Asus’ new ZenWatch 3 goes full circle

While Asus’ prior efforts at creating a smartwatch were somewhat on the squarish side and were more gadgety looking than not, their spanking new ZenWatch 3 unveiled at IFA is a bona fide beauty of a timepiece with a rounded display and serious polish in every aspect of the word that’s posh enough to warrant interest from even the most discerning gadgeteer.

The watch comes with a 1.39-inch AMOLED display with 400 x 400 resolution and 287ppi encased in a 9.95mm thin stainless steel casing that comes in your choice of three different hues – Silver, Rose Gold and a dark looking Gunmetal Black. All three of them are inlaid with a faux gold inlay that is supposed to, according to Asus, ‘ mimic the corona of a solar eclipse’. The ZenWatch also sports three crown buttons, with the top button offering customisable functionality. The watch itself is rated to be water resistant and has multiple customisable watch faces so you needn’t stick to the same plain old assortment all the time.

The strap comes in your choice of either stitched Italian leather or high quality rubber with both coming in either dark brown or beige. Asus is also particularly proud of their ZenFit activity tracker that has 95% accuracy and which offers reminders to move and stand up if you’ve been a couch potato for too long. The ZenWatch 3 also provides two-day battery life along with what they call HyperCharge tech that allows for a 15 minute charge to offer a 60% full charge. Rather than fumbling around with clasps and whatnot, the whole affair has a magnetic charging connector and there’s even an optional battery pack that adds 4% more battery life. Prices run to €229 (about RM1,048) in Europe though there’s no word on availability in Malaysia as yet. We’ll keep you posted.