You don’t should be Sherlock Holmes to determine the place Huawei obtained the inspiration for its newly introduced Watch Final. It’s clearly Huawei’s not-so-subtle reply to the Apple Watch Extremely, and now, we all know that similarity extends to the value tag, too. Beginning tomorrow, the Final will retail within the UK and Europe for €749 / £700 for the “expedition black” colorway and €899 / £800 for the voyage blue model.
In case you missed information of the Watch Final, it’s seemingly as a result of the corporate presently has no plans to launch the gadget within the US. (That Huawei ban continues to be kicking in 2023.) Whereas the corporate as soon as had an honest foothold within the wearable market, the ban has since restricted its attain to US audiences for all however essentially the most devoted of customers. That mentioned, right here’s a fast rundown of the options.
Each single one in every of these is a characteristic Apple launched on the Extremely, however to be truthful, the Final is totally different sufficient that you may’t name it a full knockoff. That’s a minimum of evident within the design, which hews a lot nearer to conventional mechanical watches. There are variations throughout the specs and supplies as properly. The Watch Final, as an example, makes use of a “zirconium-based liquid metallic case” which it claims is 4.5 instances stronger and a couple of.5 more durable than chrome steel. It’s not titanium, not like the Extremely, however the implication of utmost ruggedness is identical. (It’s additionally, clearly, not liquid.) Each have nanotech ceramic bezels and sapphire glass on the LTPO OLED shows.
Huawei can be eager to one-up Apple in some areas. Just like the Extremely, the Watch Final has been EN13319-certified, which is the usual for diving tools. However whereas Apple doesn’t advocate dives past 40 meters, Huawei says the Watch Final can go all the way down to 110 meters and helps technical and free dives along with leisure dives.
Battery life can be for much longer. Huawei claims the Watch Final can rise up to 2 weeks off a single cost, although it didn’t get into what parameters it used to reach at that estimate. As all the time with smartwatches, your battery mileage will range with utilization. That mentioned, Huawei famous that customers can go from zero to 100% battery in 60 minutes and 25 p.c in 10 minutes.
Huawei’s proprietary OS doesn’t have essentially the most strong app ecosystem, however there’s some enchancment on that entrance, too. Huawei says that customers will now be capable of use Strava, Komoot, and Runtastic third-party integrations. It’s not fairly the identical as having the app in your wrist, however it makes sharing knowledge between these companies a lot simpler.
No matter how you’re feeling about Huawei, the Watch Final is the closest competitor to the Apple Watch Extremely in a single smartwatch — a minimum of on paper. Garmin has a number of choices, just like the Epix 2 and Fenix 7 lineup, however these are extra rugged health watches than aspirational luxurious smartwatches. It’d be good if everybody had extra choices on that entrance, however for those who’re within the US, there’s no official approach to get the watch via US retailers. In any other case, you’ll seemingly have to attend to see what Samsung and different Put on OS watchmakers have up their sleeves.