 This doesn't happen often. I did it with the Xclaim XI3 access point, which I still stand behind 100%, having been using them as our office access points for a couple of months, especially now that they have their cloud-based management tool up and running, and I'm going to do it again with the ZenWatch 2. This is an imperfect but very compelling product, and you should seriously consider buying one. Stay tuned to find out why. Corsair's RMI series power supplies feature premium components for great performance with very low noise. Check out the link in the video description to learn more. It starts today, as it always seems to start, with the physical tour of the watch, and given what a simple device the ZenWatch 2 is, that's probably not going to take very long. At the back, you will find the magnetic charging contact. This does require a proprietary cable, but I understand that it's being done for a reason. The watch is IP67 rated, making it waterproof for all but the most demanding uses like diving, and at least by the look of things, it's not a system that will need to be reinvented every single time ASUS releases a new watch, like what Pebble has been pulling for the last couple of years. Moving to the side, we've got a traditional-looking crown, but don't be deceived by its looks. It's just kind of mushy-feeling home button. It's not a dial that can be spun to travel through time or anything like that. And then at the front is, depending on which model of the ZenWatch 2 you opt for, either a 37mm 280x280 resolution display or a 41mm 320x320 resolution display. No matter which display size you go for, you'll be getting what I would describe as a functional, but not particularly stunning OLED panel with a curved piece of Gorilla Glass 3 covering both it, and the larger-than-I-would-prefer bezels, then joining just about seamlessly with the metal casing that makes up the main body of the watch. And that body. That's where things get interesting. I mean, sure, the specs are nice. You've got a Snapdragon 400 processor, 512Mb of RAM, 4GB of storage with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, with a 300mAh battery in the smaller body and a 400mAh battery in the larger one, but the solid feel of the device is what really makes the ZenWatch 2 stand out to me. It's really well constructed and manages to be low-profile enough that the smaller model will work great for all but the daintiest of lady arms, with the 42mm being a good size for most men. Although with my petite wrists, I actually found the smaller of the two was a better fit for me. I just wish I'd gone with one of the other available strap colors, since this taupe thing is pretty girly. And there's actually more good news as well. Even with a mere 300mAh battery, the ZenWatch 2 never went below 25% battery at the end of even the longest of days for me, with the screen always displaying all my critical information and a 5 second timeout on the screen dimming function. It's not multiple day battery life like a pebble, but I've been trained at this point, like a seal, to charge my devices daily anyway. So let's talk more usability stuff. Just like with their motherboards, I initially ignored Asus's optional software that goes with the watch. Some because I just don't really care, like the wellness one, and others because I was pretty sure that they would be buggy, full of spelling errors, and generally not very useful. So to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the ZenWatch Manager app would be a gross understatement. It's actually full of genuinely useful customization options, like being able to set the screen dimming timeout, something Apple doesn't allow for fear that their users will discover what a power sucking piece of wrist junk their watch is, the type of hand movements on analog watch faces, and whether new notifications will pop up in the bottom of the screen on their own or stay hidden until you swipe them up. A really cool little touch for folks who care about privacy, and for folks who just like their watch face to be clean all the time. Not that I'm one of those. This was my preferred watch face for my time with the ZenWatch 2. I was able to choose up to six widgets, things like the battery life of my phone, battery life of the watch, the weather, the humidity, etc. that can actually be clicked on to reveal more information if needed, like the weather one, which we can swipe down and see that... Is that a Chinese character in there? Okay, so there are definitely some polish issues. The calendar widget on this watch face clearly shows an event on the preview, yet when you press on it, there are no events, which... Okay, it worked this time. I can see the event, but this is what I'm talking about. There are some other imperfections that I noticed as well, like... Yes, friends, this is the part of the video where I reveal the ugly ducklings that are gonna break into your house at night and eat your bacon or whatever. In my time with the watch, I experienced not one but two crashes, one where the Wellness app, in spite of me never once opening it, crashed and needed to be restarted, and another where I tried to do a factory reset because I was switching phones, and the watch was just stuck on the shutting down screen for several hours until the battery drained and I was able to power it back on and reattempt the reset. Add to that the occasional choppy animation of the UI compared to my daily driver G-Watch R, which is odd because they're both running Snapdragon 400 processors at 1.2 GHz, and the I would describe as worse than average gesture detection to wake up the screen and activate OK Google, and you've got some pretty, you know, oh, that's kind of a bummer issues. So then, hold on a second, Linus. What was up with that recommendation to buy it at the beginning? Well, the ZenWatch 2 is $150. That's the punchline here. If you're willing to overlook these things, there's a beautiful, well-constructed, no-frills wearable here that stands up very well to other Android Wear devices and broadening the competitive analysis. I would argue that compared to the Apple Watch has better functionality. I mean, I'll trade being able to see the damn time whenever I please for Apple Pay and a heart rate sensor any day. And on top of that, it turned heads the whole time I was wearing it with people asking me like, oh, that looks nice. Is that the Apple Watch giving me an opportunity to explain to them that no, it's not. It's actually a much smarter purchase because while like the Apple Watch, this product is not perfect. At least its flaws are ones that don't interfere with basic telling the time functionality. And on top of that, its price allows me to replace it with something much better a generation or two down the line, three whole times by comparison. Speaking of online payments like Apple Pay, if you're building a mobile app and searching for a simple payment solution, you might want to check out Braintree. With the Braintree V.0 SDK, which is just one small snippet of code, you can be all set up and ready in less than 10 minutes to take online payments. And if you're having any trouble, they have support staff ready to walk you through the process over the phone if you need them. Their code supports Android, iOS, and JavaScript clients. And they have SDKs in seven programming languages. And it makes it easy to offer multiple mobile payment types, including PayPal, Apple Pay, Bitcoin, Venmo, Cards, and more. All with a simple integration. They've got quick, knowledgeable developer support if you have any questions. And to learn more, all you got to do is go over to BraintreePayments.com slash Linus. And if you use that link, you can also get your first $50,000 in transactions with no fees whatsoever. So check it out today at the link in the video description. All right. Thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. But if you're enjoying the deep, sultry voice that I got going on here, then hit that like button, get subscribed, and even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop on Amazon, buying a cool little shirt like the one that I'm wearing, or with a direct monthly contribution through our community forum. Now that you're done doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering what to watch next. So click that little button up there to check out Luke's crazy Fallout-themed bomb build blog. It is sick and definitely worth the watch. See you guys next time.