Porsche Teams with Huawei for $920 Smart Watch
Huawei already makes a similar ‘Watch 2’ for about $550 less. Is the Porsche design worth the added cost?
There’s no arguing that Porsche Design makes some shockingly-normal products look really sharp. They work with very pronounced edges, sharp Porsche-esque fonts, and clean lines to create modern-looking things you’d be proud to use every day. They don’t worry themselves with anything about how the product actually functions, using already existing hardware and giving it an attractive shell. They’ve previously worked on computers and external hard drives and audio equipment in a similar fashion. This time, Porsche Design is working with personal electronics giant Huawei to create an attractive smart watch.
In fairness, there are very few smart watches that can match the attractiveness of a traditional wristwatch, so when a nice one comes along you’ve got to hand it to the designers for breaking with the tech tradition. Huawei makes a similar watch with the same internals called the “Watch 2,” which features a metal bezel on a plastic body, while the Porsche Design version is all metal.
The Verge had some not very nice things to say about the watch:
“The first thing you should know: the Huawei Watch 2 isn’t good. The second thing you should know: the Porsche Design Huawei Watch 2 is very pretty. This is the crossroads we find ourselves at.”
Reportedly, the watch itself isn’t particularly heavy or cumbersome, and it comes with an internal heart-rate sensor, barometer, NFC chip, GPS, and IP68 water resistance, to name a few features. The internal 420mAh battery isn’t the best in the industry, but with an optional power-saving mode, this watch could theoretically last two full days without a charge. Even without that energy savings, leaving the screen on all day, it should last a full day.
Should you buy one? Well, if you absolutely have to have a Porsche Design smart watch, then this is your option. Or, maybe you can buy a nice traditional watch instead and use the money you’d save for a little vacation in Aruba?
