Asus offered up another of its Zenvolution events at IFA yesterday. As well as all the obvious Zen devices, like smartphones, laptops, Transformer 2-in-1s, and tablets, there were various monitors, routers and computing accessories.
Zenwatch 3
Asus has designed this round faced smartwatch in "jewelry-grade 316L stainless steel," with three attractive finishes; Gunmetal, Silver, and Rose Gold. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, the ZenWatch 3 promises fast and efficient, quick recharging, operation.
The screen of the Zenwatch 3 is a 1.39-inch AMOLED display with 400 by 400 resolution and 287ppi pixel density, covered by curved 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass. IP67 water resistance ensures this smart wearable can endure the worst of the weather and sweat from your exercise regime. Asus has built various activity and fitness features into this Android Wear powered device via the ZenFit app.
More Zen products
Asus used IFA to showcase the ZenBook 3, packing the new Intel 7th generation Core i7 processors. Other vital specs are; 16GB of RAM, up to a 1TB PCIe 3.0 x4 ultra-fast SSD, a next-gen USB Type-C (USB-C) port, and powerful quad-speaker audio system by Harman Kardon. The Zenbook 3's screen is a high res 12.5-inch touch panel coated with Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
The sleek and light Zenbook 3 (11.9mm thick and 910g) is made of aerospace-grade aluminium alloy. Despite its thinness, the full size backlit keyboard offers a 19.8mm key pitch and 0.8mm key travel. Other modern niceties include; a glass-covered Precision Touchpad incorporating palm-rejection technology, Smart Gestures, handwriting support, and a built-in fingerprint reader with Windows Hello support. The Zenbook 3 offers up to 9 hours of battery life and can fast charge up to 60 per cent capacity in under 50 minutes.
Asus revealed the Transformer 3 Pro convertible. This is again 'precision crafted' from metal, aluminium this time, and is only 8.35mm thick. The tablet portion incorporates a stepless hinge mechanism. Included is the ASUS Transformer Cover backlit keyboard with 1.4mm key-travel.
Central to this machine is its 12.6-inch display with 2880 x 1920 pixels (275ppi). If you buy the Asus Transformer 3 Pro you can specify an Intel Core i7 processor and up to a 1TB PCIe x4 ultra-fast SSD, and 16GB of high-speed 2133MHz RAM. The machine's reversible USB-C connector supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 devices at speeds up to 10Gbps, and incorporates Thunderbolt 3 for 40Gbps data transfers and support for dual external 4K UHD displays. You also have USB 3.0 and HDMI ports built-in. Windows Hello is supported by the built-in cameras.
Asus has plenty of accessories available for the Transformer 3 Pro, as follows; the Asus Pen, a Universal Dock, an Audio Pod, and it is compatible with the ROG XG Station 2 external graphics card dock.
If the Asus Transformer 3 Pro is a little too expensive, Asus is also offering a non-pro version with the same screen but various slower 7th gen Core processors, less RAM and storage but most of the other features intact.
A new Zen tablet was showcased at IFA, the Asus ZenPad 3S 10. Asus is aiming high with this device so it sports some nice specs including a 9.7-inch QXGA (2048 by 1536) high-resolution touchscreen, super slim unibody aluminium chassis with very thin screen bezels, and impressive audio. Asus has fitted stereo speakers with NXP smart amplifier technology to support high-res audio up to 24-bit, and 192kHz.
The new ZenPad is powered by a hexa-core MediaTek 8176 processor accompanied by 4GB of RAM. 64GB of storage is built-in and can be expanded via microSD. Furthermore, it's good to see a built-in fingerprint sensor for rapid locking/unlocking of the device. Stylus fans will be happy with the inclusion of the Asus Z Stylus offering a "natural pen-on-paper feel". Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 technology allows users to fully recharge this 5900mAh battery packing device in about 3 hours. A full charge allows up to 10 hours of movie watching or 12 hours of Wi-Fi web browsing.
ZenScreen MB16AC
I've given this product a call-out as its "the world’s lightest and slimmest Full HD portable monitor". The ZenScreen is a 15.6-inch device which is just 8mm thick and weighs 800g. Its 6.5mm bezels help it be even more portable than previous designs. This screen makes use of the combined power and video transmission of a hybrid USB-C port.
Asus supplies a screen cover that doubles as a smart case/stand. However it says there's a pen hole at the screen's lower right corner for standing up the screen, in horizontal or vertical orientations, without that accessory.
