ZTE is joining the smart watch race with a device of its own. Called Axon Watch, it doesn’t run Google’s Android Wear but a wearable version of the local Tencent OS. Users, at least in China, will get to benefit from most of the features modern smart watches offer, including notifications, third-party app support, gesture controls, messaging and fitness/activity tracking with built-in heart rate monitor.
It is unclear when or even whether this wearable will be released in the West; for the time being it’s “stuck” to China. We do know this is a great product specs-wise, boasting a sapphire-coated 1.4-inch 400×400 pixels round AMOLED touchscreen, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, Bluetooth 4.1, and a 300 mAh battery. In theory it could run Android Wear, but that doesn’t mean ZTE will launch a version with Google’s platform. Though that makes more sense for the Western markets.
Beyond the watch, the Chinese company unveiled new Axon smartphones in the US; as you would imagine, these devices run Android.