
Huawei Watch - fridek
http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-watch/
======
dzine
Scrolling with the mousewheel is funky in Chrome. Hate when websites hijack
the scroll event and misuse it.

~~~
suyash
I abandoned the website in less than 20 seconds as I couldn't navigate the
page below on Chrome.

~~~
wingerlang
While it sucks, why didn't you just try the arrow keys? Works perfectly fine.

~~~
sjwright
Perhaps because there's a dozen ways to scroll a web page and we shouldn't
have to try every method until we find one that works?

~~~
wingerlang
I'm not defending their decision, it sucks that they did it like this.

But reading the comments, people seem genuinely interested in the product but
leave the page because they think it is "impossible" to navigate it? Come on..

How many ways to scroll a webpage are there anyway? Wheel/trackpad, space and
key down. Are there more? Even if there is, these are the ones you'll
obviously try first.

~~~
unwind
Page up/down, the scroll bar, click-and-drag to select and scroll are three
more off the top of my head.

Also, in the land of UX, your "obviously" is not always everybody else's.

~~~
wingerlang
Fair enough, although I'd still imagine the arrow down goes before any of
those for most people.

~~~
sjwright
Most programmers, perhaps.

~~~
wingerlang
I'd actually pin that on most non-programmers. Arrow down is the most
intuitive as far as I've seen. I've never seen anyone not "tech proficient"
use anything else anyway.

------
acqq
And this picture which is actually on huawei site as the part of the promo (!)
illustrates the best why Jony Ive said (1) that "a circle doesn't make any
sense" for a smartwatch:

[http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-
watch/a...](http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-
watch/assets/images/medium/bg_06.jpg)

\----

1) [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/shape-things-
co...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/shape-things-come)

~~~
cromwellian
Ive also blasted the Moto X for offering so many customization choices and
shipped a watch predicated on massive customization.

Let's get one thing straight. Apple lambasts everyone else's designs until
they adopt them.

Recall that:

1) Mini-tablets are too small to be usable, you'd have to "file down your
fingers to use them"

2) Large screen phones are a) things people don't want and b) don't fit your
hand properly. Remember this Thumb commercial?
[http://9to5mac.com/2014/09/09/the-iphone-5-ad-that-apple-
wan...](http://9to5mac.com/2014/09/09/the-iphone-5-ad-that-apple-wants-you-to-
forget/)

3) Customization and Widgets in the OS are bad, until iOS 8 gets them

4) Johnny Ive on Moto Maker ("“Their value proposition was, ‘Make it whatever
you want. You can choose whatever color you want,'” Jony was quoted as saying
in the interview. “I believe that’s abdicating your responsibility as a
designer.”") Even BGR noticed this hypocrisy
([http://bgr.com/2015/02/19/apple-watch-customization-jony-
ive...](http://bgr.com/2015/02/19/apple-watch-customization-jony-ive/))

There's many more incidents to this list, but it's typical Apple behavior to
pooh-pooh things about competitor products or features right up until the
point that they ship them. Then the entire world must pretend that prior to
Apple, no one did it, or didn't do it right.

~~~
davej
Apple always has and always will talk down the type of products that it
doesn't sell.

Although, I do think they were on to something when they said that large
screen phones are too big for your hand.

Ironically I didn't buy an iPhone 6 and moved to my first Android for this
reason. It's actually quite difficult now to find a decent spec phone that
comfortably fits an average sized hand. Even the 'mini' phones have quite a
large footprint. Ended up with a Sony Z3 Compact and I'm pretty happy with it
so far (nearly 2 days battery life is awesome).

~~~
john_other
I similarly ended up with a Sony Z3 Compact. The ultra stamina mode is
excellent. It shuts off all extraneous circuitry and you have to reboot to
start up again. Meanwhile you're left with a minimalist greyscale screen with
essential functions and a estimate of battery left. It's too optimistic I
think but it will happily tell you there's ten days charge left on ultra
stamina mode if you started with a full battery.

