Honor often makes tasteful tech, so what’s up with the Watch 5?

OPINION: Honor should have an completely large R&D funds judging by latest tech releases just like the Magic V3, the thinnest and lightest foldable round – so what’s up with the Honor Watch 5? 

Honor’s newest smartwatch appears so just like the Apple Watch 9 that it’d as properly be referred to as the Honor Apple Watch, and it stands out like a sore thumb in Honor’s product vary at massive – a set of tech that largely appears premium, even these targeted on the cheaper finish of the smartphone market.

Apart from the astonishingly skinny Magic V3, Honor has delivered some fairly handsome tech this 12 months. The flagship Honor Magic 6 Professional, full with its textured again, trendy digital camera bump and quad-curved display appears completely beautiful, and though it’s not fairly flagship-level, I actually just like the look of the Honor 200 Professional. Once more, it has a novel look with its Casa Mila-inspired digital camera housing and the two-tone impact of the rear cowl that shimmered within the gentle.

It’s not simply Honor’s smartphone tech that appears good; additionally introduced at IFA 2024 was the MagicBook Artwork 14, an ultralight laptop computer that measures 10mm thick and weighs simply over 1kg regardless of providing a pixel-packed 3K 14.6-inch OLED touchscreen and highly effective internals.

There’s additionally the cool modular webcam that’s eliminated and positioned inside the chassis of the laptop computer when not in energetic use. These are all examples of Honor tech performed proper. They appear nice, they carry out properly they usually have a tendency to face out from the group.

Standing out from the group

Then, we come to the Honor Watch 5, launched this week alongside the aforementioned Magic V3 and MagicBook Artwork 14. To say that the Honor Watch 5 appears like an Apple Watch is an understatement; it’s an Apple Look ahead to all intents and functions. 

It has the identical squared-off design, full with a rotating button on the right-hand facet – in the identical place as Apple’s digital crown – and even small parts like the best way the comparatively skinny strap tapers out to satisfy the perimeters of the watch. And, at 1.85 inches, it’s simply 0.5 inches smaller than the Apple Watch Sequence 9.

It’s so comparable that appears prefer it has been purposely designed to trick these round you into considering you’re carrying a premium little bit of Apple package, and that’s a bit odd to me.

Sure, Apple has considerably of a chokehold on the smartwatch market – for iPhone customers, anyway – however there are many different producers which have carved out their very own distinctive takes on wearable design. 

The OnePlus Watch 2R appears like a premium leather-strapped wristwatch, the Galaxy Watch 7 has that useful haptic bezel. Withings has a basic watch design with minimal digital smarts after which there are corporations like Whoop which have foregone a display altogether.

What I’m making an attempt to say is that there’s a lot that Honor may’ve performed with its wearable to assist it stand out from the group, particularly with an R&D division that’s churning out such spectacular {hardware} within the cellphone, pill and laptop computer areas.

Don’t get me fallacious, the {hardware} appears promising, even beating the Apple Watch by providing two weeks of battery life, a peak brightness of 1000 nits and one-click well being scan tech. It’s simply the look that I’m confused about. 

After all, there are many individuals who love the look of the Apple Watch however, as a consequence of being on Android, can’t truly use it. This watch may very well be for these individuals, and that’s completely high-quality. I simply want Honor had its personal distinctive, signature design for its smartwatches, and probably supply this Apple Watch dupe as a less expensive different. 

Possibly that’s coming with subsequent 12 months’s Honor Watch 6? Who is aware of, however I’ve actually received my fingers crossed.