Kellen in News 5 years ago

Fossil Announces Gen 5 Series Wear OS Watches With All the Specs, Starting at $295

Fossil revealed new Wear OS watches today as the Fossil Gen 5 Smartwatch. For a Wear OS smartwatch, it has all the bells and whistles available, which means the latest Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, a speaker, NFC, and more.

The Fossil Gen 5 starts at $295 and comes in two models called Carlyle (above) and Julianna (below). As the names suggest, one is on the masculine side, while the other might be more feminine. They both share the same 44mm case size (12mm thick), it’s just that the Carlyle is more simplistic in bezel design while the Julianna has a bit of extra styling.

For specs, you are looking at a Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, which I just mentioned, 1.28-inch AMOLED display, 8GB storage, 1GB RAM, GPS, NFC, heartrate sensor, and a speaker (for Google Assistant, notifications, music, calls, etc.). Both watches also support 22mm straps, 3 ATM water resistance, and rapid charging.

Where Fossil’s new smartwatches might stand out is in software. Fossil created their first set of proprietary apps – probably because Google doesn’t seem to care about improving Wear OS – to help with battery life. Fossil Gen 5 watches have an Extended Battery mode, Daily mode, Custom mode, and a Time Only mode. Extended shuts off some stuff to help with battery life, but does still get you notifications and heartrate monitoring. Daily mode keeps almost everything on, including the always-on display. Custom mode lets you decide what you want to work, while Time Only mode is just that, a mode that shows you the time only.

Additionally, Fossil is loading up Gen 5 with a handful of ~~bloatware~~ preloaded apps, including Spotify, Nike Run Club, a safety app called Noonlight, and a Cardiogram to help you monitor your heart health from meetings, exercise, and sleep. The new Cardiogram app even lets you compare your data to millions of others to point out possible health issues.

Fossil Gen 5 comes in 6 different variations, 3 for Carlyle and another 3 for Julianna. All models cost $295 and you can shop for them right now.