Best Android wear?

[The Game 161]

I own the Huawei watch (all black variant) and the Gear S2 Classic (all black variant as well). I wore the S2 for a month to try it out and ended up going back to the Huawei. The S2 has the superior UI and interface, but it really does suck not having apps for it or the lack of Google Now integration. Google Now is really the killer feature that neither Samsung, nor Apple have.

The Huawei watch is on par with the SS Apple Watch variant, spec for spec ranging from sapphire display, SS body, OLED display and resolution, speaker and mic support for calls and notifications, and watch bands. Apple Watch has one feature lacking in the Huawei and that is Apple Pay. The Huawei watch does not have NFC. But when it comes to api integration with 3rd party apps, customization and watchfaces, the Apple Watch is pathetically behind.

And for those talking about the ambient light sensor, I own both the first gen and second gen Moto 360. The feature is useless in sunlight with the LCD screen. If set the Huawei watch to a brightness level of 3 out of 5 and leave it there. If I need to brighten the display for whatever reason, I just tap the home button 3 times and the display goes to full brightness for 5 seconds.

Basically, the Huawei watch is the watch to own for under $500. And right now, there are places selling the Huawei for $200-$250. If Samsung would build an S2 that was Android Wear vice Tizen and had the same UI, I would recommend that. But with its current complete lack of apps, I would not bother.
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Depends on what you are looking for in the watch. If it is for minimal things like basic notifications, step count, etc then sure, it is great. Since you and I both own the s7 Edge and I own the S2 and Huawei, ask me specifics and I can answer them. What do you want out of the watch? What apps do you need them to be able to integrate with?
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First gen Moto 360 was junk from the get go, using an LCD screen and an outdated Texas Instrument OMAP CPU. Complete and utter junk. Android Wear wasn't running 6.0 version yet either.
Now, with the Huawei watch hardware you get that nice cold forged and rolled unibody SS chassis, a sapphire screen, DLC coating if you go with the black variant, speaker support for calls, and full Google Now integration. A completely different experience than the one you had.
That said, the new chips designed for Android smartwatches are coming out this year and we will see a big step up in performance, battery life and capabilities from Android Wear. If App!e doesn't really upgrade their watch internals, they will fall even further behind.

Well thanks for answering btw

My main need is basic notifications and really to access fitness type apps, sport scores, messages and my calendar events

Is huawei better for apps access? As one thing I like on my Apple Watch is clicking onto my apps to check certain things like sport, calendar, news etc

What app do you need to download to access stuff on my edge on the huawei watch? Just Bluetooth?

 

[Lloydbm41]

Well thanks for answering btw

My main need is basic notifications and really to access fitness type apps, sport scores, messages and my calendar events

Is huawei better for apps access? As one thing I like on my Apple Watch is clicking onto my apps to check certain things like sport, calendar, news etc

What app do you need to download to access stuff on my edge on the huawei watch? Just Bluetooth?

All you need is the Android Wear app. After that, any app you DL from the Play Store that is Android Wear compatible will auto download to the watch.

But, for your needs the S2 will work. The UI and accessing apps, texts, fitness, etc is 10x better on the S2. The experience blows Apple Watch and Android Wear watches out of the water. For me, I need apps that aren't available on Tizen, so I'm kinda stuck with Android Wear for the time being.

P.S. Which fitness apps are you looking for? I'll look and see if they are available tonight when I get home and if they work decently.

 

[The Game 161]

All you need is the Android Wear app. After that, any app you DL from the Play Store that is Android Wear compatible will auto download to the watch.

But, for your needs the S2 will work. The UI and accessing apps, texts, fitness, etc is 10x better on the S2. The experience blows Apple Watch and Android Wear watches out of the water. For me, I need apps that aren't available on Tizen, so I'm kinda stuck with Android Wear for the time being.

P.S. Which fitness apps are you looking for? I'll look and see if they are available tonight when I get home and if they work decently.

