At first look, the Huawei TalkBand B2 gives a feel of consistency in its design. Unlike most traditional watches and modern smartwatches, where a leaner strap would give way to a bulging device in the middle, the width of both the strap as well as the removable watch face is the same, giving the TalkBand 2 a much lighter look and feel.
In addition, unlike most fitness bands such as the predecessor TalkBand B1, the watch face in the TalkBand B2 bulges out in the middle. The protruding face at the centre will let you pass it off as a traditional watch when it is worn around your wrist.
There is a home button on the right panel of the device, which when pressed will light up the face, revealing Bluetooth connectivity, date and time, as well as the battery status of the gadget. These features are evenly placed on the 0.73 inch P-MOLED display with a black background, giving it a simplistic look. The display is touch-sensitive and lets you swipe through functionalities such as steps tracker, calorie counter, sleep monitor and timer-based running tracker, although the touch sensitivity needs to be more fine-tuned.
The display responded just thrice to every five swipes over a period of time. Also, if you decide to go on a run in bright sunshine, the display will not be as sharp as in home conditions. The TalkBand B2 comes in three variants — silver, black and gold. The silver and gold versions come with a brown leather band and look much more stylish and comforting than the all-black device.
Once connected to my Android smartphone via Bluetooth, the TalkBand B2 displayed remarkable sensitivity to feet movements, counting the number of steps taken precisely, be it in small circles, on stairs, or while walking down a straight road. During an activity, all related functionalities such as steps tracking, counting number of calories burnt, and distance covered by cycling work simultaneously. An added feature allows the display to turn itself on by a slight shake of the wrist, but it wouldn’t work until I had to shake my wrist violently at times.
The sleep monitor also works by the book, although sometimes the number of hours displayed by the gadget didn’t exactly match up with my real-time calculations, varying by an hour or two.
The added Bluetooth functionality, which also lets you connect the device with the Huawei Wear app in a smartphone, will let you take calls as well as listen to music, which you can control from your phone. The head of the gadget can be dismounted from the main body and placed on my ear through a rubber connector, which tucks itself smoothly in the ear’s girth.
One brilliant aspect of the TalkBand B2 is that once it is synced with the app on the smartphone, the gadget will continue to display date and time even when the connectivity is turned off.
The battery with a 95 mAh capacity seems miniscule when compared to smartwatches, but, for its purposes, is more than sufficient. On real time usage, the B2 can run for as long as two straight days with constant Bluetooth connectivity. It can also support incoming calls and music play within this period. The charging function is enabled through a micro-USB port at the rear bottom of the device and is surprisingly quick. A full charge from zero to 100 per cent will usually take three hours to complete.
For those who can live without finding directions, playing games and running apps on their miniscule smartwatch displays, the B2 is a fine device that can let one listen to music, answer calls, check on date and times as well as monitor their sleep patterns and fitness regimen at all times.
While the display needs to be worked on in terms of sensitivity to touch, the gadget could be a lot better if modern technologies such as Wi-Fi connectivity and heartbeat monitor could be incorporated as well. However, the existing functionalities can perform admirably, letting the gadget quietly place itself in your life as smoothly as a smartphone does. Compatibility with both iOS and Android platforms is icing on the cake.