Mobile World Congress isn’t just mobile phones, and Huawei is at the event proving exactly that, showing off a watch, a band, and a headset with its own storage supply.
Three gadgets that aren’t mobile phones could be landing in Australia soon, shown off for the first time at the big mobile event happening in Spain this week. Of the three being launched, one is an update to a smart band we saw last year, another is a headset, and the third is a wearable with Android Wear on-board.
We’ll tackle them in that order, because it means we can start with the new model of Huawei’s smart band, a gadget we saw last year that found a neat middle ground between fitness and communication by blending the activity tracker and a Bluetooth headset.
Back in August when we checked out the first generation, the TalkBand B1, we liked the idea and how it charged, as well as the ruggedisation, but found the sleep tracking and Bluetooth sound to be a little problematic.
A little over half a year on, Huawei is showing its next generation with the TalkBand B2, which now boasts better accuracy, more style, location technology to help you find your phone, and some updated Bluetooth tech that’ll even let the earpiece play music.
We’re told up to five days of battery life is supported of closer to six hours continuous call time, with support for Android and iOS offered here, and options for leather or plastic dependent on the version you’re interested in and how much you want to spend.
This will be joined by a TalkBand of a different sort, the N1. A little different, this model won’t so much be a band, but rather a pair of in-earphones with 4GB of storage inside.
Huawei says that these are “on par with higher end headsets thanks to chamber tuning”, a statement we’re keen to test for ourselves, though at least Huawei has thrown in support for aptX’s high-end wireless audio transmission technology, something not all Bluetooth headsets get to talk to.
Interestingly, when the TalkBand N1 works with a smartphone, you’ll also find activity tracking, with distance measured, steps counted, and curiously calorie consumption. The whole thing will weigh 18 grams and is dust-proof and water-resistant, set to IP54, with magnets included to turn the earphones into a necklace similar to what Jabra did with the Rox earphones.
Again, pricing is an unknown, as it availability, though we are expecting Huawei to release this locally for under $200.
Finally, there’s a watch, and it will be Huawei’s first foray into Android Wear.
It’s called the “Huawei Watch”, and while it doesn’t have the most original name — it’s hard to imagine that this is the best Huawei could come up with — this looks to be a smartwatch for big wrists, with a 1.4 inch AMOLED screen boasting a 400×400 resolution, six-axis sensor, heart-rate monitor, barometer, and a scratch- and water-proof design made from corrosive-resistant stainless steel.
Customisation appears to be high on the agenda, and this will come in gold, silver, and black, with watch straps in plastics, leather, and metal, while the watch itself will even include 50 customisable watch faces, more than most other smartwatches we’ve seen, many of which generally top out at 20 max.
Indeed, it looks interesting, but again, there’s no pricing or availability details. We expect this to come to Australia, but if it does, we’d say it will start at possibly $250-300, with the metal-band options likely attracting even larger tags.
In any case, we’ll let you know more information when we know it, so stay tuned.
