Android Wear watches are seeing a small revival of late with the launch of Android Wear 2.0. The latest OEM to jump in is ZTE with their first Android Wear device, apparently named the Quartz, passing through the FCC.
The watch which has shown up at the FCC, model#: ZW10, bears a resemblance to the Quartz which was leaked early last month by Evan Blass. The Quartz was rumoured to have 2G/3G connectivity and from the report attached to the FCC documents this seems to be confirmed. The report lists GSM/GPRS/EGPRS/WCDMA/HSPA connectivity as well as WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (single band 2.4GHz) and Bluetooth 4.0.
What the report doesn’t make mention of is any NFC chip or functionality inside the watch.
The FCC documents show the FCC label location as on the rear of the watch, giving us a look at what appears to be the pogo pin style charger. It also doesn’t leave any room for a heart-rate monitor, so the Quartz very likely isn’t aimed at the fitness market.
There’s not a lot else in the FCC filing, and according to the filing internal & external photos and user manuals are to remain confidential for up to 180 days, so we should see an announcement before that time is up.
At this stage, the ZTE Quartz is shaping up to be quite a basic device, though could be a good entry point for anyone wanting to get into Android Wear on a budget.
Include NFC. How expensive can an NFC chip cost? Should be required.