Fossil Sport Smartwatch: £62.30

Issues:

- Battery life
- UI Lagginess
- Time for screen to turn on with wrist gesture
- Inability to customise quick settings (as far as I can see)
- No Google Pay
- Music cutting in and out while running
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Strap size

dingbat

Basil3 wrote: »

Issues:

- Battery life
- UI Lagginess
- Time for screen to turn on with wrist gesture
- Inability to customise quick settings (as far as I can see)
- No Google Pay
- Music cutting in and out while running
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Strap size

Bang on.

One quick fix for the music cutting out, for me anyway, has been to wear it on my right wrist. This happens to suit me as I wear a watch permanently on my left and the Fossil Sport is only for running.

dingbat

dingbat wrote: »

Bang on.

One quick fix for the music cutting out, for me anyway, has been to wear it on my right wrist. This happens to suit me as I wear a watch permanently on my left and the Fossil Sport is only for running.

Am a lefty, and already wear on my right wrist. Can't quite figure it out, I guess it's to do with my hand position when running. Not a deal breaker, just a bit annoying.

have no problem at all with bluetooth audio on my left wrist

could be the thinner strap tho

mrcheez

glasso wrote: »

Navexplorer on my phone wouldn't connect to nav explorer on the watch so I had to ftp the music files from a laptop to the watch music folder

Yeah I found I had to use FileZilla on the PC to connect to the watch via FTP, but once it was setup it was fairly rapid to transfer songs over.

Haven't had issues with music cutting out on me yet, but then again I've been using it cycling and SUP-ing where I guess my arms wouldn't be jumping all around the place.

bonkers

Anyone having issues with GPS on runs?
It is giving me time per km and distance but not the route or the laps etc - not on google fit or strava?

I sync it up with phone gps before i go.

How are people using it for running?

Ush1

bonkers wrote: »

Anyone having issues with GPS on runs?
It is giving me time per km and distance but not the route or the laps etc - not on google fit or strava?

I sync it up with phone gps before i go.

How are people using it for running?

If you are not bringing your phone on the run you need to switch off Bluetooth on the phone and then start the run on the watch, also make sure to wait till it acquires GPS before starting the actual run.

have found this the best for GPS run tracking.

shows elapsed time, distance and HR while using on watch

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.freepoc.wearlogger

https://www.reddit.com/r/WearOS/comments/g7x6d2/wear_logger_updated/

sends to fit or strava (on phone)

top push button to start / pause

bottom push button to finish

Mine is boxed up, ready to sell for what I paid for it. It's just not great as a smart watch (WearOS is laggy), and the battery life isn't good enough for anyone who wants to do any more than a 20 minute workout with GPS/Music.

An example compared to my Gear S3 Frontier is after approx half hour run with music, my Gear is down to approx 75%, with the Fossil down to approx 68%. Doesn't seem too big a difference, right? The thing is, I'll still have just under 70% going into the evening on the Gear, whereas the Fossil will be down around where I get the power warning. This could be because the location is still running on the Fossil or whatever, but the lack of customisable quick settings means that lots of toggles I regularly use on my Gear just aren't there on WearOS.

Anyhoo, am going back to Garmin. Totally different price bracket and feature set, but I'm probably more than a casual exerciser.

Yes I'm only using it to compare to my Garmin. it would never replace that. but the heart rate is actually pretty accurate on it as is the gps tracking.

everyone knew before buying that it would have to be charged each day - no surprise there.

what I actually find it most useful for is using google assistant. I never really used this on my phone because I'd have to pick it up, unlock etc to use it

but on the watch it's actually useful for things like setting timers, check share prices, set a reminder in calendar, open apps on the watch, add a note to google keep etc etc it's only a quick press to call it up.

and google assistant is the most accurate one in my experience

glasso

glasso wrote: »

Yes I'm only using it to compare to my Garmin. it would never replace that. but the heart rate is actually pretty accurate on it as is the gps tracking.

everyone knew before buying that it would have to be charged each day - no surprise there.

what I actually find it most useful for is using google assistant. I never really used this on my phone because I'd have to pick it up, unlock etc to use it

but on the watch it's actually useful for things like setting timers, check share prices, set a reminder in calendar, open apps on the watch, add a note to google keep etc etc it's only a quick press to call it up.

and google assistant is the most accurate one in my experience

Yup, Google Assistant is the best thing about WearOS. I have multiple Google smart devices in my home, so that's already covered. Even before the lockdown, I would very rarely use the assistant when out in public.

