When we first caught wind of Huawei’s short video teaser for Mobile World Congress, we felt a bit sad. Sure, we groaned at the swipes Huawei made at Apple and Samsung, but we also hoped for something resembling a smartwatch. Our hopes went up, though, after a Wall Street Journal report outed Huawei’s smartwatch as present for MWC.
Now, pictures have surfaced from Chinese social network Weibo of Huawei’s smartwatch, courtesy of a Huawei executive. The caption reads: “My new toy. Do you like this color?”
Let’s get this out of the way: it looks ugly. The band itself is thick and the display sticks out above the band. We’re hoping this might be a prototype, because it looks dated.
It is possible to make stylish and good-looking devices that are meant to be on your wrist. Just take look at Pebble’s and (maybe) Samsung’s recent efforts. Still, we don’t know much about the watch, and until we play around with it, there really isn’t much we can say. Even so, it’s hard to look at the image and be thrilled about it.
If this image turns out to be the real deal, Huawei is already behind the curve in terms of looks. But sometimes function can triumph over form, so let’s see what Huawei has under its sleeve, or on its wrist.