The Asus Zenwatch may have only just hit UK stores last month, but the Taiwanese company is already hard at work on its successor, the ZenWatch 2.
We love the style and the bonus features of Asus’ Zenwatch, one of the best Android Wear smartwatches to hit stores so far, but the Zenwatch 2 will reportedly up the ante, delivering a full week’s worth of usage on a single charge. Considering how battery life is our major wearable bugbear, and one of the Zenwatch’s only weaknesses, that little tidbid already has us extremely excited.
This impressive longevity will apparently be down to software enhancements and some other under-the-bonnet tweaks, rather than nifty new battery tech.
These Zenwatch 2 mutterings come directly from the gob of Asus Chairman Jonney Shih, who told FocusTaiwan what he expected of the company’s sophomore effort: “As a companion device, its central processing unit and operating system should be more simplified than the current version, so that I can use it for up to seven days on one charge, rather than for just two days.”
Rumours also suggest that the Zenwatch 2 may operate without the need for a smartphone companion. The inclusion of a micro-SIM slot and microphone would allow users to make calls from the device (just like the Samsung Gear S) and an independent data connection would allow apps to work autonomously too, making the watch a much more complete piece of hardware.
The original ZenWatch has enjoyed some solid word of mouth, with users complimenting the device on its style, size and power. The device sports a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 chip with 512MB RAM, giving it plenty of processing power, and its wrist-hugging design and diminutive size have been lauded for being relatively unobtrusive…for a smartwatch. We were pretty impressed ourselves, giving the watch 4 out of 5 in our full Zenwatch review.
For Asus to strive for a weekly charge cycle indicates that the company has been listening to the public. Recent reports regarding Apple’s upcoming smartwatch have concentrated on the device’s pitiful projected battery life, which is expected to be even less than the ZenWatch, and with a Q3 launch for the ZenWatch 2 expected, the Apple Watch is going to find itself up against some honed Android-based opposition in the marketplace.
Is it too soon for Asus to be planning an upgrade for the ZenWatch? Let us know in the comments below.
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