Asus ZenWatch 3 looks like the company’s most well-rounded smartwatch yet

Let’s hear it for the wearables of IFA 2016!

Yep, it’s time to bring on those sports bands and smartwatches, and we’ve got one corker of a starter for you in the form of Asus’ ZenWatch 3, unveiled at the company’s pre-IFA press conference.

It looks different to the previous ZenWatches.

That’s because it’s round, rather than the rounded-off square of the ZenWatch and ZenWatch 2.

That, combined with the use of stainless steel, gives the ZenWatch 3 a much more traditional look than its predecessors. We think it’s a pretty nifty-looking watch for that very reason, plus the fact that, at less than 10mm in thickness, it’s slimmer than most rivals. It’ll be available in a trio of finishes: silver, gunmetal and rose gold but, whichever you pick, it’ll come with a rose gold bezel. Additionally, you’ll have a choice of strap materials: stitched Italian leather and rubber, both of which come in black or dark brown colourways.

And on the tech spec front?

Let’s start with that circular screen. It’s an 1.39in AMOLED with a resolution of 400 x 400 (which equals a sharp 287ppi), protected by curved Gorilla Glass.

Inside you’ll find a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 CPU, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, which puts it in line with most current generation Android Wear watches. The battery capacity holds few surprises either, being a regular but respectable 340mAh – but it does come with Asus Hypercharge fast charging support, which means that, when paired with its magnetic charger, it’ll go from 0 to 60 percent battery life in a paltry 15 minutes.

And OS-wise, you’re looking at Android Wear 2.0 platform, preloaded with more than 50 watch faces. Not bad at all.

Anything else I need to know?

The ZenWatch 3 is coming with a brand new version of the ZenFit fitness tracker app, which the company says works more accurately at measuring your daily activity than older versions. Oh, and also the price: it’ll be €229, according to Asus. We’ll get a UK price out of them soon and update accordingly.

[Source: PhoneArena]