As smartwatches prove a hot ticket item for Black Friday sales this year, it’s timely to consider what’s available on the market. The luxury smartwatch brand is particularly gaining steam, with the recent launch of the Apple Watch which landed in stores last June, the luxurious LG Urbane which first appeared at MWC 2015, and even watchmakers TAG Heuer S.A. and Fossil, Inc. will start selling their smartwatches in time for the holidays.

Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has also joined the parade of smartwatches with the Huawei Watch QSG. The device first made an appearance at MWC 2015, but it wasn’t until IFA 2015 that we learned more about the device such as its specs, price and availability.

So what doe the Huawei Watch has to offer?

Full specifications

The Huawei Watch QSG features a full circle face, an ergonomic button placed at 2 o’clock, and an always-on screen. The watch itself measures 42mm in diameter and is 11.3mm thick, with a 1.4-inch full circle AMOLED display, 400×400 screen resolution, 286 ppi and 10,000:1 high contrast ratio.

It features a 300mAh battery that lasts up to 1.5 days, uses Bluetooth 4.1 BLE and WiFi for connectivity, 512MP RAM, 4GB ROM, and sensors include 6-Axis motion sensor (Gyroscope + Accelerometer), Heart Rate Sensor (PPG), Barometer, Vibration Motor. It runs Android Wear but is compatible with both Android 4.3+ and iOS 8.2+.

The material used in the Huawei Watch is a cold-forged 316L stainless steel, with sapphire crystal for the screen. Available cases include stainless steel, black-plated stainless steel, and rose gold stainless steel while straps, which utilizes a standard 18mm lug width, is available in stainless steel mesh strap, stainless steel link bracelet, and genuine leather.

The Huawei Watch is priced at $399.99 on Amazon.com.

Features

Much like other smartwatches, Huawei looks to deliver several smartphone features right to the wrist. Notifications pop up on the watch screen immediately, and a simple swipe allows you to quickly dismiss or see more details. You can also control your music using the Huawei Watch, or even use your voice to launch Google Now right on your wrist.

Its sensors are able to track heart rate, capable of single activity tracking as well as recognize patterns so it knows if you are walking or running. As a fitness device, it is able to tell you how many calories you burned based on the activity you have engaged in and how long you performed it.

Theater mode

Before the Android 5.0 update, whenever you raise your arms or move it, it wakes the watch up. But with the update, Theater mode was added and when activated, the display doesn’t wake up unless you intend to wake it up. To activate it, if your Android smartwatch has an on/off button, just press it twice to activate or deactivate it. If your smartwatch doesn’t have a power button, pull down from the top of the screen to access mode setting. On the notification mode, swipe right to left to pull up Theater mode, tap it to activate or deactivate it.

Bespoke face

The Huawei Watch comes with bespoke watch faces to complete its sophisticated look. Google has banned skins and custom UI on Android Wear, Android TV, and Android Auto to make the experience uniform and updates seamless across various products from OEMs running said platforms. But there are apps you can download if you want skins for your Huawei Watch, such as FaceRepo which offers skins for round- and square-faced smartwatches, plus there are a bunch of interactive watch faces available in the Google Play Store.

Hands-on Review

I recently had the opportunity to spend 30 days with the Huawei Watch, to put some context around the specs and features above. For reference, I had the watch paired with the OnePlus One phone running Android Lollipop version 5.1.1.

Pairing the watch and phone was easy – after charging the watch and downloading the Huawei Watch app from the Google Play Store, open the app and it will walk you through the pairing process in less than two minutes. You’ll soon see your phone’s apps replicated on the Huawei Watch.

As a wearable that acts as an extension of the smartphone, one of the biggest uses for the Huawei Watch is as a notification center. To access notifications, just swipe down from the home screen (similar to what you’d do on most smartphones). From here, you can swipe left for more settings.

To access apps, swipe left from the home screen. Apps appear in order of most recently accessed. While it’s easy enough to access and scroll through apps, it’s frustrating that there’s no way to return to the apps list once you’ve opened an app. Going “back” returns you to the home screen instead of to the apps list.

Certain app interfaces on the Huawei Watch are merely to control the paired smartphone. For instance, the Music app acts as a command center to run a playlist on the phone or other Bluetooth-connected speaker.

Other apps have gone the extra mile to enhance the smartwatch experience, including Amazon. It’s one-touch purchase feature is great for quick buys on such a small screen.

Perks

It’s a great-looking watch, and I received several compliments and interest while wearing it out in public. Many were curious as to why my watch was glowing.

I like that the Huawei Watch face shows the battery charge percentage on the notifications setting screen. The voice recognition is also very good, which truly enhanced the capabilities and usefulness of Google Now, particularly for sending messages.

While the Google Maps app interaction is somewhat limited, it will let you zoom in/out, and view nearby venues and drop a pin for navigation. You can’t type or speak a destination, and once navigation begins, it will appear on the paired phone, not the watch. However, you can swipe left to see step-by-step navigation previews, switch travel modes (driving vs. walking), and exit navigation.

The fitness tracking capability is also a huge perk for the Huawei Watch, and will be a selling point for buyers. However, in my experience the watch band itself needed to be tightened in order for the watch to accurately read my body’s signals, which can be uncomfortable. It could just be my tiny wrists! It would also be nice for Huawei to offer alternative straps for fitness purposes – the standard strap for this watch just seems too nice to wear while breaking a sweat.

Other fun features include the ability to draw words and emojis as a response to text messages, and the ability to select from several watch faces, each with their own functions and highlights. Among my favorites was the Fitness watch face, which displays daily steps.

Room for improvement

The watch face stays on by default, which will drain the battery by the end of the work day. Another potential battery drain seem to include the continuous syncing taking place between the Huawei Watch and the paired phone.

The flashlight app isn’t very bright. This may be a battery protection measure, but it minimizes the usefulness of wearing a flashlight on the wrist.

There’s also limited interaction directly in the apps. For instance, the Agenda app is great for viewing appointments added on the paired smartphone, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to create an appointment/event directly from the watch.

Similarly, notifications are limited in interaction and detail. One example is an email alert for a new message in my Inbox. It’s great to know I have a new message, but from the watch I can’t click on the alert for details, or be redirected to the Inbox app.

I was also surprised that certain apps aren’t available on the Huawei Watch, including a phone or SMS app. However, you can make calls and send text messages from the watch via the paired phone using Google Now voice commands.

Given the deep integration of Google Now, it would be nice to view Google Now Cards directly from the watch screen.

Image via Huawei