In time with the ongoing IFA 2015 event in Germany, Google has announced that a handful of Android Wear devices will be arriving to its official Google Store. Two variants of the much awaited second-generation Moto 360 along with a new Huawei Watch is now available for pre-order at the search giant's online retail site.
The 2015 edition of Motorola's Moto 360 smartwatch can now be pre-purchased from Google's online store. It comes in 42mm Black or 46 mm Cognac variant, priced at $300 and $350, respectively. There will be no shipping fee and the Android Wear-powered timepieces will ship from the warehouse to the buyer's doorstep in three to four weeks.
The wearable device is powered by Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 400 system-on-chip (SoC) clocked at 1.2GHz. It has a stainless-steel body and screen protected by Gorilla Glass 3. There is a 300mAh battery which the company claims to deliver over 24 hours of battery life. It is also IP67-certified dust and water resistant.
Responding to earlier complaints about the supposedly annoying "black bar" or "flat tire" design of the display, Motorola mentioned that unlike other smartwatch models in the market, its new Moto 360 actually has the largest display-to-body ratio at 71%.
On the other hand, Huawei also took to the IFA stage to unveil its new Huawei Watch smart timepiece. The device sports a stainless-steel build but its screen is furnished with sapphire crystal to protect watch face from scratches.
The 1.4-inch circular AMOLED display is packed with 400x400 pixel resolution. Under the hood, the Huawei wearable is equipped with a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, similar to the second-gen Moto 360. It also features a 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage capacity and 300mAh battery.
The stainless steel with black leather strap variant is tagged with a $349 price. Buyers who will opt for the stainless steel watch band will have to shell out $399. Furthermore, gold-plated models are also slated to be sold later this year starting at $699. The Huawei Watch is showing up on Google Store as available "in 2-3 weeks."
Since Google and Apple recently agreed to offer iOS support for Android Wear devices, the abovementioned devices will arrive at an exceptionally proper time. Users of Android Wear-powered wearables who also own iPhones will finally be able to pair their smartwatches with their Apple handsets. Not all features are compatible but the most useful ones such as notifications, fitness tracking, voice commands, and Google Now are all supported.
