14 DAY TRIAL // IFA 2014 is scheduled to kick start in a short while, and it already seems to us that this is going to be a year focused on smartwatches.
Motorola will probably show theirs, LG has a round model up their sleeve, and Samsung will be bringing out the Gear 3 (or Gear Solo or whatever its name turns out to be).
But a few newcomers to the world of smartwatches will join in the festival. One of them is ASUS and the company already made sure to pique our curiosity by teasing us with a shady image of the upcoming product.
Sadly, the picture was obscure enough that we couldn't get any hints related to its capabilities. ASUS likes to keep its fans interested so it has posted two more images via Facebook (more like sketches) showing its upcoming wearable.
The images show a bunch of conceptual drawings, the ASUS team probably used in the design stages of the product. Interestingly enough, they don’t give any palpable details, but by looking at the images, we could argue the watch could come with a (slightly?) curved display.
Moreover, the watch appears to come equipped with a camera, so should we expect a higher price tag? We’re saying this because the Samsung Gear 2 arrived with a snapper and was sold for $299 / €226, as opposed to the $199 / €150 you had to pay for Gear 2 Neo which didn't bundle the functionality.
However, a while back ASUS CEO himself claimed that the smatwatch would be a “hero product” to be marketed for a super affordable price-tag (between $99 / €75 and $149 / €113). Hopefully, the company will manage to keep true to its promise.
ASUS says the watch carries a smooth shell and this reference could be correlated to curvature and maybe to the kind of materials that were used to build the product.
The ASUS smartwatch has been in the news for some time now and we already know it will come equipped with gesture controls, a feature that has the potential of stirring customers away from the completion. If it sell at an acceptable rate, of course.
On the other hand, ASUS has yet to reveal which operating system will be onboard of its watch, but it’s highly unlikely we’re going to see anything else than Android Wear. It’s quite improbable that ASUS will adopt Samsung’s Tizen platform for its first effort.
