New Galaxy S8 leak reveals screen resolution as retail box breaks cover

The QHD+ panel on the Galaxy S8 has a resolution of 2960 x 1440.

The display scaling options we’ve seen on the Galaxy S7 with the Nougat update will be carried over to the Galaxy S8, albeit with a few changes to accommodate the tall display.

A new leaked image shows off the resolution settings for the Galaxy S8, which will also have three options: HD+ (1480×720), FHD+ (2220×1080), and QHD+ (2960×1440). The last option is the native resolution of the Galaxy S8, and similar to the LG G6, the extra-tall panel sports an 18.5:9 ratio.

Alongside the display options, we’ve got a leak that shows off the retail box of a Verizon-branded Galaxy S8 Plus. The box reveals that the phone will offer 64GB storage, but there’s no mention of the AKG-branded headphones that Samsung was rumored to include with the device. With the launch just over a week away, we don’t have to wait long to find out all there’s to know about the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus

• Latest Galaxy S8 rumors!
• Galaxy S8 announcement coming March 29 in NYC
• Galaxy S8 release date set for April 28
• Join our Galaxy S8 forums

Galaxy S8 DeX Station desktop dock leaks, shows off 4K support and built-in fan

The DeX Station sets the stage for the Samsung Galaxy Desktop experience.

Samsung’s Continuum-like DeX desktop dock has leaked, showing off its design as well as the features on offer. The accessory will be called the DeX Station, and will allow users to dock their Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus via a USB-C port at the bottom of the unit. The dock has two full-sized USB 2.0 ports for connecting peripherals like a mouse and keyboard, an HDMI out that supports 4K resolutions at 30fps, and there’s even a 100Mbit Ethernet port.

An interesting feature is the addition of a cooling fan, presumably to ensure that the Galaxy S8 doesn’t overheat when docked. According to WinFuture, the dock has a collapsible design, with the fan — which serves as a stand — folding inward to make the dock easy to carry around. The dock also has Adaptive Fast Charging and supports USB PD, making it convenient to charge the Galaxy S8 once its connected.

The leaked image states that the DeX Station will retail for €149, coinciding with earlier rumors. Samsung will unveil the DeX Station and the Galaxy S8 on March 29, so stay tuned for more.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus

• Latest Galaxy S8 rumors!
• Galaxy S8 announcement coming March 29 in NYC
• Galaxy S8 release date set for April 28
• Join our Galaxy S8 forums

Hollywood again considers $30 early movie rentals

Slowly, movie studios are putting the pieces in place for reducing the time between a film’s theatrical run and when you can watch it at home. The latest step toward this is news that Warner Bros. would be cool with people watching its movies as soon as 17 days after theatrical debut, according to Variety. That privilege would come with a $50 price tag — the same price Napster founder Sean Parker proposed over a year ago for his Screening Room service.

That price is too high though, and other studios are angling for something that won’t induce sticker shock. Rather than offer expensive immediacy, the current counteroffer from Fox is a 30-45 day gap between theatrical release and rental, with a $30 price tag. If that number sounds familiar, that’s because it’s been kicked around since at least 2011. Universal doesn’t have a price in mind yet, apparently, but wants movies to make their way home within 20 days.

As Variety notes, thanks to anti-trust laws, each studio has to come to agreements with theater chains individually. Understandably, theaters are worried that if movies make their way home too early and too cheaply that people will abandon hitting the theater in general. As such the key demand is that home video sales stay on track with the 90 day gap between debut and Blu-ray availability for at least five years. What, getting sprayed in the face with real water during a rainy scene in a movie isn’t enough to lure you back to the multiplex?

Source: Variety

Google doubles down on the news part of its ‘News & Weather’ app

Folks looking for a quick look at day’s forecast and stories have always been able to turn to Google’s News and Weather app for an overview — but apparently, it didn’t offer enough. According to Google News’ Anand Paka, users routinely hit the bottom of the app’s home page wanting more. So they’re getting more. Today Google announced that more than 200 news stories will be added to the bottom of the daily summary as a new, plainly named section: More Headlines.

