Fossil announced its Gen 5 Smartwatch today, upgrading the internals of its Wear OS watch to a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100. The new chipset unlocks new features with its big-small-tiny architecture, which we first got to check out on the Fossil Sport.
"For several years, the health and wellness industry has been converging with smartwatch technology—and Fossil knew there was a tremendous opportunity to provide a connected option for the design-conscious consumer looking to bring style to their wrist. It’s always been a top priority to listen to our consumers and address these big market share opportunities when it comes to technology innovation,’’ said Steve Evans, EVP Fossil Group. “As a direct result of that feedback, we’re incredibly excited to be able to offer our first-ever proprietary apps that offer an extended battery life and increased iPhone compatibility, which is always top of mind with our consumers around the globe.’’
With the Gen 5 Fossil Touchscreen Smartwatch, users will have more control over battery life with four different settings. There's an 'Extended Battery Mode' that will get you multiple days of battery life, still offering features like notifications and heart rate. 'Time-Only Mode' is pretty self-explanatory, but it gets even better battery life.
Fossil has added a swimproof speaker for the first time, allowing users to answer calls from their watch. This is a feature that normally wouldn't work when a Wear OS watch is paired with an iPhone, but Fossil says it will have a proprietary app later this year that will enable just that. You can also use the speaker to play music, translations through Google Translate, and more.
There's also the Cardiogram app, which will take your heart rate data and make interactive charts that will help you achieve better heart health. You can also compare your data to how other users are doing.
Aside from the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset, the Gen 5 Smartwatch includes 8GB storage, 1GB RAM, a 1.28-inch AMOLED display with a 328ppi pixel density. It comes in 'Julianna' and 'Carlyle' styles, which seem to be the same except for the color. They both have stainless steel casing, they're 12mm thick, the case size is 44mm, and they fit 22mm straps.
The Gen 5 Fossil Touchscreen Smartwatch is available today for $295 from Fossil.com and in select Fossil retail stores.
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