Huawei Watch 2

This year's Huawei Watch 2 is more focused on the sports and activity tracking demographic. There is a Classic edition that has a more traditional band system and look more for style, but I evaluated the US version that is designed to provide you with all you need for working out and tracking your daily activity. Once you understand that this Huawei Watch 2 is designed as a smartwatch that can be used throughout the day and also as your GPS running watch, then it becomes a valuable companion with many functions that also let it stand alone without your phone.

The first thing I noticed when I took the Huawei Watch 2 out of the box was how light it was compared to the original Huawei Watch. Without the bands, this second generation is 15 grams lighter, which is a lot when it comes to something mounted at all times on your wrist. Huawei achieves this on the Huawei Watch 2 through the use of a ceramic bezel around the Gorilla Glass display, plastic sides, and a thin metal bottom plate where the heart rate monitor is mounted. As a watch designed for daily activity tracking and fitness, the lighter weight is appreciated and makes for a very comfortable all-day watch. 

The display has about the same resolution as the original Huawei Watch, but is a bit smaller (1.2 vs 1.4 inches) so has a higher pixel density. It looks great in low light and in the sunlight. The bezel angles down towards the display, but the smaller display and wide bezel makes it a bit difficult to enter in my PIN and tap on the keyboard. There are two large buttons, colored yellow on the concrete gray model I am testing, with the upper button acting to turn on the display and activate the launcher. If you press and hold this upper button then Google Assistant will also launch, but you can also simply state OK Google to launch the Assistant. The bottom button is customizable in the settings, but by default it is setup to launch the custom Huawei Workout app that I will discuss more in the software section below. 

The soft silicone band is comfortable and stays securely in place. The band can be easily removed with the quick release pins, but there are limits to the band you can use to replace the default bands with. The concrete gray color I am testing has white dots throughout, similar to overspray from painting or something to that effect. The Huawei Watch 2 runs Android Wear 2.0 out of the box, which comes with Google Assistant and a modified user interface. Swipe down from the watch face to view your quick controls or get access to all of the detailed settings. Swipe up to view your notifications and then right to clear them. You can also clear all by swiping to the bottom of your notifications. Huawei also includes some custom apps to enhance the overall experience. These include apps for Battery, Workout, and Daily Tracking. The Battery app is fairly simple, giving you options to toggle on smart power saving or watch mode. Smart power saving turns off the always-on watch face and actively manages brightness which in turn gives you a couple of days of battery life. Watch mode gives you multiple days of battery life by only enabling the clock and pedometer, the essentials to function as a daily activity device and watch.