Asus Zenwatch 3 Review: Stylish Midrange Smartwatch

Our Verdict

Though it lacks GPS and a heart rate monitor, the affordable Asus Zenwatch iii sports an attractive design and long battery life.

For

Good bombardment life
Attractive design
Customizable watch faces

Confronting

No heart-charge per unit monitor
Lacks GPS

Tom'southward Guide Verdict

Though it lacks GPS and a eye rate monitor, the affordable Asus Zenwatch 3 sports an bonny design and long battery life.

Pros

+
Good battery life
+
Bonny blueprint
+
Customizable watch faces

Cons

-
No heart-charge per unit monitor
-
Lacks GPS

At present in their third generation, smartwatches take become much more refined, but have yet to become a must-clothing for your wrist. The Asus Zenwatch 3 is unlikely to opposite that trend. Merely while the Android Wear-based lookout man doesn't intermission whatsoever new basis, it'southward still an bonny timepiece with an endlessly customizable display.

At $229, it's also near $100 less than the Apple Watch and other premium smartwatches, and boasts slightly better battery life than the competition. That may be plenty to pick one upwardly, if you lot're willing to give the Android Wear platform a shot.

Blueprint

The Zenwatch 3 ranks upwards there with the Moto 360 and the Fossil Q Founder as ane of the best-looking smartwatches I've strapped on my wrist. Asus went from a squared-off blueprint on its previous model to a circular face, which makes it looks much more like a traditional timepiece — and one I'm much more probable to wear. The dark Gunmetal bezel of the Zenwatch 3 blends smoothly into its brown leather wristband.

Although information technology measures 45mm in diameter and is ix.95mm thick, the Zenwatch iii's rounded edges make it experience less mesomorphic than either the Moto or the Fossil, which makes it more than accessible to anyone with smaller wrists.

Credit: Jeremy Lips / Tom's Guide — (Image credit: Jeremy Lips / Tom's Guide)

The face of the Zenwatch 3 has a 1.39-inch, 400 ten 400-pixel AMOLED brandish. On the right of the watch is a crown with a button on either side. You tin can customize the tiptop button to quick-launch an app or a characteristic. The middle button, which is slightly larger than the other 2 and has a copper accent, lets you lot change a number of functions. The lesser push activates Eco mode.

The Zenwatch 3 comes in 5 dissimilar styles. Options include a Silver, Gunmetal or Rose Gold instance, with white or brown leather straps.

The watch tin can survive 30 minutes in upwards to ane meter of water, just given that it has a nice leather strap, I would be loath to take the Zenwatch into the shower or pool.

Watch Faces

Apart from the blueprint of the watch itself, scout faces are the i surface area where Android Wear makers tin can set their product apart from the contest. Asus goes for broke, letting you choose from more than fifty faces carve up into six categories. It was easy to become lost in all the options.

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If none of these faces appeal, the FaceDesigner app lets you create your ain, which tin be as tasteful or as garish as you like. You can customize just well-nigh everything, from the color of the background, to the style and color of tick marks and hands, to all the subdials and their colors. You can even add piddling icons if y'all actually want to clutter things up.

Zenwatch Manager

Asus' Zenwatch Manager app lets you customize the Zenwatch 3's face, install apps, and manage settings. It's an attractive and easy-to-understand interface. The master part of the app shows the face of the scout every bit it's configured. Whatsoever change yous make on your phone is instantly reflected on the lookout itself.

Using the app, yous can customize certain aspects of each lookout face. For example, the Velocissimo has three subdials, each of which can be changed to show the atmospheric condition, bombardment life, daily steps, missed calls and more than. You can likewise change spotter faces using the Android Vesture app, only it's not as fun to await at.

Other Asus Apps include FoneHelper (observe my telephone, forgot my phone), Asus Weather, Flashlight, SOS and Remote Call control. Remote Camera proved the most interesting: It lets you use the Zenwatch three's screen as a remote viewfinder, and take pictures by tapping the spotter's display.

Android Wear

Currently, the Zenwatch three runs Android Vesture i.5, merely it will be compatible with Android Wear ii.0 when that update arrives sometime in 2017. (The Zenwatch 2 will also go this update). Delayed by Google from its scheduled fall 2016 release, Android Wear 2.0 will characteristic new apps, handwriting recognition, customizable faces and automatic fitness activity recognition, among other things.

The current iteration of Android Wear on the Zenwatch 3 proved responsive, merely I nevertheless have the same bug I've e'er had with Google's spotter OS, primarily involving notifications. Once you lot swipe away a notification — such as an e-mail or text message — there's no style to go it back.

ZenFit

Using the Zenwatch 3's 6-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, the ASUS ZenFit app tracks your steps equally well equally a number of workouts, including running, pushups and situps. The app also reminds you lot to stand and move if it senses you've been sitting as well long.

However, dissimilar the Apple Sentry and the Huawei Fit, the Zenwatch iii lacks a heart rate monitor or GPS. I don't consider this a huge loss, though, equally I'm unlikely to use it as my principal fitness tracker.

I was able to eke out about 28 hours from the Zenwatch 3, which is slightly ameliorate than other smartwatches I've tested.

Asus' fitness-tracking app, ZenFit, will show your steps, slumber, workout data, and provide workout reminders and insights. It was moderately authentic, counting 500 actual steps at 473. However, it's nowhere nigh as comprehensive as more than established fitness apps, where you tin can also input food data and connect with friends. My advice? Connect the Zenwatch three to Google Fit, and then connect Google Fit to MapMyFitness.

Bombardment Life

According to Asus, the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor in the Zenwatch 3 is 25 percent more efficient than the Snapdragon 400 chips constitute in previous smartwatches (both from Asus and others), which means you should exist able to get through at to the lowest degree a full day on its 340 mAh battery. Eco fashion, which turns on aeroplane mode while disabling touch on the watch, supposedly increases bombardment life by more than than 200 pct.

I was able to eke out well-nigh 28 hours from the Zenwatch 3, which is slightly meliorate than other smartwatches I've tested, merely you'll probably want to recharge the watch every night to brand certain you lot don't run out of juice.

Fortunately, the Zenwatch 3's charger — a magnetic charging band that snaps to the lesser of the spotter — is much more than compact than the Fossil Q Founder'southward behemoth pad, and will become the lookout to 60 pct charged in just fifteen minutes. An optional battery pack will give you an extra forty percent endurance, but it also volition make the picket noticeably thicker.

Lesser Line

At $230, the Asus Zenwatch 3 is an bonny and relatively affordable smartwatch. Nonetheless, it lacks a centre rate monitor and GPS, features constitute on even less expensive devices, such as the Samsung Gear Fit 2. Even so, the ease with which you can customize the Zenwatch 3's confront, besides as its good battery life, makes information technology a worthy midrange device.

Althea Chang is Associate Manager of Content Development for Consumer Reports and was previously a Senior Writer for Tom's Guide, covering mobile devices, health and fitness gadgets and car tech.