Android Wear watches are launching left, right and centre following the first batch that arrived in the middle of last year, and Huawei is one of the latest companies to join the party. Here, we put the new Huawei Watch head-to-head with one of the early Android Wear watches, the Motorola Moto 360, in our Huawei Watch vs Motorola Moto 360 comparison. You’ll also like: Best smartwatches 2015
Huawei Watch vs Motorola Moto 360: Price & availability
Huawei surprised us at MWC 2015 with its Android Wear smartwatch, simply called the Huawei Watch. There’s no official release date or price yet, but we’re predicting a £300 price tag to match the new LG Watch Urbane. MobileFun’s current listing suggests it’ll cost £300 for the black and silver models, while the gold option will cost £350. So you are looking at least £70 more if you opt for Huawei’s offering, but is it worth it? Read on to find out more. See also: Apple Watch vs Huawei Watch and LG G Watch vs Motorola Moto 360 vs Samsung Gear Live and Apple Watch vs Motorola Moto 360.
Huawei Watch vs Motorola Moto 360: Design & build
Both the Huawei Watch and Motorola Moto 360 sport circular watch faces, unlike the Apple Watch and smartwatches from Samsung and Sony, among others. Here at PC Advisor we tend to prefer the round design, so find both of these smartwatches to be stylish and desirable.
Huawei managed to cause quite a stir at MWC, as it’s really quite gorgeous. It’s made with stainless steel, and there are two straps to choose from, either leather or stainless steel, and for a quirky and surprisingly practical added touch the physical button is at 2 o’clock rather than 3 o’clock. We spent some time with the new smartwatch at MWC 2015 and said in our hands-on review that it is “easily one of the most premium and desirable Android Wear wearables around.” The Moto 360 is a stunner too, though, also made with stainless steel paired with a leather strap, or a stainless steel strap if you opt for the more expensive option mentioned previously.
Both watches are big, and both only offer one size, unlike the Apple Watch, which has a slightly smaller model for those with daintier wrists. Huawei’s offering measures 11.3mm thick so is a bit chunky, but has a slightly smaller screen than the Moto 360 at 1.4in compared with 1.56in. The Moto 360 is actually a bit thicker at 11.9mm. That’ll be the next battle for smartwatch makers: packing the tech into a slimmer body. The Huawei Watch’s screen packs in 400×400 pixels, so has a pixel density of 286ppi, while the Moto 360 has a resolution of 320 x 290 which means a lower pixel density of 205ppi.
What’s good about the Huawei Watch is that there’s no blacked out portion along the bottom like there is on the Moto 360, so the content fills the entire screen rather than suffering from the annoying “flat tyre” effect, one of the Motorola smartwatch’s downfalls. That black portion houses the ambient light sensor that means the display brightness is automatically adjusted, but it’s quite annoying. The Moto 360 is durable, though, with an IP67 rating which means you can wear it in the shower or even swim with if for up to 30 minutes up to a depth of 1m. We know that the Huawei Watch is water resistant, but we’re not yet sure to what extent. We’ll update this article with rating details when they’re released.
Huawei Watch vs Motorola Moto 360: Hardware & specs
When it comes to specs, the Huawei Watch and Moto 360 both have some of the standard set of hardware for Android Wear devices. That means 4GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM and Bluetooth 4.0 (the Huawei Watch has Bluetooth 4.1). They differ when it comes to the processor though. The Huawei Watch has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor while Motorola has opted for a Texas Instruments OMAP 3 chip. There are also sensors including an accelerometer, barometer and heart rate monitor in both.
We haven’t been able to test the Huawei Watch properly yet, but we’re a little concerned about the battery life as it only has a 300mAh battery, which is pretty small. The firm says it will last for one and half to two days but we’ll have to wait and see how accurate that is when we get the smartwatch back to our labs. The Moto 360’s battery is only slightly better at 320mAh. We could only get around one day out of the smartwatch, which required charging every night during our testing.
Huawei Watch vs Motorola Moto 360: Software
The Huawei Watch and Motorola Moto 360 both run Google’s Android Wear so are essentially the same when it comes to software. You’ll need an Android smartphone running version 4.3 or later to pair the device with. We particularly like Android Wear on these round watches, as you can choose round watchfaces that make the device look almost like a traditional watch. You’ll be able to use both smartwatches as an activity monitor and fitness tracker, and the heart rate monitor adds an extra element there. You can also see notifications and use Google Now, thanks to built-in voice recognition that also allows you to reply to messages without needing to type on that tiny screen. You can find out more about Android Wear in our LG G Watch review. Ashleigh is Tech Advisor’s Head of Affiliate. Providing expert buying advice you can trust is her forte, helping you to find the most reputable consumer tech products and services, and ensuring you don’t spend a penny more than you should.
