Asus ZenWatch review

What we have here is a very solid Android Wear smartwatch, comparable to the "big three" from Motorola, Sony and LG in terms of price and features. It's similar to the Sony in terms of looks as well, standing in the "hip to be square" camp, staring down the round-faced Moto and LG G Watch R.

We like

As ever with smartwatches, the notifications you want are very handy, letting you keep up to date with your mobile life in a more discreet way.

The ZenWatch is also well designed, thanks to its premium-looking metal and leather combination. It's even reminiscent of the Apple Watch shape-wise and can even stake a claim to being the first to offer the rounded square. Every time I wore it out, there were a lot of oohs and ahhs from people curious to know what kind of smartwatch it was simply based on how it looked.

We dislike

Having more control over what Google Now notifies you about would be very useful, and the fitness features seem a tad half-baked to me. However, I can't claim the classy look and feel exactly scream, "workout time!" So, perhaps that's no surprise.

Additionally, though the overall design is definitely something I liked, the bezel is simply too excessive. This isin comparison again to the Apple Watch, which uses up the majority of the watch face's real estate to provide a larger display.

Final verdict

If you want a nice-looking Android Wear smartwatch for around $199 (£199, about AU$252 ), the ZenWatch is another very solid option. There's nothing here that could be described as a killer selling point, and it doesn't quite stand up to the Sony Smartwatch 3 in terms of battery life or general ruggedness. Regardless, this timepiece is certainly in the top tier of rectangular Android Wear watches on the design front.

If you're sold on Google's wearable OS, our best advice would be to find a shop where you can compare this in terms of look and feel against the Moto, LG and Sony watches, then buy the one that suits. For my money, though, a Pebble Steel, or maybe waiting to see how the Apple Watch shapes up, seems like better options right now. You can even try waiting on Asus with the hopes it will have a better successor, since we'll probably see ZenWatch 2 announced later this year.