After the customary teasers the Asus ZenWatch has gone official at IFA here in Berlin. The new Android Wear powered smartwatch comes with a 1.63-inch, 320x320 pixels AMOLED rectangular display (what gives!) curved stainless-steel casing with a rose-gold colored band surrounding it and a 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 3 layer at the top covering the top. You get a stitched leather strap within the box with quick-release clasp but you can swap it with any 22mm band of your choice.
Coming to specs, the ZenWatch runs on the same Snapdragon 400 SoC as its counterparts, the Gear Live, LG G Watch and LG G Watch R. There's 512 MB RAM with 4 GB onboard storage. Connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.0, 1.4 Wh battery and a bio-sensor which monitors heart-rate and activity. On the software front Asus has included some of the ZenUI elements on the ZenWatch.
Asus has made a companion app for the watch which much be installed on your Android smartphone, called the ZenWatch Manager which also syncs "Do It Later" tasks as well as your schedule. There are some interesting pre-loaded functions of the watch. You can double-tap the watch face to perform a specific programmable task, you can cover to mute, find your phone, remotely access camera and control presentations right from your phone. But you would need additional Asus apps like Remote Camera and Remote Link installed on your phone.
At $199 the Asus ZenWatch is a bit costlier than the competition (looking at you, Samsung) but we might get some discounts or free accessories closer to launch, on which we just know that it is going to be sometime in late Q3 or early Q4.
Image Credit: Gizmodo Australia