Regarding the battery, I have no problem with charging every day, but if I have a really heavy exercise day with GPS and music, it literally won't last the day.

Hellrazer

Basil3 wrote: »

Mine is boxed up, ready to sell for what I paid for it. It's just not great as a smart watch (WearOS is laggy), and the battery life isn't good enough for anyone who wants to do any more than a 20 minute workout with GPS/Music.

An example compared to my Gear S3 Frontier is after approx half hour run with music, my Gear is down to approx 75%, with the Fossil down to approx 68%. Doesn't seem too big a difference, right? The thing is, I'll still have just under 70% going into the evening on the Gear, whereas the Fossil will be down around where I get the power warning. This could be because the location is still running on the Fossil or whatever, but the lack of customisable quick settings means that lots of toggles I regularly use on my Gear just aren't there on WearOS.

Anyhoo, am going back to Garmin. Totally different price bracket and feature set, but I'm probably more than a casual exerciser.

Youve something funny going on there.
I charge at 10.00 - 11.00 pm,wake up with around 85 - 88 % left. 79 if I use the sleep tracker.

Right now Im at 75% from a charge last night at 11.00pm.

I can get 2 full days out of it at a push.

Biggest drain I found is if both bluetooth and wifi are on at the same time.

Go into the battery icon which are your profiles for battery life and select the custom one.
Turn off all the settings up till you get to bluetooth and then from there down leave everything on.Alarm is optional - I use my phone alarm and that vibrates the watch so no real need to have it on.

Now the thing to remember is that if you set these all up in the profiles and then change a setting in the actual watch settings (not in the battery profile) they will overwrite the custom profile.So say you do the above and then just turn on wifi - it will leave it on until you go back into the profile and save it again.

So what I do is I just use the profiles (battery icon)and if I need to turn on wifi I just toggle it in there - same with gps etc.
Its quicker and you can be sure youve turned it off.

I think a lot of people dont realise that the profiles could be leaving everything turned on and draining the battery quicker.

Hellrazer

Hellrazer wrote: »

Youve something funny going on there.
I charge at 10.00 - 11.00 pm,wake up with around 85 - 88 % left. 79 if I use the sleep tracker.

Right now Im at 75% from a charge last night at 11.00pm.

I can get 2 full days out of it at a push.

Biggest drain I found is if both bluetooth and wifi are on at the same time.

Go into the battery icon which are your profiles for battery life and select the custom one.
Turn off all the settings up till you get to bluetooth and then from there down leave everything on.Alarm is optional - I use my phone alarm and that vibrates the watch so no real need to have it on.

Now the thing to remember is that if you set these all up in the profiles and then change a setting in the actual watch settings (not in the battery profile) they will overwrite the custom profile.So say you do the above and then just turn on wifi - it will leave it on until you go back into the profile and save it again.

So what I do is I just use the profiles (battery icon)and if I need to turn on wifi I just toggle it in there - same with gps etc.
Its quicker and you can be sure youve turned it off.

I think a lot of people dont realise that the profiles could be leaving everything turned on and draining the battery quicker.

All of these individual toggles should be in the quick settings. I understand you can get more battery life if you turn features off, but it should still easily last a day if you use it how it's supposed to be used.

The same applies to mobile phones. I know I can get more battery life if I turn loads of stuff off, but I can still easily get through a day with location/BT/NFC/WiFi all constantly on.

mrcheez

Battery really isn't an issue for me as I have 3 charge points ... one for bedroom, one for work place, one for taking with me (i.e. in car etc).

I've never been without power and the watch works wonderfully. It's literally just become a habit to take it off and charge it when I don't need it.

The waterproofing is the killer app for me.. I wash it in the shower after a workout, and I've got waterproof earbuds paired to it, so double-wash-up proof

mrcheez

mrcheez wrote: »

Battery really isn't an issue for me as I have 3 charge points ... one for bedroom, one for work place, one for taking with me (i.e. in car etc).

I've never been without power and the watch works wonderfully. It's literally just become a habit to take it off and charge it when I don't need it.

