wear os – Tech Raman

Fossil Sports Watch Review | Tech Raman

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 23:58:57 +0000

The last Fossil watch I reviewed the Explorist HR was a mixed bag for me, while it looked great it was put down by an aged processor and poor battery life, have things changed with the Fossil Sports Watch now? After all, things look little brighter with the latest Wear OS and the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset on this watch. So let’s dive deep into this Fossil Sports watch review and unravel the facts.

Design: Balancing the Sporty and Stylish Look

It’s a sports Smartwatch but yet it has to be stylish in parts at least to command the price. It has to be lightweight, comfortable, durable as well as stylish. It’s a tricky job. Fossil has opted for a mix of metal and silicone for the balancing act. The main watch body is made of aluminium and the strap of the watch is silicone which makes it lighter as well as good for workouts since it doesn’t absorb sweat. The Fossil Sport comes in both 41mm and 43mm to suit wrists of different sizes. The 41mm variant weighs only 38 grams. The strap can be replaced with any 18/ 22mm straps depending on the size you opted for, so that provides the variety in case you want. On the side of the Fossil Sport, there is a rotating dial in the centre flanked by two buttons above and below. The bottom button is tied to Google Fit and the top can be customizable to run one of Fossil’s own app say like you can use it launch stopwatch. Pressing once the rotating crown takes you to the app menu list. You can rotate the crown to scroll through the list and access the apps. Turning back, you will find the optical heart rate monitor.

Display of Fossil Sports Smartwatch:

You get a 1.19-inch or 1.29-inch OLED screen depending on which size of Fossil Sport you choose. Both have 390 x 390 resolution, so needless to say the larger screen has a marginally lower pixel density which frankly makes not much difference even if you look at both. The display is bright, something I really liked about in this watch. The colours are vivid. It also has an ambient light sensor so the watch can automatically adjust the brightness depending on the environment. I found the display to be good even outdoors offering good readability. The touch response is fairly well for a watch. You can also choose a watch face of your liking or one for your mood of the day.

Performance & Wear OS

The Fossil Watch boasts of the latest Qualcomm Wear 3100 chip and runs on the latest Wear OS. Its paired with 12MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. On paper, they sound great. The new chip is also supposed to be energy efficient. Before we dive into the last part, let’s see what the watch offers in terms of features and performance. Foremost it’s a sports watch, so let’s begin with the fitness features. It comes with built-in GPS, an altimeter and a Heart rate monitor. Google Fit offers you many workout training from basics like walking, running, cycling, strength training and challenges to push your fitness to almost close to 80 other activities as varied as aerobics, badminton to Zumba. So you get a large pool of activities to choose from. On the casual apps side, you have apps from Play Store tailored for Wear OS. While all this sounds great, the watch still feels a bit sluggish at times when opening or using certain apps. I had a situation when my watch simply froze on a notification panel. Even the keys won’t work and I have to simply wait till the watch battery is worn out and upon charging and booting again, it went back to normal. That was quite irritating. It was just once though in my fortnight of use. It won’t be fair to blame Fossil for the sluggishness, the entire Wear OS and the chip has more to contribute for the ecosystem for faster, cleaner approach. Step tracking is accurate maybe a 5% off in stats, which can be forgiven. Even the heart rate monitor seems to be doing well in terms of accuracy. You can even check emails and choose to reply right from the watch if you choose to. While it might not be the best typing experience you can manage at certain situations. You can add even some emojis.

The battery life of Fossil Sport Smartwatch

This is the part that got me interested when I started using the watch after all the Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor is supposed to be energy efficient and deliver better battery life. If there is one reason I don’t use many of the good looking Smartwatches in the market, it’s due to the poor battery life. I am not a person who is ready to charge a watch every single day. If you share the same concern, the Fossil Sport would disappoint you the same way it did me. It would not last a full day. After 15-16 hours the battery goes down to 22-25%. If you opt-out of the phone notifications it would fare a little better. The battery saving mode gets activated once the 15 per cent mark reaches and you could only check the time from then. If you turn on the always-on display and continuous heart rate monitor, expect still less battery life. So I didn’t see any improvement with the latest 3100 chip at least on this phone with Wear OS.

Verdict:

Fossil Sport is lightweight, comfortable. The Wear OS has marked improvement but there is a bit of sluggishness that creeps in now and then. Battery life is again a downer. If you could live with overnight charging and want a watch with a great display and good build, you could try the Fossil Sport Smartwatch but I must say you should check the other options too in the market before picking one.]]>

Fossil Explorist HR review

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 16:51:08 +0000

Fossil Explorist HR quick details

Activity Tracking: Built-In Fitness Tracker
Notifications: Text / Email / Social Media / App Alerts / Multiple Time Zones / Alarm Clock / Calendar Alerts
Functions: Heart Rate Tracking / GPS / Google Pay™ / Swimproof / Notifications / Personalise Your Dial / Control Your Music / Interchangeable Watch Band
Connectivity: Bluetooth® Smart Enabled/4.1 Low Energy, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Compatibility: Android OS 4.4+ (EXCLUDING GO EDITION), iOS 9.3+

