Honor has confirmed that it will launch a new smartwatch before the end of 2019. This watch is going to be an update to the Honor Watch Magic model which was announced last year in China and earlier this year in India and Europe. The company has also shared a teaser which gives us a glimpse of the watch’s design outline.

Honor told DigitalTrends that the upcoming smartwatch will soon be teased across its social media channels using a Halloween theme. The teaser that you see above is a part of this marketing push. The image also confirms that the Honor Watch Magic 2 (the name is yet to be revealed) will retain a similar design as its predecessor, featuring two crowns on the side for controls. We can also expect it to run on the company’s own LiteOS. The same OS powers Huawei’s smartwatches like the Huawei Watch GT 2 and the Honor Watch Magic as well.

There’s no more information on the upcoming Honor smartwatch but it could retain some of the key features of the original model, like a 1.2-inch compact 390 x 390 AMOLED display, a week-long battery life, and a relatively affordable price tag (probably around $200).

Expect more information on the smartwatch in the coming days.

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The smartwatch market began as a revolution in mobile devices but things slowed down after the first wave since they initially were just used for receiving notifications. Nowadays, both software and hardware have evolved so much that smartwatches are really worth a try. According to the latest statistics, Apple Watch is the dominant model holding around 35% of the market share with Samsung coming in second place.

But, although it comes in 1st place, the Apple Watch isn’t all that perfect. It is addressed only to iPhone users and thanks to the strong ecosystem of the company, it achieves high sales numbers, so, it’s a no-go for Android users. In addition, the cheaper models come with an aluminum case that isn’t the most durable material out there. Also, its battery life is a day or less and you need to charge it every night.

Custom OS smartwatches

Besides Samsung that has its own wearables ecosystem (Tizen OS) and has successfully managed to populate it with many popular apps, Huawei and its sub-brand Honor are also selling very noteworthy watches. Huawei Watch GT2 is the latest model and it sells around $249 while the Honor Watch Magic sells at around $129. Both feature a custom OS that constrains their capabilities.

Both are adequately equipped featuring a built-in GPS and up to 50m deep waterproofing. Also, the Honor Watch Magic has a week-long battery life, NFC, etc. Its affordable price makes it popular among youngsters. Still, it is inferior to the Huawei Watch GT
that sports 2 weeks of battery life, a larger display, and better design.

Up next, is Huami that is specialized in smartwatches and grabs a big chunk of the market pie. The flagship model is the Huami Amazfit GTR watch which is available in two sizes – 42 mm and 47 mm. The bigger of the two is more striking and has a longer battery life (24 days vs. 12 days use) and costs just $20 more than the small one. Generally speaking, it is recommended that men choose the bigger one, and ladies choose the smaller one but that’s a matter of personal taste.

It comes with the company’s custom OS and features 12 sports modes while being waterproof up to 50m underwater. What’s more, it comes with an AMOLED high-resolution display that looks great and takes care of keeping battery consumption at a low level since when displaying black colors means zero consumption.

Full OS smartwatches

Apart from the above-mentioned models that come with their own OS and other models that come with Google’s Wear OS platform, there are manufacturers that choose to adopt a full OS. This is the case with KOSPET and its latest flagship model, Prime. The KOSPET Prime is literally a smartphone on your wrist, supporting most of the Android apps found on Play Store. Also, it supports 4G connectivity and you can make phone calls right from your wrist without the need of your smartphone.

Of course, adopting a full OS has its drawbacks like increased power consumption so the Prime comes with a 1260mAh battery, nearly 40% higher than the second in place. This results in a 168h standby time that is the best among Android watches. In addition, it sports a 1.6″ HD display and it is a full-round one as most watches come with a kind of notch that cuts the circle at the bottom. The big display solves many issues as in the past, displays were too small for third-party applications.

As said, it is a smartphone on your wrist and that requires enough power and memory so that it is fast. Prime comes with 3GB/32GB memory combo and that’s the top configuration found at the price tag of KOSPET Prime. Lastly, it is the first smartwatch to come with a dual-camera setup that supports Face ID. Lifting your hand towards your face will instantly unlock the watch thanks to the full Android OS running on the device.

As you can see, the smartwatch market isn’t as simple as the smartphone one due to the OS fragmentation. The high-end luxury category belongs to Apple and Samsung while the mid-range category is where most other manufacturers like Huawei, Honor, and Huami and even small-time manufacturers like Kospet are placed.

There aren’t many full OS smartwatches in the market that look good. But the KOSPET Prime offers pretty good features based on the Android platform. You can check it out from here.

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Huawei’s sub-brand Honor launched its new flagship Honor View 20 in the Indian market. Along with that, the company has also launched its two wearable devices — Honor Watch Magic and Honor Band 4 Running Edition.

