Android Wear smartwatches are quickly becoming all the rage, and for darned good reason. First of all Google’s first smart wearables version of their popular operating system is designed just to bring you what you need to know instead of trying to recreate the phone experience on a tiny device. It does this by mainly using voice commands, something that other smartwatch OS’s out there could only dream of at times, and it does it incredibly well by using Google Now and interfacing with your phone. During a media briefing Asustek CEO Jerry Shen announced that their first smartwatch, the Asus ZenWatch, will in fact be powered by Android Wear, and because of that will feature voice control as the current crop of Android Wear smartwatches do. This is great news for those of us that liked the look of the ZenWatch in the teaser but were nervous about the possibility of Asus using their own smartwatch OS as Sony and Samsung both do.
Initially support will only be for English when the phone launches in October, but Chinese support will come shortly after that. The United States and other “select markets,” as Shen put it, will receive the device in October, and most excitingly the price tag looks like it’s going to be much less than some other Android Wear watches out there will be. Coming in under $199, Asustek is proudly talking about the reception their device received at Google HQ when they showed it off, with comments saying that it looks better than the current crop of Android Wear smartwatches yet it comes in under the price of those.
There are rumors that are even pointing to the ZenWatch coming in at $99, but that’s nothing official and wasn’t discussed at this media event. Asustek’s ZenWatch features a different look from the other Android Wear watches out there, with a much more rounded rectangular screen and some really great looking materials used on the device. Are you interested in buying Asus new watch when it hits the streets in just over a month? Let us know in the comments below or on any of the social networks we’re on! The official announcement is next week on September 3rd at IFA in Berlin, so if you’re not yet sure you’ll be able to make the decision then.