Fossil Gen 6 Watch (FTW6078) review

Today I'm reviewing the Fossil FTW 6078, which currently sells for £255.82 (as of November 22, 2020).

Pros: 

• Stylish
• Fast

Cons:

• Battery drain (doesn't last 2 days)
• Slips off-hand if moving

Battery

Right off the bat, I would like to say, the battery of the Fossil sucks.  If you turn on background HR, you won't last 2 days.  At most the battery would last 1.5 days.  By the end of Day 1 after charging, the battery remaining was 25%.

My suspicion is confirmed with Fossil replying to my comment asking how big are their batteries.  It is only 300 mAH, which lasts up to 24 hours with normal usage

Hi. 300 mAh, 3.88V; up to 24 hours with normal usage.

— Fossil (@Fossil) November 18, 2021

When the watch reaches low power, the watch suggests switching to watch-only mode, which basically turns the smartwatch into a dumb watch that only shows the time.

The display turns off when not in use.

On the plus size, owing to the small battery size, the watch charges relatively quick.  In my experience, it charges to 100% in just like 30 minutes.

Style

There's no denying that the Fossil is stylish, and I think it would be good for formal events as a dress watch.  The watch is a bit bulky though but that's expected from smartwatches nowadays.

The turning dial is a nice touch, but I don't find it as useful.  Throughout my two-week trial, I barely used the rotating side dial.  However, I like the fact that the Fossil has two assignable buttons.

In addition, during my outdoor trials, I find the watch sliding around when I'm in motion.

 

Connectivity

The watch has the following sensors: " Accelerometer, Altimeter, Ambient Light, Compass, Gyroscope, Off-body IR, PPG Heart Rate, SPO2."  That seems to be the standard on most modern smartwatches.  The watch uses the "Wellness" app to gather data in addition to Google Fit.  The Wellness app, however, doesn't reliably update heart rate to the Google Fit servers.  Also, it does not update the SPO2 data to the Google Fit servers.  To make matters worse, the Fossil Watch does not have a companion fitness app like Samsung Health, Huawei Health, or Mobvoi Health.  With my TicWatch Pro 3, although SPO2 data doesn't upload to Google Fit, I can view it on the Mobvoi Health app, which is a good workaround.

Watch Specs

These are the watch details from Fossil's own website:

Product Details

Sku: FTW6078

Platform: GEN 6 SMARTWATCH

Case: 42 mm, Stainless Steel

Strap: 18 mm, Interchangeable

Lifestyle: Always on Display now brighter with more colours. Thousands of watch faces to personalise your look and always see the time. Hundreds of apps from assistant to fitness, payments, music, social, news, games, stop watches, and more. With a 3 ATM design and charging in about half an hour, it’s perfect for all your activities.

Health: Automatically tracks activity goals, steps, sleep, heart rate, cardio level, SPO2 (blood oxygen), and more. Activity modes with GPS keep you on track with your distance and path. Advanced sensors provide the data to power all your health and fitness apps.

Preloaded Apps: Agenda, Alarm, Battery-Optimised Activity Mode, Calendar, Cardio Level Tracking, Cardiogram, Contacts, Enhanced Phone Dialer App, Facer, Google Assistant, Google Fit (Workout, Heart Rate, Goals, Breathe), Google Maps, Google Pay™, Google Play Store, Nike Run Club, Noonlight, Smart Battery Modes, Spotify, Stopwatch, Timer, Translate, Wellness App with Sleep Tracking

---

Tech Specs

Operating System: Powered with Wear OS by Google

Compatibility: Wear OS by Google works with phones running the latest version of Android™ (excluding Go edition and phones without Google Play Store) or iOS. Supported features may vary between platforms and countries with compatibility subject to change.

Processor: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Wear 4100+

Memory: 1 GB RAM, 8GB Storage

Display: 1.28" Color AMOLED / 416 x 416 / 326ppi

Input: 2 Additional Push Buttons (configurable), Rotating Home Button, Touchscreen, Voice

Sound/Actuator: Loudspeaker, Microphone, Vibration

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0 LE, GPS, NFC SE, WiFi

Sensors: Accelerometer, Altimeter, Ambient Light, Compass, Gyroscope, Off-body IR, PPG Heart Rate, SPO2

Battery: 24 Hr + multi day Extended Mode **Varies based on usage and after updates install**. USB data cable with magnetic dock snaps to split rings on watch caseback and spins 360 degrees for ease of use. Approximately half an hour to reach 80%.

Water Resistance: 3 ATM

Watch gallery

 Concluding remarks

Personally, I think the watch is more style over function.  While stylish, the watch's short battery life is a major handicap.

Review of Sony WF 1000XMF

I'm sure WF100XMF is on everybody's shortlist when they're looking for new earbuds.  As of this review, the earbuds cost £249 on Amazon.

Right off the bat, I would say the WF100XMF offers one of the best active noise cancellations and it completely removes transport noises.  It also has, on paper one of the longest battery life.  However, its software and comfort leave much to be desired.

One thing I don't like about the headphone is that you have to choose the function of the left and right earbud. You can't customize the gesture. By default, it's the right ear control music playback and Google assistant while the left controls noise cancellation levels and pass-through mode. As you notice, this means if you want to adjust the volume, you have to change one of the default configurations. If you switch the left ear's shortcuts, you lose the ability to turn off noise cancellation on demand and the ability to have a pass-through mode (hold to turn off noise cancellation and turn down media volume).

This is somewhat mitigated by the speak to chat mode, which detects your voice and kills media audio, and turns off noise cancellation. You can also set it up so that the app detects your location and turn off noise canceling when you arrive at that location. The app can also detect the movement and set the headphone into "sitting, walking, running, or commuting" mode. However, if you're on the bus, it will occasionally return to sitting mode when the bus pulls into a bus stop. This can be a bit distracting if you have set up sitting mode to have noise cancellation turned off. The GPS mode switch is a bit glitchy at times as it detected that I'm at a place a good few distances from my place. For example, I have set up the headphone to turn off noise cancellation when I'm at the local bus station but it detects that I'm at the bus stop when I'm at the other side of the city, 0.3 miles from the bus station. The chat to talk can be a bit sensitive also. It thinks I'm talking when I'm just coughing.

This headphone comes with native Google Assitant.

However, this Google assistant is unavailable unless you assign a "playback" shortcut to one of the two earbuds.  This feature is nothing to sing and dance about.  it's just as good as the Google Assistant on your phone.

That said, the audio of the headphone sounds OK. It doesn't have that deep bass but the music comes in nice and clear. You can customize the sound using the inbuilt equalizer. The foam head tip does its job keeping outside noise out.

Now we come with my biggest complaint about the headphone. Comfort. For me, the headphone is a bit uncomfortable. The hard flat part of the headphone causes pain in my ear as I move my head around. Only completely removing the headset from my ear removes this pain. Also, I found out that the foam tip comes off the headphones and remains in the ear! Not exactly great when you're nowhere near a first aid kit. I have this happen once when I was in town and to my chagrin, nobody in town had a tweezer in their first aid kit.

In summary, the head bud has:

• Great active noise cancellation
• Good audio quality
• Excellent battery
• Low comfort
• Not easily customizable software
• Earbud shortcuts can be a bit rigid.