Honor Watch Magic announced for Malaysia. RM599 available from 26 Jan

If you’re in the market for an affordable smartwatch you might want to consider the Honor Watch Magic. The Watch Magic is pretty much identical to the more premium Huawei Watch GT (since Honor is a brand under Huawei) but at almost half the price. Where the Watch GT costs RM899, the Honor Watch Magic retails for only RM599, but you’re not trading off much.

The Honor Watch Magic is made from the same material as the Watch GT, that means the device gets a 316L grade stainless steel body that can withstand up to 5ATM of underwater pressure (or about 50 metres underwater) which makes the watch pretty much swim proof. However, you don’t get the more premium ceramic finish as the Watch GT.

The Honor Watch Magic also gets the same AMOLED display with the same 326ppi pixel density as the Watch GT but at a slightly smaller display size — 1.2-inch for the Honor vs 1.39-inch for the Huawei.

The battery on the Watch Magic is smaller as well — 178mAh vs. 420mAh on the Huawei Watch GT – but Honor claims the Watch Magic can go for a respectable seven days between charges.

Of course, you can expect all the standard features from the Watch Magic. Features like fitness tracking, real-time heart-rate monitoring, GPS tracking with support for GLONAS as well as GALILEO systems, swim tracking, sleep monitoring and daily activity tracking. Additionally, this smartwatch also has Huawei’s TrueSeen 3.0 self-learning algorithm for more efficient health tracking.

There’s of course support for notifications for incoming calls and messages too.

The only problem I have with the Honor Watch Magic is that it is running on Huawei’s very own smartwatch operating system.

The problem with this is app support. From my experience with the device this is where the Honor Watch Magic is found wanting when compared to smartwatches running the more widely supported Google Wear OS. You will have to make do with much fewer options in terms of apps and watch faces.

The Honor Watch Magic will be available in Malaysia from 26 January and can be purchased online from hihonor.com/my for RM599. The device is also available at Honor’s roadshow in One Utama Shopping Centre.

The device is available in Meteorite Black with a dual-tone – black and red – watch strap made from Italian cowhide on the front side and a sweat-proof silicone rubber on the back.

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