~~~
wlesieutre
Me three! The camera and flashlight are disappointing (my 3 year old 4S was
brighter), but aside from that I really like the Z3C. I'm not exaggerating to
say I've gotten 3 days of battery life without touching Stamina Mode or Ultra
Stamina Mode.

~~~
john_other
I've gotten more use out of my compact than my surface pro 2, ffrom day one. I
think this little phone is more usable and certainly faster for browsing. (
opera for word wrap rules!) and I simply feel it's faster, renders faster, LTE
when I have signal better than consumer FTTC !

Not having wanted a android phone particularly ... a Lumia seemed right for my
use and Microsoft centric world... I didn't lose the great maps just
downloaded Nokia Here , still have office and one note... And outlook. Oh and
I got Opera browser which is for word wrap just indispensable.. All in all a
bargain. But I really am almost using this phone for every task but design and
code so I've not gotten more than a day and a half yet... Still amazing for it
being picked up constantly and running about five apps simultaneously standard
.. and I got it on a wicked deal bundling 20GB data so I'm in clover! I feel
bad like I'm shilling especially as I forgot my older login here but it's such
a neat package all I want is a sweet little repl with loads of libraries and
great auto predict to play with this thing...

------
Osmium
From the recent _New Yorker_ profile of Jonny Ive:

> The shape of the body, meanwhile, barely changed: a rectangle with rounded
> corners. “When a huge part of the function is _lists_ ”—of names, or
> appointments—“a circle doesn’t make any sense,” Ive said. Its final form
> resembles one of Newson’s watches, and the Cartier Santos, from 1904.

I think circular watches, in principle, look a lot nicer (certainly in ads),
but that quote was the first thing I thought of when I saw the Facebook
screenshot[1]. I think Apple might have this one right.

[1] [http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-
watch/a...](http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-
watch/assets/images/small/bg_06.jpg)

Edit: Ah, didn't see acqq just said this exact thing. "You can scroll" isn't a
solution to this though. There's a big difference between being able to read a
message from a glance at a wrist to having to physically interact with the
device. The more interaction you need, the less benefit you have with the
watch over just taking your phone out.

~~~
tadfisher
Android Wear is specifically designed to avoid this problem. You get a series
of glance-able cards that you can swipe through for more information or
actions. In maybe one or two places (the Settings app) do you actually get a
list view, and they are all one-line entries that fit easily on a round
screen.

Apple's philosophy toward the smartwatch experience is just different. Android
Wear is all about contextual notifications and glanceable information. What
we've seen of Apple Watch is smartphone apps scaled down. I'm sure it will be
very powerful and well-designed, just not my cup of tea.

~~~
themagician
Still, the actual "usable" area on a circular watch is the square within.

~~~
femto
Or a circular aperture could naturally be viewed as a "spy hole". Why not use
the gyros, the fact that the watch is on a movable limb, and there is
typically a single viewer, to fake up a holograpic view, whereby a virtual
screen is bigger than the watch and the user sees the whole screen by moving
their wrist relative to their eyes.

------
gcdgcd2
Huawei is the main Supplier of the GFW of China. The Golden Shield Project
(Chinese: 金盾工程; pinyin: jīndùn gōngchéng), colloquially referred to as the
Great Firewall of China [1] (Chinese: 防火长城; pinyin: fánghuǒ chángchéng) is a
censorship and surveillance project operated by the Ministry of Public
Security (MPS) division of the government of China.

~~~
tw04
Main? I believe that title goes to Cisco. Not sure what it has to do with a
smart watch though.

[http://blog.thomsonreuters.com/index.php/suit-over-ciscos-
ro...](http://blog.thomsonreuters.com/index.php/suit-over-ciscos-role-in-
chinas-great-firewall-must-proceed-advocacy-group-says/)

~~~
imjustsaying
>Not sure what it has to do with a smart watch though.

Having something on your wrist made by a company that has hundred-million
dollar deals providing surveillance technology to the largest surveillance
state in the world seems as if it would have significant security
implications.

~~~
gurkendoktor
Not to mention the ethical implications of supporting them as a customer.

------
ryan-allen
I think this watch looks much, much better than the Apple Watch (though I
think the Apple Watch is a bit garish).

~~~
omonra
I agree.

I had no interest in the iWatch - but this might be interesting (once the
battery life is worked out).

