After weeks of teasing, Asus has officially unveiled the ZenWatch, the company’s first foray into the wearables space. We’d already seen a sneak peek of the ZenWatch last week, we even know what it was called, but we had yet to see the watch in all its glory and we had no idea of its function. Now we have all the gory details.
The ZenWatch is powered by 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400 coupled with 512 MB of RAM. The display is a 1.63-inch 320×320 AMOLED. Interestingly, though the leaks lead us to believe the Zenwatch would have a curved display, Asus has just used a a curved “cover lens” on top of a regular flat panel, which is a bit of a disappointment. The ZenWatch also packs Bluetooth 4.0, a built-in mic, 4 GB of EMMC storage, and a 1.4Wh battery. The strap is genuine leather but is a standard 22mm so it can be swapped out for any band you like. The body is stainless steel with a bronze coloured band running around the outside of the watch face.
The whole thing runs on Android Wear and Asus is talking up the watch’s “Smart Companion” abilities. which means integration with Asus’ ZenUI. There’s a Find My Phone feature that allows you to locate your device should you misplace it, as well as the ability to automatically unlock your phone with your watch, or use your watch as a remote control for your camera. All of this is going to require the ZenWatch Manager, the ZenWatch Camera, and the ZenWatch Remote Link apps to be installed on your phone.
The ZenWatch is priced at €199, which puts it at about $260. That’s more expensive than any other Android Wear smartwatch so far. Scheduled for launch in Q3 or Q4, the ZenWatch will hit stores just in time for the holiday shopping season, but the price might deter budget conscious shoppers.
[source]Asus[/source]
