It's ironic that no one quite knows what to do with a smartwatch —beyond fitness tracking — and yet they're expected to sell in vast numbers in the near future. Among the most-wanted Android Wear watches right now in India is the Asus ZenWatch 2, with its price of Rs 11,999 (or 14,999 for a bigger version) being only one of the attractions. The ZenWatch 2 is really a very good looking wearable. Almost luxurious, one could say. The smaller of the two would look fine on both male and female wrists and the look will depend on whether one chooses steel, rose-gold or gun metal. And straps in either leather, steel or rubber. Straps are easy to change and the leather is quite tough and sturdy while looking cool.
The ZenWatch is a slightly rounded rectangular watch with a glass face that has a slight curve to it. It's not at all outlandishly large and looks completely natural. I own a MOTO 360 which looks a lot larger and more noticeable, in fact, while the ZenWatch doesn't go about looking like it's making a statement. The watch is also very comfortable to wear and you don't feel its weight through the day. It's water resitent, so you can wash your hands without worrying about damaging it.
To begin using the ZenWatch you first connect it to your smartphone via Bluetooth and the Android Wear app. Asus has its own app as well and you use the ZenWatch Manager to access many settings, watchfaces and apps. Many of these are not really necessary as they're available on the Play Store, but Asus is very fond of topping up its devices with apps and this watch is no different.
The ZenWatch has a nice enough display. It's AMOLED and has enough contrasts and is easily visible. The larger W1501Q has a 1.63-inch 320x320 pixels display and the smaller W1502Q a 1.45-inch280x280 pixels one. If you keep the display on all the time, it'll obviously eat up the battery, but you can as well keep it off and there's a nice gesture to do that quickly — a palm on the watch's face. A power button on the right wakes it up and also gets you the menu. If you leave the screen off a lot, in which case I don't really see the point of a smartwatch, you will get a day's battery life and maybe even a little more. But much as with smartphone's, one needs to charge most smartwatches overnight. In this case, the charging cable attaches to the back of the watch with a magnetic contact which is both convenient and annoying. Convenient because there's no fiddle parts to attach and struggle with and annoying because the magnetic strength can cause it to shift out of place if moved even a bit. The watch charges very fast and I'd say it can even work if you avoid the full night's charging and make a habit of charging it as soon as you wake up and go about your routine, picking it up after breakfast, or in time for a workout.
The ZenWatch 2 works with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 512MB of RAM. There's 4GB of internal storage. Currently on the 5.1 version of Android, it should get an update to Marshmallow soon bringing features including dictation. As it is, the watch can hear and recognise voice input, letting the user get weather, news and more from Google. There are also all the notifications channeled from the phone, a nice silent way to know what's happening rather than having a phone ping loudly.
Although there's no heart rate sensor, there's the usual step and calorie counting.
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
