sensor identical to on the Huawei Watch GT 3 Professional sequence. The eight photosensors and upgraded algorithms are mentioned to ship extra correct well being information processing. As well as, you additionally get precision sleep and stress monitoring in addition to respiration workout routines that can assist you calm down all through the day. The sleep monitoring choice brings sleep apnea monitoring in addition to detailed breakdowns of your sleep levels and an general rating.
Huawei Watch Buds helps monitoring for over 80 sports activities modes with particular operating and marathon coaching applications that can assist you attain your particular objectives. The watch has its personal GPS module that can assist you monitor your runs and walks in real-time. You additionally get Vo2 Max measurements, exercise restoration applications and the choice to sync your runs to Strava in case you are an avid runner.
Just a few phrases on the Huawei Well being app – it’s accessible on the App Gallery, Google Play retailer and the App Retailer. It presents a very good design format on your well being monitoring data with extra detailed metrics and charts for every class. You additionally get to handle the watch and earbud settings by way of the app below the system tabs. There’s a bevy of watch faces and you may configure a few of them with issues of your selecting although most of them are paid. The earbuds tab helps you to configure the EQ
Sadly the watch doesn’t include mobile connectivity or a built-in speaker however the added earbuds make up for the latter. NFC is current and works with Huawei Pockets although this characteristic is area dependent. You additionally get fundamental notification administration with predetermined fast reply choices. Different miscellaneous options on the watch embody a climate app, music controls, a distant digital camera shutter and the power so as to add a number of of your favourite contacts for simple dialing through the earbuds.
Earbuds
Shifting on to the earbuds, you’re not compromising a lot in comparison with a standard pair of wi-fi buds by way of options. They help the AAC, SBC and Huawei-proprietary L2HD audio codecs. You additionally get an EQ adjustment choice inside the Huawei Well being app for finer tuning over the audio output.
Energetic noise cancelation (ANC) can be on board and every earbud brings twin microphones to assist block out undesirable noises. The ends of the buds characteristic capacitive contact management areas with programmable double and triple-tap choices. They cost wirelessly of their cradle inside the watch through two wi-fi charging rings that assist ship energy to every of the 30mAh batteries inside the buds.
You management the earbuds through programmable double and triple faucets. These gestures work on the earbuds themselves in addition to on the edges of your ears – you’ll be able to faucet virtually anyplace in your earlobes and the buds routinely acknowledge the faucets by way of their built-in sensors.
The opposite neat characteristic is the adaptive identification know-how which implies there’s no devoted left or proper earbud right here – they’ll routinely swap between channels and work for either side of your ears. The way in which it really works is by calibrating the earbuds based mostly in your head motion and physique posture and it labored as promised throughout our testing.
You too can reply calls in your paired smartphone by merely attention-grabbing the buds into your ears with out having to the touch something on the watch or in your telephone, which is beneficial in case your telephone is on the different finish of the room.
The buds characteristic put on detection which stops or resumes media when they’re inserted or eliminated out of your ears. In addition they include an ear tip match take a look at and a discover my earphones characteristic which performs a loud tune that can assist you find them if they’re misplaced. You too can ship songs to the look ahead to offline listening although this characteristic solely works on sure EMUI and Android telephones.
One large draw back to the buds is that they solely connect with the watch and your paired smartphone on the time of scripting this assessment. Huawei did promise to increase the connectivity choices to different gadgets like laptops and tablets with a future software program replace however the choice shouldn’t be accessible but.
Efficiency
Smartwatch
We’re glad to report that Huawei Watch Buds performs on par with the Huawei GT 3 sequence watches by way of well being monitoring. This implies you get correct step and operating statistics and that additionally extends to the guts fee, SpO2, sleep and stress monitoring. Huawei presents among the extra detailed well being and exercise monitoring metrics on its wearables full with specialty gadgets for runners. Runs get the additional advantage of specialty metrics like tempo, stride size, cadence and VO2 Max readings – all common metrics on specialised runner-centric watches.
The onboard GPS tracker on the Huawei Watch Buds is correct sufficient to map your walks and runs even within the dense metropolis middle and it manages to lock you location in a matter of seconds. You additionally get coronary heart fee readings and coronary heart fee zone readings on your exercises in addition to restoration coronary heart fee metrics proper after you’re carried out together with your periods. As with all sensible wearables, you need to take the ensuing information with a grain of salt as Watch Buds shouldn’t be a medical system and solely presents a mere indicator of your well-being and exercise efficiency.
