Review of Huawei Watch Buds - an interesting hybrid of smart watches and wireless headphones.

We talk about all the important and noteworthy moments, and there are really a lot of them.

The idea to integrate wireless headphones into smart watches does not belong to Huawei. Such hybrids have been sold on AliExpress for a long time, although they are not in great demand. Typically, such devices have an awkward design, a thick body and mediocre hardware.

Huawei decided it would do better by releasing Watch Buds. How the Chinese company came up with a 2-in-1 gadget and who might be suitable for such an unusual device, we’ll tell you in this review.

Table of contents

• Specifications
• Design and construction
• Headphones
• Screen
• Connecting and working with a smartphone
• Application
• Interface and functions of the watch
• Autonomy
• Results

Specifications

Watch

Headphones

Design and construction

The very concept of “earphones in a watch” sounds like a sports story. She suggests that working out in the gym or on the street will become a little more convenient, because there will be one less charging case in your pocket. However, visually Huawei Watch Buds do not at all evoke associations with sports.

This is a fairly solid watch with a black steel case and a round screen, which is covered with glass curved along the edge. The strap is replaceable, made of genuine leather with white stitching and a classic buckle.

There are no visible contacts on the inside of the watch. The device is charged wirelessly through a small dock with magnetic fixation.

There is only one round button on the side of the Watch Buds case. It has notches, but its rotation is not implemented in the system in any way - it is not a “crown”. It's a pity.

Below the display there is another button, when pressed, the screen panel flips up, providing access to miniature TWS headphones. They are fixed with magnets on the back of the screen and, when closed, are placed in special recesses inside the case.

The screen panel in this design acts as a cover. When it reclines, the display turns off, displaying an animation of the headphones turning on. The lid closes and a regular-looking watch is on your hand again.

Accidental presses of the bottom button are quite rare, but still possible. For example, it can be touched while changing clothes. In two weeks of using the device, this happened several times.

It is important to note that the watch cannot boast of full water resistance - only IP54, which means it is only protected from splashes. You can’t take them into the shower, or even less into the pool .

Overall, the Huawei Watch Buds look good as a watch. The strict design of the case in combination with the slightly reflective edge of the screen looks impressive and is definitely not cheap.

At the same time, the thickness of the device’s case is noticeably greater than that of other flagship watches - almost 15 mm (for Apple and Samsung analogues it is 10-11 mm). But it's still acceptable for everyday use. There were fears that the volume would make the watch uncomfortable, but they were not confirmed.

On a wide wrist, the gadget looks organic, but on a thin hand it can look awkward. In other words, if you're not a fan of bulky accessories, the Watch Buds probably won't be for you.

Headphones

Appearance and functionality

The “plugs” themselves are compact, like simple earplugs or “bullets”. The case is made of plastic, and the rims on it are metal; they act as contacts for charging and allow you to attach the headphones to the magnetic cover on any edge.

The “sticking” is very reliable and convenient. It's easy to remove the plugs and put them back. Moreover, the headphones are identical, so there is no need to distinguish between right and left; when charging, they can be swapped and everything will work.

When listening to music, each earphone automatically recognizes which ear it is inserted into in order to accurately broadcast the right and left channels. This is achieved by technology that tracks the movement of the head and changes in the position of the user’s body.

The headphones weigh 4 g. Their silicone tips are replaceable; the kit includes a larger pair than the standard one, already put on, and a smaller pair. The screen lid closes normally with any of them, although there is always a slightly noticeable gap. Apparently, this is because of this the watch’s protection level is only IP54. By the way, the headphones themselves are the same, which in theory allows you to walk in them in light rain, but nothing more.

Sound

This is the case when a device should not be judged by its appearance. For an extremely compact form factor, the sound is surprisingly decent. It’s unlikely that other little ones of a similar size will be able to surpass Watch Buds.

