Huawei introduces a hybrid smartwatch that can house a pair of headphones and charge them wirelessly.
Huawei knows it’s going strong in the peripherals market , and its bold announcements at MWC 2023 are nothing more than endorsement of that direction. The Chinese brand has announced the arrival of two new smartwatches under Harmony OS , but one of them seeks to revolutionize the wearable segment with a high stake: putting headphones in a watch.
In Barcelona , Huawei officially presented its “Watch Buds” line, a smart watch that allows headphones to be housed and charged under its round screen, with a “two-in-one” strategy that simplifies pairing and portability of accessories.
In Huawei’s words, “it is the industry’s first smartwatch with a magnetic pop-up cover with integrated headphones, and it is designed with a highly meticulous overall architecture, which blurs the boundaries between TWS headphones and smartwatches.”
Huawei Watch Buds, what you should know
We are facing a device that inherits the design lines that we saw in other versions of Huawei. To the right of the polished edge worked in aluminum silicate is an interaction crown for HarmonyOS, an experience that extends throughout the 1.43-inch AMOLED panel.
The chassis is not improvisation. We are talking about 21 tidy layers that include, in addition to the headphones, photoelectric sensors for measuring physical activity, a rotating axis, the internal charging system, the battery and the magnetic fastening in just under one and a half centimeters. Yes, for a watch it is a terrible thickness. But it is a watch that integrates hearing aids.
If this is abusing the twitch, get ready to see what headphones are like. These buds, made with 20 different components, are up to 50% smaller than traditional TWS and take up 90% less space with their 4 grams of weight per unit.
Watch with hearing aids How has Huawei achieved this?
The screen, which in turn performs the work of the lid, has a closing mechanism that supports up to 100,000 uses and is capable of supporting weights of up to 5kg. The mechanism is activated by pressing the screen inward, in such a way that the safety is released and the rotating axis can release the accommodation space. All this meticulousness is complemented by a robust magnetic system that fixes the TWS to the case and to their respective charging rings.
Note that the design of the TWS is identical, so you will not be able to identify which is L or R. The solution? Huawei automatically corrects that by adaptively storing the hearing aids. If you store a TWS on the right side, it becomes R regardless of whether it was initially L. Along with this, the buds correct the signal based on the additive channel of the user, adapting the output to the ear.
All this is enabled without losing the tactile part for interaction, in addition to incorporating the same health monitoring solutions in the watch itself for sports identification. The only issue, according to the specifications, is the little autonomy that we will have compared to other monsters from Huawei’s own catalogue: up to 3 days of autonomy at the top with a charge of headphones and up to 7 days with activated energy saving.
Huawei Watch Buds, price and availability
According to Huawei Peru sources, this equipment will be available before the second third of 2023. Until the publication of the note, there is no price in soles for the local market.