Fossil announces new smartwatches for 2021
Fossil has announced its fall 2021 lineup of Wear OS smartwatches, which the company calls the Gen 6 touchscreen smartwatch.
As with Gen 5 watches, Gen 6 watches come in many different styles and sizes. There are also versions sold under the Michael Kors brand.
The watch has a circular AMOLED touch screen measuring 1.28 inches. They are available in sizes 42 and 44 mm. It is swim resistant up to 3 ATM.
It comes with a built-in speaker and microphone that can be used to take calls or speak to the Google Assistant when the smartwatch is linked to a smartphone.
Prices start at $299. It is immediately available for pre-order. Nor does the company appear to offer LTE options.
These watches ship with the current Wear OS 2, not the new Wear OS 3 operating system that runs on the latest Samsung Galaxy watches.
Fossil says it is offering Wear OS 3 upgrades for Gen 6 watches in 2022. Google said Wear OS 2 watches won't have updates available until late 2022 and that until then, those updates require a hard reset.
Although Gen 6 watches will not have the latest software for some time. But the company is still making a strong move by packing more technology than ever before.
Also read: Fossil announces its Gen 5 LTE smartwatch
Fossil announces new smartwatches for 2021
The company adds a SpO2 sensor to track blood oxygen levels and claims to have an upgraded heart rate sensor with improved signal accuracy.
Fossil also says the Gen 6 will be the first watch to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus processor.
Moreover, the processor is supposed to offer faster speeds, more efficient power consumption, and faster charging.
One small advantage Fossil may have over Samsung's new Galaxy Watch is that Gen 6 uses Google Assistant and Google Pay instead of Samsung's Bixby and Samsung Pay.
And there aren't many Wear OS manufacturers left to compete. So the choices are slim for Android users looking for a full-featured watch.
Aside from Samsung's choice, there is none other than Fossil and the TicWatch line from Mobvoi. Almost all other manufacturers have either ditched or switched to lightweight internal software.
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