Asus Zenwatch 2 Review
Well, I had a fun Christmas. My gift haul was small, but I did get some money to spend. I'm not entirely sure what to buy with it, though...
My biggest prize this year was the Asus Zenwatch 2, a watch I've been wanting for several months now. At this time last year, I didn't really know what smartwatches were capable of. But as I asked my dad, who owns the original Asus Zenwatch model, and did some research of my own, my desire for the watch grew exponentially.
First I'll list the specs. The watch actually comes in two sizes, the slightly larger of which I own.
1.63 inches/320x320 resolution (1.45 inches/280x280 resolution for smaller model)
IP67 certified dust and water resistant
AMOLED touchscreen, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
512 MB RAM, 4GB storage
400 mAh battery (300 mAh battery for smaller version)
Frankly, when viewing the two sizes together, the size difference isn't all that drastic in my opinion. Several of the online reviews I've seen specified that you need thick wrists for the larger watch, but I don't believe that's true at all. I think my wrists are pretty slim, and the watch fits comfortably with the third tightest hole. The watchband that came on this watch is made of a high-quality rubber with a nice and soft texture. Watchbands are also available in leather or steel, with several color choices for all three materials. The watch itself is available in silver, gunmetal, or rose gold. Mine looks like the silver one.
The watch battery is very good. I only used up 30% of battery life during my work shift, and then another 20% just wearing it at home. So that's only half of the battery life used in 21 hours. And that's with the brightness on the lowest setting, and ambient mode enabled. It can charge very quickly with the magnetic pogo pin connector. It can be tricky to get the connector to stay connected, but I try to keep from laying it face down when charging. Bluetooth connection is also very reliable. With the phone in the very corner of the house, I can travel anywhere in the house and stay connected.
The crown button on the side is used to power on the watch, but it doesn't offer much mechanical feedback. Meaning it's hard to feel whether you're pressing hard enough on it to get it to work. Holding down the button also takes you to the menu, which is also accessed by swiping the screen to the left. Aside from powering on the watch, the crown button doesn't do much else. It might be useful if you don't like to touch the screen.
The glass on the watch is very smooth, and I like how it feels on my finger when I swipe across it. The display itself looks crisp and colorful. You can adjust the brightness settings, but even on the lowest setting, it's easy to read. It only gets tough to see when you're out in the sun, so the Zenwatch offers a brightness boost feature, in which it'll boost the brightness for about five seconds before returning to its normal setting. That makes it easier than constantly switching the brightness manually, and saves battery power.
Like most other smartwatches, the Zenwatch 2 has a voice command feature, where you can ask it questions or give other commands, like open a certain app, call/text/e-mail a contact, and so on. The voice recognition works quite well, and I haven't seen any serious failures with it so far. The voice command can be initiated by waking up the watch and saying, "Okay google." Then it'll start listening for your commands. For example, when I ask when the Suicide Squad DVD was released...
I can imagine this being very useful at work when customers ask me for information like that.
The Zenwatch 2 also allows you to receive text and e-mail notifications. Probably the most handy feature of smartwatches in general, is getting that kind of information immediately without having to constantly check your phone. And because I don't always hear the tone on my phone when it goes off, I'm somewhat less likely to miss notifs, as the smartwatch gives you a brief vibration on your wrist. It's like a little poke that says, "Hey, you. You got a notif." XD My only concern is that the vibration might be too brief, but I'll have to go on with it and see if I miss any. Then again, the notif will stay at the bottom of my watch display, so I know I'll see it when I glance at the watch. So yeah...it's gonna be a lot harder for me to miss notifs, that's for sure. =D Here's a few screenshots with notifs.
Another fun feature is the ability to control your music on your phone from your watch. It can all be done by opening the app either by tapping the Google Music app in the menu, or by saying, "Okay google; Open Play Music." This feature has several cons, however. When starting the app via your watch, it starts with a random song being played online. I would prefer it better if it could start playing your last played song, or your last played playlist. The other con is that apparently it needs to be connected to WI-FI or 3g/4g data in order to control the music on your watch. When I started the Google Music app via my Zenwatch with WI-FI turned off, it just played a random song stored on my phone, and didn't allow me to control it. It's kind of a bummer, because I don't like keeping my phone online all the time, such as when I'm driving, and notifs and stuff become slightly less important.
