Battery life is a big concern in this new wearable gadget market. The fact of the matter is you just can’t make batteries small enough to fit in wrist devices using the current battery tech. Older lithium-ion batteries are yet to see a breakthrough or any significant advance in storage capacity, and next generation solid state cells just aren;t coming any time soon.
So, for now, smart watches and wearables will have to make do with unstable battery lives, often draining power from using complicated applications or functions. Battery life will continue to be a selling point of these wearables for the foreseeable future – once the new batteries being developed by large companies catch on the playing field might be leveled as power becomes a moot point.
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But until then devices like the upcoming VivoWatch by Asus, which is rumored to feature a 10 day battery life, will still be an attractive choice simply due to holding charge. The VivoWatch is similar to the Asus ZenWatch, in theory the Vivo prefix denotes it as a midrange Asus product – it could ship with Android Wear, but it’s unlikely.
The VivoWatch only slightly distinguishes itself from previous Asus watches in the features included – there’s of course the rumored battery life, an IP67 certified rating confirming the watch’s resistance to dust and water, plus the biological sensors – standard fare with the heart-rate monitoring and sleep tracking functions we’ve come to see as a requirement for any watch of merit.
Additional rumor states that other key smartwatch functions such as push notifications and alerts to the phone via bluetooth, such as emails, texts, alarms, unlocking and the usual watch to phone interactions that have also become somewhat of an expectation. Market trends in wearables are becoming that much more apparent.
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However, the devices upgraded looks and a stainless steel casing give it a more premium look, from what we’ve seen in preview images. The casing is reportedly extra rugged and features increased toughness, which will hopefully defend that large screen.
At any rate, compared to the ZenWatch the VivoWatch does indeed look like the next step forward for Asus. No doubt we’ll see the operating system it’s been shipped with when it may possibly appear at the recent Milan Design Week – that power saving mode display isn’t really telling many stories, but it could indeed point to the device not being an Android Wear one.
Via: Techspot
Source: Engadget