Fossil Sport smartwatch goes official with Qualcomm's latest chipset and a reasonable price point
It’s hard to take Google’s Wear OS software platform seriously in the Apple-dominated smartwatch market when so many recent releases have come powered by an almost three year-old processor.
In fact, until today, only one (unnecessarily expensive) wearable device was packing Qualcomm’s hot new Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip. Now there are two such products you can purchase in the US as Play Store-accessing Apple Watch alternatives, and the Fossil Sport is pretty aggressively priced.
At $255, this minimalistically designed timepiece is cheaper than Samsung’s Galaxy Watch (even after that recent discount), not to mention the LG Watch W7 or Casio’s rugged third-gen Pro Trek Smart.
Compared to almost all of Fossil’s previous Wear OS efforts, the aptly named Sport is focused less on traditional style and more on modern functionality. As such, the surprisingly popular Fitbit Versa could be considered its primary rival, although the two hardly look the same.
There’s also a good reason why the Fossil Sport is 55 bucks pricier than the Fitbit Versa. The new guy has built-in GPS functionality in addition to heart rate tracking and NFC support for wrist payments, with the latter two features present on the Versa as well.
Both wearable devices are also billed as swimproof, and their battery life is pretty impressive, at least on paper. You should be able to get a solid 24+ hours of Fossil Sport touchscreen use thanks to the enhanced energy efficiency of the Snapdragon Wear 3100 SoC, as well as an additional two days of use in low-power mode.
Unfortunately, Fossil is oddly cryptic about things like display size and resolution, although we do know you can choose from 41 and 43 mm cases, six colorways (gray, blush, red, light blue, neon, and black), and “endless” strap options in 18 and 22 mm sizes.
Online sales are underway today, followed by physical inventory headed to “select” Fossil retail stores around the world on November 12.
In fact, until today, only one (unnecessarily expensive) wearable device was packing Qualcomm’s hot new Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip. Now there are two such products you can purchase in the US as Play Store-accessing Apple Watch alternatives, and the Fossil Sport is pretty aggressively priced.
Compared to almost all of Fossil’s previous Wear OS efforts, the aptly named Sport is focused less on traditional style and more on modern functionality. As such, the surprisingly popular Fitbit Versa could be considered its primary rival, although the two hardly look the same.
There’s also a good reason why the Fossil Sport is 55 bucks pricier than the Fitbit Versa. The new guy has built-in GPS functionality in addition to heart rate tracking and NFC support for wrist payments, with the latter two features present on the Versa as well.
Both wearable devices are also billed as swimproof, and their battery life is pretty impressive, at least on paper. You should be able to get a solid 24+ hours of Fossil Sport touchscreen use thanks to the enhanced energy efficiency of the Snapdragon Wear 3100 SoC, as well as an additional two days of use in low-power mode.
Online sales are underway today, followed by physical inventory headed to “select” Fossil retail stores around the world on November 12.
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