It’s exactly what it sounds like — after users pan past the normal cards featuring weather and the days biggest news, the app will load extra content from the business, entertainment, sports and tech sectors. The list grows larger the longer the user scrolls, and promises fast-loading, high quality content sourced from Google News’ ranking system. The feature is rolling out to all devices over the next few days. That should keep the news junkies satisfied.

Source: Google Blog

DoubleAgent attack can use anti-virus apps to hijack your PC

Security researchers from Cybellum have discovered another technique cyber criminals can use to take over your computer. The zero-day attack called DoubleAgent exploits Microsoft’s Application Verifier tool, which developers use to detect and fix bugs in their apps. Developers have to load a DLL into their applications to check them, and Cybellum’s researchers found that hackers can use the tool to inject their own DLLs instead of the one Microsoft provides. In fact, the team proved that the technique can be used to hijack anti-virus applications and turn them into malware. The corrupted app can then be used to take control of computers running any version of Windows from XP to the latest release of Windows 10.

The researchers notified these companies three months ago that their anti-virus apps are susceptible to the technique:

• Avast (CVE-2017-5567)
• AVG (CVE-2017-5566)
• Avira (CVE-2017-6417)
• Bitdefender (CVE-2017-6186)
• Trend Micro (CVE-2017-5565)
• Comodo
• ESET
• F-Secure
• Kaspersky
• Malwarebytes
• McAfee
• Panda
• Quick Heal
• Norton

They’ve been working with some of them since, but thus far, only Malwarebytes and AVG have issued a patch. Trend-Micro plans to release one soon, as well. If you use any of the three apps, you may want to update as soon as you can. To note, Cybellum only focused its efforts on anti-virus programs, but the technique could work with any application, even Windows OS itself.

To better understand what DoubleAgent can do, make sure to watch the video below. It shows how it can turn an anti-virus app into a ransomware that encrypts files until you pay up.

Via: Bleeping Computer

Source: Cybellum

AMD’s latest driver fixes texture flickering in ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda,’ more

Why it matters to you

This new driver from AMD fixes texture flickering seen in ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ when playing the game on a multi-GPU system.

Less than a week after releasing Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.3.2, AMD issued version 17.3.3 on Tuesday, packing specific changes for Mass Effect: Andromeda. The driver includes a new multi-GPU profile for running the game using DirectX 11 and a fix that clears up texture flickering seen when running Mass Effect: Andromeda on a multi-GPU system.

Unfortunately, that is the only fix AMD customers get with the new driver for Radeon-branded graphics chips. The company issued an optimized driver for Mass Effect: Andromeda with the launch of v17.3.2 last week, getting PC gamers ready for the highly anticipated action RPG game hitting store shelves on Tuesday. So far, the overall critic reviews are mixed at best.

More: ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ review

The release notes for Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.3.3 show that AMD still has a number of outstanding issues regarding specific games. These include Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Sniper Elite 4, Shadow Warrior 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and World of Warcraft. Here they are (again):

Ghost Recon: Wildlands:
The game may fail to launch on systems with three or four Radeon GPUs installed.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands:
Players using multiple Radeon GPUs in one system may see flickering when changing the graphics settings or performing a task switch.
Sniper Elite 4:
The game may not function with AMD FreeSync enabled.
Sniper Elite 4:
Players may see image cropping with supersampling enabled.
Shadow Warrior 2:
A missing application profile in Radeon Settings may prevent the game from using multiple Radeon GPUs at launch.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

and World of Warcraft:

Flickering or performance issues may be experienced in these games the first time they are launched with AMD FreeSync enabled.

Outside the game-specific problems listed above, AMD still has three outstanding general issues that need to be addressed. Two are tied into Radeon Settings, with one issue preventing the feature from retaining application settings when users log off the PC or reboot the device. The other Radeon Settings problem actually crashes the app after users toggle the AMD CrossFire mode and switch to another Windows account.

On the Radeon ReLive front, there are nine outstanding issues that persist, such as the incompatibility with Xbox DVR and the inability to install Radeon ReLive on devices based on AMD’s family of APUs. There is even a problem tied into Microsoft Office that corrupts the video when capturing footage containing the use of those applications.

To grab AMD’s new driver, choose your operating system below:

Windows 10:
64-bit
32-bit
Windows 8.1:
64-bit
N/A
Windows 7:
64-bit
32-bit

How Celebrity Cruises is using smartphones to put power in passengers’ hands

Why it matters to you

Booking a cruise? Celebrity Cruises explains how it plans to use your smartphone to enhance your experience.