Just the standard walking apps really as that's what I would use it for and maybe strava if it's available

 

[Marco123]

I managed to buy a S2 Classic as new for half price.
I'm just love the fact it looks like a watch so if it can track my fitness and give me 1-2 years of watch functionality then I'll be happy.
I used to really like my Apple Watch but I hated that it didn't look like a watch, I got bored of the watch faces and the SS model is far over-priced.
Android watches have nailed it with their looks but I really wish the S2 would accept play store apps.
My previous nexus 6P and now S7 Edge have changed my views on android totally and Apple will need to do a lot to make me come back. I found the 6S, Apple TV4, iOS 9 and Apple watch to be some of the most disappointing releases they've had in years.

 

[The Game 161]

There's a S2 gear classic on Amazon for £289 not sure if that's good or not.

 

[Marco123]

You can pick up an as new on eBay for about £150.

 

[The Game 161]

You can pick up an as new on eBay for about £150.

Never used eBay, thought it gets bad press. Guessing it's safe?

 

[Lloydbm41]

Just the standard walking apps really as that's what I would use it for and maybe strava if it's available

Strava is not available, but I found a few apps. Pear app seems like it might be good? Take a look:

 

[The Game 161]

Strava is not available, but I found a few apps. Pear app seems like it might be good? Take a look:

Seems like s good option.

Seen some reviews today on the watch and could be an option at some point

 

[Channan]

All AW watches are practically the same. Some might have GPS, a speaker, or cellular connectivity, but they're all going to work the same. If you need one of the above features, search for the watches with those features and buy the one you think looks the best.

Personally, the Huawei watch is the one I'd buy if I were buying one now. I have the first gen Moto 360 but rarely use it because battery life sucks. Wish I had the money for a Huawei watch, but there are several other things on my list of things to buy before it.

 

[admob71]

You can pick up an as new on eBay for about £150.

Not at the moment, all ones this week are going for over 150 used, and new over 180..

 

[Fernandez21]

Just got me an LG Urbane 2nd Edition LTE. Really liking it so far. Don't like the way it charges, nor the fact you can't replace the band. But this past weekend I went to the beach, and it was awesome being able to leave my phone behind and not worry about it getting wet or the sand scratching it. Went out into the ocean with my son, listened to music with the LG and then my wife called me on the watch when it was time to go, it was an awesome experience. Can't wait for wear 2.0.

 

[phpmaven]

1. Ed

It's a nice smart watch, but it's not android wear it's tizen. If you're not that concerned about apps (there is a dearth of apps for it), it's nice. There are cellular and non cellular versions. Personally, I had the Gear S and preferred that design ( I loved the big screen, but I switched networks and sold it). Aside from notifications, fitness tracking is my main focus. I'm still researching watches and just may pick up an Apple Watch to go with my secondary iPhone?

It's also too small and butt-ugly.

 

[Fernandez21]

First gen Moto 360 was junk from the get go, using an LCD screen and an outdated Texas Instrument OMAP CPU. Complete and utter junk. Android Wear wasn't running 6.0 version yet either.
Now, with the Huawei watch hardware you get that nice cold forged and rolled unibody SS chassis, a sapphire screen, DLC coating if you go with the black variant, speaker support for calls, and full Google Now integration. A completely different experience than the one you had.
That said, the new chips designed for Android smartwatches are coming out this year and we will see a big step up in performance, battery life and capabilities from Android Wear. If App!e doesn't really upgrade their watch internals, they will fall even further behind.

Yeah, everything is running much better on the urbane 2, and the screen is absolutely gorgeous, though it might go back, battery hasn't been that great plus you can't replace the bands. What have you heard about the new processors coming in the fall? I haven't seen anything about those.

A little worried about Wear 2.0, I flashed it on the urbane and I really didn't like it, they changed a lot with how you interact with it and feel it's a step backwards, though some of the new features such as the keyboard and handwriting input were very cool and stand alone apps is badly needed.

 

[Aneres11]

I'm very tempted by the Huawei Watch.

Has anyone got one, had any experience with it? Think it's worth the money?

I think it's the best looking one so far, but I have no idea how apps run on them, or general notifications compared to the Apple Watch I had last year.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Lloydbm41]

I'm very tempted by the Huawei Watch.

Has anyone got one, had any experience with it? Think it's worth the money?

I think it's the best looking one so far, but I have no idea how apps run on them, or general notifications compared to the Apple Watch I had last year.

Thanks in advance.

