IFA 2016: Asus announces ZenWatch 3 with a circular dial

tech2 News StaffSep 01, 2016 11:56:21 IST

Asus has announced its first ZenWatch with a circular dial at the IFA 2016 in Berlin. The smartwatch runs on Android Wear, and there is an activity tracker included on the face itself. The casing is fashioned from jewelry grade stainless steel and available in three finishes, gunmetal, silver and rose gold. There are two strap options available, Italian leather or rubber, in two colours each, dark brown or beige.

The smartwatch is powered by a new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, which is fast but energy efficient. The processor made specially for wearable devices uses up to 25 per cent less energy than the Snapdragon 400 that it replaces. This allows for a battery life of two days, there is a battery pack option available to extend the life by 40 per cent.The HyperCharge technology allows for the battery to be charged to 60 per cent in just fifteen minutes.

The screen is a 1.39 inch AMOLED display with a 400x400 resolution and a 287ppi pixel density, protected by Gorilla Glass.  Over fifty customisable faces are available from the ZenWatch Manager smartphone app. Users can even create their own watch faces with the FaceDesigner app. These faces support a wide variety of widgets, or complications. The included activity tracker automatically tracks walking, running, push ups and sit ups. The water resistance makes the watch immune to the effects of sweat.

Anthony Murray, Senior Vice President and General Manager of IoT at Qualcomm Technologies International said “This is a powerful and fashionable new wearable that has evolved through years of close collaboration between ASUS and Qualcomm, and it leverages proven technology from two previous generations of successful smartwatches. We are excited that the new ASUS ZenWatch 3 is one of the first wearable products to take advantage of the new Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, bringing unique capabilities to ASUS customers.”