Smart and stylish, but with some reservations

SINGAPORE — Huawei launched two high-end products in Singapore last month — the flagship Mate S smartphone and the Huawei Watch, the first smartwatch in its wearable family.

The first thing that struck me about the watch was the effort that went into making it appear premium. It comes in a box not unlike that of luxury watches, complete with leather trimmings on the inside. My review set with a black-plated stainless steel strap looked classy at first glance, but it is also chunky.

You can get the watch with either a leather strap or steel bracelet, but the leather looks and feels rather cheap, which is a weakness in its packaging.

The watch has to be paired with a phone. You can use an iPhone but this restricts the functionality to the bare basics, such as receiving notifications. You will not be able to install apps on the watch via the iPhone. This dulls the experience significantly.

Using an Android phone, I proceeded to download the Android Wear app and pair both devices. It was not a seamless process. I kept having to update different services and apps on the phone before returning to the Android Wear app.

The various watch faces were interesting, with more that could be downloaded on Google Play, although the better ones usually require payment.

The Huawei Watch is one of the few smartwatches that comes with a circular face. While that allows it to resemble a traditional watch design, at times, the on-screen text came a little too close to the edge for my preference.

I tried several functions, such as checking my pulse on the heart rate monitor and looking up my position on Google Maps — they all worked well. What I found pretty cool was using the Google Now voice commands to call up a search or invoke apps on the watch. It should be noted, though, that these are features that come standard with all Android Wear smartwatches.

Battery life should last a day with regular use. The watch has an “always on” feature that displays the time constantly. Activating this did not drain the battery significantly.

Would I get the Huawei Watch over other Android Wear watches such as the Samsung Gear or Moto 360? I think this early in the smartwatch game, and with features being similar, it boils down to one’s preference for style and shape.

THE MATE S SMARTPHONE

The Mate S smartphone faces plenty of competition, with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and the HTC One M9, but it stands out instantly by being a dual-SIM smartphone, something people with more than one mobile line will find valuable. Otherwise, a microSD card can be inserted into the second SIM card slot to expand storage capacity.

I found that this flagship Huawei phone’s fingerprint sensor worked better than that of its Android competitors. The sensor worked very quickly in detecting my finger to unlock the phone.

I did not need to do it more than once most of the time. It is located on the back of the phone, so you can simply grab the phone and conveniently slide your finger over the sensor to start using it.

What I did not like about the phone, though, was the lack of support for the 5GHz WiFi networks. It can connect to the older 2.4GHz b/g/n networks only. That is a big bugbear for me since I usually defer to the 5GHz network at home for its faster speeds and less interference with the neighbours’ signals.

Exterior wise, I do like the finishing on the Mate S. The construction is all metal, with an edge-to-edge AMOLED screen and curved back that looks and feels really high-end.

My reservations would be in terms of its battery life, which appears to go down very quickly under intensive use — as much as 30 per cent in 30 minutes. As with all the newer Android phones with metal bodies, the battery is non-removable.

The Luxurious Gold limited-edition Mate S is going for S$999. The Huawei Watch retails from S$549 to S$999. They can be bought at Lazada.sg and at retailers across Singapore, including Funan Digital Life Mall and Sim Lim Square.Huawei also has a flagship store at Plaza Singapura.