Huawei sent me over to Dubai to check out a bunch of new products the company has coming your way across notebooks, wearables and even new audio devices. This product launch marked likely the largest we have seen from Huawei in a while and there’s a lot to cover so let’s dive in.
Here’s a hands-on video with these products
HUAWEI WATCH FIT 3
First off, we have the HUAWEI WATCH FIT 3. This new sleek and fashionable wearable has been completely redesigned from the ground up. It now features a square-faced design with a 1.82-inch display.
HUAWEI says the new smartwatch promises to revolutionise the way users monitor their health, stay connected with others and express their personal style. The new square design is only 9.9mm thin and the watch body only weighs 26 grams.
HUAWEI has also included the latest advanced health and fitness monitoring features on the watch including the new HUAWEI TruSleep 4.0 and HUAWEI TruSeen 5.5 health monitoring. Combined, users will be able to monitor their heart rates, sleeping patterns, post-fitness cooldown periods, daily walking and more.
I think the Watch Fit 3 has had a much-needed revamp. Yes, the square design does look familiar but it works. The red dial on some models also adds quite a bit of flair to the device and the sleeker design makes it one of the lightest smartwatches you can buy.
The Huawei Watch Fot 3 is the only product I have pricing for at this time. The device is retailing in South Africa for R2,999 and will launch on 14 May. You can pre-order the Watch Fit 3 today and Huawei will throw in a pair of FreeBuds SE2 valued at R1499 for free. Visit the store here to find out more.
HUAWEI MATEBOOK X Pro
The new HUAWEI MATEBOOK X Pro is likely my favourite new product from the batch. Huawei has gone all out on this device cramming in as much tech as possible while keeping it incredibly thin and lightweight.
This notebook now only weighs 980 grams. At its thinnest point, it is only 4mm thin which is pretty wild. The display on the notebook is a 14.2-inch flexible OLED with a 3.1K resolution. It is also powered by an Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU meaning it is also a decent workhorse.
Overall, this is an impressive notebook. You can pick it up with two fingers and even open the device’s lid without the bottom lifting off the table.
I especially found Huawei’s approach to its motherboard fascinating. The company has split up the internal board. So the screen, SoC and cooling are on a separate board compared to the USB C ports. The three boards are then divided by fans which Huawei says have been improved by AI.
I dunno, this is a pretty impressive Windows notebook. I can see this device winning awards and completely knocking its competition out of the water. Every time I thought it was missing a feature, I found it. I thought it wasn’t touchscreen but it was, for example.
HUAWEI MATEBOOK 14
The younger brother of the MateBook range has also been revamped. The Huawei MateBook 14 is now green and is slightly bigger than the X Pro. It also includes a 14-inch 2.8K flexible OLED panel with touchscreen support. Huawei has also added M-Pencil support to the device so you can draw and take notes on the touchscreen display.
It comes with some internal improvements too like the Intel Core Ultra processor. So the performance you can expect from that chip is there. Huawei wants this to be the more affordable MateBook and so far, it looks like it might be. It would be for those who don’t need the X Pro features.
HUAWEI MATEPAD 11.5 S
Huawei’s new MatePad 11.5 S isn’t meant to be a revamp of its already-popular MatePad Pro. Instead, this device lives on its own and offers its own experience. Of course, the biggest selling point here is the paper-like PaperMatte Display that Huawei has spent a lot of money making.
The PaperMatte Display is a virtually reflection-free glass panel that feels like paper but has more advantages than just feeling like paper. Huawei has used the PaperMatte as an opportunity to add anti-blue-light technology onto the glass so it also helps with eye care. The company says it eliminates 97% of all light interference.
The panel also provides an incredible amount of clarity on the display compared to using your usual paper-like screen protectors that blur the image. It all then works flawlessly with the M-Pen 3.
The device itself is also quite a beefy tablet. It packs a 2.2K resolution and a refresh rate of 120Hz. All of this is crammed into a tablet that is only 6.85mm thick. You can also attach the tablet to a Huawei Smart Keyboard.
HUAWEI FREEBUDS 6i + FREECLIP
Huawei is now releasing the FreeClip earphones in a beige colour. While the company didn’t change any internal components on these earphones, the beige colour adds to the current Purple and Black models on the market and will give customers a new option to choose from. I think the beige looks nice. It should live nicely alongside the rest.
The Huawei FreeBuds 6i, on the other hand, are new. Huawei has improved the FreeBuds 6i across various features but most notable is likely the added ANC 3.0. The feature includes various tweaks to the system including a new noise filtering chamber. This helps dampen the outside noise before feeding it into the three-microphone system which then calculates what sound to replicate and cancel.
Huawei has also improved the audio on the earphones with a new 11mm ultra-magnetic driver. The company says it can now produce bass as low as 14Hz. The system also supports LDAC HD audio which means the FreeBuds 6i are now Hi-Res Audio Wireless Certified.
The battery on the Huawei FreeBuds 6i packs up to 35 hours without ANC and up to 20 hours with ANC. Of course, that is with using the case to recharge the buds. They last roughly 8 hours per charge.