Design of Fossil Explorist HR

1.4″ AMOLED display
454 x 454-pixel resolution
46mm case size

Fossil Explorist HR retains the look of the 2017 edition of the Explorist, which is not a bad idea. While I never was fond of traditional watches while growing up, I quickly took into the timekeeping wagon when the Smartwatches came in the picture. But soon I found my liking in this segment – a traditional looking machined look timepiece with smarts into it. Fossil Explorist HR offers exactly that. It does not look uber cool but commands noble attention. With a larger case size of 46mm, it is for men. For women, Fossil has introduced the Fossil Venture HR with a smaller case. The display is instant love. You get a brilliant 1.4-inch AMOLED display with a 454 x 454-pixel resolution. The display is very clear, vivid and a pleasure even in outdoor. It even can be set to always on the screen to show just the time. The blacks are deep and offer good contrast levels. There is a narrow black bezel but is hidden or you would fail to notice it in most of the watch faces which niftly hide the bezels with the UI design. The wake gestures include tapping the screen, a tilt of the wrist and by pressing the crown, all of which can be turned on or off as per your preference in the settings. The 22mm straps are interchangeable and if you don’t like the tan leather strap with metallic casing with stainless steel bezel and buttons, the Fossil Explorist HR also comes in many different designs to choose from. For the watch body, you’ll find it comes in blue, silver, black, rose gold, gunmetal or smoke and each is made of stainless steel. And if you don’t like the leather strap you also get more strap options including metal links or silicone. The right side of the watch has three prominent physical buttons. The middle one when pressed takes you the watch face, a long press launches the Google Assistant. While the display is touch, if your hands are greasy, you can also twist the middle button and scroll through the screens. The two buttons flanking the crown can be programmed which means you can create quick shortcuts to your most frequented apps. The bottom button by default launches the Google Fit upon pressing. The case thickness is 13mm, which is alright for a Smartwatch that packs too many things. At the back is the heart rate sensor. While the sensor area is slightly bumped out, it doesn’t really cause any discomfort while wearing, I never realized it in fact until I touched it. The Explorist HR is not noticeably heavy either and it is pleasant wear – feels good on hand and looks great too as a watch.

The hardware of Fossil Explorist HR

The Explorist is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 2100 processor with 512MB of RAM and it comes with 4GB of storage. The SD 2100 has had a long run now having arrived all the way back in February 2016. It’s surprising to know the slow pace of chipset development compared to the breakneck speed in the Smartphone pace. While finally, Qualcomm did release the Snapdragon 3100 a few months back, there is still some room left the aged chipset we have here. It also proves to be its Achilles which we will discuss later.

Fossil Explorist HR: Wear OS by Google

Wear OS by Google is slowly but steadily seeing improvements. The watch covers all the features one would expect on a Smart watch. Notifications are easy to read and pops instantly when you receive it on your phone. Having Wear OS means you can download Wear OS compatible apps from the play store and have it run on the watch including maps for navigation. It is compatible with both iPhones and Android devices.

Water resistance of Fossil Explorist HR

You can take a shower or dive into a pool with Fossil Explorist HR. It comes with a 3ATM waterproof rating and can survive a dip in water up to 30 meters. Though if you had opted for the leather strap, you might not want to dip into water or change the strap for a water safe material.

NFC on Fossil Explorist HR

The inclusion of NFC now means the Explorist HR gets contactless payment support.

Fitness Features of Fossil Explorist HR

The Explorists HR comes with built-in GPS which makes it ideal for runners or cyclists. This also means you don’t have to carry your phone along while running and still map your runs and rides. Though this is not your typical sports smartwatch, you could still make good use of it. Even on your regular move around the town and for step counts addition of the GPS score better brownie points. Mapping accuracy is good and reliable. The optical heart rate monitor at the back that glows green when in action, which can be used for both on the spot readings and to show your heart rate in real-time during workouts. The readings are fairly accurate for daily reassurances. The data can be synced to Google Fit and accessing it is just a swipe away from the screen. It can also be programmed to one of the two buttons.

Fossil Explorist HR Battery Life

The bottom of the case has the Optical heart rate monitor which is surrounded by two concentric silver rings. It’s the contact points for the in-box USB propreitory charger. While I would still want all the Smartwatch manufacturers to jump into a universal micro USB or type C charging solution, for now, you have to live with the proprietary chargers. On a brighter side, just rest your watch in any orientation charger pad and it connects to the back of the Explorist magnetically. If you are travelling and you forget the cable you are in a dock. The one grouse I have with most Smartwatches running especially on Wear OS is the poor battery life and that sour note is carried with Explorist HR. You would have to power the watch every day, which honestly takes the joy out of the watch. The Explorist HR should offer all-day battery life. Tracking activity with GPS or constant heart rate monitor could take a toll on the battery life further.

Verdict

Fossil Explorist has good pleasing looks, it’s a watch that can team up with your different wardrobe and fashion senses. It also has different watch cases and straps you can choose from plus the quick-release straps can help you match with your dress by changing it quickly if you are finicky about it. On the smarts, it ticks everything like heart-rate monitor, built-in GPS and NFC and Wear OS offers good support for the UX. Except for the aged processor and if you can live with the daily regime of charging the watch, this is an attractive smart timepiece. ]]>