Asus announces Zenwatch 3

[PereDroid]

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Asus has officially announced the newest update to its Zenwatch lineup: the ROUND Zenwatch 3. Yes, it's round. Apparently the leak we saw a few months back turned out to be true. I will try to hide the fact that I am a bit of an Asus fan boy.
THIS THING IS GORGEOUS!
Sorry. OK, now that I got that out of the way. Asus has really packed in some great features here, first among them being the worlds first quick charge Smart Watch. Just like many of our phones, this watch will give you a 60% charge in just 15 minutes. This could address a lot of complaints about poor battery life on Smart Watches when you can top up in 15 minutes. In addition, it has a 341 mAH battery that Asus claims will go 2 days. The display is AMOLED 400x400 equating to 287 ppi. It has 512mb of RAM and 4 GB of storage like just about all the AW watches.

No US pricing (or release date) announced but Europe pricing is 229 euros.

Source: 9to5 Google

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Very nice look. I'm a fan.

Not sure I care about the quick charge though. My watch easily lasts a day or 2 on a single charge the way I use it now. When it does need a charge, I set it on the magnetic cradle by my alarm clock and phone overnight and it's always full long before the alarm goes off. Still a nice feature if you forget to charge it, but not a must-have for me.

Looks like a great option overall. I know this is such a niche market. I'm really glad manufacturers aren't giving up on AW yet, as I hold on to my Watch Urbane. It still does all that I want it to, but I know the day will come when it doesn't and I hope this is a sign that there will still be quality options to replace it when that day comes.

 

[PereDroid]

I love the idea of quick charge. Just the other day I put my watch on the cradle and the plug was loose in the back. Dead watch. Went without it that day.
Not in love with the giant lugs on that Asus, but I could get past that.
No...I'm not upgrading. I do think this is the one to beat, though. Today.

\\edit\\ Although Android Watches in general charge pretty fast.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Yeah. An hour or 2 gets you a very decent amount of charge, if not full charge on my Watch Urbane.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Nice little hands-on from AC:

 

[PereDroid]

Just watched at lunch. I LOVE the top lug being used as a shortcut to an app. Don't love how the bands appear to not be swapable. We'll see, though. Certainly one to keep an eye on.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

At first, I thought those were MODE bands on there. Had to go look at MODE bands again to realize that the little "handle" is in a different spot and appears to function differently.

Maybe it's just a quick release pin though that can be replaced by a traditional one?

Can't believe they still want $50-60 for those MODE bands...