[NewsPoster]

Huawei has introduced its flagship Android Wear device, simply known as the Watch. The company has called on traditional timepiece designers to help with industrial design. The result resembles a typical wristwatch, until the display flips from a clock face to an app interface.

The wearable centers around a 1.4-inch circular AMOLED display with 400x400 resolution, bringing a pixel density of 286 ppi and a contrast ratio of 10,000:1. The face is protected by a sapphire crystal lens for scratch protection, while the stainless-steel frame is cold-forged to increase hardness.

The Watch is available in three colors: gold, silver and black. Each features a two-o'clock press button to help navigate the interface, with more than 40 virtual watch faces to choose from. Software features are consistent with other Android Wear devices, enabling users to view notifications for text messages, email, calendar entries and phone calls.

A 1.2 GHz Qualcomm processor drives the apps, with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of integrated storage. The device also features a six-axis motion sensor, a barometer and a heart-rate monitor. "Specifically, users can monitor everything from the number of calories burned, to heart rate, climbing height, steps taken, and distance travelled," the company notes in its announcement.

The Huawei Watch will launch in more than 20 countries, including the US, though pricing and availability dates have not yet been announced.

[panjandrum]

Personally I like the design of these watches much more than the Apple watch. I do think the Apple Watch is one of the best-looking "modern" watch designs I've seen, but it doesn't hold in candle to a beautifully styled watch (in the classic sense), at least in my eyes (a person who carries a lovely pocket-watch from the 20s). Of course pictures don't tell the whole story; it's hard to say exactly what these will be like until we can play with them side-by-side.

[James Katt]

Apple Watch looks expensive and is.
Android watches like this Huawei watch look cheap and they are.
Pebble watches are cheap. And they are.
Those with taste will choose Apple Watch.

[growlf]

I bought a moto 360 and an Android phone to prepare my wrist for an Apple Watch. That lasted about a month. General dislike for the combo aside (frequent phone disconnects and an insanely sluggish/non-fluid watch UI) - the biggest "ugh" I had was the round face. It looks cool, but in terms of presenting information... heh... even the Android Wear tutorial text was CUT OFF when you first install the watch. I found myself having to swipe the info "cards" side to side to read all the text.

A 400x400 display is 160,000 pixels.
A circular display with a radius of 200 pixels is ~126,000 pixels - or 20% less screen area than a traditional rectangular display.

Circles look cool, but aren't practical.

[growlf]

Incidentally, for those who want to go all crazy defending round screens. Here's my example of getting the Moto 360 setup. THIS IS NOT HOW YOU CREATE A POSITIVE USER EXPERIENCE FOLKS:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9sog1z1ier1arv5/File%20Mar%2002%2C%209%2014%2019%20AM.jpeg