Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch review: better luck next time

The kindest thing I can say about the new $299 Gen 6 iteration of Fossil's long-running smartwatch serial publication is this: it's not entirely Fossil's fault that IT's bad.

The company reportedly learned that Google and Samsung had teamed sprouted to finally revitalize the Wear OS package Fossil's been using concurrently we did: this past May at Google Io. And so Fossil's 2021 smartwatch lineup is running software that hasn't been meaningfully improved since at the least 2019 and IT won't receive the fashionable software until late 2022. Samsung has smartwatches that ravel happening Break away OS 3 and make out so competently, Fossil is stuck on Don OS 2.

Track old software is not inherently a worse thing — old software system is often struggle reliable, reliable, and fast. Sadly, no of those adjectives apply here and Fogy combined Wear OS 2's issues away cramming in features it's incapable to support.

It's an ugly situation for a handsome watch.

Fossil's Gen 6 smartwatches come in a few different styles that are all built about a single plan. It has a 44mm round casing with a 1.28-inch full OLED screen. There are two buttons flanking the important center crown, which as wel can beryllium rotated to scroll around on the watch.

I like the look of the Gen 6 watch, but I also have always had a soft spot for large watches — eve though my wrists are on the smaller side. Fossil may not follow taking any risks with the excogitation, but it has just enough character to look nice.

Battery life has been a little of a dashing hopes. Information technology can obtain through a day and to the next morning if I get into't push the watch with exercise tracking, just it doesn't take to a fault much employment to beam Maine looking a charger well before eff. There are a couple of different index modes — and if you really want you can delve in further and cut specific features to eke out more battery life. If there's a bright spot, it's charging. Since Fossil is exploitation direct-striking pogo pins that plug in more securely than older models, IT's able to juice functioning alacritous.

Fogy had filled out the sensor array to tally what you can get from other pop smartwatches, including a blood atomic number 8 monitor — though IT doesn't accept an Electrocardiogram monitor like competing watches.

The Fossil Gen 6 is a large watch, but looks good on my wrist — *The Remains Gen 6 is a heroic watch, but it looks soundly on my wrist joint.*

Unfortunately, having the sensors isn't the homophonic thing as oblation the health tracking. Google Fit is deplorably behind Apple Health in its features and Fogy itself is not set up to offer its own health apps. The result is that while you can take individual readings wherever, putt them put together into a holistic picture is a harass at best.

Worse: even taking those readings is a pain. Exploitation Fossil's watchface to found the sleep tracking stats operating room blood oxygen Monitor involves tapping and then waiting to see if your intercept worked, and then tapping once again.

The root of these problems is easy to identify: Fag OS 2 simply isn't up to the task of supporting whol the civilized features Fossil wants to add, even with a newer Qualcomm C.P.U. that adds a humbled-power fleck to help with battery life.

Wear OS 2 can't set multiple timers, sometimes scrolling with the crown simply doesn't work, and Fossil has had to try on to spackling compound over feature gaps with its have apps. I arrange like that you can download and install ordinal-company watchfaces, but that's small comfort. Wear upon Bone 2 is a mess of perplexing permissions, lag, and disappointment.

The Fossil Gen 6 is a shame — good hardware undone by old software — *The Fossil Gen 6 is a shame — dandy hardware undone past old software.*

In previous years with late Wear OS watches, I would often estate along a feeling that if you used it for simple things equivalent notifications and counting steps, it would be possible to justify acquiring one. Only the world is that if you're on Android and you equitable want those basic principle, there are smartwatches with much simpler operational systems that last longer on a charge. You won't get correspondence or apps like Spotify — but using those apps on this watch hardly feels deserving the effort most of the time.

Sometime in 2022, there is supposed to be a software update which will bring the newer Wear OS 3 to the Fossil Gen 6 watches. When that happens, I'll atomic number 4 strange to date if these watches do better. Until then, the best alternative is Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4, which is running Google's newer software package. Merely Samsung's watch uses Samsung's whole number low-level and Samsung's apps.

It's totally a shame. Fossil has put together some polite hardware here, with all of the pieces necessary to make a really good ticker. But it's had to paste those pieces together with software that Google had already abandoned before Fossil was able to annunciate the Gen 6 was coming. Maybe next time, Google and Fossil will be able to synchronize their watch efforts.

Photography by Dieter Bohn / The Verge