There’s something about Huawei that makes you love its products. The company has evolved over the last couple of years into a new beast that still manages to create and deliver high-quality products and genius ideas to solve problems we didn’t know we had. Huawei’s latest product to arrive with a touch of genius is the Huawei Watch Buds, a new 2-in-1 solution that takes wearables to a new dimension.
The Huawei Watch Buds was announced back in December 2022, with global availability starting on March 1, 2023. Indeed, it doesn’t have that much time on the market. Still, it is undoubtedly an absolute hit for anyone looking to get a pair of earbuds and a smartwatch in the same package. The Huawei Watch Buds is Huawei’s latest and most expensive smartwatch (at the time of publishing this review) with built-in earbuds.
HUAWEI WATCH Buds
The HUAWEI Watch Buds is a unique smartwatch with wireless earbuds built-in. The smartwatch includes SP02, Heart rate, and sleep tracking, as well as the ability to track more than 80 sports activities. The wireless earbuds have a 4-hour battery life, and supporting features like Adaptive EQ, noise cancelation, and more.
- Good battery life
- 2-in-1 smartwatch and earbuds combo
- Great build and eye-catching design
- No IP rating for the smartwatch
- Noise-canceling could be better
- Pricey
- Setup for Android users may be a bit complicated
It may be a bit complicated to wrap your head around this concept, but things become easier when you play with one. My first experience with the Huawei Watch Buds was strange as I thought of everything that could go wrong with this product, believing that this might be another gimmick or a fad that would soon be forgotten. However, after a couple of weeks of using it, I am confident that this will be the first step towards something unique.
First impressions
I received a review unit of the Huawei Watch Buds back in Barcelona, which was quite convenient considering all the walking involved with MWC 2023 and all the sightseeing I planned after the event. So I got to the hotel and started trying to pair my smartwatch with my Android device, and I immediately realized that things wouldn’t be as straightforward as I expected.
Huawei’s latest smartwatches run on HarmonyOS, and you need to install the Huawei Health app to get the gears moving. However, Google kept on advising me not to install potentially dangerous apps on my device, and I even had to mess around with App permissions to get notifications on the Huawei Watch Buds. But after a few minutes, I managed to get things running smoothly and began enjoying everything this product offered.
I then focused on the hardware, and I must admit that I was immediately pleased with the feel, design, and build of Huawei Watch Buds. I initially had some doubts about the size of the case, but you can’t really tell the difference once you’re wearing this beauty. Response and navigation were fast and fluid, and there are tons of options for you to tweak it and make it your own. For instance, I activated the always-on display, even though it meant I would also have to sacrifice battery life, and I also ended up changing the watch face, even though I wish I had more options to choose from. But I finally pressed the small button to reveal a small pair of buds with a very convenient design, decent audio quality, and long-lasting battery life.
All you need to know
The Huawei Watch Buds come in at 47 mm × 47.5 mm × 14.99 mm on the watch’s thinnest part, excluding the sensor. Each earbud measures 21.8 mm × 10.3 mm × 10.3 mm, and you get three different-sized ear tips to give you the best fit. The medium-sized ear tip comes pre-installed, but you can also go for the large or the smaller options. It will fit any wrist size that goes from 140 to 210 mm, but you can also get third-party 22 mm straps to adjust it to your needs and flow. It weighs approximately 66.5 g without the strap, and each earbud comes in at about 4 grams, but as I mentioned before, you won’t feel huge differences while wearing it.
You won’t get a speaker or microphone support with your smartwatch, but then again, it’s not necessary, considering that you get these features with the earbuds. You also get a 1.43-inch AMOLED color screen with 466 x 466 resolution that gets pretty bright, making it easy to read even when hit by direct sunlight. And you also get several sensors, including 6-axis inertial sensors, an optical heart rate sensor (version 5.0), an ambient optical sensor, a hall effect sensor, a capacitive sensor, and a bone conduction component used for voice pick-up and in-call noise cancelation. And we also get two buttons. The first one supports pressing but has no support for rotation-based interactions, and the second one is the cover opening button.