Have had my Huawei watch since they came out. Love my watch and still think it is the best of the current crop of smartwatches. As for notifications, yes you get them all. Yes you can make and receive calls on your watch. Yes, you can use custom tones for calls and notifications from any app. Yes, you have access to just about every app in the play store. Yes, it is worth the money.

Here is what you can do with the Huawei that an App!e Watch can't: keep your display on all the time (and still have better battery life than the App!e Watch). Customize and use hundreds of thousands of watch faces. Use any ringtone or notification tone for any app you want. Have access to Google Now and all of its abilities including package tracking, airline and concert ticket info, you upcoming calendar events, etc. A better and more fluid UI.
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Yeah, everything is running much better on the urbane 2, and the screen is absolutely gorgeous, though it might go back, battery hasn't been that great plus you can't replace the bands. What have you heard about the new processors coming in the fall? I haven't seen anything about those.

A little worried about Wear 2.0, I flashed it on the urbane and I really didn't like it, they changed a lot with how you interact with it and feel it's a step backwards, though some of the new features such as the keyboard and handwriting input were very cool and stand alone apps is badly needed.

Custom Snapdragon CPU's designed specifically for Android Wear will be in the new watches this fall.

As for wear 2.0, don't look at what you saw as anything more than a beta. Google is known for changing a lot before finishing an OS update. Hard to tell what they will keep and what they will change or delete.

 

[hallux]

I have the Huawei Watch, like it so far. One complaint I have about AW is if I try responding to a text through the wtach and my response starts with 'OK' but I want more, it takes the 'OK' and runs with it for the entire reply text.

I don't feel like the watch is overly large or heavy, not much more so than the ones I wore previously. I do get some comments on it - when I went to donate blood and the tech saw the face change as my wrist moved he called it "funky". Some non-Google apps are supporting AW - Discover (credit card) can push notifications to my wrist when I have a payment due or when one has been made. I can also play music directly on the watch, but it has to be synced to storage on the watch for that to work, and THOSE tracks had to be "downloaded" in the Google Play Music app on my phone before I could do that sync. I have not tried using it for phone calls.

As for watch faces. I'm sure I'll start switching it up at some point but I've found one I really like.

There are 2 things I like about this compared to some of the others. The watch is on ALL the time, it just goes to a power-saving version of the face then you get the full version when you twist your wrist up. You can also change the band SUPER easily, compared to the early Moto 360.

 

[Lloydbm41]

As for watch faces. I'm sure I'll start switching it up at some point but I've found one I really like.

There are 2 things I like about this compared to some of the others. The watch is on ALL the time, it just goes to a power-saving version of the face then you get the full version when you twist your wrist up.

You haven't even touched the tip of the iceberg yet. You need to download an app called "watchmaker" (the pro version) and you can download a ton of watch faces. I make all of my own and my watchfaces don't go in to the crappy dim mode like the stock faces do. The watch face still dims and moves up, down, left and right by one pixel every few minutes to prevent any ghosting artifacts over long periods of use, but it stays a nice clear watch face ALL the time.

Here is one of my recent watch faces that I made from scratch. A simple tap of the center changes the color from silver to blue and this is exactly how it looks, even in dim mode.

All you need is the watchmaker app and there are literally a hundred thousand various watch faces you can download and then push to your watch. Takes about 5 seconds to do.

 

[HiDEF]

Anyone have or used the Asus ZenWatch? It's $80 over on eBay.

 

[Wildo6882]

Am I the only one who thinks the Apple Watch is ugly? I've thought that since the first time I saw one. I think it looks too much like a smartwatch. I also prefer round faces, so that might be one of my issues with it. I think a lot of the AW watches are much better looking than the Apple Watch. I also like that there's a variety of them - much more to choose from. All you have with Apple is expensive to really stupid expensive.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Am I the only one who thinks the Apple Watch is ugly? I've thought that since the first time I saw one. I think it looks too much like a smartwatch. I also prefer round faces, so that might be one of my issues with it. I think a lot of the AW watches are much better looking than the Apple Watch. I also like that there's a variety of them - much more to choose from. All you have with Apple is expensive to really stupid expensive.

No, you aren't alone. I also think the Apple watch is ugly and very feminine looking.

 

[co.ag.2005]

Anyone have or used the Asus ZenWatch? It's $80 over on eBay.

