Asus ZenWatch 3 review

Specs

• No GPS or heart rate monitor
• Water and dust resistant
• Includes a speaker but the sound isn't great

The Asus ZenWatch 3 is sporting the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100, a chip designed specifically for wearables. The headline for this chip is that it’s supposedly 25% more efficient and can power watches with LTE modems. The ZenWatch 3 doesn’t have its own LTE chip, but it does support Wi-Fi. 

The rest of the specs are familiar for ZenWatch 2 owners, with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. You can use the onboard storage to download a playlist to listen to music on the go with Bluetooth headphones. It doesn’t have LTE or GPS so this functionality is limited. Those wanting a smartwatch that can function without being tethered to a phone should look elsewhere.

Fitness buffs won’t be happy with the ZenWatch 3’s lack of a heart rate monitor. The ZenWatch is really only meant to track casual workouts like walking, running, push ups, and sit ups. If you value fitness tracking more than smartwatch features, the Fitbit Blaze or Fitbit Ionic may be for you.

But even in the world of Android Wear there are better fitness options, such as the LG Watch Sport and Huawei Watch 2, both of which include a heart rate monitor and GPS, though they're arguably less stylish.

In terms of connectivity, the ZenWatch 3 sports Bluetooth 4.2, 802.11 n Wi-Fi, and can take calls. Wi-Fi connectivity means the ZenWatch 3 will still get notifications without being connected to your phone, which is great if you’re wandering around the office or your home without your phone nearby.

The included speaker and microphone lets you get your Dick Tracy on, though the speaker doesn’t sound particularly good. The mic also allows voice commands via Google Now. You can talk to the ZenWatch 3 to add reminders, call a contact, request directions and much more. 

You can also sync tracks from Google Play Music directly to the watch for working out without your phone. You won’t get any data or GPS without your phone, but at least you can go on a run with just the ZenWatch 3 and a pair of Bluetooth headphones.

Last but not least, the ZenWatch 3 is dust and water resistant to IP67 standards. This allows you to dunk the watch in up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. You won’t want to take the ZenWatch 3 into the shower or swim with it but it’ll withstand the rain and splashes without problem.

Performance and interface

• Upgradable to Android Wear 2.0
• Hands-free gesture controls are useful

The Asus ZenWatch 3 was supposed to launch with Android Wear 2.0, but the update actually took months to land. As a result, this watch comes out of the box running Android Wear 1.6, so you'll need to queue the update if you're a new owner. 

Swipe up and down to flip through your different notifications. In Android Wear 2.0, swiping to the left or right dismisses said notifications - something that you'll have to get used to moving up from v1.6.

The ZenWatch 3 also features wrist gestures that let you scroll through your notifications with flicks of your wrist, which are handy if you can’t use both hands. You can also force your wrist up and down to go deeper into menus but you’ll look like you’re trying to elbow someone so I avoided using those gestures.

Pressing on the crown from any screen brings you back to your watch face. Pressing again pulls up a list of apps for you to trigger on the watch. New in Android Wear 2.0 is the ability to hold the crown in to summon Google Assistant. Just like it can on your phone or Google Home, it's your personal assistant for messaging, providing a fun fact and more.

Pressing the faux-chronograph buttons lets you trigger apps or airplane mode. You can reprogram the buttons to whatever you want using the ZenWatch Manager app or natively in the settings, which is a new addition in Android Wear 2.0.

The app also lets you customize the different watch faces that come preloaded on the ZenWatch 3. The watch faces Asus chose to include look a bit cheap, like those you’d find from watches purchased on Canal Street.

However, there are a couple of handsome faces with sub registers detailing your battery life, calories burned, and steps taken. Thankfully there are plenty of other watch faces you can download in the Google Play Store.

The ZenWatch 3 comes preinstalled with a couple of Asus specific apps like Together, which lets you send messages to other ZenWatch users. It’s like the Apple Watch’s Digital Touch feature. There’s a Flashlight app that simply turns the watch into a solid color, which is pretty useless. The only Asus app worth using is Asus ZenFit, which has a few more options than Google Fit.