As for the pricing, the Honor Watch Magic starts at Rs. 13,999 ($197) for the premium sports version while the Leather Band model is priced at Rs. 14,999 ($211). On the other hand, the Honor Band 4 Running Edition is priced at Rs. 1,599 ($22). Both the devices will be available for purchase in India through Amazon India and Honor’s official website.

Coming to the specifications, the Honor Watch Magic comes with a 1.2-inch HD AMOLED display with 390 x 390 pixels screen resolution which offers 326ppi pixel density. Under the hood, the device is powered by ARM M4 chipset, coupled with 16MB RAM and 128GB internal storage.

The display is housed in a 316L stainless steel frame that measures 9.8mm in thickness (11mm with the glass). It supports GPS, GLONASS, and GALILEO for precise positioning and also comes with Bluetooth 4.2, 5ATM Water-resistant up to 50 meters, NFC for Huawei Pay and a 178mAh battery which is claimed to offer up to 7 days worth of battery life.

As for the features, the Honor Watch Magic has Huawei’s TruSeen 3.0 technology for continuous heart rate monitoring. Also, with Huawei’s TruRelax technology and support from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the watch provides 24-hour blood pressure monitoring and will suggest breathing exercises with real-time feedback.

On the other hand, the Honor Band 4 Running Edition comes with similar specifications as that of the conventional Band 4 launched year along with some added features such as running posture monitoring, water-resistance up to 50 meters and two wearing modes.

The fitness tracker comes with a 0.95-inch OLED display and a 2.5D glass on top. Just like the Xiaomi’s Mi Band 3, the Honor Band 4 is also water resistant up to 50 meters and also recognizes Swim strokes. It supports functions such as sleep tracking, exercise tracking, pedometer, continuous heart rate monitoring with Huawei TruSeen 2.0 technology, and sedentary reminder.

Read More: Honor grew 170 percent Year-on-Year internationally, ranked 1st E-Brand in China for 9 consecutive quarters

In addition to tracking activities, the device also shows notifications on the OLED display and even offers an incoming call-mute function. The device also comes with built-in NFC support, meaning that it can also be used to make payments. Under the hood, the fitness tracker is powered by a 100mAh battery, which the company claims can deliver standby time of up to 14 days.

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Huawei announced a new smartwatch called the Watch GT at the Mate 20 event at the beginning of the month. We later learned that Honor was also going to release its own smartwatch. The watch was announced today and its called the Honor Watch Magic.

The Honor Watch Magic shares a lot of similarities with the Huawei Watch GT but costs less. It runs Light OS and has a similar design too but is smaller.

Specs and Features

The Honor Watch Magic has a 1.2-inch AMOLED display with a 390 x 390 resolution, a PPI of 326 and support for multiple watch faces. The display is housed in a 316L stainless steel frame that measures 9.8mm in thickness (11mm with the glass). Depending on the version, the watch comes with silicone or leather bands. They are QuickFit 22mm bands and are easily swappable to match your style.

The Honor Watch Magic uses a dual-chip technology – one high-performance chip and an energy efficient chip. The watch also has a triple frequency GNSS receiver (GPS, GLONASS, and Compass/Galileo) for tracking.

In terms of its features, the Honor Watch Magic has Huawei’s TruSeen 3.0 technology for continuous heart rate monitoring. Also, with Huawei’s TruRelax technology and support from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the watch provides 24-hour blood pressure monitoring and will suggest breathing exercises to help you keep calm with real-time feedback.

The Watch Magic also has TruSleep 2.0 which monitors 8 different sleep data, can identify up to six different sleep disorders, and can provide up to 200 sleep suggestions.

The watch can track lots of activities including swimming, mountaineering, cycling (stationary cycling too), walking, running (including treadmill running) and more. Honor says the Watch Magic has an altimeter, a compass, and a barometer for mountain climbing. It also has a built-in coach for workout sessions.

The watch also has NFC and supports Huawei Pay, AliPay and bus cards. Its battery is much smaller than that of the Huawei Watch GT – 178mAh as against 420mAh but Honor claims it can last up to a week for moderate usage and 10 hours with GPS turned on.

READ MORE: The Honor FlyPods/FlyPods Pro is the Huawei FreeBuds 2 Pro that didn’t launch, costs ¥799 (~$114)

Price and Availability

The Honor Watch Magic comes in two versions – a Lava Red variant which has silicone straps and is priced at ¥899(~$129) and a Moonlight Silver variant with leather straps that sells for ¥999 (~$143). It goes on sale on November 1 on Vmall, JD.com. Tmall, and Suning.

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