ASUS ZenWatch 2 will head to Europe in October starting at €149
With all of yesterday’s news about various new Android Wear watches, you might have forgotten ASUS had a watch of their own to bring out. The company’s ZenWatch 2 has been official for quite some time, but they didn’t have much to share in terms of availability.
Well, not anymore — ASUS says the ZenWatch 2 will be here in October, with Europe being the first to get the goods. The smart watch will cost about €149, which is sure to earn them a few eyes of business compared to Motorola and Huawei’s options, some variants of which may cost as much as double.
The ZenWatch 2 started the trend of manufacturers providing multiple size options. There’s a small and large option depending on what you prefer, with each coming in three different colors. They also offer a bevy watch strap options, with 18 different color and strap material combinations available to you.
ASUS says the battery lasts as long as two days and charges 36% faster than the previous model. You can get up to 50% of battery life — about a full day’s worth — with just 36 minutes of charging. Not bad.
ASUS is banking on their smart assistant suite of micro-sized apps to help get you onboard. What’s Next and Do It Later are two apps that are automatically installed if you have an ASUS watch, and they allow you to see your upcoming agenda or defer tasks until you have time to do them later. FoneHelper will give you access to quick settings and tools to help you find your phone.
Remote camera can act as a secondary camera monitor in case you need to take photos from tough angles. And ASUS even has their own little emote-sharing suite, though the fact that it only works with other ZenWatch users is sure to be a bit of a turnoff (Android Wear’s built-in personal feature should help to alleviate that pain, though).
The price tag alone might be enough to sway some people toward the ZenWatch 2 over other models, but we’ll have to wait until we can get our hands on it to see if it’s worth skimping on a more premium experience to have an affordable (yet still capable) Android Wear watch. Thinking about getting one? Let us know down below!
[via ASUS]