Whether plane, train, or automobile, these modes of travel are getting more and more connected. As each becomes another “device” within the Internet of Things, they are able to provide real-time information and personalization that wasn’t possible before. Now, we can add cruises into the mix. Earlier this year, Carnival revealed its connected Medallion technology, which helps passengers tailor experiences – both on and off the ship – to their needs. And now, Celebrity Cruises is following suit with its approach at enhancing the cruising experience, and it’s using the smartphone as the starting point. We recently visited Celebrity’s Innovation Lab, in Miami, to look at some of the things the company has in store.

Celebrity unveiled plans for its next ship, Celebrity Edge, which also serves as a showcase for Celebrity’s take on connectivity. Aside from a modern design that puts guests closer to the edge of the ocean, a lot of the new experiences rely on the incorporation of smartphones and home automation.

More: Celebrity Cruises brings smart home automation to its latest ship class

Part of the Royal Caribbean family of cruise companies, the majority of Celebrity’s target demographic own smartphones, according to Tim Klauda, vice president of Product at Celebrity. The company is utilizing that factor in helping guests find their way, order drinks and food, control their cabin, and more. These experiences may also extend to Celebrity’s other cruises as the new concept does not necessarily require any new hardware installments on the ship itself.

Virtual Concierge

Celebrity showed a proof-of-concept mobile app that lets guests control the cruise experience, even before setting sail. For example, guests can pre-book reservations at restaurants aboard the cruise, see key details such as the ports of call, the itinerary for each day, and more.

Also, with the app, guests can add additional excursions to the itinerary, find tons of relevant information like passenger reviews for restaurants, and even receive navigation assistance for moving around the ship (think of Google Maps driving navigation). When on the cruise itself, the app begins suggesting places guests can go and things to do.

The app has a chat bot called the Virtual Concierge, and it can help make dinner reservations, recommend bars and events, order drinks, and more. It keeps track of behavior the more it’s used, so if it recognizes a guest ordered a vodka martini before, it may recommend the drink again. It can also see if a guest is traveling with a companion, so if a drink request is made, the concierge automatically asks if the travel partner would like a drink as well.

And, the more you explore and experience what the cruise has to offer, the more points you can get to earn badges.

“Badging is fun … it’s also a way for us to get guests to explore parts of the ship they might not have known about, and to reveal new entities to them and different places they might want to play around in,” Klauda said.

Wayfinding

The ship’s crew needs to be able to track passengers to deliver food and drinks, but passengers also need to be able to navigate the ship precisely. It’s tough to rely on GPS in the middle of the ocean, and that’s why the company plans to employ existing Wi-Fi access points on the ship to locate passengers with the help of sensors on their smartphone.

More: How Carnival’s small, wearable Medallion crafts a cruise just for you

The company said it has gotten the accuracy down to six inches, but it’s still working on making sure the location tracking technology compensates for a cruises’ rocking motion as well.

Faster check-in

The check-in process at the port can be painful, so Celebrity is looking to facial recognition and its companion mobile app to make the start of the journey seamless. Guests would fill out and validate a lot of information via the app before the journey, and at the port a security terminal will be equipped with a camera with the ability to detect passengers’ faces and pull up their information.

“This could be a part of your security check so you don’t have an extra stop, instead of going to the counter and getting all that [paperwork],” Klauda said.

Cabin automation

Cabins will come with touchscreen panels that allow guests to control every aspect of their room, such as turning lights on and off. Preset options can automatically help set the mood at any time of day — guests can configure their room to turn on the lights as the alarm rings at 8 a.m. or turn off the lights before bedtime.

This also helps the company be a little more energy efficient, as lights will turn off automatically if the room recognizes it’s empty.

Rooms can also identify when a guest’s smartphone nears the door, which will then unlock automatically. RFID cards are still available to unlock doors in case guests don’t own a smartphone, or as a backup.

X-ray and the Innovation Lab

One feature Celebrity is experimenting with is the ability for passengers to see through certain parts of the ship with their smartphone – places that aren’t normally accessible. Rather than interrupting the workflow of crew at critical locations like the bridge, for example, passengers will be able to see the action themselves by pulling up their smartphone camera (via the app) and pointing it at marked sections of the wall.