------
jdonaldson
I'm kind of annoyed by Ive's glib dismissal of a circular form factor for
watches. There's going to be a whole design language based on circles that
make much more sense for watches. For instance, it's pretty easy to imagine a
minimalist daily calendar overlay on top of standard hour/minute hands that
give you just as much information as the vertical list orientation commonly
used in calendar apps. Is it going to be able to show as much information that
way? No. Will it still be very useful? Yes.

~~~
gnarbarian
I think some really cool stuff can be done with a circular display combined
with a watchface. What if weather forecast icons were used in place of the
hour marks showing you at a glance the type of weather to expect throughout
the next 12 hours. There are tons of other things like this which would make
for really slick, intuitive and futuristic feeling interfaces. Say you have
various appointments throughout the next 12 hours. the edges of the watchface
could be color coded to different things on your schedule. touching a section
and swiping toward the center of the watch could open up details about that
particular item on your itinerary. I've got more ideas too :P

~~~
ejdyksen
You mean like this?

[http://images.apple.com/v/watch/c/overview/images/face_weath...](http://images.apple.com/v/watch/c/overview/images/face_weather_large_2x.jpg)

------
moioci
The watch on the left in the first picture appears to show a heart rate graph
labelled with "bmp", which is a file format. The unit of heart rate is beats
per minute, or "bpm".

~~~
acqq
Which raises the question if the functionality that does what's on that
picture actually exists. Or maybe they have just the Chinese version at the
moment?

~~~
NeutronBoy
Or, more likely, if the picture was designed by a marketing team, rather than
the people who built the watch.

~~~
acqq
When you show something you don't actually have somebody might say you're
doing false advertising. Unless you add a disclaimer of sorts.

~~~
NeutronBoy
No, what I mean is that it's most likely the marketing team made a mistake
mocking up the image. Not 'the marketing team is inventing features'.

------
jkubicek
The main criticism of circular smartwatches is that they unnaturally truncate
text. The screenshots don't even try to hide this. While I do think circular
watches look better, circular smart watches are just silly.

Edit: I mean to say, they look better when off or when displaying a circular
watch face. They look silly when displaying text.

~~~
amyjess
This is why if I ever decide to go for a smartwatch, I'm getting an Asus
ZenWatch.

~~~
danans
Go for it. I have the ZenWatch and am very happy with its design.

------
foxylad
I'm surprised that anyone (apart from Apple) is bothering to make smart
watches.

I stopped wearing a watch years ago, because the extra information I got from
looking at my smartphone covered the overhead of pulling it out of my pocket.
I've enjoyed not having something strapped to my wrist, so any of these
horribly thick smart watches are going to have to provide a compelling benefit
to get anywhere near my arm.

Because of size and power issues, you can't actually read or deal with
anything but the most trivial issues on a smart watch. So the main value
proposition seems to be that they tell you you need to look at your phone, and
that's not compelling enough for me.

Apple will get some sales, from those who need their status affirming - just
like the people who still wear a Rolex watch. But I'm betting that all the
other smart watches disappear fairly soon.

My pick for the next _real_ user interface revolution? Smart hearing aids,
using speech as the UI. Inconspicuous, and simple to use - particularly for
our affluent ageing population, many of whom need the hearing aid part anyway.

~~~
bequanna
>My pick for the next real user interface revolution? Smart hearing aids,
using speech as the UI. Inconspicuous, and simple to use - particularly for
our affluent ageing population, many of whom need the hearing aid part anyway.

I like this idea.

The best part? The elderly are already used to spending a few grand on these
and the current functionality is limited to amplifying/filtering sound.

