Fossil unveils new Sport smartwatch

The device will be the first smartwatch to feature the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset

The Fossil Sport is the latest addition to American watchmaker Fossil’s extensive range of wearables. The watch, which (as you’ve probably guessed) is aimed at customers who enjoy an active lifestyle, will be the first device to be powered by Qualcomm’s all-new Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform.

“This smartwatch truly represents the best of technology, fashion and fitness”, said Pankaj Kedia, senior director of product marketing at Qualcomm. Steve Evans of Fossil adds that the new product will “offer a colourful sport smartwatch with endless customisation […] for a best-in-class consumer experience.”

Such rhetoric is to be expected from those charged with manufacturing and selling the product, so what will we really see from the Fossil Sport?

Read on to find out everything we know about the upcoming Fossil Sport smartwatch, including release date, price, specs, features and more.

Fossil Sport: Everything you need to know

Fossil Sport release date: When will you be able to buy one?

The entire, colourful range of Fossil Sport watches are on sale now at www.fossil.com. The watches will be available to buy in select Fossil stores starting 12 November.

Fossil Sport price: How much will it cost?

Prices start at £249, which is considerably more than your basic Fitbit. That price tag means that the Fossil Sport sits comfortably below the competition from Apple and various Android manufacturers, which is promising stuff given the sheer quantity of features this little watch is hiding.

Fossil Sport specs: What’s powering it?

The headline hardware here is the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform that keeps everything ticking over (no pun intended). It has, after all, been over two years since the last Snapdragon processor – the 2100 – was released for smartwatches, so an update is long overdue.

Fossil is confident that the Sport will give its wearer over 24 hours of battery life, with a battery saver mode that is designed to eke an extra two days out the watch’s ability to tell time. Other functions, it seems, will be limited whilst this Herculean battery saver mode is activated.

The Fossil Sport will charge using magnets in a little over an hour, meaning you’ll be able to wear it almost constantly. This may make up for the fact that the 24-hour battery life is a little lacklustre in comparison to other smartwatches.

Fossil Sport features: What can it do?

This is the good bit. The Fossil Sport is a multipurpose touchscreen smartwatch: multipurpose in that telling the time is the absolute least it can do. The Sport can also monitor your heart rate, location, altitude, speed, and even angle of incline with a host of built-in sensors. On your home screen, the Fossil Sport will keep track of progress toward goals – Move Minutes and Heart Points – created in observance of suggestions made by the World Health Organisation and American Heart Association.

As well as being great for keeping on top of your fitness, it also functions as a proper smartwatch, and is compatible with devices running iOS 9.3 or Android 4.4 and above. Connect the Fossil Sport to your smartphone via Bluetooth and manage your life with the Google Wear OS. You can even make contactless payments via NFC with a touch.

The fitness and wellbeing section of the smartwatch is governed by Google Fit, while Google Assistant will help you manage your messages, calendar and any other admin bits and pieces. The Fossil Sport also comes with Spotify and Noonlight, the emergency response app, pre-installed.

Fossil Sport: Early verdict

The Fossil Sport faces some threatening competition from the likes of the Apple Watch 4 or Samsung Watch, and a somewhat underwhelming battery life could prove pretty fatal. We were pleased with the Fossil Q Explorist, but found the old Snapdragon 2100 to be a hindrance; It remains to be seen how well this latest iteration will fare, but with a brand-new Snapdragon 3100 under the hood, we’ve not lost all hope just yet.

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