I was using my Zen Watch on an HTC One M9 running the stock android 5.0.2. I cannot wait for 5.1 to be released for M9. . . but that is another story.
At the end of day one I left the watch charging downstairs and brought my phone upstairs. Watch was at 10% so it made it thru the day even with all of my playing with it. I can live with that.
In the morning the watch was 'disconnected' since it was out of range but it did not automatically reconnect. I then used the Android Wear app to try to reconnect but the app just stated 'Reconnecting' . . . for ever. It never reconnected. Turned app off, restarted watch, restarted phone. Nothing. Used the Zen App, same thing.
Reset watch, followed all the instructions, it worked. Tested it by turning watch off and on, same exact problem, would not reconnect.
After a day of playing with apps and reconnect problem, I called Asus (3 different numbers before landing at correct support people), they spent 30 minutes asking me canned questions before they told me to reset the watch and call them back if that did not solve the problem. As before, it connected. Went for dog walk, got back from the walk and checked my number of steps but sometime during the walk it 'disconnected' and would not reconnect. One more try, unloaded apps, restarted phone and reset watch but only installed Android Wear app. Reconnected after turning off then on but disconnected sometime within the next hour.
After 3 days it went back to Best Buy.
To be fair, I do not know if it was a phone or watch or both problem. It could even be an RF problem but my other Bluetooth devices work with phone (car, headset, and Parrot speakerphone for 2nd car).
I would have gladly worked with them to diagnose the problem but could never get past Tier 1 tech support. They lost a customer and now have bad reports going out about the watch. I have used their video cards, mother boards, and a laptop, not anymore . . .
Other things I noticed
- always on does not mean always on. Sometimes the face was barely on where you can hardly see the face (useless), sometimes it was on and you can see the face clearly, sometimes it was completely off.
- the wrist twist only works some of the time so you wind up having to touch the face to wake the watch up most of the time.
- the large, square body and stiff leather strap caused the watch to lean away from my eyes so I had to twist my wrist in an unnatural position to look at the face squarely. Fortunately the display was bright enough that it was not necessary to twist my wrist to see the information. A new softer watch band probably would have solved the problem.
- sending a voice text from phone was problematic in that you dictated the message and were never given the opportunity to review the message before it was immediately sent, wrong words and all . . .
As with anything that is 1.0 if you re not a techie you should stay away. Android is not Apple with their propensity to do a lot of UX work. Google lets the vendors do that in order to differentiate their products. Sony works better with Sony products as does Samsung and LG with their respective phones. These companies resemble more of the closed Apple system.
Given all of that I would have kept the watch if it would have stayed connected, it was a nice watch and it did what they claimed it would do. . even if it was a little buggy, my expectation is that Google and Asus would have fixed many of the bugs.
At the end of day one I left the watch charging downstairs and brought my phone upstairs. Watch was at 10% so it made it thru the day even with all of my playing with it. I can live with that.
In the morning the watch was 'disconnected' since it was out of range but it did not automatically reconnect. I then used the Android Wear app to try to reconnect but the app just stated 'Reconnecting' . . . for ever. It never reconnected. Turned app off, restarted watch, restarted phone. Nothing. Used the Zen App, same thing.
Reset watch, followed all the instructions, it worked. Tested it by turning watch off and on, same exact problem, would not reconnect.
After a day of playing with apps and reconnect problem, I called Asus (3 different numbers before landing at correct support people), they spent 30 minutes asking me canned questions before they told me to reset the watch and call them back if that did not solve the problem. As before, it connected. Went for dog walk, got back from the walk and checked my number of steps but sometime during the walk it 'disconnected' and would not reconnect. One more try, unloaded apps, restarted phone and reset watch but only installed Android Wear app. Reconnected after turning off then on but disconnected sometime within the next hour.
After 3 days it went back to Best Buy.
To be fair, I do not know if it was a phone or watch or both problem. It could even be an RF problem but my other Bluetooth devices work with phone (car, headset, and Parrot speakerphone for 2nd car).
I would have gladly worked with them to diagnose the problem but could never get past Tier 1 tech support. They lost a customer and now have bad reports going out about the watch. I have used their video cards, mother boards, and a laptop, not anymore . . .
Other things I noticed
- always on does not mean always on. Sometimes the face was barely on where you can hardly see the face (useless), sometimes it was on and you can see the face clearly, sometimes it was completely off.
- the wrist twist only works some of the time so you wind up having to touch the face to wake the watch up most of the time.
- the large, square body and stiff leather strap caused the watch to lean away from my eyes so I had to twist my wrist in an unnatural position to look at the face squarely. Fortunately the display was bright enough that it was not necessary to twist my wrist to see the information. A new softer watch band probably would have solved the problem.
- sending a voice text from phone was problematic in that you dictated the message and were never given the opportunity to review the message before it was immediately sent, wrong words and all . . .
As with anything that is 1.0 if you re not a techie you should stay away. Android is not Apple with their propensity to do a lot of UX work. Google lets the vendors do that in order to differentiate their products. Sony works better with Sony products as does Samsung and LG with their respective phones. These companies resemble more of the closed Apple system.
Given all of that I would have kept the watch if it would have stayed connected, it was a nice watch and it did what they claimed it would do. . even if it was a little buggy, my expectation is that Google and Asus would have fixed many of the bugs.
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