ASUS ZenWatch 2 - Beautiful, "No frills" Wearable
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,613 words · ~8 min read
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this doesn't happen often I did it with the xclaim xi3 access point which I
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still stand behind 100% having been using them as our office access points
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for a couple of months especially now that they have their cloud-based management tool up and running and I'm
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going to do it again with the zenat 2 this is an imperfect but very compelling
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product and you should seriously consider buying one stay tuned to find
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out why
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Corsair's RMI series power supplies feature premium components for great
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performance with very low noise check out the link in the video description to
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learn more it starts today as it always
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seems to start with the physical tour of the watch and given what a simple device
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the Zen watch 2 is that's probably not going to take very long at the back you
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will find the magnetic charging contact
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this does require a proprietary cable but I understand that it's being done
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for a reason the watch is IP67 rated
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making it waterproof for all but the most demanding uses like diving and at
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least by the look of things it's not a system that will need to be reinvented
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every single time ASUS releases a new watch like what Pebble has been pulling
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for the last couple of years moving to the side we've got a traditional looking
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Crown but don't be deceived by its looks it's just kind of mushy feeling home
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button it's not a dial that can be spun to travel through time or anything like
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that and then at the front is depending on which model of the zenat 2 you opt
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for either a 37 mm 280 x280 resolution
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display or a 41 mm 320x 320 resolution
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display no matter which display size you go for you'll be getting what I would
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describe as a functional but not particularly stunning OLED panel with a
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curved piece of Gorilla Glass 3 covering both it and the larger than I would
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prefer bezels than joining just about seamlessly with the metal casing that
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makes up the main body of the watch and that body that's where things get
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interesting I mean sure the specs are nice you got a Snapdragon 400 processor
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52 Megs of RAM 4 gigs of storage with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity with a
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300 milliamp battery in the smaller body and a 400 milliamp battery in the larger
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one but the solid feel of the device is
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what really makes the zenat 2 stand out to me it's it's really well constructed
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and manages to be low profile enough that the smaller model will work great
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for all but the daintiest of Lady arms with the 42mm being a good size for most
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men although with my petite wrists I actually found the smaller of the two
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was a better fit for me I just wish I'd gone with one of the other available
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strap colors since this taupe thing is pretty girly and there's actually more
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good news as well even with a mere 300 milliamp hour battery the Zen watch 2
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never went below 25% battery at the end of even the longest of days for me with
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the screen always displaying all my critical information and a 5-second
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Timeout on the screen dimming function it's not multiple day battery life like
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a pebble but I've been trained at this point like a like a seal to charge my
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devices daily anyway so let's talk more
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usability stuff just like with their motherboards I initially ignored ASUS's
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optional software that goes with the watch some because I just don't really
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care like the wellness one and others because I was pretty sure that they
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would be buggy full of spelling errors and generally not very useful so to say
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that I was pleasantly surprised by the zenat manager app would be a gross
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understatement it's actually full of genuinely useful customization options
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like being able to set the screen dimming timeout something Apple doesn't
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allow for fear that their users will discover what a power sucking piece of
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wrist junk their watch is the type of hand movements on analog
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watch faces and whether new notifications will pop up in the bottom
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of the screen on their own or stay hidden until you swipe them up a really
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cool little touch for folks who care about privacy and for folks who just
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like their watch face to be clean all the time not that I'm one of those uh
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this was my preferred watch face for my time with the Zen watch 2 I was able to
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choose up to six widgets things like the battery life of my phone battery life of
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the watch the weather the humidity Etc that can actually be clicked on to
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reveal more information if needed like the weather one which we can swipe down
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and see that is that a Chinese character in there okay so there are definitely
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some Polish issues the calendar widget on this watch face clearly shows an
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event on the preview yet when you press on it there are no events
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which okay it it worked this time I can see the events but but this is what I'm
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talking about there are there are some other imperfections that I noticed as
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well like yes friends this is the part the video where I reveal the ugly
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ducklings that are going to break into your house at night and eat your bacon or whatever in my time with the watch I
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experienced not one but two crashes one where the wellness app in spite of me
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never once opening it crashed and needed to be restarted and another where I
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tried to do a factory reset because I was switching phones and the watch was
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just stuck on the shutting down screen for several hours until the battery
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drained and I was able to power it back on and reattempt the reset add to that
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the occasional choppy animation of the UI compared to my daily driver gatr
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which is odd because they're both running Snapdragon 400 processors at 1.2
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GHz and the I would describe as worse
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than average gesture detection to wake up the screen and activate Okay Google
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and you've got some pretty you know yo that's kind of a bummer issues so then
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hold on a second lonus what was up with that recommendation to buy it at the
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beginning well the zenat 2 is
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$150 that's the punchline here if you're willing to Overlook these things there's
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a beautiful well- constructed No Frills
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wearable here that stands up very well to other Android Weare devices and
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broadening the competitive analysis I would argue that compared to the Apple
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watch has better functionality I mean I'll trade being able to see the damn
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time whenever I please for Apple pay and a heart rate sensor any day and on top
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of that it turned heads the whole time I was wearing it with people asking me
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like oh that looks nice is that the Apple watch giving me an opportunity to
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explain to them that no it's not it's actually a much smarter purchase because
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while like the Apple watch this product is not perfect at least its flaws are
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ones that don't interfere with basic telling the time functionality and on
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top of that its price allows me to replace it with something much better a
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generation or two down the line three whole Times by
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comparison speaking of online payments like Apple pay if you're building a
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mobile app and searching for a simple payment solution you might want to check
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easy to offer multiple Mobile payment types including PayPal Apple pay Bitcoin
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venmo cards and more all with a simple
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integration they've got quick knowledgeable developer support if you
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have any questions and to learn more all you got to do is go over to brain tree
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payments.com Linus and if you use that link you can
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also get your first $50,000 in transactions with no fees
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whatsoever so check it out today at the link in the video
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description all right thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you
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through our community Forum now that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so
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click that little button up there to check out Luke's crazy Fallout themed
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bomb build blog it is sick and
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definitely worth the watch see you guys next time