Asus Zenwatch Review

I tried my hardest not to get a new watch and wait for the Moto 360 to come out. When I saw it in the store, it appeared big and chunky to me. I was a little disappointed hearing about the poor battery life also. Then I saw the Asus Zenwatch.

This watch is beautiful and was the first watch that I thought looked really great. It didn't appear to be too chunky either and the leather band really adds a classy touch. It took about a month before Best Buy started carrying them. I happened to be in Best Buy looking at computers and the Google guy said they had them in. I was back the next day to get one.

I opened it quickly and connected it to my phone. I started downloading apps for it including Android Wear and the Asus Zenwatch app that allowed me to change the settings for different watch faces. There was only the digital watch face that allowed me to put my own custom background image on it. I would have liked to be able to change the background on all of them and more digital watch face options.

I was a little disappointed that Google Hangouts was not an app that I could access from the watch. I knew that I could respond to a message with my voice and it did a good job as long as I swiped to the left, but I accidentally swiped to the right and the message was gone. The options were so limited, it did not keep me from taking my phone out of my pocket as I have done before.

I was looking forward to utilizing Google Music saved on the watch to play through my BlueTooth headphones while I was at the gym, leaving my phone in the car. I don't understand what music if any was downloaded from my phone to the watch, but when I walked away from my car, the option to play music was gone. 

The heart rate sensor appeared right on the first time using it, but when I tried it for a quick second time to verify my heart rate, it was completely off. It also sucked that it was completed by taking a finger on each side of the bezel. Obviously it doesn't take a constant measurement of my heart rate. 

The default display setting goes to black and white always on. I changed it mid way through the day, but the battery life is barely enough to make it through a whole day of light use. Because I added my phone battery to display on the watch face, I noticed that my watch battery was draining much faster due to the Bluetooth staying on. I felt this was counterproductive as I was hoping that using the watch would keep me from looking at my phone as much and save the power for the phone.

I returned the watch this less than a week from getting it. Hopefully future Android Wear will have better battery life and more functions. Now is not the time. This video says pretty much was I was thinking when I thought about writing this.

Today I see that Android Wear 5.0.1 is coming out. It appears to fix problem with accidentally dismissing a notification and gives more options for watch faces. It is a great move for the future, but I don't believe it adds enough new functions that make the watch more than a novelty.