The Zen Watch 3: A Well-Rounded Smartwatch Experience

The watch's theater mode just turns off the display completely, which may be a drawback for some users who prefer to see the time while watching movies. However, sunlight readability is great, and it's likely that the Zen Watch 3 will provide one of the best display experiences in its form factor.

Under the hood, the Zen Watch 3 uses Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100, which was designed specifically for Smartwatches. This chip is important because it theoretically translates to faster performance and better battery life. The watch's performance does not disappoint, with smooth swiping between cards and panels. Additionally, the watch features 512 MB of RAM, which is standard for Android Wear devices.

The Zen Watch 3 also boasts IP67 certification, meaning that it's dust-proof and water-resistant up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. While this doesn't make it suitable for taking a shower, it will protect your watch from accidental exposure to water. Connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.1 to connect with an Android phone or iPhone, as well as Wi-Fi as a fallback option.

However, the Zen Watch 3 does not feature GPS or NFC, which may be disappointing for some users. It also lacks a heart rate monitor, which is a common feature in many competing Smartwatches. On the other hand, it does have a microphone and speaker, allowing you to use your watch to place and receive calls.

Asus claims that the 340 mAh battery should last 1 to 2 days depending on usage. In our testing, we were able to get around 24 hours of charge, which is about average for an Android Wear device. However, one feature that stands out is the fast charging capability, which can go from 0 to 60% in just 15 minutes.

The charger for the Zen Watch 3 connects via flush underside pins and magnetically guides itself into place. While it's not perfect, this implementation is one of the better ones we've seen. However, there is one gripe: the charging cable is only about a meter long, which may be a problem if you need to charge your watch from a longer distance.

In terms of software, the Zen Watch 3 runs Android Wear, and it will likely receive updates to Android Wear 2.0. The user interface is straightforward, with a watch face that acts as the home screen. From there, you can swipe up to see and act on different cards sent by apps on your phone.

The Asus Zen Watch Manager app includes over 50 exclusive watch faces, although only a few of them are truly impressive. However, you can always download third-party watch faces from the Google Play store, which expands the available options. The built-in "Zenfit" app tracks steps, workouts, and sleep, and it syncs with Google Fit, making it a useful feature for fitness enthusiasts.

In conclusion, the Zen Watch 3 is an excellent Smartwatch that won't disappoint. With its beautiful design, great display, excellent performance, and nice hardware, it's likely to be one of the most well-rounded Smartwatches on the market. However, it's essential to remember that Smartwatches may not be for everyone, and some users may find them lacking in certain features or functionality.

