Huawei Watch - Active Leather model product reviews

Having owned many watches in my years, and a couple of "smart" watches in more recent times, I was quite excited to see what the current mid- to high-range devices had to offer. That said, I am a bit wary of offering early impressions based on short-duration testing. A few years ago I got a budget smartwatch to review that performed very impressively for it's price, but less than 6 months later issues started creeping in, and 3 months after that the watch was totally unusable... so please, take this review with a grain of salt and assume that over time issues may arise and/or amplify.

First impressions were very positive - the packaging is stylish and gives the clear impression you have bought a quality product. The outer case is a very dark grey matte-finish cube with glossy black writing on it, and is sealed with a couple of stickers at the base. Cutting those allows you to remove the lid - all four sides and the top panel in one piece. Inside that, you will find another cubic box made of a leather-lookalike material that opens like a jumbo jewellery box, revealing your new prized possession. In this case, the anodised black finish "Active" variant. While not as flash and "bling" as the silver or gold versions, this is a watch you can wear with almost any outfit.

I made the mistake of powering it up before I downloaded and installed the app on my phone, so to get it fully configured I had to do a factory reset after about an hour of frustration... so be smart and get the app first. Once you have that, go through the very brief setup on the watch, and follow all the pairing and configuration prompts that get shotgunned at you by the watch and the app in rapid sequence. After that, you're done. The watch knows you and your phone, and it's ready to take your pulse, count your steps, let you know about that lunch date with Mary from accounting, alert you to the incoming Skype call from your brother, listen to your voice commands so you can send a hands-free txt message to your best mate, or even initiate a call. This last one is great if your phone is also paired with a hands-free kit of some kind, as it gives you total hand-freedom to keep doing whatever it was you were doing.

Battery life is quite solid, I got almost 2 full days usage out of it before I needed to give it a rejuice, and that's as simple as putting it on the magnetic charger. While not an induction loop charger - meaning you must have the phone aligned correctly so the pins touch the contacts on the watch - this is very quick to learn and become second-nature within a day or two. I did find the charger liked to 'wander' around my bedside table if I wasn't careful, so I locked it in place with a couple of small dots of blu-tac and that solved the problem easily.

Because it's a smart-device with a colour AMOLED screen, you can easily download a huge range of watchface 'skins' and can, if you're hooked enough and willing to pay a few dollars, even download one of a couple of watch face editors that will allow you to create your own design and transfer it to the watch. Now your watch looks the way you want it to, and can be quickly switched between designs to suit your mood or the occasion - fun and carefree for days with the family, or a quick-change to elegant and stylish for that work meeting with a new client.

But all was not roses during this test phase. While the watch performed flawlessly when paired with my phone, it didn't always stay paired with the phone. The connection would drop out at the strangest of times, saying the watch had moved out of range of the phone despite them still being on my wrist and in my pocket respectively. Sometime though, they did move out of range of each other, if I forgot to grab my phone off the desk as I shot out the door. For whatever the reason, when they stopped talking to each other, it was nigh on impossible to get them to reconnect without putting the watch through a factory reset again.

This became annoying after the third time, but was really starting to cost me hair by the sixth time in the first week. Then I got a week of near-flawless operation and it was just deep love. I was really taken by how well it performed when it was performing well - receiving txts while driving and being able to take a half-second peek at my wrist to see if it was important or not. If it was, I could look for a safe place to pull over, and if it wasn't I could just speak a few commands and a quick message to let them know I would contact them back later when I wasn't busy, which would then be sent as a txt back to them. It also allowed me to lodge quick notes, set reminders and appointments, and even give me a quick countdown so I didn't overcook dinner - all without touching my phone. Just a quick tap on the watch to wake it up, say "OK Google" to trigger voice-command mode, and away I went.

But all things come and go in cycles, and sure enough after about 8 days of bliss, the communication glitches started coming back. Trying this with another phone didn't solve the issue, so I feel fairly safe in saying the watch was the culprit. Perhaps, being a demo model that has done the rounds, this unit was feeling a bit 'ridden hard and left standing wet' as an equestrian would put it. If that's the case, then I remind you of my earlier request to take this review with a grain or two of salt.

Overall, I have mixed feelings with a slight leaning towards 'positive'. While I can't categorically say the issues were NOT caused by the watch, some testing did seem to indicate this particular unit wasn't doing its A-Game performance. But, when everything was in alignment, this was a beautiful piece of kit to have and use. I haven't worn a watch in over a year, but putting this baby on my wrist was like coming home again after a long trip away - comfortable, but somewhat new and exciting again.