Concord OS 3.0 feels easy and snappy on the Watch Buds and the built-in apps all work nice. Sadly there’s no solution to set up third-party apps until you’re on a Huawei telephone and even then the app choice is sort of restricted – Petal Maps, Spotify controller and a tablet reminder app. This isn’t a smartwatch that can absolutely exchange your telephone just like the Samsung Galaxy Watch or Apple Watch although you get all the essential requirements to make do – well being and health monitoring, name and notification administration in addition to the usual set of smartwatch apps and instruments.
Notification administration on right here shouldn’t be ultimate as you solely get to see incoming messages and alerts with the choice to ship out a brief predetermined response which doesn’t work throughout all apps. Connectivity on the Watch Buds was on level and labored properly sufficient throughout Android, iOS and Huawei telephones that I examined. My detailed well being and exercise information was available on the Huawei Well being app with extra particulars and the background sync labored properly.
Eadbuds
As subjective as sound critiques are, the Watch Buds earbuds sound impressively good for his or her petite dimension. They’re no match for earbuds with bigger drivers like Huawei’s personal Freebuds Professional 2 although their small dimension deceives how properly these tiny buds sound. The default sound profile is balanced with out over-pronounced frequency bands.
Huawei can be providing the choice to modify your EQ sound profile within the Huawei Well being app with Bass enhance, Treble enhance and Voices profiles to assist tune your sound in accordance with these subsets. Name high quality on the earbuds was good in quiet environments although individuals on the opposite finish had a tough time listening to my voice in louder areas.
The buds additionally provide HD name which tries to boost voice readability throughout calls although I didn’t discover a giant distinction with it enabled. The gesture controls labored flawlessly in my testing and I used to be shocked that they have been correct more often than not even after I was tapping round my ears and never straight on the earbuds.
Energetic noise cancelation (ANC) is potent and delivers a noticeable drop in static noise round you. It’s nowhere close to the extent you’d get on pair of over-ear headphones however for a tiny pair of earbuds – it’s ok. As an added bonus you get an EQ tuning choice contained in the Huawei Well being app. The amount popping out of the earbuds is a bit decrease than on a lot of the standalone buds we’ve reviewed prior to now months.
Battery life
Watch Buds brings a 410 mAh battery – that’s lower than the GT 3 Professional (530 mAh) and also you’re sharing that capability between the watch and earphones. In my utilization, I might handle one week’s price of battery life with all well being exercise monitoring choices enabled on the watch with three exercises and fixed notifications.
That’s fairly spectacular for a 2-in-1 system and comfortably beats the likes of the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watches. Utilizing the earbuds extra actively brings a giant tax on battery life slicing the mixed utilization time to simply three days, which remains to be greater than Samsung’s and Apple’s choices.
As a smartwatch, Huawei WatchBuds falls quick on battery life in comparison with what the Huawei GT 3 Professional would get you by itself. An honest pair of earbuds might simply final you over 5-6 hours of utilization with their charging case included whereas the buds on right here will final you not more than 3 hours of playback.
Verdict
Huawei is providing one thing no different smartwatch from a longtime model can get you with the Watch Buds – a pair of wi-fi earbuds inside its casing. The earbuds are an actual engineering marvel on their very own and sound good, although inferior to the flagship earbuds in Huawei’s FreeBuds vary. Their greatest draw back is they’re solely usable with the watch and your paired smartphone.
In my time with the Watch Buds, I used to be extra impressed with the sound from the tiny earbuds than the precise smartwatch bit. Watch Buds is mainly a Watch GT 3 Professional however with per week’s much less battery life and a considerably thicker and heavier casing to accommodate the built-in earbuds.
Huawei ought to contemplate pushing these earbuds to the market on their very own only for their moveable dimension and nice sound as there are few options from the established manufacturers. From a devoted smartwatch standpoint, Watch Buds presents the usual array of options you’d anticipate however falls wanting most premium watches by way of sturdiness as a result of lack of waterproofing.
At €499/£449 , Huawei Watch Buds is a troublesome promote given which you can purchase a premium smartwatch and have cash to spare on a terrific pair of earbuds too. Most customers could be higher off shopping for their smartwatch and wi-fi earphones individually however those that are after a brand new tackle sensible wearables ought to contemplate splurging and check out Huawei’s 2-in-1 method.
