Asus has just announced its first wearable device running Android Wear — the Asus ZenWatch. The watch looks surprisingly good and features a design that is leaps and bounds better than the LG G Watch and the Samsung Gear Live.
The watch features a 1.63-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 320 x 320, and is protected by a slightly curved (2.5D) Gorilla Glass 3. Unlike the Moto 360 and what the promotional images might have lead you to believe, the display on the ZenWatch is not circular.
The body of the ZenWatch is made of stainless steel with a genuine leather watch band featuring a quick release clasp design. The watch band is user replaceable with any other 22mm band widely available in the market.
http://youtu.be/yeoxTrwk-BA
Under the hood, the ZenWatch sports similar specs as the Gear Live and the LG G Watch, which are as follows:
- 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 SoC
- 512MB RAM
- 4GB of internal storage
- Bluetooth 4.0
- Microphone, Bio sensor
- IP55 Rating
- 1.4Wh battery
The Bio sensor allows the ZenWatch to monitor a user’s heart beat as well as record their day to day activity. ASUS has also gone the extra step and included some new features and apps on the ZenWatch. This includes over 100 new watch faces, ‘Watch Unlock’ which lets you unlock your Android device by simply touching the ZenWatch, Cover To Mute, Find My Phone, Remote Camera and more. To use all these features though, ZenWatch users will also have to install the ZenWatch manager app on their Android device.
Sadly, the ZenWatch will be priced at €199 (roughly $260), which is quite a fair bit more than what the existing Android Wear smartwatches cost. It is also more than what the ASUS CEO had stated to Focus Taiwan in an interview a couple of days ago.
The ZenWatch will be available in selected markets between the end of Q3 and early Q4 of this year.