If you're interested in a Smartwatch with an excellent user experience, the Zen Watch 3 is definitely worth considering. Asus has developed an excellent device that should meet your needs, whether you're looking for fitness tracking, notification management, or simply a stylish accessory to complement your Android phone or iPhone.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what is up guys this is Bailey Stein with Android authority and today we'll be checking out the Asus zenat 3 a $230 Android Weare Smartwatch without any further Ado let's get started all right so the zenat 3 is available in three colors rose gold silver and gunmetal which is the model I have the first thing that jumps out at you is the circular watch face it's rounded by an accented diamond cut bezel which meets up with the rest of the watch's housing unlike the Moto 360 there's no flat tire and get this Asus somehow managed to include an ambient light sensor for auto brightness so you're kind of getting the Best of Both Worlds here the watch itself is encased in a stainless steel body and it definitely gives off a premium Vibe the lugs might look a bit odd at first but I think they complement the rest of the design nicely you can swap out this watches wrist straps using the quick release pin although you won't be able to use thirdparty bands as the connection is proprietary that's kind of a bummer but the good news is is that the leather wrist strap is actually pretty good offering a good deal of both comfort and style it might be a tad too small for those with larger wrists though so you might want to try it on in a retail store before purchasing it if you're worried about this on the side of the watch there's three really nice really tactile buttons so with the physical Keys you can quickly launch an app of your choice go back or turn on airplane mode I rarely use these buttons though and to be frank three individual buttons feels excessive so I think a single customizable side button might have been better overall design is certainly a strong point I first thought that the gold accent around the display looked a bit tacky but it gr on me over time for the display we're looking at a 1.39 in circular AMOLED panel with a resolution of 400x 400 this is probably the best display in a smartwatch to date and having auto brightness is an absolute godsend it does tend to lower brightness values though making the display hard to read in some environments hopefully a future software update can tweak this for the extremes there's no proper low brightness mode so the watch's theater mode just turns off the display completely sunlight readability is great though probably some of the best you'll obtain from this form factor under the hood the zenat 3 is a bit different from devices like the Huawei watch and the Moto 360 second generation instead of using a Snapdragon 400 it uses Qualcomm Snapdragon wear 2100 that's important because the wear 2100 chip was designed specifically for SmartWatches theoretically translating to faster performance and better battery life well the Zen watch 3 does not disappoint with performance swiping between cards and panels is very smooth and I didn't notice as much lag there's also 512 MB of ram which is pretty much standard for Android Wear the Zen watch 3 has IP67 certification meaning that it's dust proof and water resistant for up to 1 M of water for 30 minutes now we wouldn't recommend taking a shower with the Zen watch but you won't have to worry about it when say watching your hands so for connectivity it primarily uses Bluetooth 4.1 to connect with your Android phone or iPhone but also supports w Wi-Fi as sort of a fallback what it does not have however is GPS and NFC so you'll be missing out on a few standal load wear apps as well as any potential for using the watch for Android pay there also isn't a heart rate monitor which is a bit disappointing since many competing options include one there is a microphone and speaker though so yes you can use your watch to place and receive calls if you wish Asus says the 340 mAh battery should last 1 to 2 days depend depending on your usage and I was able to get around 24 hours per charge that's about average for an Android Weare device what's not average though is the zenat 3's fast charging which can go from 0 to 60% in just 15 minutes it's a really great feature to have is it means I can just plop it on the charger while getting ready in the morning and come back to it 40 minutes later fully charged speaking of the charger it connects to flush Underside pins and magnetically guides itself into place it's not perfect by any means but it's one of the better implementations we've seen just one gripe though the charging cable is only about a meter long that wouldn't be a big issue if Asus were selling longer cables but that's just not the case and it seems that you currently can't even get an extra or replacement charger so you'll have to be gentle with the one you receive in the Box for software there's not much to say other than that it's running Android wear it looks like this watch will be updated to the upcoming Android Weare 2.0 update though so that's certainly something to look forward to just to give a basic overview of the user interface you're basically starting out with a watch face of your choice which acts as your home screen from there you can swipe up to see and act on different cards which are sent by apps on your phone so for example if I get a Hangouts message a card pops up with the message details from there I can either leave it dismiss it or reply with my voice it's all very neat and you can think of it as a sort of a notification manager on your wrist asus's own software is relatively little which is good the zenat manager app includes over 50 exclusive watch faces but unfortunately there's only a few good ones you can always download thirdparty watch faces from the Google Play store though so all is not lost there's also asus's zenfit which is a built-in app on the watch that tracks steps workouts and sleep I found it worked pretty well overall and it's wonderful that it syncs with Google Fit you can purchase the Zen watch 3 now from various ret retailers for $229 that's a great bargain considering what Asus has brought to the table it's quite difficult not to fall in love with the zenat 3 with its beautiful design great display excellent performance and nice Hardware if you're looking for what is likely the most well-rounded smartwatch to date look no further with that said as much as I love the Zen watch 3's Hardware the overall experience isn't enough for me to keep using it here's the thing SmartWatches at least in their current form aren't for everyone and that's okay the point is Asus has developed an excellent Smartwatch that won't disappoint so if you think the Smartwatch concept is for you definitely go for it thank you so much for watching this video if you have any questions feel free to hit me up on Twitter also be sure to like this video if you liked