Fossil Men's Gen 4 Smartwatch Explorist HR Black
Fossil Men's Gen 4 Smartwatch Explorist HR Black Silicone with Activity Tracker, GPS< Heart Rate Tracking and Notifications
From the brand
| Dimensions: | 20 x 20 x 20 cm; 230 Grams |
| Model: | FTW4018 |
| Batteries Included: | 1 CR2 batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | Fossil |
| Department: | Mens |
| Dimensions: | 20 x 20 x 20 cm; 230 Grams |
The watch itself is great. It looks good, feels good and does pretty much everything you would want a smartwatch to do.
It works really well compatability wise with a samsung/android phone. There have been no issues with syncing etc. The watch charges quickly, is accurate in terms of HR and there are plenty of apps to download.
The issue I have with it though is the battery life and the supposed in-built, untethered GPS.
Whilst idle battery life is average, without touching it at all I may get around 15 hours of battery life. However the main point of a smartwatch is for it to be used and be ‘smart’. If I want to use it for tracking exercise, reply to messages or have my HR monitored constantly, I’m lucky if I get 10 hours battery life in a day.
In terms of the in-built GPS… it’s non-existent. The Fossil Gen 4 was primed to be innovative with Google Wear tech and in-built GPS, and has appeared on numerous websites as a top 10 tracking watch for running and cycling. However this watch does not seem to pick up untethered GPS. If my phone is present then the tracking is fantastic, but if you want to run without a big phone, and purely track with the watch, don’t get this watch. Strava links well but can’t seem to pick up an untethered GPS signal, neither can Google Fit.
There are other watches of a similar price which have no issues with untethered GPS tracking.
If you are after a decently priced smartwatch which looks good, feels good and does what a smartwatch should, then I recommend this watch.
However, if you are after a watch for tracking workouts and a long battery life, this watch isn’t the best option.
After I had finally set up the watch and WADED through the tutorial and the Four system updates I found the watch is exactly what I was hoping for. I had read the reviews but could not believe some of the poor comments and took the plunge. The watch is stylish easie to operate and I find the battery life is all I need in that it charges to 100pc in less than an hour and lasts until I put it on charge at night – totally adequate for my use. At this price I feel I have made an excellent purchase and fully recommend it.
I bought this for my husband for Christmas and he uses it primarily for the gym. He uses it only for the gym because the battery life on it isnt very good. It needs charging every night like a phone. Shame because its a lovely watch and looks great.
Watch has to be charged every day.
Buttons in right side of watch are really too big and if you wear it on your left wrist and bend your wrist the central button gets pressed and either asks to shut down or activates Google assistant.
Can’t flip the orientation so the buttons are on the lef
Really pleased with this. My first foray into the smart watch works and I’m not disappointed at all. I do have a Google phone so all the wear os stuff works a dream. Great produc
I brought this as a Christmas present for my partner. I love it, he loves it and everyone comments on his smart it is. He has always worn fossil watches and this is a brilliant smart watch to add to his collection. He likes things that are a little different and he loves the fact that he can change the watch faces when ever he feels like it. It synced well to his IPhone and he is very impressed.
Easy to use, links with Google fit and pay. Pleased with step and heart rate monitoring. Battery lasts two days with my usage so I’m quite happy with that.
This is an excellent smart watch with, for my usage, no downsides.
Very good watch with easy to use and helpful features, but battery life runs out quickly if you use its features regularly.
As a smartwatch, there are a plethora of apps available – such as Shazam to identify a song playing in a bar, WhatsApp to quickly reply with preset messages without the need to check my phone, and Google Fit for workouts and fitness information. Plus the ability to use the watch to make contactless payments. I am sure I can use it for more and slowly I will discover more apps and better uses for it. But so far – I am extremely pleased with it and I recommend it to anyone with an Android phone! I believe you can also use it with an iPhone but I haven’t tried this.
Overall, I genuinely believe this has all of the features my previous Apple watch had for far, far less money. There have been only a couple of times the watch has shown a bug (for example the digital crown doesn’t work in all apps for scrolling, but this is more likely to be as a result of the app not being optimised for this) and yes when I received the watch there were a number of updates which took a long time to download and install. However, now this is complete the watch runs far better.
For me, battery life is excellent and I can easily get 1.5-2 days out of it with reasonable use. I don’t think I have the location enabled which may increase battery life but certainly after the updates and a couple of days wearing it the battery has settled well.
I like the strap – it is a strong, quality rubber strap which is comfortable. But it is easy to change by just pushing the quick remove pin. I may in the future replace it with a black carbon fibre effect leather strap which I think will complement the all-black design.
To conclude, this is an excellent smartwatch and I believe that at this price point – it is a perfect entrance into wearables. Google is clearly behind Wear OS after their Fitbit acquisition, and I think the best is yet to come on Wear OS. Fingers crossed for some great updates in the future!
Go ahead and buy it – you won’t be disappointed! I love mine.
Really like the watch, have been using it for over a week and love it. Only thing that I don’t like is having to charge it everyday. Works for around 20 hours.
Works well with Android OS. Seamless integration of Calendars and message notifications.
Was worried that the strap would make my wrist sweat but it’s really comfortable and easy to use. Would recommend the watch as great size, clear screen and I have not had any battery issues once it had fully updated.
Looks good and does what it says. Bought a brown leather strap from Fossil shop which adds a classy option. Could do with yet a few more watch face options if you’re not into some of the funkier options
Very good GPS accuracy, great functionality with the Google Wear. The silicon strap gets a little sweaty when working out, but I don’t think metal/leather would be better.
The bottom line of all of this is the battery life and WearOs. Dear, I charged the watch 2 times in the same day when I received the watch. The next day I said let’s try with “always on” screen. Jeez! In 3 hours and about 20 min it went from 100% to 10%, 3 hours! And I didn’t even use it because I was shopping, not a single touch on it! Terrible battery life.
Wear Is I was expecting to be much better, but since I turned on the watch it was laggy, I’ve never had any experiences like that with Android OS, but in this case I don’t blame the watch but the Google. So I returned it the 3rd day after got it.