Huawei and LG unveil round smartwatches at MWC

The LG Watch Urbane can be used as a walkie-talkie with devices on the same cellular network

The Huawei Watch accompanies more than 40 preinstalled graphical watch faces
LG and Huawei have disclosed a scope of new smartwatches offering metal-confined round outlines.

LG's Watch Urbane comes in two releases - an essential rendition controlled by Android Wear, and a top of the line one with a 4G chip and another working framework.

The last can make and answer calls and send writings without expecting to be connected to a telephone.

The Huawei Watch utilizes Android Wear, and has a greater presentation made out of sapphire gem.

To date, interest for PC fueled watches has been constrained.

Just 720,000 watches fueled by Google's Android Wear were delivered in 2014 regardless of impressive attention for the dispatches of the Moto 360, Asus ZenWatch and Samsung Gear Live, as indicated by statistical surveying firm Canalys.

In any case deals are required to bounce in 2015, to a limited extent in light of the fact that Apple is discharging its Watch in April close by an enormous plan showcasing battle, which may advantage the more extensive part.
The Watch Urbane models are LG's third and fourth smartwatches, and the Huawei Watch the Chinese firm's first.
"Huawei's market entry will accelerate price competition, but the increasingly crowded market, differentiation challenges and the looming Apple Watch will limit its opportunity," commented George Jijiashvili, wearables analyst at the tech consultancy CCS Insight.
The announcements were made on the eve of the Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona.
Standalone watch The 4G-enabled Watch Urbane LTE features a 1.3in (3.3cm) plastic OLED display, a brushed stainless steel frame, and has three buttons on its side.
One of these acts as a panic alarm. When pressed it calls a preset phone number and sends details of the wearer's location - provided by its on-board GPS chip - to the recipient.
In addition to making calls, it also provides a push-to-talk facility, acting like a walkie-talkie with other compatible devices on the same data network.
Other facilities include:

• An NFC (near field communication) chip for touch-and-go payments
• IP67 dust and waterproofing certification, allowing it to be submerged in water for up to 30 minutes
• A heart rate monitor, barometer and nine-axis accelerometer to provide activity-tracking readings

LG said the watch was its first device to run its new LG Wearable Platform OS, which would also feature in other future products.
The more basic model is the slightly thinner, but features a smaller capacity battery, just one side-button, a polished metal exterior and lacks GPS and NFC functionality.
Even so, one expert said its cheaper price and use of Android Wear OS was likely to make it the more popular option.

The basic version of the LG Watch Urbane can be fitted with standard 22mm watchstraps

"I think LG is trying to do something a little different here by focusing on design, and that matters a lot," said Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at KWP ComTech.
"Some people who want to be seen on the cutting edge might be interested [in the 4G version] but LG aren't really thinking consumers will flock to it."
Crystal display The Huawei Watch features a 1.7in (4.2mm) crystal OLED display - which the company says is scratchproof and more vibrant than the competition - in a 4.2cm diameter stainless steel metal frame.
Its screen is slightly higher resolution at 286 pixels per inch than the 245ppi specification of LG's devices.
The Chinese firm highlighted that it was also easy to recharge via a magnetic cradle.
Other features announced include:

• A heart rate monitor, barometer and six-axis accelerometer
• Four gigabytes of internal storage
• Three colour options - gold, silver and black - and a variety of watchstraps

Huawei unveiled its first smartwatch at Mobile Congress in Barcelona

Several tech blogs immediately declared Huawei's device the best-looking Android Wear watch to date - an important consideration since, unlike most computer equipment, smartwatches double up as jewellery.
"Consumers, specifically in the Western world, may not have expected a great smartwatch from Huawei," said Thomas Husson from the consultancy Forrester.
"However, Huawei's new Android-powered smartwatch looks great.
"The main challenge and key success factor for Huawei is now to establish its brand in the new connected world."
Huawei also unveiled the TalkBand B2, a revamped version of its activity tracker wristband that can be split in two to allow one part to act as a Bluetooth headset.

Huawei's other wearables also act as standalone activity trackers. The headphones use magnets to link the two buds together when not in use, helping prevent them falling off the wearer

In addition, it showed off the TalkBand N1, a pair of earphones that feature a built-in activity tracker and four gigabyte MP3 player, allowing them to be used for exercise without the need for another device