it and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already finally be sure to visit the Android Authority website for additional coverage as we are your source for all things Androidhey what is up guys this is Bailey Stein with Android authority and today we'll be checking out the Asus zenat 3 a $230 Android Weare Smartwatch without any further Ado let's get started all right so the zenat 3 is available in three colors rose gold silver and gunmetal which is the model I have the first thing that jumps out at you is the circular watch face it's rounded by an accented diamond cut bezel which meets up with the rest of the watch's housing unlike the Moto 360 there's no flat tire and get this Asus somehow managed to include an ambient light sensor for auto brightness so you're kind of getting the Best of Both Worlds here the watch itself is encased in a stainless steel body and it definitely gives off a premium Vibe the lugs might look a bit odd at first but I think they complement the rest of the design nicely you can swap out this watches wrist straps using the quick release pin although you won't be able to use thirdparty bands as the connection is proprietary that's kind of a bummer but the good news is is that the leather wrist strap is actually pretty good offering a good deal of both comfort and style it might be a tad too small for those with larger wrists though so you might want to try it on in a retail store before purchasing it if you're worried about this on the side of the watch there's three really nice really tactile buttons so with the physical Keys you can quickly launch an app of your choice go back or turn on airplane mode I rarely use these buttons though and to be frank three individual buttons feels excessive so I think a single customizable side button might have been better overall design is certainly a strong point I first thought that the gold accent around the display looked a bit tacky but it gr on me over time for the display we're looking at a 1.39 in circular AMOLED panel with a resolution of 400x 400 this is probably the best display in a smartwatch to date and having auto brightness is an absolute godsend it does tend to lower brightness values though making the display hard to read in some environments hopefully a future software update can tweak this for the extremes there's no proper low brightness mode so the watch's theater mode just turns off the display completely sunlight readability is great though probably some of the best you'll obtain from this form factor under the hood the zenat 3 is a bit different from devices like the Huawei watch and the Moto 360 second generation instead of using a Snapdragon 400 it uses Qualcomm Snapdragon wear 2100 that's important because the wear 2100 chip was designed specifically for SmartWatches theoretically translating to faster performance and better battery life well the Zen watch 3 does not disappoint with performance swiping between cards and panels is very smooth and I didn't notice as much lag there's also 512 MB of ram which is pretty much standard for Android Wear the Zen watch 3 has IP67 certification meaning that it's dust proof and water resistant for up to 1 M of water for 30 minutes now we wouldn't recommend taking a shower with the Zen watch but you won't have to worry about it when say watching your hands so for connectivity it primarily uses Bluetooth 4.1 to connect with your Android phone or iPhone but also supports w Wi-Fi as sort of a fallback what it does not have however is GPS and NFC so you'll be missing out on a few standal load wear apps as well as any potential for using the watch for Android pay there also isn't a heart rate monitor which is a bit disappointing since many competing options include one there is a microphone and speaker though so yes you can use your watch to place and receive calls if you wish Asus says the 340 mAh battery should last 1 to 2 days depend depending on your usage and I was able to get around 24 hours per charge that's about average for an Android Weare device what's not average though is the zenat 3's fast charging which can go from 0 to 60% in just 15 minutes it's a really great feature to have is it means I can just plop it on the charger while getting ready in the morning and come back to it 40 minutes later fully charged speaking of the charger it connects to flush Underside pins and magnetically guides itself into place it's not perfect by any means but it's one of the better implementations we've seen just one gripe though the charging cable is only about a meter long that wouldn't be a big issue if Asus were selling longer cables but that's just not the case and it seems that you currently can't even get an extra or replacement charger so you'll have to be gentle with the one you receive in the Box for software there's not much to say other than that it's running Android wear it looks like this watch will be updated to the upcoming Android Weare 2.0 update though so that's certainly something to look forward to just to give a basic overview of the user interface you're basically starting out with a watch face of your choice which acts as your home screen from there you can swipe up to see and act on different cards which are sent by apps on your phone so for example if I get a Hangouts message a card pops up with the message details from there I can either leave it dismiss it or reply with my voice it's all very neat and you can think of it as a sort of a notification manager on your wrist asus's own software is relatively little which is good the zenat manager app includes over 50 exclusive watch faces but unfortunately there's only a few good ones you can always download thirdparty watch faces from the Google Play store though so all is not lost there's also asus's zenfit which is a built-in app on the watch that tracks steps workouts and sleep I found it worked pretty well overall and it's wonderful that it syncs with Google Fit you can purchase the Zen watch 3 now from various ret retailers for $229 that's a great bargain considering what Asus has brought to the table it's quite difficult not to fall in love with the zenat 3 with its beautiful design great display excellent performance and nice Hardware if you're looking for what is likely the most well-rounded smartwatch to date look no further with that said as much as I love the Zen watch 3's Hardware the overall experience isn't enough for me to keep using it here's the thing SmartWatches at least in their current form aren't for everyone and that's okay the point is Asus has developed an excellent Smartwatch that won't disappoint so if you think the Smartwatch concept is for you definitely go for it thank you so much for watching this video if you have any questions feel free to hit me up on Twitter also be sure to like this video if you liked it and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already finally be sure to visit the Android Authority website for additional coverage as we are your source for all things Android\n"