The waterproofing is the killer app for me.. I wash it in the shower after a workout, and I've got waterproof earbuds paired to it, so double-wash-up proof

Yeah, I guess the other option is I could leave it on charge all of the time, and only use it for my runs :pac:

Taking a watch off all the time might be habit for you, but I can't imagine it's something anyone would want to have to do.

Anyway, I'm getting rid of it. It is great value for money, but it was my second attempt at giving WearOS a chance, and it failed. In some ways, it was worse than the first time, because at least I had Google Pay working with my last watch. I have heard the Gen 5 Fossils are much better, so maybe I'll give WearOS another go down the line.

mrcheez

Basil3 wrote: »

Taking a watch off all the time might be habit for you, but I can't imagine it's something anyone would want to have to do.

*shrug*

It's just something I got used to with my Huawei Watch 2... at first it was a bit of a nuisance, but it rarely registers with me now and it's as habitual as checking my mail.

Certainly coming from a Pebble Watch with 2 weeks battery life I could see the annoyance, but the functionality won me over.

Still it's a great watch for the price... if it was £200 or something I'd be looking for multiple day battery life at least.

Hellrazer

Basil3 wrote: »

All of these individual toggles should be in the quick settings. I understand you can get more battery life if you turn features off, but it should still easily last a day if you use it how it's supposed to be used.

The same applies to mobile phones. I know I can get more battery life if I turn loads of stuff off, but I can still easily get through a day with location/BT/NFC/WiFi all constantly on.

I agree they should be in the quick settings and honestly the only way I found that the settings were overriding the profiles was because I was setting up a new router and saw the watch connected but I knew I had turned off wifi. Went into the settings and turned it off but went into the profiles and it was still turned on - thats what was draining the battery.
Same with nfc / gps.BT needs to be on to communicate with the phone.

I just turn on gps when I need it and wifi. Seems to do the trick for me anyway.

20mm quick-release strap fitted straight in with 18mm bars

statto25

glasso wrote: »

20mm quick-release strap fitted straight in with 18mm bars

What watchface is that?

Hellrazer

Pop a link up to the strap aswell.

Gadge

Basil3 wrote: »

Mine is boxed up, ready to sell for what I paid for it. It's just not great as a smart watch (WearOS is laggy), and the battery life isn't good enough for anyone who wants to do any more than a 20 minute workout with GPS/Music.

An example compared to my Gear S3 Frontier is after approx half hour run with music, my Gear is down to approx 75%, with the Fossil down to approx 68%. Doesn't seem too big a difference, right? The thing is, I'll still have just under 70% going into the evening on the Gear, whereas the Fossil will be down around where I get the power warning. This could be because the location is still running on the Fossil or whatever, but the lack of customisable quick settings means that lots of toggles I regularly use on my Gear just aren't there on WearOS.

Anyhoo, am going back to Garmin. Totally different price bracket and feature set, but I'm probably more than a casual exerciser.

Do you still have this for sale?

Gadge

Gadge wrote: »

Do you still have this for sale?

No, sorry. Sold it to a fellow Boardsie.

mrcheez

statto25 wrote: »

What watchface is that?

I like it... what is it?!?

Johnny Storm

I have found the Fossil sport pretty frustrating
- poor battery life
- loses GPS lock while on a modest bicycle ride, even if the phone is with me
- asks to pair with my (Samsung) phone about 10 times per day

fixXxer

Johnny Storm wrote: »

I have found the Fossil sport pretty frustrating
- poor battery life
- loses GPS lock while on a modest bicycle ride, even if the phone is with me
- asks to pair with my (Samsung) phone about 10 times per day

Have you tried the following:
Hard reset Watch
Reset WearOS app (including clearing all data/defaults)
Manually removing the Bluetooth connecton and re-pairing

Just wondering because I've used a few Fossil WearOS watches now and they've been a problem free experience.

watchface is on the facer app

mrcheez

glasso wrote: »

watchface is on the facer app

Hairy arm not required?

mrcheez

mrcheez wrote: »

Hairy arm not required?

Well maybe you could get some help ?!

Hellrazer

Hellrazer wrote: »

Pop a link up to the strap aswell.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32996765181.html?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.1b576123Ah4XfO

listermint

Looks like Google pay is now officially supported in Ireland. Got this available just recently with latest Fossil Wear OS update. Couple of things to do for setup but pay now appears in the top menu slide down bar.

Build pxde.201206.004.A1