This augmented reality-based technology likely works via a camera on the other side of the wall projecting what’s inside to the smartphone, although Celebrity hasn’t disclosed how it’s actually done.

This, and all of the aforementioned features, were demoed at Celebrity Cruises’ Innovation Lab — a structure that will continue to operate as a facility for testing and demoing purposes. Inside the facility is what the company calls the “largest virtual reality cave in the world.”

It’s essentially a small room with screens encompassing  — top, bottom, left, right, and front. All the screens display a life-size 3D structure of the ship that you can move around in, but you need to don 3D glasses to see everything clearly. The company said it will continue to use this tool to demo places on the ship until construction is complete.

For many people, smartphones may remind them of work — which is why the company is stressing that it’s working to offer aSteve similar experience for people who don’t want to carry their smartphone around.

“We’re not taking away services from people, we’re trying to figure out how to advance your vacation if you do want to engage with your smartphone,” said Jay Schneider, senior vice president of Digital at Royal Caribbean Cruises. “You’re not required by any means to use your smartphone.”

Celebrity said what was demoed is only a small snapshot of what the company is working on, and there are a number of other announcements to come later this year regarding the ship.

The Celebrity Edge is expected to set sail for the first time in December 2018, but you can already book rooms now.

At long last, Kindle users on iOS can finally save pages from Safari

Why it matters to you

If you’re a dedicated Kindle user, it’s now easier to stash articles away for future reading.

The latest update to Amazon’s Kindle app for iOS has brought with it a long-awaited feature — the ability to send web pages to Kindle from Safari. The feature effectively turns Kindle into a read-it-later app like Pocket, that allows you to save pages for offline viewing right from your iPhone or iPad, while presenting the content in a cleaner, more reader-friendly interface.

Send to Kindle has been a part of the Android Kindle app for some time now and Amazon also offers desktop extensions for Chrome and Firefox that accomplish the same task. Additionally, there is a PC application that allows users to send content to Kindle via the print menu. If none of those suit your fancy, you could always fall back on sending attached documents, links, and images to your Kindle account’s custom email address. Yet, inexplicably, Amazon neglected to bring the feature to one of the most popular mobile browsers in the world until now.

More: Chrome on iOS will soon receive Safari-like Reading List feature

The content will display on the Kindle app like any ebook would, allowing you to adjust the size of the text, typeface, brightness, spacing, and color of the background. Articles added to Safari are viewable on any other Kindle app or device and can be annotated as you wish.

While Kindle wouldn’t necessarily be classified as a true read-it-later app, its status as one of the most prominent reading platforms makes it a common destination for bookworms. As such, many might just elect to use Kindle to save their favorite articles for the sake of convenience.

However, Send to Kindle will already have to contend with Safari’s built-in Reading List feature, which is probably the most convenient option of all for iOS users not fully invested in Amazon’s ecosystem. Google’s Chrome browser is also currently beta testing a similar feature.

You will first have to enable Send to Kindle in Safari by tapping the share button and scrolling over to “More” in the app list. Inside that menu, provided you already have Kindle installed, the app should appear with a toggle to turn the sharing function on.

Studying brain waves while watching trailers can help predict a film’s success

Why it matters to you

Hollywood wants to get in your mind to work out which movies to make. A new experiment uses EEG brainwave-reading tech to do this literally.

As an industry built around making money by guessing what the general population wants to watch, Hollywood has been trying to get into our minds for years.

An experiment at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management may have cracked the best way to do this: By literally reading moviegoers’ brain waves.

In a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, 122 moviegoers had their brains monitored with electroencephalogram (EEG) technology, in which electrical activity in the brain is read using electrodes attached to the scalp. While they were being observed in this way, they were then shown trailers for various movies, while scientists noted their engagement levels.

What the experiment showed is that the more engaged people were watching a trailer, the more money the resulting film tended to make at the box office.

The superhero movie X-Men: Days of Future Past earned the highest “neural similarity” score and, of the movie trailers shown, also grossed the most money in theaters. The film Mr. Peabody & Sherman meanwhile scored the lowest, and — in the real world — only managed to earn a fraction of the X-Men box office.

