The Leigh Hunt for a truly great and iconic Wear O smartwatch is still on — but in the meantime , you could do a hell of a lot worse than the Fossil Sport . Thanks to the newerSnapdragon 3100 processor , the Sport lastly has most of the features you wait a 2018 smartwatch to have . Namely , heart rate monitoring , standalone GPS , a better fitness user interface , and ( slightly ) prospicient assault and battery life .
It ’s true . wad of other smartwatches introduced these feature of speech ages ago . But that ’s not the point . The point is you could get a becoming smartwatch on Google ’s Wear OS , the long - neglected bastard stepchild of wearable operating systems . And at a comparatively affordable $ 255 .
Fossil Sport
The Fossil Sport is a good Wear OS watch, but it doesn’t have much competition.Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)
What is it ?
Fossil ’s latest smartwatch
Price
The 43 mm Fossil Sport (left) has a slightly larger bezel if you have eagle eyes.Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)
$ 255
Like
Affordable , comfortable design , lots of color selection , better Wear oculus sinister experience , standalone GPS , pith pace monitoring , rapid charging , swimproof , NFC payments
Heart rate monitoring isn’t continuous outside of exercise.Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)
Do n’t care
Wear O still is n’t great . shoulder strap are pain to swop .
As I wrote in myhands - on , creating a competent smartwatch might seem like a low-down stripe for Fossil to clear . But up until now , Wear O was heavily reliant on the out-of-date Snapdragon 2100 chip . It made for a inert wearable experience defined by a clunky UI , patchy middle rate monitoring , and often , a bulky innovation to accommodate a massive battery that did n’t last longer than 12 - minute anyway . That ’s not the font with the Sport .
So many colors.Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)
Push notifications are timely , there ’s minimum lag when cabbage between covert , and a mountain of Google’srevamped Wear OSinterface last knead the way it ’s intended . The Google Assistant screen is n’t quite as helpful as the Siri watch face on theSeries 4 , but it ’s effective . It ’s also easy to view your health stats thanks to the redesigned Google Fit CRT screen . It cribs a turn from Apple ’s Activity ring , but being capable to easily view your movement and eye distributor point at a glance is leaps and spring better than the former looping .
figure - wise , the Sport is the opposite of chunky . It add up in 41 mm and 43 mm , and the only noticeable difference is the bezel on the 43 mm sentinel is slightly prominent . It ’s comfy enough to get into all sidereal day , and it ’s small enough not to arrest on your crownwork arm . esthetically , the Sport has a nonchalantly chic yet gymnastic vibe . Like , “ I tire out athleisure to the grocery store but sometimes you may overtake me great power walk for 15 minutes around the park . ” you may get it in rosiness , black , gray , wakeful blue , red , and neon for the aluminum top - ring , and there are 28 different strap if you want to mix and agree .
I only have two quibbles about the Sport ’s design . First is the nylon face all the guts of the sentry reside in . I get that it ’s lightweight , but it feels and looks chintzy the longer I gaze at it . Sort of like the Al top tintinnabulation was just pasted onto a shaping patronage . Second is the ball - and - pin chemical mechanism to swop straps . It ’s exceedingly nettlesome and after try it once , I never want to examine it again . That get the better of the aim of hold so many color options in the first place .
The Fossil Sport is a big fish in a small Wear OS pond.Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)
The relief of the Fossil Sport is moderately ordinary . The top and bottom button on the right-hand side act as customizable shortcuts , and the dial lets you go back between menu or scroll through notice . If you bid and hold , you’re able to also bring up Google Assistant . As for internal guts , you get the distinctive accelerometer , altimeter , ambient low-cal sensor , gyroscope , and microphone . More impressive is the ocular bosom pace sensor , NFC payment via Google Pay , and built - in GPS . These are pretty raw additions to Fossil smartwatches , and it ’s supporting to see more functionality from the usually design - first watchmaker .
One area where the Sport underdelivers is battery aliveness . While the Snapdragon 3100 has better it to about 24 hours , this is still a watch you ’ll have to charge every night . Granted you have the same egress with the 18 - hour battery life on the Apple Watch Series 4 , though it technically does more in terms of meat rate monitoring and standalone LTE . Over about six day of use , I average around 20 hours before needing a charge on days when I did n’t work out .