Along with different colors for the watch and straps themselves, you can also customize your look with a wide variety of watch faces. The Zenwatch comes with a nice collection of watch faces preinstalled, with a gazillion more available for download from the Google Play Store, either for free, or for a small price. You can switch watch faces by long pressing on your watch display, through your watch settings, or through the Android Wear and Zenwatch Manager apps on your smartphone. A lot of the faces look overly complex for my tastes. I like to stick with digital ones that show the date and the widgets that I want (step count, weather, and watch battery life). There are also apps that allow you to create your own watch faces, but I'll get to that a bit later. For now, I'll show off a couple of the watch faces that I've used...
This is one of the preinstalled ones. I like the simple, easy-to-read look, but the ambient mode might show a bit too much. The purpose of the ambient mode is to conserve battery life while also allowing you to view the time without waking up the watch. So eliminating the other information displaying in ambient mode would save even more battery life.
Another is a Pac-Man watch face, which I paid 99 cents for. This one is perhaps too simple, as it just gives you the time and nothing else. But if you like watching Pac-Man moving along the edges of the display eating the pebbles and ghosts, this look is for you.
The third watch face, and perhaps my favorite so far, is one that came with the Wear Mini Launcher app. That's the watch face shown above in the "notifs" screenshots. The ambient mode is also helpful, just displaying the time and date, and some faint tickers. Perfect for what I need.
Of course the smartwatch uses apps. The Zenwatch runs on the Android Wear operating system, so you will need to install Android Wear on your smartphone in order to connect to the watch. From there, you can access more advanced watch settings, like how long the watch stays awake, and whether to enable the "tilt to wake" feature. I didn't like my watch waking up every time I moved, so I disabled that feature. It also allows you to take smartwatch screencaps, which is how I took these screenshots of my watch screen. Once a shot is taken, it gets uploaded to Google Drive. The Android Wear app allows you to view your battery usage and storage, and gives you a selection of preinstalled watch faces and recommended apps.
The Zenwatch Manager app is similar to the Android Wear app, except it's specifically for the Zenwatch, and offers even more options to customize the experience. The most useful features of this is the "Find my watch" feature, which will make your watch flash and vibrate to help you locate it when it gets misplaced. "Forgot phone warning" will make your watch vibrate if you leave without your phone, and the bluetooth connection gets lost. So never forget your phone again! Because it also offers the same watch face and recommended apps, I often get the Zenwatch Manager and Android Wear apps mixed up when looking for a specific option. That's the only con for this app.
Wear Mini Launcher is an app I downloaded to make opening apps slightly more efficient. Instead of scrolling down a long single row to view all of your apps, you get three rows (or more if you like tiny icons). So would you prefer this...?
...or this?
It also allows quicker access to your watch settings as well, viewing all your basic watch settings on one screen, as opposed to one by one.
Now to get into the FaceDesigner app that I mentioned briefly above. This allows you to create your own watch faces, giving you a list of fonts, colors, position of the time and widgets, and backgrounds to choose from. Or you can use your own backgrounds. I've made a couple of my own watch faces, using some of Flight Rising's images...
Yeah, I know mine aren't too great. And the ambient mode only gives you some watch hands, which I don't like.
I downloaded another app called Coffee SMS, which is used to send texts to contacts. This one is slightly different from the default, because it gives you a bigger list of pre-made messages separated by categories to tap on and send, and you can even add your own. And of course, the microphone is still an option.
And the final one is just a simple calculator. Another handy tool I can use at work without having to drag out my phone. While it does have a microphone key, it...doesn't seem to work. I get an error message each time. So I don't know if I'm saying it wrong? Should I say "Multiply eight by five" instead of "Eight times five?" I just don't know...
So obligatory pros and cons of the Zenwatch 2...
Pros
- Affordable
- Fast and reliable
- Great battery life and bluetooth connection
- Fast charger
- Size and color options for watch and straps
Cons
- Just about every review I've seen online has noted the large bezels around the display as a negative, but it's not such a big deal for me. I often don't notice it when I'm using the watch.
- WI-FI must be on to control music with watch. Might be an Android Wear issue rather than a Zenwatch 2 issue...
