Asus Zenwatch 3 Review: The Android Wear 2.0 Smartwatch

Asus Zenwatch 3

Asus Zenwatch 3 has been introduced after a series of the smart watches and the long-awaited Android Wear 2.0 is available with it. The software brings with it a dedicated Google Play Store. Its predecessor, Asus Zenwatch 2 could not reach the customers to a high extent as it has a rectangular design and felt cheap. And this time, Asus Zenwatch made that feeling disappear in the minds of people with a circular face and a far classier design. Moreover, the Zenwatch 3 has used more premium materials and components to design it.

Asus Zenwatch 3 is found to be the best Android Wear watch that is almost similar to the first Moto 360. This Zenwatch 3 will be getting its update soon. Also, it is one of the best looking smart watches.

Design:

The Zenwatch 3 is the first smartwatch with round face from Asus. This is the third version made by Asus that is not too bulky. The silver and white weren’t a huge impression whereas the gunmetal option with brown Italian leather strap is. The Zenwatch 3 measures 45 mm wide and 9.95 mm depth. The watch is so rigid that it looks odd for those who have a thin wrist.

The Zenwatch 3 is designed with a stainless steel with rose gold accent around the display, case, and crown button. The most notable design features of the ZenWatch 3 is its faux chronograph buttons on the right side of its case and the weird lug guards. The lug guards look chunkier than they need to be. In this case, Asus had opted for proprietary straps.

Another problem with the chunky lugs is that they make the included strap very stiff on the wrist and make impossible to lay the watch flat. This means you’ll have to lay the watch on its side while charging, which is a bit awkward. Asus included a small rubber pad to prevent you from scratching up the watch.

You might not find the Asus Zenwatch to satisfy anyone as a perfect fitness tracker. Rather, you can use it to count your steps that will give a very accurate result. Also, it can be used to record your run, walk, sit-up sessions or push-up sessions. There is neither heart-rate sensor nor GPS. But the distance is measured by movement sensor which is not the most reliable way to track your travel.

You can quickly swap out bands via the clip on each strap, but the unique lugs mean you won’t be able to use traditional watch straps with the ZenWatch 3. On the other hand, the faux chronograph buttons are customizable. A feature that every Android Wear smartwatch offered. They’re programmable to launch apps or perform tasks so you can set one to bring up a calculator or set a timer.

Display:

There are three chronograph buttons down the right-side of the case, the middle of which, despite actually rotating when you move it, doesn’t work as a scrolling crown as on the Apple Watch. Still, it adds to the ZenWatch 3’s feel of an authentic timepiece.

Like the Samsung Gear S3, Asus has taken its inspiration from the classic mechanical watches. The watch display is a touchscreen which can be enabled and disabled using the Eco-mode in the Zenfit fitness tracking app. The Eco-mode disables the touchscreen and enables the Airplane mode.

The Zenwatch 3 uses a 1.39 inch AMOLED display with 400 x 400 resolution. The display is as bright and sharp as you would have expected. The 2.5D Gorilla Glass is very slightly curved that creates a strange visual effect along the edge of the display. This effect can be seen only when viewed from the top down angle.

There is an automatic brightness setting in the watch that allows the screen brightness to be adjusted accordingly even in sunlight.

Performance:

Asus claims about activity tracking that Zenwatch 3 can track to 95% accuracy. This smartwatch relies on its 6 axis gyroscope and accelerometer for tracking the steps without the GPS. The performance of the Zenwatch 3 when compared with the Fitbit Alta HR is almost nothing. The gap between these two smartwatches remained consistent and the Asus Zenwatch 3 lacks a heart rate monitor.

The ZenFit app can also track push-ups and sit-ups. The former was counted with perfect accuracy, managing to detect every rep which was manually counted. With sit-ups, a few reps were found missing. But that’s a good thing so as to demand perfect repetitions. Performance feels fine, with no real slow-down or long waits for apps to open.

Software:

The ZenWatch 3 uses Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor. This is a chip designed specifically for wearables and promising better battery efficiency. Otherwise, there are some standard Android Wear specifications such as 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage.

The ZenWatch 3 still uses Android Wear version 1.5, which now feels incredibly dated up against Android Wear 2.0 on the likes of the Huawei Watch 2 or LG Watch Sport. With this delay, it became difficult to use the older OS. An update is promised, but as with Android Wear 2.0 roll out on other devices, it’s tricky to say exactly when the OS update will happen.

Battery Life:

The battery of the Asus Zenwatch 3 lasts for two days on a single charge. This is achieved with the Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor and 340mAh battery. Make sure that the always-on display is turned off to bring the battery last for two days. And if the always-on display is turned ON, the battery may drag you just until the next day. An average day saw me get to 11 pm with about 35% battery left, so definitely needing an overnight charge if I wanted to survive the following day. There is some saving grace in that 15 minutes of charging should be enough to get you to 60% charge capacity.

Charging is achieved through a magnetic dock that simply attaches to the back. A rubber foot is included in the box that sits below the circular charger and the edge of the watch casing to prop it up. This is an incredibly cheap and tacky approach relative to the magnetic charging stands that you get with many other smartwatches, and something you’ll lose very easily. Without it, the edge of the watch is prone to get damaged by whatever surface you rest it on, but the solution feels like an afterthought.

The Asus Zenwatch 3 can be the ultimate option for the ones who don’t need a complete fitness tracker because it might not fulfill the requirements of the user in that sense.