Huawei has some big goals for 2018 and they’re not all for smartphones. Huawei also makes wearables and smartwatches, which together add to the company’s overall earnings. Huawei has made some memorable watches in the past, and just a few days ago, the company introduced a new timepiece in the fourth-gen TalkBand B5.
It’s not the next-gen Huawei Watch 3 many were hoping for, though the TalkBand B5 ain’t to bad itself and may be worth it to the right person. TalkBand B5 is a fitness band of which Huawei will use to compete against rivaling models from Samsung and other Chinese OEMs. It features some unique capabilities that may just get Huawei more of a share from the wearable market currently soaked up by others.
First off, the Huawei TalkBand B5 comes in two pieces, the watch for your wrist as well as a separate ear piece. The connected earpiece is not common and will act as a Bluetooth earpiece for the device. The watch will be sold alongside a range of TalkBand models including the TalkBand B3 predecessor. B4 was the model that never existed and was skipped over due to a Chinese translation that’s unlucky.
Like most other fitness wearables, TalkBand B5 shows your phone’s notifications and includes all the sensors needed to record your fitness data. You can use it to track fitness activity, record your sleep patterns, monitor your heart rate and take advantage of apps like Find My Phone for times when your larger screened device is nowhere to be found. Since this band connects to an earpiece with built-in speaker and dual mic, you can also pick up phone calls. Software features could get better with time through updates. The design is nothing overly special or out of the ordinary, though Huawei claims that it is durable even while exposed in harsh environments, despite its not so sporty look.
For hardware, we have a 1.13-inch AMOLED touchscreen display with a resolution of 160 by 330. As mentioned, there’s a built-in heart rate monitor for tracking your beats per minute while exercising or on the go. There’s also a wearable processor and IP67 rating for water and dust resistance. The watch has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but no cellular support. In other words, it must be paired with a device that does for most functions to work properly. Battery life is said to last several days on a single charge, but one downside is the lack of NFC for making payments.
TalkBand B5 has interchangeable bands that come in three colors: Black, Silver and Gold. The unit is Black no matter which you choose and you should be able to buy one of the extra bands standalone shall you want to have an extra color option. Availability will be limited to only China at first, but will expand to other markets later on. In China, you’ll be able to buy the watch from the Vmall retail site linked below in brackets starting July 20 for $149 USD in translation. For the price, this is pretty average. Maybe we’ll get US availability later this year, or maybe we won’t because all that has transpired with Huawei phones and the government. Would you consider this little guy? Leave your thoughts in the comment section down below.
SOURCE [Vmall]