And that's pretty much it. I'll probably share more impressions or cool uses I find as I go along. But hopefully this'll inspire you to get a Zenwatch 2 of your own. =D
My biggest prize this year was the Asus Zenwatch 2, a watch I've been wanting for several months now. At this time last year, I didn't really know what smartwatches were capable of. But as I asked my dad, who owns the original Asus Zenwatch model, and did some research of my own, my desire for the watch grew exponentially.
First I'll list the specs. The watch actually comes in two sizes, the slightly larger of which I own.
1.63 inches/320x320 resolution (1.45 inches/280x280 resolution for smaller model)
IP67 certified dust and water resistant
AMOLED touchscreen, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
512 MB RAM, 4GB storage
400 mAh battery (300 mAh battery for smaller version)
Frankly, when viewing the two sizes together, the size difference isn't all that drastic in my opinion. Several of the online reviews I've seen specified that you need thick wrists for the larger watch, but I don't believe that's true at all. I think my wrists are pretty slim, and the watch fits comfortably with the third tightest hole. The watchband that came on this watch is made of a high-quality rubber with a nice and soft texture. Watchbands are also available in leather or steel, with several color choices for all three materials. The watch itself is available in silver, gunmetal, or rose gold. Mine looks like the silver one.
The watch battery is very good. I only used up 30% of battery life during my work shift, and then another 20% just wearing it at home. So that's only half of the battery life used in 21 hours. And that's with the brightness on the lowest setting, and ambient mode enabled. It can charge very quickly with the magnetic pogo pin connector. It can be tricky to get the connector to stay connected, but I try to keep from laying it face down when charging. Bluetooth connection is also very reliable. With the phone in the very corner of the house, I can travel anywhere in the house and stay connected.
The crown button on the side is used to power on the watch, but it doesn't offer much mechanical feedback. Meaning it's hard to feel whether you're pressing hard enough on it to get it to work. Holding down the button also takes you to the menu, which is also accessed by swiping the screen to the left. Aside from powering on the watch, the crown button doesn't do much else. It might be useful if you don't like to touch the screen.
The glass on the watch is very smooth, and I like how it feels on my finger when I swipe across it. The display itself looks crisp and colorful. You can adjust the brightness settings, but even on the lowest setting, it's easy to read. It only gets tough to see when you're out in the sun, so the Zenwatch offers a brightness boost feature, in which it'll boost the brightness for about five seconds before returning to its normal setting. That makes it easier than constantly switching the brightness manually, and saves battery power.
Like most other smartwatches, the Zenwatch 2 has a voice command feature, where you can ask it questions or give other commands, like open a certain app, call/text/e-mail a contact, and so on. The voice recognition works quite well, and I haven't seen any serious failures with it so far. The voice command can be initiated by waking up the watch and saying, "Okay google." Then it'll start listening for your commands. For example, when I ask when the Suicide Squad DVD was released...
I can imagine this being very useful at work when customers ask me for information like that.
The Zenwatch 2 also allows you to receive text and e-mail notifications. Probably the most handy feature of smartwatches in general, is getting that kind of information immediately without having to constantly check your phone. And because I don't always hear the tone on my phone when it goes off, I'm somewhat less likely to miss notifs, as the smartwatch gives you a brief vibration on your wrist. It's like a little poke that says, "Hey, you. You got a notif." XD My only concern is that the vibration might be too brief, but I'll have to go on with it and see if I miss any. Then again, the notif will stay at the bottom of my watch display, so I know I'll see it when I glance at the watch. So yeah...it's gonna be a lot harder for me to miss notifs, that's for sure. =D Here's a few screenshots with notifs.
Another fun feature is the ability to control your music on your phone from your watch. It can all be done by opening the app either by tapping the Google Music app in the menu, or by saying, "Okay google; Open Play Music." This feature has several cons, however. When starting the app via your watch, it starts with a random song being played online. I would prefer it better if it could start playing your last played song, or your last played playlist. The other con is that apparently it needs to be connected to WI-FI or 3g/4g data in order to control the music on your watch. When I started the Google Music app via my Zenwatch with WI-FI turned off, it just played a random song stored on my phone, and didn't allow me to control it. It's kind of a bummer, because I don't like keeping my phone online all the time, such as when I'm driving, and notifs and stuff become slightly less important.
