Price: £199 Euros
Rating: 0

Huawei has used MWC 2015 in Barcelona to launch a new version of its TalkBand, the wrist-worn fitness tracker that also doubles as a Bluetooth headset. We spent some time with the new wearable on the MWC show floor to bring you our Huawei TalkBand B2 hands-on review.

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Huawei TalkBand B2 hands-on review: Design & build

The first thing we noticed about the Huawei TalkBand B2 is that its design has been significantly improved since the original TalkBand B1, both in terms of the way it looks and the practicality.

There are currently three different designs to choose from: a black version with a plastic strap, a silver version with a white plastic strap, and a gold version with a leather brown strap. We'd be happy to wear any of the three designs on a day-to-day basis, which is unlike how we felt when we tried the B1. You can also choose from different strap sizes, which is handy for those with particularly dainty or large wrists.

The tech is all housed in the removable portion of the device, which pops out easily when you squeeze the two buttons on the strap and is easy to pop back into place. Again, we were happy to see that Huawei has improved the design to make it easier to remove and replace the earpiece, something we found frustrating with the B1.

Also nice is that the screen becomes completely invisible when not in use, making the TalkBand look more like a stylish bracelet-type accessory than a piece of tech.

Unfortunately, though, we did find that the rubbery portion of the earpiece came off easily and was very fiddly to reattach – we imagine it's easy to lose.

It's been slimmed down a bit compared with the previous model, now measuring 11.8mm compared with 15mm, so that's a plus.

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Huawei TalkBand B2 hands-on review: Features

In terms of fitness tracking, the TalkBand B2 has everything you'd expect from a smart band. It'll track your steps, distance and estimated calorie burn using the built-in 6-axis sensor that detects what type of exercise you're doing, and can also be used to monitor your sleep. All of that information can be accessed from the 0.73in touchscreen, which we found to be pleasantly clear and responsive.

We haven't yet been able to test the accuracy and efficiency of these tracking features, but we'll bring you all of that information in our full review when we get the TalkBand B2 back to our labs.

Then there's the Bluetooth earpiece for hands-free calling. It's beginning to make a bit more sense to us now – certainly more so than talking into your wrist like you're required to do with some other smartbands and smartwatches on the market. But using a Bluetooth headset almost feels like taking a step back in time, when everyone simply uses headphones with a built-in microphone these days Huawei seems to know this – it's launched the TalkBand N1 too which are in-ear headphones that offer pretty much the same functionality as the TalkBand B2 aside from the touchscreen.

Again, we were not able to test the call quality at the stand at MWC, but we'll report back on that soon.

Connecting to your smartphone via Bluetooth will also mean you can see notifications from your various different apps, as well as reminders, alarms and more.

The TalkBand B2 is also waterproof, and charges via micro USB. The company says it'll take about an hour and a half to fully recharge and last for up to 12 days with no Bluetooth connection or up to 5 days with normal usage and 6 hours of talk time.

Huawei TalkBand B2 hands-on review: Compatibility

The TalkBand B2 is compatible with both Android and iOS, with Android 4.0 or above and iOS 7 or above required. The dedicated Huawei Wear app has a simple, easy to understand interface, presenting data as circles that will fill up as the day goes on, and more in-depth charts if you want a breakdown of the data over the day or month.

Huawei TalkBand B2 hands-on review: Price & availability

We've yet to find out the official UK pricing for the TalkBand B2, but it is 199 Euros for the leather strap version, or 169 Euros for the TPU strap. That means it's more expensive than its predecessor, which was £100, and even then we thought it was a bit pricey. There's no doubt that the new model is more premium though, so paying closer to the £150 or even £200 mark isn't completely unimaginable.

It should be available in 28 countries around the world including the UK at the end of April.

Buying Advice

The TalkBand B2 is certainly an enormous improvement over the TalkBand B1 in terms of design and practicality, but we still wouldn't buy one. It's quite pricey and the idea of going back to Bluetooth headsets doesn't appeal to us at all. We'll have to wait until we've spent some more time with it to give our full verdict but right now we still think it's a strange little device that's only going to appeal to a small niche.