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Casio Pro Trek WSD-F30: the smart health connected watch for adventurers

Casio Pro Trek WSD-F30: the smart health connected watch for adventurers

April 09, 2020

Specifications for the Casio Pro Trek WSD-F30
Casio Pro Trek WSD-F30 versus F20: what's new
Our opinion
Price and availability

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Specifications for the Casio Pro Trek WSD-F30

Weight83g

Music player / bluetoothNo

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Casio Pro Trek WSD-F30 versus F20: what's new

The Casio Pro Trek WSD-F30 is an improved version of the F20 model. The Pro Trek WSD series (models F10, F20 and F30) offers a smart health connected outdoor watch intended for mountain activities, trekking, hiking but also activities such as fishing, hunting, skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, ski touring, paddle or even cycling. It counts the steps and the calories expended. It also has all the sensors useful for adventurers: ABC sensors (altimeter, barometer, magnetic compass), accelerometer, gyroscope, sunrise and sunset times, tide graphs, weather trends. A microphone is also used to give instructions to the watch and to communicate with Google Assistant. This model is not equipped with a heart rate monitoring. Casio corrects this on the Casio Pro Trek WSD F21HR, a watch suitable for sport, outdoor and mountain that we briefly present in our comparison of the best watches for skiing.

This outdoor watch is also very robust. It is designed to resist water, dust, extreme temperatures (down to -10 ° C) and shocks. As such, it meets the US military standard MIL-STD-810G.

This new model proposed by Casio offers some new features that should appeal to adventure fans. For a description of the basic functions of the Casio Pro Trek WSD-F30, we invite you to consult our article on the Casio WSD-F20X.

Extend mode for greater autonomy and consultation of offline maps

Main novelty of this model, the Extend mode disables the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions and thus saves the battery. Casio promises autonomy of 3 days instead of 1 day for use of GPS limited to 8 hours per day. To properly control this use, the Casio can be programmed to activate the GPS and the color screen only during certain time periods.

In this mode, the maps, previously downloaded (up to 5), can be viewed offline. Unlike other watches offering mapping, you can orient yourself anywhere without a network!

Greater autonomy

Thanks to the Extend mode, Casio promises greater autonomy for its watch: 3 days instead of 1 on the previous model.

A new, more precise color and monochrome touch screen

Casio offers a new OLED color screen (instead of LCD) and a resolution that increases to 390 x 390 px (instead of 320 x 300 pixels). So here we have a very precise and comfortable screen, much better than that of the excellent Fenix 5 Plus outdoor watch (240 x 240 px).

Casio retains its double-layer screen technology which consists of superimposing a monochrome screen, which consumes little energy, and a color screen. To conserve battery life, the watch displays the default monochrome screen. A simple press of a button displays the map in color. Electricity consumption is thus greatly reduced.

Another novelty of this model, the monochrome display now includes, in addition to the time, altitude, atmospheric pressure and compass data.

A smaller, thinner body

The new Casio Pro Trek is also a little smaller than the previous model thanks to a repositioning of the components. It thus loses 3.9 mm in diameter and 0.4 mm in thickness. It's not huge, but you can see the difference on the wrist. The watch remains rather voluminous, especially for fine wrists.

The addition of GLONASS

When the Pro Trek WSD-F20 model was released, Casio had announced access to the Russian satellite system (GLONASS) in the near future. This should be the case for this new model.

A more flexible bracelet

To meet user demand, Casio improves its strap by making it more flexible while adding a few additional holes for a finer adjustment of the tightening.

Compatibility with the Ski Tracks app and access to data from more than 2,600 ski resorts around the world

Ski Tracks is a free downloadable app from the App Store or Google Play which, since December 2019, is compatible with Pro Trek F20, F30 and F21HR series watches. It manages 4 profiles (skiing, ski touring, snowboarding and snowshoeing) and displays relevant data from the outing. The Casio also displays on its screen, during ski descents, the speed, the maximum speed, the elevation without having to connect the Smartphone. It also times the duration of the descents.

Our opinion

This new outdoor smart health connected watch Pro Trek WSD-30 brings notable improvements to the previous model. With more than double autonomy thanks to Extend mode, a high-resolution screen, offline maps, a thinner size and a more comfortable bracelet, it should delight adventurers and backpackers fans of the Pro Trek series and appeal to an audience wider.

The autonomy which goes from 1 to 3 days is really a plus. This is a criterion that is increasingly considered by athletes in the choice of their watch today. Manufacturers are well aware of this and are doing everything to find ingenious solutions to save energy costs and maintain or even reduce the size of their watch cases. With this new model, it is thus possible to make trekking tours of 3 days at the rate of 8 hours per day of GPS use. The watch will not, however, be suitable for ultra-track or ultra-background, where the GPS must be able to be used 100%. For this type of activity, it is better to turn either to the Garmin Fenix 6 in ultratrac mode, or to the astonishing Suunto 9 and its 120 h of autonomy or even to the recent Coros Vertix and its autonomy which can reach 150 h! You can of course take a small battery charger to recharge the watch during breaks.

The dual color and monochrome touch screen that runs at 390 x 390 px is unmatched comfort not found in competition (240 x 240 px at Garmin for the Fenix 5 Plus and 320 x 300 px for the Suunto 9 ). We also appreciate the monochrome screen which displays 4 data (altitude, atmospheric pressure, time and compass) instead of just the time on the previous model.

This watch is intended for adventurers and fans of fishing or hunting but less for sports use: there is indeed no heart rate sensor, no possibility of connecting an external centure, no training or tracking functions. athletic. This is not the primary function of the Pro Trek series.

Regarding maps and navigation, the Casio Pro Trek WSD F30 still has room for improvement. The watch does not store maps of an entire country or a range. You must choose a specific area limited to 40 km in diameter and you can only store a maximum of 5 maps. GPS navigation is not as developed as on other watches. The watch warns the user when he leaves the planned track and indicates the direction to follow to find the track but there is no turn-by-turn guidance.

We also appreciate the effort made by the Japanese manufacturer to reduce the size of the case. That said, this model remains quite bulky, a little too much in any case for fine wrists. For those who want a watch more suited to their wrist size, it is better to turn to the Garmin Fenix 6S or Garmin 6S Pro.

Another strong point of this model and that it can be coupled to the Google Assistant, thanks to its integrated microphone which makes it possible to record voice orders.

An important point to note: this model (like the very economical Amazfit Stratos by Huami) cannot be coupled to a PC. You will need to use your Smartphone and it must be compatible with the Wear OS application (available on iPhone / iOS 9.3+ or Android 4.4+). You can check here the Wear OS compatibility of your Smartphone).

We liked

Color maps accessible offline
Significantly improved autonomy (3 days in Extend mode)
High resolution screen (390 x 390 px!)
Smaller housing than the previous model
Robustness of the watch

We'd have liked

An interface for PC or Mac! (requires a Smartphone)
A slightly less bulky case
Navigation along a route
Storage of larger cards
More sport profiles and functions
A heart rate monitoring or the possibility of connecting a cardio belt

Price and availability

The Casio Pro Trek WSD-F30 is available in 3 colors: black (WSD-F30-BK), blue (WSD-F30-BU) and orange (WSD-F30-RG). We offer it to our partners. Take advantage of discounts all year round thanks to our site.