Along with different colors for the watch and straps themselves, you can also customize your look with a wide variety of watch faces. The Zenwatch comes with a nice collection of watch faces preinstalled, with a gazillion more available for download from the Google Play Store, either for free, or for a small price. You can switch watch faces by long pressing on your watch display, through your watch settings, or through the Android Wear and Zenwatch Manager apps on your smartphone. A lot of the faces look overly complex for my tastes. I like to stick with digital ones that show the date and the widgets that I want (step count, weather, and watch battery life). There are also apps that allow you to create your own watch faces, but I'll get to that a bit later. For now, I'll show off a couple of the watch faces that I've used...
This is one of the preinstalled ones. I like the simple, easy-to-read look, but the ambient mode might show a bit too much. The purpose of the ambient mode is to conserve battery life while also allowing you to view the time without waking up the watch. So eliminating the other information displaying in ambient mode would save even more battery life.
Another is a Pac-Man watch face, which I paid 99 cents for. This one is perhaps too simple, as it just gives you the time and nothing else. But if you like watching Pac-Man moving along the edges of the display eating the pebbles and ghosts, this look is for you.
The third watch face, and perhaps my favorite so far, is one that came with the Wear Mini Launcher app. That's the watch face shown above in the "notifs" screenshots. The ambient mode is also helpful, just displaying the time and date, and some faint tickers. Perfect for what I need.
Of course the smartwatch uses apps. The Zenwatch runs on the Android Wear operating system, so you will need to install Android Wear on your smartphone in order to connect to the watch. From there, you can access more advanced watch settings, like how long the watch stays awake, and whether to enable the "tilt to wake" feature. I didn't like my watch waking up every time I moved, so I disabled that feature. It also allows you to take smartwatch screencaps, which is how I took these screenshots of my watch screen. Once a shot is taken, it gets uploaded to Google Drive. The Android Wear app allows you to view your battery usage and storage, and gives you a selection of preinstalled watch faces and recommended apps.
The Zenwatch Manager app is similar to the Android Wear app, except it's specifically for the Zenwatch, and offers even more options to customize the experience. The most useful features of this is the "Find my watch" feature, which will make your watch flash and vibrate to help you locate it when it gets misplaced. "Forgot phone warning" will make your watch vibrate if you leave without your phone, and the bluetooth connection gets lost. So never forget your phone again! Because it also offers the same watch face and recommended apps, I often get the Zenwatch Manager and Android Wear apps mixed up when looking for a specific option. That's the only con for this app.
Wear Mini Launcher is an app I downloaded to make opening apps slightly more efficient. Instead of scrolling down a long single row to view all of your apps, you get three rows (or more if you like tiny icons). So would you prefer this...?
...or this?
It also allows quicker access to your watch settings as well, viewing all your basic watch settings on one screen, as opposed to one by one.
Now to get into the FaceDesigner app that I mentioned briefly above. This allows you to create your own watch faces, giving you a list of fonts, colors, position of the time and widgets, and backgrounds to choose from. Or you can use your own backgrounds. I've made a couple of my own watch faces, using some of Flight Rising's images...
Yeah, I know mine aren't too great. And the ambient mode only gives you some watch hands, which I don't like.
I downloaded another app called Coffee SMS, which is used to send texts to contacts. This one is slightly different from the default, because it gives you a bigger list of pre-made messages separated by categories to tap on and send, and you can even add your own. And of course, the microphone is still an option.
And the final one is just a simple calculator. Another handy tool I can use at work without having to drag out my phone. While it does have a microphone key, it...doesn't seem to work. I get an error message each time. So I don't know if I'm saying it wrong? Should I say "Multiply eight by five" instead of "Eight times five?" I just don't know...
So obligatory pros and cons of the Zenwatch 2...
Pros
- Affordable
- Fast and reliable
- Great battery life and bluetooth connection
- Fast charger
- Size and color options for watch and straps
Cons
- Just about every review I've seen online has noted the large bezels around the display as a negative, but it's not such a big deal for me. I often don't notice it when I'm using the watch.
- WI-FI must be on to control music with watch. Might be an Android Wear issue rather than a Zenwatch 2 issue...
And that's pretty much it. I'll probably share more impressions or cool uses I find as I go along. But hopefully this'll inspire you to get a Zenwatch 2 of your own. =D