Huawei

Huawei ‘Watch Buds’ feature built-in planar magnetic earbuds and neat skin touch controls

Andrew Romero | Feb 16 2023 - 8:38 am PT

Gone are the days when users need to carry a separate charging case for their earbuds. The Watch Buds from Huawei are designed to be that charging case, all hidden under a rather sleek-looking smartwatch.

Huawei felt that carrying around a charging case for truly wireless earbuds was just a little too much. To get rid of that extra box in your pocket, what would be the natural solution? Well, Huawei has released its newest “smartwatch” that combines an earbud charging case with a watch, negating the need to carry separate devices. This is something we saw in the works last year from the Chinese manufacturer.

The Watch Buds is an interesting concept. Internally, the watch itself runs Huawei’s proprietary OS, which means the touchscreen smartwatch runs on either iOS or Android devices. With that, you get all of the basic features you would expect in a watch. That includes Huweai’s health suite, which can measure blood oxygen levels, heart rate, and the user’s sleeping habits. On the outside, the Watch Buds smartwatch is a rather good-looking device, with stainless tell accents and a full-grain leather strap.

To access the earbuds, all it takes is a simple push on the watch face, which releases the trapdoor-like chamber. Inside, the earbuds are magnetically attached to the cover, ideally making them easy to quickly grab. The buds themselves are basic in design, lacking any stem or fin for an extra secure fit. Coming in just under 4g, they’re exceptionally small. The Huawei Watch Buds come with a three-day battery life, which includes charging the earbuds regularly.

Internally, the Watch Buds pack a planar diaphragm system, which uses internal magnetics to push and pull a very thin film, creating noise. Planar magnetic headphones and IEMs can sound absolutely stunning, so it will be more than interesting to see if the Watch Buds can even come close with such a tiny build. Of course, the software is pulling a lot of the weight with Huwei’s ear canal analysis, which can adjust the sound you hear based on the structure of your ears.

Perhaps the coolest feature is the inclusion of skin touch controls, or “auricle touch controls.” We’ve seen and fallen in love with this technology in Sony’s Linkbuds. The option of being able to control playback and answer calls with a simple tap to the skin around your ear is a game changer, as touching the buds themselves can be a pain. Another interesting tidbit is that the buds themselves are not assigned a left or right orientation. The buds use momentum tracking to determine where each earbud is sitting and where in your ears; from there, they’ll adjust the soundscape.

Huawei has made pre-orders available now for those in Europe, with the full release expected to be on March 1. There are no details on whether or not the Watch buds will make their way to other regions.