The ASUS ZenWatch
Smartwatches are extensions of our phones and, transitively, our lives. They provide us with the convenience and peace of mind of staying “connected” throughout the day without needing to be totally engrossed with our phones around the clock. While smartwatches have yet to be perfected, the potential is certainly there.
Here’s the thing.
While smartwatch manufacturers heavily promote their features, functionality and design, they are all dancing around the elephant in the room: battery life.
Why Stress the Stamina?
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that battery life is a key feature that deserves every smartwatch manufacturer’s attention. Every benefit that a smartwatch brings to our lives is negated when it’s refueling on top of our desks. When the smartwatch isn’t sitting on a wrist, it is essentially just a very dumb smartphone. And with the majority of smartwatches needing to be paired with phones, what is the point?
What Does Smartwatch Battery Life Look Like Now?
Smartwatch battery life is not quite there yet. Apple, for example, has recently been plagued with criticism that the much-anticipated Apple Watch could have a battery life as low as 2.5 hours of heavy and continuous use, and 19 hours of moderate use. Even though the Apple Watch is certainly quite powerful, nobody likes to hear that they may need to charge their watches multiple times a day. And whether or not you are an Apple fan, it is hard to deny that the Apple Watch is expected to set (or at least heavily influence) the bar for the smartwatch industry. If Apple is aiming this low, what does that mean about the competing products to come?
The Sony SmartWatch 3
Other smartwatches aren’t looking too great either. The updated Moto 360 gets about a day and a half of moderate use. The LG G-Watch R has a 1.5 to 2-day battery life, and the Sony SmartWatch 3 is looking at a 2-day battery life as well. Even though a 2-day battery life might seem sufficient to some, it’s a far cry from what most of us are accustomed to, which is not needing to charge our watches at all.
Sitting at the top of the battery life spectrum are the Pebble and the Pebble Steel, which, although touting a battery life of up to seven days, often see less juice depending on usage. But comparing the Pebble to Apple or Android-powered smartwatches is like comparing apples to oranges – the functionality and power of the devices are just too different.
ASUS is Here to Save the Day
While smartwatch manufacturers struggle to strike the perfect balance between functionality and stamina, ASUS claims they may have a solution. In an event over the weekend, ASUS chairman Jonney Shih hinted that their next smartwatch may see a significant improvement in battery life.
According to Shih, “the ZenWatch is defined by us as a companion to a smartphone, and we think it still has a lot of room for improvement,” Shih said. “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.”
While news of an improved battery life is certainly music to our ears, simplification of the smartwatch may raise a red flag for some of us – smartwatches already seem so limited in functionality. Can they really stand to be further simplified?
My answer is yes. The smartwatch is still largely a new technology that is being molded. As manufacturers figure out which features are critical to consumers and which features can be ruled out, simplification of the product is fair game. It does not necessarily lead to fewer features. This is especially true if the new ASUS smartwatch will still have the added functionality that ASUS teased last year, like being capable of handling voice calls without being tethered to a phone.
While the hint of a 7-day battery life is in the end still just a hint, I remain optimistic that the industry will soon get smartwatches right. As manufacturers toy around with striking the perfect balance between features and stamina, one of these companies will soon hit the sweet spot.
What are your thoughts on smartwatch battery life?