As neuroscience and business professor Moran Cerf told Digital Trends, the idea of measuring engagement in content in a person’s brain has historically been challenging because engagement can be measured in multiple ways.

More: Watch an algorithm try to make sense of The Wolf of Wall Street trailer

“Our contribution was in the usage of multiple brains simultaneously to measure the content,” Cerf said. “Instead of looking at one brain and trying to interpret it, we said that the one thing that is common to engaging content is that it, well, engages the brain. And more so, it does that in a way that takes over our brains regardless of who we are and what state we are in. Our measure was testing how similar people’s brains are when they watched the content. What we saw is that the more similar the brains are when they view specific content, the more it is later remembered, the more people say it was relevant, engaging, that time passed rapidly for them, and the more they are interested in it.”

Of course, no one in Hollywood has presumably ever set out to make an un-engaging trailer but the work offers some fascinating insights. For instance, using the neural similarity method it was possible to discover peak moments of engagement and investigators found that if these moments take place in the first 16-21 seconds of a trailer, those movies have the greatest ticket sales when they arrive in theaters.

Ultimately, it’s unlikely that theaters are going to start handing out EEG readers alongside popcorn anytime soon, but Cerf noted that similar methodology has a wide range of use-cases.

“This technique now can be used for any type of content, to measure engagement in various types of modalities,” he said. “Since all we measure is similarity between brains, it actually doesn’t matter what the content is the brain processes.”

Huawei Watch 2 Sport review

Research Center:
Huawei Watch 2 Sport

Google’s Android Wear 2.0 update is slowly but surely making its way to existing smartwatches like Fossil’s Q lineup, but you may want to buy a new watch altogether after you’ve seen the Huawei Watch 2 Sport and Classic.

While there will be plenty of other Android Wear options this year with NFC after the Baselworld 2017 watch show kicks off, Huawei’s Watch 2 offers payments along with another feature that elevates the smartwatch above the weak competition — 25-day battery life.

Okay, you don’t actually get 25 days out of the Huawei Watch 2 while using Android Wear, but it’s still a killer feature for when you want to just have a watch that works without a nightly charge. The Watch mode feature massages a pain point that affects every smartwatch — short battery life.

More: Will your watch get Android Wear 2.0? Read our guide to find out

The Huawei Watch 2 comes in two models, the Sport and the Classic, which are nearly identical in specs and design. The Sport model has a different band, and its international variant comes with LTE connectivity. We spent some time with the Huawei Watch 2 Sport, and although it’s the best Android Wear Watch to date, it’s clear that Android Wear still lacks a device that can compete with the Apple Watch.

Sporty design and a small screen

The Huawei Watch 2 Sport looks sportier than the LG Watch Sport, the first flagship watch that debuted alongside Android Wear 2.0 in February, but it’s far smaller thanks to its 1.2-inch AMOLED screen.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

After reviewing the behemoth of the LG Watch Sport, Huawei’s lightweight smartwatch is a refreshing change of pace, and it’s incredibly comfortable to wear. I hardly ever felt the need to take it off. It’s still not thin or small like the Apple Watch, but it won’t look strangely out of place on most people’s wrists, unlike LG’s sport model.

The seconds labeled on the large circular bezel of the Huawei Watch 2 do not serve any purpose, and it makes the front look cluttered. It’s partly why the watch looks a lot more like a regular sporty watch rather than a smartwatch. However, we think the original Huawei Watch still takes the cake as one of the best looking Android Wear devices.

The 20mm band is made of a silicone-like rubbery material, and while it’s comfortable on the wrist, the band feels cheap. Thankfully, the bands are easy to remove via a snapping mechanism, so you can swap it out for any band you choose.

Huawei’s lightweight smartwatch is incredibly comfortable to wear.

Our primary issue with the Huawei Watch 2’s design is tied to the physical buttons and the small screen. Android Wear 2.0 supports the use of a digital crown — a button you can rotate to scroll through the interface of the OS. It’s utilized in the LG Watch Style and Sport, but not on any of the Huawei Watch 2’s two buttons. That’s unfortunate, because my thumb encompasses nearly the entire screen and it’s often hard to see what I’m swiping through.

