Smartwatch P9820: outside Porsche Design, inside Huawei

April 13, 2020

Porsche Design P9820

The Porsche Design P9820 is a smartwatch with Wear OS by Google. It has GPS and heart rate sensor, the styling is based on the Stuttgart carmaker. Enough names and looks to justify the high price?

Porsche Design P9820: scope of delivery

Porsche Design is one in the scene highly valued luxury brand. The expectations are correspondingly high, even when it comes to the packaging and its appearance. Unfortunately, the watch comes to the customer in a simple box; no trace of splendor and abundance. Even the material of the black-brown packaging is simple cardboard. A higher-quality presentation, such as at TAG Heuer with the smart health connected Modular 45 (Review report), would be more appropriate if the price was appropriate.

The scope of delivery includes the actual P9820, a quick charger from Huawei and a charging station made of plastic, the quality of which leaves something to be desired. In addition, there are short instructions in different languages ​​as well as information on the manufacturer's guarantee and guarantee of the different sales channels.

Even with the supplied accessories, the Porsche Design watch does not stand out from the identical Huawei Watch 2 (Review report). The logo of the Chinese technology group is printed on all the additions.

At least the charger is as fast as a 911: The fact that Porsche Design adds a power supply unit with fast charging technology is unusual for smartwatches. After only 47 minutes, the watch's battery reached the 100 percent mark in the Review. The small energy carrier with 420 mAh is charged gently in three different voltages and currents, from extremely brisk to gentle, depending on the state of charge.

Porsche Design P9820: design and workmanship

Various materials are used in the P9820 smartwatch: metal, glass and plastic. The manufacturer does not use scratch-resistant sapphire crystal to protect the display, in contrast to Apple, for example, in some versions of its watch.

The case of the smart health watch is reminiscent of an analog sports watch for men. The non-moving bezel around the round display has no functional property, it is only useful for the optics. Instead of hours, minutes or seconds, distances are imprinted in km to determine speeds, so it should go to one Tachymeter recall.

The Porsche Design P9820 can be operated via several input options. In addition to touching the display and voice control with "Ok, Google", it has two physical buttons on the right side. The upper button starts the menu in a spiral layout, while the lower button can be freely assigned by the user, for example with the pre-installed Runtastic app for jogging.

The P9820 is IP68 certified and therefore dust and waterproof. Temporary immersion in fresh and clear water makes the watch just as little as heavy rain or water vapor in the bathroom. Caution is advised with salt water: If not rinsed, it will lead to corrosion on the metal surface in the lower area of ​​the smartwatch.

Porsche Design does not provide any size information itself. Probably because with a height of 13.96 mm it doesn't look very attractive on the wrist. The weight is stated at 70 g. Our calibrated scales display 63.7 with and 46.6 g without a bracelet. In many cases, the weight of a wristwatch says something about its value. The sporty men's watch P9820 is satisfactory, but could do more.

The smartwatch is factory-fitted with a bracelet from Porsche Design. The makers of the P9820 do without their own constructions and resort to the open 22 mm standard. Advantage: You are not bound to the expensive bracelets from your own ecosystem (Hello, Apple) and can connect your own or affordable third-party products to the watch.

The bracelet given is called Hybrid, probably because of the different materials: on the inside it is made of soft and hypoallergenic rubber in a corrugated design and on the outside of leather with a red seam. It looks chic, almost like the sports steering wheel of a 911!

The bracelet is comfortable to wear and does not become unpleasant even after several hours. In addition, various testers describe it as skin-friendly because it has never caused irritation.

Porsche Design P9820: hardware

After a few comparisons, it can be determined that the hardware of the P9820 is 1: 1 identical to the Huawei Watch 2. The manufacturers at least use a different strategy for their own smartphones: Huawei phones are well and competitively equipped, but the luxury version from Porsche Design is always a tad better. For example, the recently featured one Porsche Design Mate RS More than 512 GB of memory and two fingerprint sensors (one in the display), while the identical P20 Pro “only” has to be satisfied with 128 GB and a fingerprint sensor.

The processor with 1.1 GHz and the RAM with a size of 768 MByte let the surface run smoothly; Stutters do not show up in everyday life. The memory of the P9820 is 4 GB. Music files for wireless transmission to Bluetooth headphones can be stored on it, or Wear OS apps can be installed from the Google Play Store. However, streaming music content from services such as Spotify, Google Play Music, Deezer and Co. is not possible. The watch lacks the apps and / or its own and self-sufficient internet connection via LTE.

The P9820 combines GPS and heart rate sensor with optical recording. This makes them particularly interesting for joggers. While the measured pulse matches other devices, there are two difficulties with GPS. On the one hand, the localization takes an unusually long time (20 to 37 seconds), on the other hand, the tracking shows volatilities in meter-accurate tracking: Judging by the map, the user jumps in a zigzag. The Huawei Watch 2 also had similar problems.

The battery of the P9820 is above average with 420 mAh. Even with heavy use, the watch lasts 1.5 days. That is positive for smartwatches with Wear OS, only hybrid smartwatches last significantly longer. Charging does not work wirelessly, as with the Apple Watch or Moto 360 from Motorola, but via four spring contact pins in the charging station. So you still need a proprietary charging cable, and in the past we have often found that such contacts are not maintenance-free: creams, sweat and skin residues get stuck, at some point there are contact problems – then you have to clean them. Hopefully there will be no corrosion problems here in the long run.

The Porsche Design watch has a microphone for "Ok Google"– Voice commands to the Google Assistant, hands-free calling is also possible via a small loudspeaker. You certainly don't want to make long phone calls with the watch, but it's a nice-to-have feature that comes in handy when your hands are full or blocked. However, there is no separate SIM card, the smartphone must be within range to make calls.

The Amoled display has a high resolution of 390 × 390 pixels. It is bright and easy to read even with strong sun rays. Nevertheless, it is comparatively small with a diameter of 1.2 inches. This becomes particularly clear with the swipe gestures: Often the user has to put his finger on the lower edge again so that the scrolling works.

Porsche Design P9820: software

Initially, the P9820 was still running Android Wear, and the upgrade to Wear OS by Google has been around for a week. In addition to the main renaming, the update also brings some improvements that mainly contribute to the stability of the operating system.

Porsche Design installs eight of its own dials ex works. Among other things, sporty, fine and elegant layouts are available. Others can be created using an integrated design app.

The software is no different from other Google watches.

Porsche Design P9820: Price comparison

Buy Porsche Design P9820?

The P9820 from Porsche Design is actually just a higher-priced Huawei Watch 2 with the look and feel of the car manufacturer. The accessories and the identical hardware reveal that it is really just an expensive offshoot. We personally lack real accents and actual design elements from Porsche Design that differentiate the two models.

Who buys the P9820 from Porsche Design? Android smartphone owners and Porsche or fans. If you want a real luxury smartwatch, you have to take more money in your hand and grab the TAG Heuer smart health connected Modular 45. All others drive just as well with the identical Watch 2 from Huawei (Review report).

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