Credit: Huawei
Infamous tech leaker Evan Blass has revealed the existence of a refreshed Huawei smartwatch featuring eSim connectivity.
Blass leaked renders, specs and details about the new wearable on his Twitter account earlier this week.
According to him, "The only significant difference between the Huawei Watch 2 2018 and the original, is the addition of eSIM support. All other specs and the design remain unchanged."
*The only significant difference between the Huawei Watch 2 2018 and the original, is the addition of eSIM support. All other specs and the design remain unchanged.
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 14, 2018
The original tweet containing the pics has since been removed but assuming the info is accurate, the previously-unannounced 2018 Huawei Watch will run on Google's WearOS platform and come powered by a Snapdragon 2100 processor, 768MB RAM and 4GB of on-board storage.
The only significant change here will be the addition of the same eSim functionality found in the Series 3 Apple Watch. Previously, the second-gen Huawei Watch supported 4G connectivity through a traditional MicroSIM. While this mobility allowed for new possibilities, the overall integration of this experience was far from seamless.
When we reviewed the product last year, we said that the "Huawei Watch 2 is a smartwatch which, like most smartwatches, is great at one or two things but still struggles to make a holistic case for itself. Despite making the leap to cellular, it’s clear that that leap hasn’t come without a few compromises."
Credit: Huawei Perhaps the most important detail in Blass' leak is that it means that Huawei's new smartwatch probably won't run on Qualcomm's next-gen wearable chipset.
Speaking to Wearables.com earlier this year, Qualcomm's senior wearables director Pankaj Kedia claimed that the new chipset will be "designed from the ground up for a no-compromises smartwatch experience with dedicated chips that make your watch look pretty when you're not looking at it, that bring the best fitness and watch experience, and extend battery life."
The component is rumored to be making a high-profile debut later this year as the guts of Google's 'Pixel smartwatch'.
There's no word yet on whether or not Huawei will be bringing the 2018 Huawei Watch to Australia, nor what price it might garner.