A diminished comfort is the speedy charging . Fossil claimed you could send from zero to 80 - pct in about 50 minutes , and that proved true in examination . Out of the boxwood , I went from 50 to 100 - percent in about a half hour , and on subsequent charges , I did n’t need much more than an hour . Most wearables need around two hours to amply charge , so this is kinda handy if you wanna get the unpaired 30 - minute complaint academic term when you ’re just sit at your desk . Still , it ’d be skillful if you could at least go a full two days without concern .
This also raise interrogation about the Sport ’s fitness and health artistry , because if you ’re trying to be fit you need a lookout that will last the whole workout , and if you ’re taste to supervise your sleep you need it to last the entire Nox . What you terminate up puzzle is a mixed bag where the Sport is technically operable , but still play catch - up with other smartwatches .
A good example : it ’s skillful the Sport has standalone GPS , but it microwave my shelling after just a 30 - hour bike ride around Brooklyn ’s Prospect Park . I started at 40 - percent , and by the ending was left with just 15 - percent , which mean I had to charge as shortly as I put my bike away . That also means having to charge it before bed for eternal sleep trailing . Also , because Google Fit does n’t trail sleep natively , it means downloading a third - party app — an superfluous step I can skip on other devices .
Likewise , the Sport ’s activity tracking is competent but constrained . You only get continuous heart rate monitoring while exercising . The rest of the time it espy checks every 20 minutes or so . You also do n’t get reflex natural action logging as you do with the Series 4 , Fitbit , andSamsung Galaxy Watch . And even though it ’s swimming - proof up to 5 standard pressure ( ATM ) or 165 feet underwater , there ’s no swim activity in the Google Fit Workout app . ( It does , however , include more random activities like floss , stroller walk , and dynamometer rowing . ) Overall , tracking activity with the revamped Google Fit is definitely unspoiled than it used to be , but if you actually care about your data , apps like Strava or MapMyRun are more up to the chore .
That said , the Sport is pretty accurate . On a 4.15 - mile bicycle ride , it mensurate near 4.21 miles . I fatigue an Apple Watch Series 4 simultaneously and draw 4.23 mile . During the exercise , it match the Series 4 for average center rate at 135 beats per minute and was in general within 10 bpm of my Polar H10 chest strap . That ’s pretty good , even if it be me 25 percent of my barrage fire aliveness . As for overall step count , it touch the Fitbit Versa in two all - solar day counts , dissent by a negligible 100 to 200 steps .
But even with all these melioration , Wear O still is n’t great . It has more apps and watch over cheek overall than Samsung ’s Tizen OS , but installing them is tedious . This is mostly because I ’ve found Wear OS has a great tendency to cut down wifi signal and unplug from my phone . That might be because I ’m an iPhone user , but I ’ve never really had that issue with theSamsung Gear Sportor Galaxy Watch . As for nonstandard preinstalled apps , the Sport comes with Spotify ( which was mysteriously miss from my lookout ) , Noonlight ( a personal safety app ) , and Fossil ’s barebones view face app . Not terribly exciting .
The clincher for the Sport is price . At $ 255 , it ’s a good $ 145-$245 cheaper than the Apple Watch , depend on whether you get LTE . It ’s also about $ 74-$95 less than the Samsung Galaxy Watch . The only real competition is maybe theFitbit Versa , which cost about $ 50 less , but trades off better physical fitness trailing with scantier app offering and no build up - in GPS . Plus , Fitbit ’s Versa andIonicstill have more fitness than smartwatch in their DNA . The Fossil Sport delivers a dear smartwatch experience and is a unspoilt budget option with decent activity trailing . Its overall competence also constitute it the best Wear OS scout you may corrupt . For now .
The Fossil Sport ’s sovereignty as King of Wear bone is likely to be short - exist . At the moment , it benefits from being a great Pisces in a small pond . The only other Snapdragon 3100 watch available is theMontblanc Summit 2 , and at $ 995 it is n’t naturalistic for most people . It ’ll be interesting to see how the Sport holds up once the inflow of newer Snapdragon 3100 - powered watches get in . But until then , the Sport is about as good as it gets for Wear OS .
README
Zippy Snapdragon 3100 potato chip makes for a much better put on OS experience .
Battery life is still a let down at around 24 hours . Less if you use the standalone GPS , but the speedy charging is nifty .
Accurate trailing , but even with the vamp interface , Google Fit is n’t the adept fitness app .
Has heart charge per unit monitoring , NFC requital , built - in GPS . All three are functional improvements from Fossil ’s usual fashion - first fare .
Consumer TechFossilGadgetsReviewsSmartwatcheswearables
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