Review: Asus ZenWatch | ABSMARTHEALTH

The Taiwanese computer and peripheral manufacturer Asus presented the ZenWatch at the IFA 2014 in Berlin. The wearable was initially only teasered and only officially presented later. Recently, the ZenWatch has also been available to buy in Germany – although initially only in limited numbers. The price is 229 euros – in some online shops, the part is already available for a tenth less.

But what makes the wristwatch so special? After all, there are so many Android Wear watches – the Moto 360 or G Watch R are some of the noteworthy examples. But here it comes: In our opinion, the ZenWatch is the most beautiful smartwatch currently on the market. And that is a point that is very relevant to things like accessories.

Design and workmanship

The ZenWatch comes from the packaging with a brown bracelet made of genuine leather. It looks good and feels extravagant. It is a hard leather that is not easy to bend; the rigidity can be clearly felt. This gives the feeling that you are wearing something expensive arm wrist. If you don't like the color and the ribbon, you can also replace it: Asus uses the 22 millimeter standard here. You can adjust the size yourself, there is a clip system for this.

The actual smartwatch is protected by a stainless steel case. It has a shiny and chrome-like surface at the top and bottom, while the center is in rose gold. At the thickest point, which is the middle, the watch is 9.4 millimeters thick. On the sides, it tapers oval to 7.9 millimeters. The watch is IP55 certified, so it is protected from dust and splash water. The disk above the display is Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with an ovality of 2.5D.

software

The ZenWatch communicates with your smartphone via Bluetooth 4.0. The three Android operating systems are compatible: Jelly Bean (4.3), KitKat (4.4) and Lollipop (5.0). If you use an Asus smartphone like the ZenFone or PadFone, you have additional manufacturer-specific features in addition to the Android Wear functions. This includes, for example, seamless collaboration with the apps on the ZenUI interface.

But anyway, the ZenWatch comes with a lot of functions that only a few competitors have. Specifically, we are happy about a flashlight, a finder that makes your smartphone ring at the touch of a finger and a digital compass. It is also practical to automatically unlock the device when the watch is nearby. Various fitness functions and a remote trigger for the camera are also integrated. You can even control the delivery of presentations with the watch.

Video

Display

The display has a diagonal of 1.63 inches and is an AMOLED panel. According to Asus, it was specially developed for the ZenWatch and is perfect for the watch. We liked things like the high brightness, color accuracy and viewing angle stability in our Review. The physical resolution is 320 × 320 pixels, but in our opinion the text is a bit small.

LG and Motorola are doing a better job here. Also to be criticized: the display-surface ratio. The frame around the ad is just too thick. In the next generation we would like to see the same size – but then with a display that is almost borderless.

hardware

The hardware is nothing special: A Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor, 512 MB RAM and 4 GB memory are used. The battery has a nominal charge of 369 milliamperes and can be charged using the cradle supplied, which connects to the contacts on the underside of the watch via spring pins. With normal use, we came over a working day. The always-on function was continuously activated in our Review, so the ZenWatch permanently displayed the time.

Summary

The 75 gram ZenWatch just looks fantastic. The processing and the look are right. If you are not happy with it, you can replace the bracelet in a few seconds using a quick-change function.

The hardware is comparable to the other watches that are currently available. Only the battery could have convinced us a little more. The optical integration of the display, the frame of which is strikingly thick, is definitely to be improved. On the functional side, the ZenWatch does a lot that many other products cannot currently do.

The bottom line is that ZenWatch is our current favorite. The price is reasonable. The Asus watch is available in the online shop for € 229.

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