Asus ZenWatch review

Easy on the eyes and wallet, but can Asus's premier smartwatch cut it?

Asus ZenWatch
The Asus ZenWatch

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The ZenWatch sports a 369mAh battery, which is bigger than the 320mAh power pack stuffed into the Moto 360, but less than the LG G Watch R's 410mAh battery. It sits squarely within the battery life range of other smartwatches, though that isn't necessarily a good thing.

Basically, you will need to charge your ZenWatch every night. It can last more than a day, but it is categorically not going to make it through two days, even if you're incredibly sparing in your usage.

I connected my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 up, meaning I was receiving alerts from three email accounts, agenda pop ups and occasional phone call notifications over the the course of a day. It used up the battery pretty quickly; specifically, in the course of a week, I typically was able to go about 14 hours before needing to juice up the watch again.

Like all the other smartwatches out there, the ZenWatch comes with its own proprietary charger. It's no Qi charging dock like the Moto 360, rather you'll get a charging cradle that pops onto the back of the smartwatch - which comes on and off easily enough - plus a micro USB cord to plug into.

A minor concern would be losing the cradle, considering it's pretty light and small. Though, unlike the Samsung Gear S's cradle, it can't charge the ZenWatch on the go, so you'll probably just leave it attached to the cord.

Cameron Faulkner

Cameron is a writer at The Verge, focused on reviews, deals coverage, and news. He wrote for magazines and websites such as The Verge, TechRadar, Practical Photoshop, Polygon, Eater and Al Bawaba.