Why it matters to you
If you’re looking for an Android Wear watch with cellular connectivity, the ZTE Quartz could be the device for you.
It looks like ZTE is looking to enter the Android Wear smartwatch fray. While some manufacturers are prepping their third-generation smartwatch, ZTE is reportedly set to launch its first running Android Wear — and the device may show up within a few months.
According to a report from VentureBeat written by well known leaker Evan Blass, the new ZTE watch will be called the ZTE Quartz, and it was recently spotted getting its Bluetooth certification with the model number ZW10. The news isn’t all that surprising — we heard that ZTE would launch a smartwatch this year from ZTE USA CEO Lixin Cheng last month.
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So what will the new watch look like? VentureBeat has also managed to get its hands on ZTE Quartz promotional materials, showing a device that could be mistaken for a classy-looking non-smartwatch.
The device could also offer a little more functionality than most other smartwatches — according to Bluetooth SIG, the device will offer 3G cellular connectivity to complement its Wi-Fi connectivity, meaning that it won’t necessarily need to be connected to your smartphone all the time to get things like notifications.
We don’t really know all that much else about the new watch, but it’s likely that the device will feature Android Wear 2.0, the updated version of Android Wear that is set to launch February 8. While we don’t know for sure that the device will launch at Mobilr World Congress at the end of the month, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising.
This isn’t ZTE’s first attempt at a smartwatch — just its first attempt at an Android Wear smartwatch. At MWC 2016, the company showed off the Venus 1 and Venus 2 smartwatches, but those devices were mainly fitness trackers and didn’t really offer a fully-fledged operating system.
As VentureBeat notes, ZTE actually already has a device called the Quartz — which is a 5.5-inch smartphone with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.