Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsStylish, snappy, solid performance
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2021
The message is simple. All I wanted---all I've wanted for years---is a watch as good as the Fossil Gen 5, but with a battery that doesn't suck. Well, this watch is as good as the Fossil Gen 5, and its battery doesn't suck.
I've been using Wear OS watches since 2014, back when it was called "Android Wear". In that time, I've come to prefer Fossil watches, since they provide the basic smartwatch features I care about (handling notifications; counting steps; NFC payment; checking weather; etc.), but look like *actual watches*. Attractive, without sticking out too much---just right! The Fossil Gen 5 was particularly nice. With one hardware button mapped to flashlight (super handy---try it!) and the other mapped to Google Pay, it fit my needs perfectly.
Except... the battery. Every day, it would limp along until hitting one of the "extended battery" modes sometime mid-evening. A few times a month, it'd end up in time-only mode: oof. And poker night? Forget it: dead before I head home. "All day battery"... well, *kinda*. Why couldn't I have a watch as good in the evening as the Gen 5 was in the morning?
Enter the Gen 6. The Snapdragon Wear 4100+ sets it up for significantly improved battery life. All they had to do was *deliver*, without losing any of the good points of the Gen 5. And they did! I haven't given the battery a second thought since I got the watch a week ago. Every day, it ends with 40-50%, or more. And this is with the always-on display, which I consider essential for anything that claims to be a "watch". (I'm using the Classic watch face, FWIW.)
What's more, it throws in an SpO2 sensor for good measure. The reading takes a lot longer than a dedicated SpO2, but it's nice to know I'll always have it in a pinch.
Much has been made about the expected long delay for Wear OS3. This doesn't bother me, since I'll be spending those months with, essentially, a Gen 5 with SpO2, minus the battery anxiety.
It wasn't *all* roses. I did find the setup procedure a bit clunky. It takes a good while to finish downloading all the apps and getting everything the way I want it.
Oh, and a caveat: that setup procedure seems to use a _lot_ of battery. Don't judge the battery life on your first day experience---it's not representative!
Overall, if you want an attractive, performant smartwatch, with comfortably all-day battery life, this could be for you.