Inside there are drivers with a full-frequency flat diaphragm, four magnets and a flat voice coil. All this provides good detail, balanced mids and noticeable bass (yes, we were surprised too). Listening to music is really comfortable, as with any other mid-price TWS headphones from Huawei.

It’s also surprising that these “bullets” have a full-fledged active noise reduction (ANC) system. And taking into account the passive “silicone” insulation, the hum of the office or the noise of the road coming from an open window is muffled quite noticeably.

There is also a sound transmission mode, as well as a function to pause the music when removing the plugs. Everything works correctly, except for one situation. If you are listening to music from your smartphone through other headphones and suddenly open the lid of the connected Watch Buds, the sound is transferred to the headphones from the watch. And music immediately starts playing in them, although you haven’t even taken them out yet and they remain on your hand. This isn’t a big problem , but it’s still an obvious bug, because the headphones have position sensors.

Control

Yes, the features of headphones are not over yet, and it’s not for nothing that we made a separate part about controls in the review. The point is this: these little ones recognize double and triple presses, and you can touch not only their body, but also two parts of the ear itself.

That's right: you can tap your finger on your ear and thus change the track, pause the music or activate noise reduction. And it works great, and each gesture is immediately duplicated by a short sound signal.

This is really a very cool solution, considering the small size of the end surface of the headphones. Tapping on the area in front of the ear or in the temple area (see the screenshots above) is even more convenient. But you can also touch the top of the ear itself - it also works great.

Screen

Let's go back to the clock. The Watch Buds have a circular AMOLED display with a diagonal of 1.43 inches and a resolution of 466 × 466 pixels, which provides a decent density of 326 PPI. The screen has no air gap and has a good oleophobic coating. Overall it is pleasing to the eye.

The manufacturer doesn't specify peak brightness, but it feels like about 400 nits, which is enough to use the watch on a sunny day. There is also auto brightness, which allows you to adjust the parameter depending on external conditions. It works quickly, although not instantly.

Connecting and working with a smartphone

Huawei Watch Buds connect to your smartphone like any other smart watch from the company - through the Huawei Health application . In this case, the headphones are activated automatically; no additional manipulations or switching from one device to another is necessary.

Let's highlight several features of interaction with Watch Buds:

• After pairing, each opening of the screen cover will mean that the sound from the smartphone speakers is transferred to the headphones. That is, everything is exactly the same as with ordinary headphones when opening their case.
• The watch itself does not have a speaker or microphone, so you can only receive incoming calls through the headphones, using one or both as a headset.
• You can add up to 10 favorite contacts to make outgoing calls directly from the watch, although the call will, of course, go through the smartphone.
• Thanks to the presence of Multipoint technology, the headphones can be connected to several gadgets, such as a smartphone and a home tablet. But you will have to select the sound source manually from the watch screen.
• You can stream music to headphones directly from your watch by sending pre-downloaded songs from your smartphone. This will allow you to use Watch Buds as a full-fledged player even without a mobile phone. True, the tracks are transmitted very slowly.
• You cannot fully respond to incoming messages from your watch, but you can send emojis and prepared phrases (up to 36 characters). Their list is configured in the Huawei Health application, in the “Quick Answers” ​​section.

Application

In recent years, the Huawei Health app has changed a lot and has become much more informative. All health metrics and statistics have become very clear.

There are traditional activity rings, sleep data, stress levels , heart rate and blood oxygen (SpO2) - all under the Health tab. The next one, “Exercise,” allows you to start a running mode with route tracking via the watch’s GPS.

In the section for a specific gadget, bars of all available settings and the charge level are displayed - in the case of Watch Buds, both the watch itself and each earbud.

The settings bars in the application are intuitive, it’s easy to find everything you need, from weather reports to the headphone search function. In the latter case, a sound signal will be sent to the “plugs”, which will help to detect them in a quiet room.

There is also a separate App Gallery panel, which displays a number of mini-applications available for installation. There are several dozen of them in total, and many are clearly for show.