When you picture a Wear o sentry , you ’re probably think of a Fossil , or one of the many interior decorator brands under the society ’s umbrella ( Kate Spade , Michael Kors , etc . ) . So of grade when Google and Samsung announced they had teamed up onan pass Wear OS platform , it was only a affair of time before Fossil released a newfangled watch . Well , the delay is over . Today , the party announced the Fossil Gen 6 , and while it seems like a substantial upgrade , the timing could be better .
TheGen 6will be power by Qualcomm ’s Snapdragon Wear 4100 + platform , which will enable faster functioning and a boniface of overdue feature long absent from Wear OS . These let in an SpO2 sensor , a speaker system for taking calls , an always - on display , quicker charging , and machinelike synchronise . It ’s great that we ’re finally escort some of these features on an Android - friendly smartwatch other than a Samsung , but the 4100 + cow dung is n’t just good news show at this point .
First off , the 4100 + chip isalready more than a class erstwhile , and Qualcomm is rumored to be fall out witha new platform within the next class . There ’s skilful reason to believe that the chipisn’t optimized for the Modern Samsung - Google Wear OS , called Wear OS 3 . The new Wear OS is n’t coming to the Gen 6 until mid-2022 at the earlier , so if you buy this watch when it launches , you ’ll be using Wear atomic number 76 2 for several month .
Image: Fossil
The Gen 6 look like your typical Fossil watch . It come in 42 mm and 44 mm case size , with a 1.28 - in color display . It ’s got 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of computer memory , which is fair stock for Fossil vigil . In addition to the raw SpO2 sensor , it also has build - in GPS , continuous heart rate - monitoring , and is rat water supply resistant up to 30 metre . Fossil says the new watch ’s battery animation can charge up to 80 % in 30 minutes , and lasts at least 24 hour on a tutelage . That ’s not wildly impressive , but it ’s better than the old Snapdragon Wear 3100 - power spotter .
Altogether , theFossil Gen 6feels like a transitional smartwatch . It ’s not that you ’re not baffle upgrades . You are . The 4100 + program is a significant bump up in processing capability from the 3100 microprocessor chip , which has powered all of Fossil ’s watches since 2018 . But Samsung ’s excellentGalaxy Watch 4 lineupis also here , already has the new Wear O , and runs on a processor that ’s much more powerful than the 4100 + . The $ 250 40 mm Bluetooth Galaxy Watch 4 is also cheaper than the Gen 6 , which will be $ 299-$319 look on which variant you get . None of this quite adds up .
Fossil does n’t dictate when Wear OS 3 will be ready to scat on its computer hardware , nor does it settle when a more sinewy wearable chip that can handle the new Wear OS come out . It ’s working with restrictions put in post by Google and Qualcomm . Fossil ’s last watches , theGen 5Eand theGen 5 LTEwere both scout that seemed to be stalling for something better to come up along . TheGen 6might meet a similar destiny .
But theGen 6is one of the few Android watches that have been support to be receiving Wear OS 3 . That at least makes it an alright buy for anyone still stuck on a 2100 - powered smartwatch ( which , yikes ) . We ’ll have to screen for ourselves to see how well the watch function — both with Wear OS 2 and Wear OS 3 when it ’s uncommitted .
The FossilGen 6will fare in seven colorways — four for the 44 mm interpretation and three for the 42mm — and will feature standardized strap . It ’s Fossil , so there are a zillion dissimilar accessories as well . you could preorder the watch on Fossil ’s website set out today .
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