ASUS reportedly working on a non-Android Wear smartwatch w/ better battery life

ASUS ZenWatch, the company’s current Android Wear offering

Leaked details last week of a purported HTC smartwatch in the works suggested that the Taiwanese company would be ditching Android Wear in at least one future device, and now it appears that ASUS—another Taiwanese company—is doing the same. According to a report this morning from Focus Taiwan, ASUS is working a wrist-worn device with much better battery life—and they’re going to achieve that by leaving behind Google’s operating system.

“The major concern is about saving power,” ASUS CEO Jerry Shen told the publication. “We will continue to work with Google on Android Wear, and we will have another (smartwatch) that is not based on Android Wear and features a longer battery life.”

The company has said that it is working on a device that lasts as much as seven days on one charge, which is definitely a drastic improvement over the current norm of around a day or two. The only wrist-worn devices that have managed to last longer than a week have been simpler fitness trackers and watches built with an e-paper display like the Pebble.

But it’s apparent that ASUS is definitely not planning to ditch Android Wear for good. According to the company’s CEO, a second-generation ZenWatch will be shipping at some point packing Android Wear, and this is scheduled to happen “before any possible changes occur.” The device is currently scheduled for release sometime in Q3 2015.

All of this news comes just hours after LG announced their “Watch Urbane” Android Wear smartwatch, which is basically a classier and better-built version of the LG G Watch R.