Asus is launching its first smartwatch with a round display, and it also happens to be the first Android Wear smartwatch to feature three physical buttons on the side, as well as a touchscreen display.
The Asus ZenWatch 3 is being positioned as a more premium device than the company’s first two smartwatches, which were emphasized as budget devices with a few premium design elements.
With a starting price of 229 Euros, the ZenWatch 3 is hardly the most expensive smartwatch on the market. But it’s not quite as affordable as the ZenWatch 1 or 2. So rather than focus value, Asus spent a lot of time during the announcement talking about fine craftmanship, a diamond-cut bezel, the premium leather bands, and the jewelry-grade 316L stainless steel materials used in the ZenWatch 3.
There’s also a rubber strap option for folks that don’t care for (or don’t want to pay for) Italian leather.
Asus will sell models in gun metal, silver, and rose gold colors, and the company says you can customize the watch with a choice of 6 themes and 50 designer watch faces. There’s also a face designer app that lets you create your own watch faces.
The Asus ZenWatch 3 is IP67 water resistant and supports “HyperCharge” fast charging, which lets you get a 60 percent battery charge in 15 minutes. Asus says that should be enough to give you a full day’s usage.
The watch comes with a magnetic charger, a watch stand, and an external battery pack that you can connect to the back of the watch to get 40 percent longer battery life.
Under the hood, the watch is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor and the display is a 1.4 inch, 400 x 400 pixel screen.
So what about that new 3-button layout? You can assign the top button to your favorite app, allowing you to quickly open that app with a single button press.
