Huawei Watch 2 2018 comes with an eSIM to help you make calls from the wrist

After recent leaks, the incremental upgrade is official
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After recent leaks tipped the arrival of an updated Huawei Watch 2, the company has officially unveiled a 2018 edition of the smartwatch in China.

Essentially the successor to the Wear smartwatch that launched last February, the Watch 2 2018 doesn't differ greatly to the original. The design is untouched, with the only significant upgrade being the support for eSIM, compared to the nanoSIM that the predecessor offered.

Read this: Why Huawei still doesn't understand smartwatches

This allows the user's watch and smartphone to share the same number, meaning that you can use the device independent of your smartphone and make calls, receive texts and, well, whatever else you would normally do with your phone. This follows the lead of the Apple Watch, for example, which also lets users break free from their smartphone and go it alone from the wrist.

As for the rest of the specs, though, it's a familiar story, as we say. The Watch will come packing a 1.2-inch, 390 x 390 circular AMOLED display, with Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top of it. A Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor (not the next-gen Qualcomm chip set to land later this year) is providing the power under the hood, while it can also provide contactless payments through the built-in NFC chip and track workouts through GPS, a heart rate monitor, gyroscope, compass and barometer.


And while the eSIM support is the headline change here, there are also two new sensors on board. A capacitance sensor could hint at insights surrounding humidity or sweat further down the line, while the geomagnetic sensor should mean an improvement in its tracking abilities when you're out in the great outdoors.

Of course, with this currently only launching in the company's own territory, it's difficult to know whether this is a true successor or whether a Huawei Watch 3 will land later this year, alongside the likes of the rumoured Google Pixel Watch. It's also unknown whether the Huawei Watch 2 2018 will make it out of China at this stage.

However, for those interested in the slightly upgraded device, the eSIM variant of the watch will come in at 1,988 Yuan (roughly $310), while the nanoSIM model is available for 1,888 Yuan ($294) and the standard Bluetooth variant for 1,688 Yuan ($263).

Huawei Watch 2 2018 comes with an eSIM to help you make calls from the wrist




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Conor Allison

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Conor moved to Wareable Media Group in 2017, initially covering all the latest developments in smartwatches, fitness trackers, and VR. He made a name for himself writing about trying out translation earbuds on a first date and cycling with a wearable airbag, as well as covering the industry’s latest releases.

Following a stint as Reviews Editor at Pocket-lint, Conor returned to Wareable Media Group in 2022 as Editor-at-Large. Conor has become a wearables expert, and helps people get more from their wearable tech, via Wareable's considerable how-to-based guides. 

He has also contributed to British GQ, Wired, Metro, The Independent, and The Mirror. 


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