Huawei Watch 2 is a sportier take on Android Wear

As part of its Mobile World Congress presser, Huawei announced the Huawei Watch 2, a successor to its popular Android Wear smartwatch. While there is a high-end leather version available, the Huawei Watch 2 is much sportier than the original wearable, boasting a new design and "active" colours like orange.

Powered by the latest version of Google's Android Wear software - Android Wear 2.0 - the Huawei Watch 2 offers a 1.2-inch display, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of storage that can be used for music, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an optical heart-rate sensor. In addition, there's NFC which can be used for Android Pay, and GPS which can be used for fitness tracking and navigation. When used with a companion app, the Huawei Watch 2 is able to create personalised running plans, provide read-time coaching, and asses VO2 (a metric used to provide an overview of your cardio-fitness health).

The Huawei Watch 2 is rated IP68 for water-resistance, which will protect it from accidental dunks and rain, but isn't quite waterproof enough to taking swimming (a la the Apple Watch Series 2).

A 4G-enabled version is also on the cards, that allows you to make and receive phone calls and send and receive messages, even when the Watch 2 isn't paired with your phone.

In terms of battery, Huawei says you'll get seven hours of heart-rate monitoring and GPS tracking, two days of normal usage, and 21 days in "watch mode". When you switch on watch mode, the Watch 2 loses its smarts and simply displays the time and tracks your steps. While you wouldn't necessarily want to use this all of the time, it's a nice option to have for when you're running low on juice.

The Huawei Watch 2 will be available in three different configurations: Watch 2, Watch 2 with 4G, and Watch 2 Classic. The Watch 2 and Watch with 4G both make user of a sportier design, but the Watch 2 is Bluetooth only. The Watch 2 Classic has a more conventional design, with a leather band and black face. No 4G model of the Watch 2 Classic will be available at launch.

The Huawei Watch 2 will go on sale from March in some markets, starting at €329 for Watch 2, €379 for the 4G-enabled Watch 2, and €399 for the Watch 2 Classic. Local pricing and availability have yet to be confirmed, but these prices convert to $460 and $560 for the non-cellular Watch 2 and Watch 2 Classic, respectively.

Precedent suggests the 4G-enabled version of the Watch 2 probably won't make it to Australia. The smaller cellular radios inside smartwatches don't support as many bands as those found inside smartphones, so a version compatible with Australian networks would quite likely need different hardware. The comparatively small size of the Australian market means there's a good chance this won't happen. Neither LG or Samsung have brought their cellular-connected smartwatches to Australia. 

Alex Choros

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Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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