~~~
oliv__
I don't think anyone wants to be talking to their device constantly to get
anything done. Google glass comes to mind...

~~~
Eridrus
Google glass suffered heavily because it having a video camera that people
felt invaded their privacy and it had a highly visible form factor.

A solution similar to a hearing implant/headset doesn't have either of these
issues.

------
gnarbarian
I'm in the market for a smartwatch like this and I'm seriously considering
this one and I can't wait to hear more about it. BUT I have to say something
about this video. I'm from Alaska and do lots of backcountry snowboarding so
this kind of stuff probably doesn't matter to most people but this video is
laughable for a few reasons:

> guy reminiscing about a memorable camping trip with friends yet can't
> remember how to get there.

> driving a classic mercedes with rear wheel drive on slick snowy roads.

> using ancient snowshoes that should be hung on a wall as a decoration and
> not actually used while wearing other completely inappropriate clothing.

> cool, your watch let you know it's -12c hopefully your ears won't be
> frostbitten off by the time you're done wandering around in the backcountry
> by yourself without a hat. (wouldn't want to mess up that stylish hair do)

> a watch whose battery will only last a couple days is probably not the best
> thing to depend on for an overnight trip in the backcountry.

> using google now as if he would have cell data coverage in the backcountry.

I know I'm being a bit harsh and I'm probably not the target audience for this
video.

But my honest impression based on that ad is that people who use this watch
are fashionable city slickers who have no idea what they are doing and use
completely impractical even dangerously outdated equipment in order to look
fashionable.

What would actually appeal to me?

>Guy hauling ass on his mountain bike/snowboard/skiis.

>He checks his watch to view his heartrate/trail data on an app like
[http://www.strava.com/](http://www.strava.com/) .

>App indicates relevant data like current heart rate, average speed, trail
location.

>scene cuts to end of his ride where the app indicates he has just set both a
new personal record for that trail and that he is also the new recordholder.

>Guy is back at his car. Watch indicates he has a fancy dinner appointment in
one hour.

> Scene cuts to him changed into fancy clothes and putting on his nice
> blazer/spiffy trenchcoat. His watch indicates that he should leave now in
> order to get to the appointment on time complete with a map and directions.

>guy is seen at dinner with watch displaying a classy watchface showing off
that it is suitable to be worn with formal attire.

ad ends.

~~~
javert
I found the video offensive. I wanted to know about the watch. 1 minute in, it
was almost entirely just shots of that guy. Fuck that shit. They're trying to
get me to think the watch is cool because the guy is cool, rather than sell me
on the features. I didn't finish watching. Treat me as a rational consumer or
GTFO. And stop wasting my time. My time is valuable to me.

~~~
gnarbarian
yes. All the videos are cringeworthy with laughably clumsy and fake sounding
dialog. They are in dire need of coaching to better appeal to westerners.

------
MichaelGG
I'm really hoping they pull this off. Their hardware is alright, perhaps a bit
cheap feeling. But the software, yikes. Huawei understands memory so poorly,
that they have a button that appears every time you try to switch app. Said
button force kills every app that's running. Then gleefully proclaims that it
"freed" up memory. It's beyond idiotic.

It feels like they modified Android purely for the sake of modifying it.
Hopefully with the watch they'll be a bit more careful. Huawei's the only
major company (?) making large-screen long-life devices. I don't have to
charge my Huawei phone (Mate 2) every day. That's a relief, unlike every other
major phone. (And, just $300.)

~~~
chambo622
Android Wear is maintained updated by Google on all Android Wear devices - and
OEMs can only install apps and watchfaces, they can't mess with the OS like
they do on their phones.

------
sdrothrock
Doesn't it bother anyone else that what's on that page (and in the video)
doesn't really resemble the real thing[1]? This happened with another company
-- I want to say LG -- and their renders were very optimistic views of the
real thing, hiding the bezel and depth of the screen as well as falsely
depicting how sharp the screen would look.

[1] [http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/3/8140837/huawei-watch-
design...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/3/8140837/huawei-watch-design-
interview-mwc-2015)

~~~
sfjailbird
Indeed, there's no way the screen is going to look that bright in real life,
even IF they put all the battery output behind it.

And that's a big reason why smart watches will never look as good as a real
watch - the screen is just a big dumb surface with some vague electronic
light. Compare with intricate mechanics, colors and materials of a proper
watch.

I'll still switch to a smart watch, once they nail power consumption and
features (it needs to substitute a phone, including phone calls), but good
looking it ain't.

------
cheeze
Wow that thing looks nice. I wonder what MSRP will be.

~~~
kmonsen
Price and battery life, without those two stats it is hard to comment.

