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| Fossil announced its Gen 5 LTE smartwatch |
Fossil announced its first LTE smartwatch called Gen 5 LTE, which is based on Fossil's Gen 5 Wear OS platform. This means that it has many of the features of the Gen 5 platform and works the same way. Fossil is also watching. Smart was released in late 2019.
The new smartwatch costs $ 350 and will be available in the US this spring.
The watch is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 3100 processor, which is fast enough to handle Wear OS, but getting more than a day of battery life is tough for a smartwatch that uses it.
Fossil does not use the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 processor, which is often used in the TicWatch Pro 3.
To compensate for battery issues with Wear OS watches, Fossil watches provide four batteries that allow you to activate or deactivate various functions as needed.
Fifth generation LTE includes heart rate monitor, GPS, altitude and ambient lighting, plus a 1.3-inch screen, 1GB RAM and 8GB storage space.
It also has a speaker that the company calls Swimproof, which is made in black or rose gold but is only 45mm in size and also has the NFC function and 3ATM water resistance.
Android users looking to use smart watches with LTE technology don't have many good options, so a new generation of Gen 5 LTE might be the better option.
If you don't need LTE, other Fossil brands may have other options for you.
The watch can be used for about two weeks on a single charge. It can still perform the basic functions of a smartwatch, including detecting heart rate, displaying notifications, and counting steps.
Overall, the range of smartwatches that Fossil launched this spring is very useful as the company managed to get a Wear OS watch in a place where there was no conflict.
Google's next step in the hardware field is to finish the Fitbit acquisition. However, it is not clear what will be the next step in Wear OS and smartwatches.