The screen is just too small. Huawei should have minimized the bezel to keep the same frame and then increased the screen-to-body ratio. A slightly bigger screen would offer more information from notifications at a glance and typing on the keyboard or scribbling letters wouldn’t be as tricky.

At least the vibrant screen as well as the 390 x 390-pixel resolution of the Huawei Watch 2 looks gorgeous. Colors are vivid, and the screen offers deep blacks. It’s also easily visible in direct sunlight.

Long load times, but Android Wear 2.0 runs well

Android Wear offers a unified OS that smartwatch makers can’t tinker with, apart from adding

their own apps. On the Huawei Watch 2, the experience is polished, and it runs well enough, thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip and the 768MB of RAM.

Android Wear 2.0, a major revamp that overhauled the design of the OS, is a joy to use. Swipe down to access quick settings, and swipe up to move through your notifications.

You can respond better to notifications through tools like Smart Reply, which uses on-device machine learning to offer up contextual, short responses. Smart Replies have been useful, but voice-to-text and the keyboard (with swipe functionality) have been our go-to choices for responding to messages. You also get the option of an emoji or letter scribbler.

More: LG Watch Sport (Android Wear 2.0) review

Flick your watch away from you to pull notification cards up, and flick it towards you to go back and even pull your settings down. These gestures are our favorite way of interacting with a smartwatch because it doesn’t require use of your other hand.

Watch Complications, which mimic subdials on a traditional watch, are also proving to be critically important in offering up information at a quick glance. You can program them to show details like the time to your next calendar event, how active you’ve been this week, and more. Third-party apps can add their own complications as well.

Android Wear 2.0 offers more control over the color scheme of a watch face and layout of the complications (you can also have none). The best part: If you have more than one favorite style, you can customize as many as you want and just swipe left or right to switch quickly.

For example, if I’m heading to a fancy dinner I’ll swap to a minimal, traditional-looking face with no complications. When I’m out and about, I’ll swap to one that more readily gives me important information. This is my favorite feature in Android Wear 2.0 — watch faces are important, and Google has done a great job in keeping the process of switching and customizing them incredibly simple.

Unfortunately, we’re still having a tough time of finding a lot of good watch faces that make use of complications other than the ones pre-installed on the watch. There’s still not a great deal of app support for version 2.0 yet, but we imagine things will look up as older devices get the update.

The stand-alone Google Play Store removes the need to download watch apps onto your phone; and the Google Assistant, which works by pressing and holding the top button, lets you ask it just about anything — from setting a reminder or navigating home to asking about the weather.

Huawei Watch 2 Sport Compared To

Huawei Fit

LG Watch Sport

Apple Watch Series 2

Motorola Moto 360 (2015)

Martian Passport MP100WSB

Garmin fenix 2

LG G Watch R

Netatmo June

Neptune Pine

Motorola Moto 360

Martian Notifier Watch

Samsung Gear 2

Phosphor Touch Time

Samsung Gear Fit

Basis B1

While the OS seems polished, everything seems to still take a few seconds to open and process. Google Assistant, for example, isn’t as fast and responsive as we’d like, and the Play Store also has somewhat long loading times. We think this is a connectivity issue, as we had similar issues on the LG Watch Sport.

Android Pay works well enough — just open the app and hold it up to the payment terminal. It still looks weird and draws unwanted attention, as people are still getting used to the fact that you can pay with something that’s not an iPhone.

Fitness features

The Huawei Watch 2 differentiates itself from the LG Watch Sport with more robust daily fitness statistics, and there’s a Workout app that launches tracking for select activities like indoor and outdoor cycling, running, and more. The tracking features seem to be on par with what Google Fit offers.

More: Don’t count smartwatches out just yet: New Android Wear watches may boost sales

You can see data like your heart rate over the past six hours via a neat graph, your estimated VO2 capacity, and the app offers steady, useful reminders when you have been inactive for more than an hour. The one downside is that Huawei’s apps offer no automatic tracking features we’ve come to expect in a lot of fitness trackers. Google Fit does, though, and it’s strange to have two different fitness apps that offer similar but different features.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

There are also training guides available for certain workouts, but you need to download Huawei Wear and Huawei Health to make it work. Huawei Wear was easy to find and install, but we had trouble pairing with the app from a smartphone — it doesn’t look like support for the Huawei Watch 2 has been added. We had trouble finding Huawei Health on the Play Store. The company said it still has to finalize some of the software, so we’ll take another look and update this review when the watch is officially released.

