Asus ZenWatch 2 review

What's a bit different and exclusive to the new Asus smartwatch are watch faces, which can be tinkered with through the ZenWatch Manager app.

However, you'll need to download it before all the faces show up on the device. There are definitely way more options than Apple Watch, and just as many (if not more) customization settings for the complications.

Downloading the Asus-made app FaceDesigner increases the amount of watch faces you can load onto your wearable infinitely. Within the app itself, there are tons of ways to create and customize your very own faces.

You can have one for fancy dinner parties that doesn't display much and then one for work, telling you just about everything. It's even customizable right down to the type of ticker, font size, opacity and more. It's pretty damn cool. Other watches won't see this sort of customization until Android Wear 2.0 comes along. The only problem?

The app didn't seem to load right when I tried it out. Specifically, all of the faces I made – one simple with just a background and ticker, one more complex with widgets and writing – didn't sync up correctly with the watch.

The Asus-created watch faces that are pre-loaded onto the app worked fine, at least. I'm sure the bug can be fixed in an update, but for now, I wasn't able to do much beyond make a watch face. There's also a compatibility issue, but more on that later.

There are also apps like ZenWatch Music, ZenWatch Wellness, Business Helper, FoneHelper and Remote Camera – all of which you can download onto your phone to use with the ZenWatch 2.

The Together app is already pre-loaded onto the watch, and lets you send messages directly to other ZenWatch 2 owners. There's even an Asus Weather app in addition to the Android Wear one.

The redundancy is off-putting, especially since there doesn't seem to be a way to remove it, effectively making it bloatware. It's unfortunate, considering Android and iOS devices already have enough repetitive or unwanted apps that permanently take up space.

I'll also mention again, there's no heart rate sensor, and it seems like there's a less of a focus on fitness with this watch overall. There's the usual array of Android Wear fitness apps, like Google Fit or Wellness, but that's about it.

For some, that's likely not a problem, since you might only use the timer or pedometer anyway – which are both available on the ZenWatch 2. For others, it's best to look for a fitness tracker or smartwatch with more robust exercise options.