I have the original ASUS Zenwatch for when I'm using an Android phone. I like it a lot, actually. it's a good starter watch into the Android Wear world. I got great battery life on it and it has an AMOLED screen that was much better than the LCD screens some AW watches have.
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Am I the only one who thinks the Apple Watch is ugly? I've thought that since the first time I saw one. I think it looks too much like a smartwatch. I also prefer round faces, so that might be one of my issues with it. I think a lot of the AW watches are much better looking than the Apple Watch. I also like that there's a variety of them - much more to choose from. All you have with Apple is expensive to really stupid expensive.

While you're not the only one, I quite like the look of the Apple Watch. But looks of watches in general are always subjective. I'm not a big fan circular AW watches that are made to look like a classic, mechanical watch. But to each their own! The only circular watches I actually like the look of is the Gear S2 and the Moto 360 2nd Gen (silver / cognac leather combo). I do not like the flat tire of the Moto 360 line and the first gen Moto 360 left a bad taste in my mouth.

EDIT: correct part about Asus screen

 

[tbayrgs]

Yup, design preference is obviously subjective. I have both the Apple Watch and Huawei Watch, and find them both to be the best in overall design and build quality, at least among the half dozen or so I've actually used/held.

I can say I get far more comments/inquiries about the Apple Watch (nearly all positive) than the Huawei, probably because the Huawei flies under the radar and looks like any other traditional round watch.

 

[Aneres11]

Have been looking at the Moto 360 gen 2.

Ordering from Motorola directly I can get it for £189.
They have a promo code for £30 off for spring and £10 for first time orders which takes £40 off which I think it's pretty brilliant.

Tempted.

The Huawei watch is more preferable but for the price difference now, I'd rather pick up the Moto. The flat tyre thing looks a little annoying but I think I could get over that.

Any thoughts on whether it's a good or bad move?

 

[Fernandez21]

I'm still debating whether or not to keep my urbane 2 LTE. I have until Friday to return. What's frustrating is that my battery has been inconsistent.

Yesterday I took it off the charger around noon and it was dead by 8pm, I charged it to 100% and took it off the charger around 9:30pm and fell asleep, woke up at 4am and it was already down to 60% with me not using it as I was asleep. But today I took it off the charger at 11am and it is now 2am and I still have 17%! If I knew I would get this type of battery life consistently it would make the decision a little easier.

The other pros and cons are:
Pro.
1.The high res circular display
2.The ability to leave my phones in the car/home
3.The ability to sync with both my iPhone and Samsung.
4.The ability to sync with both my phone numbers (I did this by syncing with my Note while I had my iPhone sim in it and setting up AT&T sync, I then swapped my sim cards back so now I can receive calls from both my work line and personal line on the same watch)
5.The availability of certain apps, I can use a web browser and even watch YouTube videos on my watch if I want.
6.It's water resistant, I went swimming in the beach the other day while wearing it and it worked perfectly fine, and it was freeing being able to leave my phones in the car while I did this.
7.It uses a nano sim and is unlocked
8.The $350 price tag seems like a really good deal for an LTE equipped watch.

The cons though are:
1.Can't replace the band
2.It's a little too bulky on my wrists.
3.No sapphire cover.
4.The inconsistency in battery life
5.The software isn't there yet, still no stand alone apps and it'll be a while until developers update them even after AW 2.0.
6.Not a big fan of the ui changes in 2.0, hopefully they'll be better in the final version but that is unknown at this point.
7.A new chipset is around the corner
8.And the big one is that I can't receive iMessages even if I synced it with my iPhone.
9.The rumored LTE Apple Watch, even though I wouldn't be able to sync it with my android phone, my personal line is the iPhone and being able to get FaceTime/iMessage/Apple Pay everywhere even without my iPhone is huge.
10.No wallet replacement (Apple Pay/Samsung Pay/Android Pay)
11. The charging adapter sucks, much prefer the wireless adapter like Apple Watch or Moto 360.

Might be better off returning and seeing what gets released this fall, but then I basically have to deal with taking my phones to all my summer activities, which involve going to the beach and pool, and it was really great just going to the beach with only my watch and keys this past weekend and not have to worry about my phones getting wet/lost/damaged/or stolen. Usually I have to hide them in my shoes under a towel and risk them getting stolen while we swim or take them with me and risk losing them in the water.