Huawei announces new smartwatch, phone and tablet for Australia

China phone maker Huawei has announced Australian availability of its long awaited smartphone, watch and tablet.

China phone maker Huawei today announced Australian availability of its long awaited smartwatch, along with a new phone and tablet due for release next month.

The G8 smartphone and MediaPad M2 is expected to find a home among those struggling to afford premium devices such iPhone and Samsung phones and tablets, especially with the decline in the dollar’s value.

Huawei Watch.

Huawei Watch which uses Google’s Android Wear operating system, garnered great interest after being showcased in March this year. Only now is it coming to Australia. But it won’t be cheap.

The most inexpensive model, with a black watch face and stainless steel band, will cost $549. The same watch with a silver mesh strap will cost $649, as will one with a silver link band. The most expensive, with a stainless steel watch face and black leather band, will cost $749. Users can substitute their own 18mm band. By comparison, Apple Watch Sport starts at $499 locally.

Huawei says the watches will be available in Australia from October 16.

Apart from running Google’s Android Wear operating system, Huawei Watch comes preloaded with 40 watch faces. It is water resistant with an IP67 rating, and has a 300 milliampere hour battery which Huawei says will deliver 1.5 days of battery life. Huawei also cites 75 minutes for charging.

Huawei Watch has a 1.4-inch AMOLED sapphire crystal display with 400x400 pixel resolution, is 13mm thick, and weighs from 51 to 131 grams depending on the watchband.

Huawei Watch and Samsung’s recently showcased Gear S2 are the new entrants taking the fight to Apple Watch. The Gear S2 isn’t an Android phone, it uses Samsung’s own operating system, Tizen.

But both have been designed to pair with later model iPhones as well as Android devices. Google recently released a version of Android Wear for iPhones to make this viable.

Huawei G8 smartphone.

The G8 phone meanwhile is an LTE device with a 5.5-inch full HD display, 13 and 5 megapixel cameras and a fingerprint sensor mounted on the back. The screen is the same size as Apple’s iPhone 6s Plus.

In my initial tests with the G8, the sensor was very quick to recognise my index finger print, although I had initial trouble locating my finger accurately on the back sensor as you can’t see it from the front.

The sensor will unlock the phone and restore it from standby mode in one action. You also can press it to take photos.

The G8 comes with up to 64GB of storage which you can supplement with microSD card storage. It weighs 167 grams, runs Android Lollipop 5.1, has a 3000 mAh battery, takes a nano SIM, and will run on Telstra, Optus and Vodafone LTE networks.

Huawei says Australia will be one of the first countries outside of China to stock the G8.

Huawei MediaPad M2.

The third device, Huawei MediaPad M2, is a smallish form factor 8-inch tablet around the size of iPad Mini. It’s designed as a media consumption device with a 1080p full HD display at 283 pixels per inch and dual speakers with Harmon Kardon sound.

It has 8 and 2 megapixel back and front facing cameras, supports LTE Cat 4, and an “eye protection mode” for comfortable reading. Huawei says it will be available in Australia by the end of October.

It is likely to be available on a telco plan and maybe through retailers later. Pricing is not announced though. A version supplied to retailers may support two SIM cards, but details are yet to be announced.

Tomorrow Google is expected to announce a Nexus phone made by Huawei called the Nexus 6P with an even slightly higher 5.7-inch display. The Mountain View company is also expected to announce a Nexus 5X by LG, and to formally launch its new Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system.

Chris Griffith travelled to San Francisco courtesy of Huawei.

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