------
tabrischen
Still waiting for a version of smartwatch built for females.

~~~
anigbrowl
I wondered about that - I have small wrists, and this is a fairly thick watch.
I like chronometer-style watches but they always seem too big. I really do
like the look of this, so I hope it's a good fit - and if it's not for me,
then I hope it is for enough people to drive development of a slimmer version.

------
hyperpallium
400x400 for a circle?

Looks like they're clipping the corners, so not actually 400x400 resolution.

~~~
dragonwriter
> How can the resolution be 400x400 for a circle?

Not using square pixels. I mean, it would be insane, but...

------
omonra
I'm not sure I understand how it works - are the 40 designs they talk about
all 'themes' than can be swapped?

Ie the watch has a digital screen that displays the dial, etc?

~~~
pcl
Yep. That's how the Moto 360 works, too, fyi.

~~~
omonra
Thank you

------
adysan
Isn't the dial off-center?
[http://imgur.com/5nFbP5r](http://imgur.com/5nFbP5r)

~~~
aamar
"Ergonomic button placement":
[http://imgur.com/Ed57fhj](http://imgur.com/Ed57fhj)

Makes sense. Since it's just a button, not a dial, the higher placement is
more convenient for the index finger.

~~~
jenrzzz
More convenient for the _right_ index finger.

~~~
tadfisher
You'd need the "crown" on the left of the watch body, in that case. Although
it would be very nice of Google to add an option to flip the interface for
users who want to wear the watch "upside-down".

------
PhasmaFelis
Remember when cellphones were getting smaller every year, and a smaller phone
was a status symbol? And then suddenly touchscreens happened, and now phones
are getting bigger and bigger again?

I feel like smartwatches are the result of that "smaller" impulse pushing
through the trend.

------
liotier
No mention of battery life in either features or specifications... I guess
that most users won't find in any way troublesome that this thing barely runs
for a day between charges...

------
Aissen
Wondering if the stainless steel case might not affect the Bluetooth radio
performance…

------
BigChiefSmokem
Scroll with mousewheel is working fine on Chrome 40 for Windows 8.1

------
pbh101
"Full circle design" in contrast to the Moto 360.

~~~
jordanthoms
With a big bezel and recessed screen, in contrast to the Moto 360.

------
PhoenixWright
I'm glad this is going to be a crowded space. With the iPhone Apple easily
offered a 10x better product. Seeing the smart watch space I don't see anyone
offering anything close to a revolutionary product.

------
Kenji
How many times do I have to charge it per day? Hahaha!

------
unicornporn
Hard to tell, is it a mechanical watch with a digital overlay?

------
o0-0o
Isn't Huawei the company that the United States barred because they were
spying/embedding firmworms/foreign? Of course the gov would know what to look
for, but why would I wear a Communist produced watch on my wrist?!

~~~
quanium1337
I don't know about the communist part, but Huawei is known to have links to
the Chinese military. Given recent events about Lenovo and Superfish, it
probably is wise to reaccess the security/privacy implications here and not
just the shape of the watch.

~~~
shubb
If all your tech might be spying on you, you should pick the one not
controlled by someone with legal authority in your local area...

Unless you are working with military technology, or some real 'secret sauce'
company confidential tech, you are probably not interesting to PRC but
fascinating to the IRS...

~~~
quanium1337
I think this is probably why you mentioned IRS:

[http://m.cnsnews.com/news/article/irs-buying-spying-
equipmen...](http://m.cnsnews.com/news/article/irs-buying-spying-equipment-
covert-cameras-coffee-trays-plants)

But then again, if you don't belong to one of the groups "interesting" enough
to the US government, you wouldn't care if your tech is bugged? Privacy should
not be a means but an end in itself. If we all "have nothing to hide", then we
should all use postcards for our mail.

Techs made by someone with _direct_ ties to the government are more likely to
have surveillance capabilities baked in, and tend to be easier for government
to access. Especially when that government is well known to engage in
espionage by directly sponsoring cyber warfare carried out by military units.

~~~
shubb
Also, I guess western governments have Huawei bent over even more of a barrel
than say google. Huawei devices are used extensively in infrastructure. Most
governments (known to include the UK and India) insist on huawei funding
government labs to inspect the devices for backdoors. I guess if you already
have secret inspection deals with creepy government security types, they might
ask you to add a backdoor of their own as part of the certification process.