The Huawei Watch Buds arrives with an IP54 rating, but unfortunately, this rating only applies to the earbuds. This was a major disappointment, considering that it sells for €499. We also get long-lasting battery life that will keep you connected for up to three days, and if you’re curious about the battery life on the earbuds, we get up to 4 hours of music playback or 2.5 hours of calling without noise cancelation or get up to 3 hours of music playback and 2 hours of calling when noise cancelation is enabled. Finally, you also get GPS and NFC support to help you pay things faster and without a hassle.
Earbuds
I really want to say that I love every aspect of the Huawei Watch Buds, but I was a bit disappointed in some things, specifically in this category.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that the buds inside this gorgeous-looking smartwatch are bad; I’m just saying they could be better. Yes, they are quite helpful and convenient if you want to go out for a walk, go shopping, or just want to disconnect from the world for a while. They are also comfortable. I used them a lot during this trip, even though I never got to drain their battery, as I could quickly and easily put them inside the watch to get topped up extremely fast.
However, I sometimes felt that they weren’t loud enough, even with noise cancelation to help keep external noise down. I mean, earbuds alone are supposed to help keep the noise down, but then again, I’m comparing them to my Sony’s WF-1000XM3, which I also believe it’s somewhat unfair considering their size difference.
Still, one particular issue bugged me, as my music and calls would get choppy occasionally. Let me explain. Sound quality and calls worked perfectly when my phone was on my desk or while in my hand, but I usually carry my phone in my pocket, and this issue came up every time I laid my hand on top of the device while walking around. I managed to detect the cause of the problem immediately, and I solved it by keeping my hand away from my phone while it was in my pocket. So much for that 10-meter Bluetooth connectivity.
Other than that, you will absolutely love the new wide-area touch controls that allow you to tap the earbuds, auricles, or the area in front of the ear twice to answer or reject calls and to play or pause your music. And if you tap three times, you will be able to activate or disable noise cancelation. Or you can choose to manage your buds directly from the Huawei Watch Buds on your wrist.
Fitness
This is where the whole 2-in-1 combo gets a bit tricky. As I mentioned before, Huawei’s Watch Buds features an IP54 rating, but it will only give you water and dust resistance on the earbuds, not the actual watch. In other words, I suggest you take off your smartwatch if you plan on sweating a lot. And I also recommend you are very careful when washing your hands so as not to get too much water close to the Huawei Watch Buds.
Getting some water or sweat leaks inside the earbud’s cavity may damage your new watch, but don’t worry. You will get a notification telling you to open the lid on the Huawei Watch Buds and clean any moisture to prevent further issues down the road.
That being said, you can perfectly wear your watch over extended walking sessions, as I managed to walk more than 17K steps in Barcelona with readings that matched those recorded by my Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. So any kind of light exercise will be OK. But if you’re into hardcore training or more demanding sports, I suggest you check out other options, as this is definitely not the perfect option for you.
Conclusion
Huawei has created an amazing wearable that complies with everything considered necessary. It will keep you posted with every notification you enable through the Huawei Health app, and at the same time, it will keep a record of your step count and basic activities that won’t have you sweating excessively. You also receive a fabulous pair of earbuds, perfect for listening to your favorite music in relatively quiet environments.
Unfortunately, I believe that this is still a work in progress, and I’d definitely wait to see the second generation of this product, as I feel that this smartwatch is a bit pricey and it doesn’t deliver an excellent smartwatch experience for more demanding users. The lack of a secondary button to launch specific apps or adding rotation-based interactions to the primary button are a couple of things I’m expecting. You can also improve how the earbuds work, as their active noise-canceling feature isn’t as great as I’d want. But that’s me just being picky. Finally, I can only say that if you are a Huawei fan, I’m sure you will love the experience because I definitely do.
