Review Fossil Sport: our complete review – Watches / Bracelet smart health connected

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Introduction

The Fossil Sport is the first smart health connected watch of the brand to ship a SoC Snapdragon Wear 3100 from Qualcomm. Does this affect his performance, his autonomy? Is the smartwatch useful on a daily basis and pleasant in general? Here is our complete Review.

Since the announcement of the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100, only smart health connected luxury watches shipped this SoC, at prices sometimes delusional for a smartwatch. In November, Fossil announced the Fossil Sport, its first smart health connected watch equipped with this chip, at prices more in line with the bulk of the market. But does that really change the situation?

Technical sheet of the Fossil Sport

This Review was realized with a Fossil Sport 43 mm lent by Fossil.

A sober and simple design

The Fossil Sport marks a new turning point in the history of the brand with a more minimalist design than the other models usually proposed. It is visually very basic and does not particularly attract the eye, which corresponds rather well to the idea that one can make of a watch "Sport", far from the bling bling more thoughtful things like fashion accessories first and foremost.

The case is split into two parts with a silver gray dial on a colored base (black, white or gray-blue depending on the colors), which gives the impression that the case is even finer than it really is. With 12 mm thick, it is not one of the thicker, but the black section is further reduced by this effect.

Overall, Fossil opted for an aluminum and nylon finish that seems less premium than the stainless steel Explorist models for example. However, during our Review period no impact was noticeable, which was not necessarily the case on all smart health connected watches passed by the editorial staff.

With about forty grams on the scale, it is therefore rather light, but it remains a little heavier than the Galaxy Watch Active for example. And if she knows how to be discreet on a daily basis, her three buttons on the right side, and more particularly her crown, are quite protruding and can be annoying when the wrist is bent at 90 °, during a session of pumps for example .

The bracelet is for its part silicone with a simple attachment to standard 22 mm, easy to exchange. The basic bracelet tends to catch dust by static electricity, but at least it can easily be changed.

Note that the set is certified 5 ATM. So you can take a shower with or swim on the surface with, but it is a little weak for a watch originally thought for athletes. An ATM 10 protection to avoid problems during a sports swim would have been more appropriate.

A bright OLED screen

The Fossil Sport features a 390-by-390-pixel, 1.19-inch circular OLED display, similar to last year's Q Venture model. Note that unlike the latest Apple Watch, the screen is far from borderless with not only a black border and the box rather wide. The dial itself is only a small part of the total surface of the watch.

OLED requires, the bottom is deep black, so that only the needles are visible all day – pretty much depending on the dial you have chosen. Suffice to say that it will not dazzle you when it should not (the night for example). However, it is very bright when necessary and even offers a "Sunlight Boost" option that uses its ambient light sensor to give a boost of light when necessary (in direct sunlight).

If the quality of the slab is sufficient for a smart health connected watch, we will notice some rainbow reflections diagonally on a white screen. Nothing new here, however, is the case on almost all models.

Power is running out

The Snapdragon Wear 2100 was an aging architecture and did not offer a satisfying everyday experience. The Snapdragon Wear 3100 arrives here with a new architecture including a QCC1110 ultra low power coprocessor to manage the lightest features, such as time when the watch is idle. Qualcomm announced then a week of autonomy of the kind.

We will return to the autonomy, but what must be noted is that the heart of the SoC has not changed and therefore remains based on A7 cores engraved in 28 nm. It's still not enough to offer a perfectly fluid user experience, even on a light device like a smartwatch. The jerky transitions and animations lack fluidity in general. The 512 MB of RAM are also a bit below what was hoped, especially since the Montblanc Summit 2 – one of the few to have a Snapdragon Wear 3100 – offers double.

Criticism also becomes redundant, but Wear OS does not seem at the level of its competitors (watchOS, Tizen or LiteOS). The fault does not necessarily go to Fossil here, which incorporates a recent version of the software (with the security patch of October 5, 2018 anyway …), but rather Google who does not seem to really want to be interested in the criticisms made to his bone. It's sometimes rough, not always ergonomic and third-party developers do not seem particularly eager to offer many features on their applications. How to blame them while even Google does not put his own and still does not Wear Wear version of YouTube Music.

A complete hardware

And that's a shame, because apart from the limitations imposed by the Google OS, the Fossil Sport has everything you could want on a smart health connected watch. Its heart rate monitor and GPS allow for relatively accurate tracking of its achievements without having to take the smartphone with you during training sessions, while its NFC chip allows Google Pay to pay for purchases easily. Everything is here !

Note also that the two physical buttons can be configured in the settings to serve as a shortcut to any application. Unpacking, the bottom one is used to launch activities on Google Fit, while the one at the top is used to launch the application Fossil to record different settings dials and quickly move from one to another, which can s' prove practical if you have different configurations depending on your activities. I must admit that in my case I always prefer to keep the same and have a shortcut to Google Play Music.

A disappointing coprocessor

As mentioned above, the main interest of Snapdragon Wear 3100 on paper compared to the previous generation is autonomy. With its coprocessor dedicated to ultra-low consumption tasks, we could expect a higher autonomy if we do not use the watch too much. Missed.

Even on a very light use, the Fossil Sport is just over 24 hours and you have to start to disable options or start the energy saving mode to try to go a little further.

Price and availability date

The Fossil Sport is already available from 249 euros in 41 mm and 43 mm. It is found at several merchants such as Amazon especially.

Where to buy Fossil Sport at the best price?

There are no offers for the moment

• Very neat design

• Offers everything you expect from a smart health connected watch

• Customizable buttons

• Wear OS incomplete

• To recharge every day

• Lack of fluidity

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