Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle Stainless Steel Touchscreen Smartwatch Review2020| Life Style
Photo Credit: Google
Product description
- Product Dimensions: 5 x 5 x 0.7 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
- ASIN: B07SRVV8V4
- Item model number: FTW4024
- Batteries: 1 CR2 batteries required. (included)
- Date first listed on Amazon: June 10, 2019
- Customer Reviews: 2,063 ratings
- Smartwatches powered with Wear OS by Google work with iPhone and Android Phones ; Circumference: 200+/ 5mm
- Extend your battery life for multiple days with new, smart battery modes; magnetic USB rapid charger included; charge up to 80 percent in under an hour
- Heart Rate & Activity Tracking using Google Fit; Built-in GPS for distance tracking; Swimproof design 3ATM; Google Assistant it’s your own personal Google, always ready to help; Speed through checkout with your watch using Google Pay
- This is one smart watch now with a speaker for audible alerts and taking phone calls, Google Assistant responses and more; receive smartphone notifications and alerts; microphone; download third party apps with 8GB of storage and 1G RAM memory capacity
- Case size: 44mm; Band size: 22mm; interchangeable with all Fossil 22mm bands; Screen Size: 1.28" display with 416x416 resolution; touchscreen functionality; Connectivity: Bluetooth(R) 4.1 Low Energy and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n; wireless syncing; imported
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100
Review
In fact, it's barely soon enough to unbox. The fifth-generation Fossil is finally here. You know how I get about my smartwatches. Let's see if this one has a chance of earning its price tag.
Okay, so Fossil Group offers far and away the most diverse portfolio of watches, running Google's Wear OS. And this Gen 5 will probably serve as the jumping-off point for most of the new ones we'll see this year. So it's promising to see the latest Snapdragon 3100 chipset under the hood, even if the promised battery life improvements from that platform have never really materialized. To help with that, Fossil cooked up three of its own battery optimization modes. So you can select which watch features stay active and which get put to sleep for maximum endurance. Also, within the stainless steel case is the same gigabyte of RAM that makes the MontblancSummit 2 run so smoothly. And ditto the rotating crown. In my opinion, a must-have for the best Wear OS experience. As usual, the other two pushers default to Google Fit and Google Pay, but they can be customized to suit your own preferences. I'm not much for talking to my wristwatch, but the microphone of the previous generation has been retained and augmented by a speaker that's just as water-resistant as the watch is. That means you can hear alarms and messages from Google Assistant and also make and take calls while the watch is paired to your Android phone. If you wanna make those calls while paired to an iPhone, instead, Fossil will make that possible for the first time on a Wear OS device through another proprietary app due this fall. I've only been able to use Gen 5 for a few days, and it's on pre-production software so the custom battery optimizations aren't yet working. From what is working, there are very few surprises. My review sample is the Carlyle, one of two styles, and while it's handsome with the included metal bracelet, I'm grateful the standard 22-millimeter connection
let me swap it out for a band of my own. The charger is Fossil's standard magnetic puck, same as on the company's sport and without using any of the battery saving features, I have to put the watch on that charger about as often as usual, every other night. There's a heart rate sensor on the back, a bright and beautiful display on the front, and this being Fossil, a metric ton of watch faces, which I really appreciate.
Along with the battery claims, what's impossible for me to evaluate at this point is the Gen 5's reliability. A cursory look at the Wear OS and Fossil subreddits reveals that Generation 4 had a widespread defect that caused the back covers to fall off on many devices. Fortunately, those forums are also replete with stories of Fossil's good customer service, but then, there's Wear OS. Google's revised smartwatch platform is much better than it used to be, and it boasts a large ecosystem of apps.
But it's still got more than its share of bugs, compared to something like Samsung's Galaxy Watches, or of course, the Apple Watch. These are all things to consider when you're shelling out nearly $300 for a smartwatch. Give me some more time once the final software hits, and I'll have more to share alongside other watches soon. so you don't miss it. If you wanna buy it today, I'll drop a link below, it is on sale as of press time.
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