Published 19:06 IST, January 14th 2020
Honor Magic Watch 2 launched in India starting at Rs 12,999, touts 2-week battery life
Honor has launched the Honor Magic Watch 2 in India at a starting price of Rs 12,999 for the variant with Charcoal Black band.
Huawei sub brand launched the Honor Magic Watch 2 wearable in India on Tuesday. The Honor Magic Watch 2 was launched alongside the Honor 9X phone and Honor Band 5i fitness band. In many ways, the Honor Magic Watch 2 is like the Huawei Watch GT 2 which was recently launched in India. The Honor Magic Watch 2 is of course more affordable.
Honor has launched the Honor Magic Watch 2 in India at a starting price of Rs 12,999 for the variant with Charcoal Black band while the variant with Flax Brown band will sell for Rs 14,999. Both the variants will initially be sold in 46mm sizing. Honor says the 42mm version of the Honor Magic Watch 2 will come later. The Honor Magic Watch 2 will be available for buying in India from January 19 from Amazon. Amazon Prime members can get it from January 18.
Like the Huawei Watch GT 2, the Honor Magic Watch 2 also ditches Google’s Wear OS in favour of Huawei’s own home-grown software that lays special emphasis on long-lasting battery life. Honor touts up to 2-week battery life on this one, and when paired with its expansive fitness tracking features, the Honor Magic Watch 2 instantly becomes a viable alternative to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Watch and even the Apple Watch.
The Honor Magic Watch 2 is not so much a smartwatch, as it is a fitness band masquerading as one. Honor may have ensured that the Honor Magic Watch 2 looks the part, at least, and bundles in many features you’d normally see in high-end smartwatches, deep inside it is still a very fitness-oriented band-like wearable device. Its biggest USP is its seemingly long-lasting battery life. Honor touts a whopping 2-week battery life on this one, which is nothing short of phenomenal. Of course, you’d be able to achieve this only if you’re sticking to just the basics.
The hardware as well as the software inside the Honor Magic Watch 2 is totally in-house. Honor’s smartwatch is powered by Huawei’s custom Kirin A1 chip, which it has specifically designed for wearables, and under the hood it runs the company’s own Light OS software – that has nothing to do with Google’s Android (Wear OS). Both the hardware and software have been designed with special emphasis on battery life – and the usual smarts. Which means that the Honor Magic Watch 2 has all the necessary fitness tracking sensors that you’ll ever need including a heart rate monitor, as well as sensor for sleep and stress tracking.
Honor says the Honor Magic Watch 2 supports as many as 15 sports – tracking - including eight outdoor sports (running, walking, climbing, hiking trail running, cycling, open water, triathlon) and seven indoor sports (walking, running, cycling, swimming pool, free training, elliptical machine, rowing machine).
The 46mm version of the Honor Magic Watch 2 comes with a 1.39-inch display with 454x454 pixel resolution. Honor is using an OLED display on this one, and there are also custom watch faces that you can use to tweak the design to your heart’s content. An interesting thing to note about the Honor Magic Watch 2 is that it also bundles in a microphone and speaker so you can theoretically make phone calls with it but because there’s no bundled LTE option, your phone needs to be close to it at all times.
Updated 19:06 IST, January 14th 2020