The heart rate sensor and GPS seem to be fairly accurate in our testing. The good thing is if Huawei’s fitness apps or Google Fit isn’t doing it for you, you can always head to the Play Store to download an app of your choice, like Strava, and still make use of these sensors.

The watch is IP68-rated by the way, meaning you can take it underwater up to 1.5 meters for about 30 minutes. It’s not meant for swimming, unlike the Apple Watch Series 2, which is capable of tracking your laps in the pool. There’s also an array of other sensors you can make use of, like the barometer, gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass.

Battery life and Watch Mode

The Huawei Watch 2 Sport has a 420mAh battery that can more or less get you through a full day with light to medium use. I typically came home with about 30 percent or higher battery life using the watch, but that’s without using any fitness-tracking features, and leaving the GPS on.

Huawei’s watch offers another feature that elevates it above the weak competition — 25-day battery life.

While two-day battery life would be great in its own right, Huawei does offer an app called Watch Mode. Similar to Casio’s Android smartwatch, this essentially turns off Android Wear functionality and leaves you with an analog watch face, as well as your step tracking data. It’s the perfect way to “turn off” your smartwatch when you don’t need to use it, such as when you’re at your desk and your smartphone and desktop are readily accessible.

In Watch Mode, you can’t do anything other than check the time and your step count. Unfortunately, to bring back Android Wear functionality, you have to restart the watch, but we much prefer the ability to extend our watch’s battery life by 25 days than having to deal with dead smartwatch. We configured the bottom right button to trigger Watch Mode.

Huawei seems to have gone with a charger similar to the one for the original Huawei Watch. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s not good. There’s a specific way to place the watch on the charger, and it reminds us of non-reversible MicroUSB days. Docks, like what the LG Watch Sport uses, are more user-friendly and allow you to simply plop down your watch.

Warranty information, price and availability

Huawei’s warranty covers your device for manufacturing defects one year from the date of purchase.

You won’t be able to snag the Huawei Watch 2 — the Classic or the Sport — until April, where it will launch in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.

Pricing for Europe was announced, and the watch isn’t cheap. The sport model will set you back 330 euros ($354), though the 4G LTE variant will cost around 380 euros ($407). Prices in the U.S. will likely be different, but keep in mind that the LTE model will not be available here.

Our Take

Huawei’s Watch 2 Sport is the best Android Wear watch so far. It offers everything you may need from a smartwatch, such as actionable notifications, 4GB of storage for offline music playback, GPS, NFC for Android Pay, Google Assistant, and direct access to the Google Play Store.

While its small screen and lack of a rotating crown may be our least favorite qualities, it redeems itself with Watch Mode, which helps elongate the smartwatch’s battery life up to 25 days.

Is there a better alternative?

Currently, no. The LG Watch Sport is comparable, but it has abysmal battery life and it’s far too bulky and uncomfortable to really recommend.

The DT Accessory Pack

Tusita Huawei watch charger

$9.54

DuraGadget 3-in-1 multi-purpose smartwatch cleaning kit

$13

Honor Huawei Honor 6X smartphone

$250

However, more Android Wear smartwatches are still being announced, and a lot of them come from fashion brands, so the design should be much nicer. Movado, Tag Heuer, Swarovski, and many more watchmakers are showing off new smartwatches at Baselworld 2017, an annual watch and jewelry trade show this month alone. We recommend you wait to buy the Huawei Watch 2 after you’ve seen what comes out of Baselworld.

How long will it last?

As with most smartwatches, don’t expect to continue using the Huawei Watch 2 Sport for more than two to three years. It may last longer, but you likely won’t see software updates after the two-year mark. Not to mention battery life is likely to get shorter.

Should you buy it?

Yes. If you’re interested in Android Wear and smartwatches in general, the Huawei Watch 2 Sport won’t disappoint. If you own an iPhone, though, you’ll want to buy the Apple Watch Series 2 instead. That being said, you may want to wait a few weeks or even months to look at the upcoming alternatives, because there’s a good chance something better is on the way.