If the relentlessly repetitive rectangles of the apple watch or the simplistic circles of samsung just arent, what you want on your wrist fossil and its partners have been there to sell you. Everything from edgy armani to bedazzled, michael kors, to pipe flange manhole cover diesel. For the past two years, those watches have been based on fossils generation five platform, but ive just spent the last two weeks with an early version of the sequel upon which the next generation will be built. Im michael fisher lets see what there is to like and lament about the fossil generation vi smartwatch, while the retail gen 6 box will arrive with a fresher design than the one you see here. The watch itself, ships with the no frills approach familiar to fossil fans, accompanied by nothing but product literature and the newly redesigned charger that ill come back to in a second. The one fossil sent me did come with an interesting change of pace from the usual strap, and you know i i havent worn a velcro watch band in something like 25 years, so it was a fun throwback. But of course other strap styles and casing. Colors are available and in a bonus, thatll only resonate. If you caught my samsung galaxy watch 4 review, the gen 6 uses the same 22 millimeter lugs as the past couple generations. That means, if you have bands from prior watchers, lying around theyre, more likely to fit good stuff thats for the 44 millimeter model.
Here by the way, the 42 millimeter takes 18 millimeter straps as before. As for the case itself, watch design is subjective. So i dont mind saying i preferred the slider look of the gen 5. But if you like a beefier build the gen 6 brings it with larger lugs. That to me evoke the shoulders of a hulking linebacker and a crown guard filling the space between the pushers. On the side thats similar to the one we saw on the citizen cc, smart theres also some knurling that suggests a rotating bezel, but no just like prior fossils, you scroll lists using the crown which packs just the right amount of slightly rubbery resistance. I love it. The case is made of stainless steel with cover glass up front, similar to the gen fives over an identically sized amoled watch face as before as well. But the first thing i did after unboxing was to check out the back surrounding the new heart rate and blood oxygen sensor are redesigned charging rings, which are now split into twin kind of dual c shaped circular tracks that mirrors the duplication of pins in the new Charging puck, with both changes, made to give the gen 6 fast charging ability how fast well from zero to about 80 percent in about a half hour. Now, if you have an earlier puck from a prior fossil watch, yes, it will still work, but at about half that charging speed and best of all, if youve followed fossils years long problem of charging rings coming unglued over time.
These new rings are insert molded into the case back instead of glued in which means they should finally, finally stay put specs. They still matter in the smartwatch world and gen 6 packs a doozy, its the first smartwatch powered by qualcomms top shelf snapdragon 4100, plus that suffix means the main chip has a sidekick that co processor introduced a couple years back. That saves power by managing things. Like always on watch faces and always on sensors without having to wake up the more powerful main chip, but that primary processor is important too. It does the same thing for this watch as it did for last years. Ticwatch pro 3.. It lets googles, wear os software run with consistent fluidity right out of the box, with the exception of the occasional wear os weirdness. Like this authentication problem, i had with one of my google accounts for two weeks. The gen 6 has served reliably in its intended role. As a notification depot on my wrist that tracks my steps and my pinch, will sleep serve as a phone as long as your real phone is nearby as for battery life, its competitive with the admittedly watered down expectations set by apple and samsung. On my best day, i got 35 hours from full to empty, even with conveniences like raise to wake and the always on display turned on. It was only by going overboard with elaborate watch faces from facer and ramping up my brightness and screen timeout that i could cut that endurance in half, but its still at least a full day, smartwatch and fossils custom battery endurance improvements are all still here as well.
So if you do accidentally leave your charger at home for an extended weekend away, you can muddle through by disabling the more power hungry features of the watch and still have a smarter than usual timepiece come monday. The trouble is weve seen this all before the gen 6 runs wear os version 2.3, which wouldnt be so bad if we hadnt been hearing for the past six months, just how awesome where os 3 is going to be and weve now seen that version on the Samsung galaxy watch 4 and indeed it does bring some compelling conveniences, but on the samsung watch, its also buried under so much manufacturer makeup that you almost cant tell its wear os at all. Oh itll come to the gen 6. dont worry, but not until sometime. In 2022, meanwhile, watches running on the older wear. Os 2.3 version continue to see apps and features pulled or broken by developers, some by google itself after years of perceived neglect and to make matters worse, no one will say whether thats, because of a special arrangement between google and samsung or because some element of wear Os 3 isnt ready. Yet google has no comment on the matter. Only one thing is clear: to paraphrase kellan from droid life, it really sucks. This situation essentially gives consumers a choice that they can spend about 300 bucks on a fossil gen 6, which works well but runs on software thatll be outdated until next year, or they can spend about 50 more for a samsung watch that runs that new platform.
Today, albeit with compromises and in a kind of disguise now toss in the complicating factor of the ticwatch pro 3 i mentioned before, which offers 3 days between charges can already be had for cheaper and which will also get updated to wear os 3.. So the gen 6 is not exactly a slam dunk for fossil group, but im not saying its unrecommendable. I do prefer its looks to the ticwatch pro 3.. It charges much faster than the samsung and if you dont dig this particular pair or its michael kors cousins. History tells us that itll only be a matter of time before more variations from fossil group partners hit the market if youre a fossil fan with a gen 4 or earlier. This is a solid upgrade that youll probably really enjoy if youre looking for the cutting edge in wear os, though well thats, not this not yet. Anyway, this video was produced following two weeks with two fossil gen sixes. The first pre production sample failed to demonstrate the rapid charging speed fossil promised, so the company sent a replacement device that did pass that test. As always, the manufacturer had zero editorial input, it had no early preview and it provided no compensation in exchange for this videos. Production please subscribe to the mr mobile on youtube if youd like to see more videos like this until next time, this has been michael fisher thanks for watching and stay mobile.9WASn5j_Xxk
