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My biggest problem with the latest Fossil smartwatch, Gen 5E, was that it felt like a complement to the holiday season, something to complete Fossil’s extensive catalog of Wear OS watches until it could launch a new army of wearables powered by the new Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform. Now, a recent FCC filing hints that we might finally be seeing an LTE Fossil watch on the horizon. Normally, this would be great news … Except there’s one thing that makes me wonder
The presentation, first view by Android Authority, it doesn’t reveal much detail beyond the typical circular display and that the watch itself was tested for various LTE bands. On the one hand, the addition of LTE seems to be a sign that 4100-powered Fossil watches could arrive very soon, perhaps even at CES 2021. The new Snapdragon Wear 4100+ chip It promises a host of performance improvements, including the ability to support 4G LTE and Bluetooth 5.0. On the other hand, Fossil flagships have been released in late summer or fall for the past two generations. That makes sense. Most companies schedule their top launches to make the most of the holiday gift shopping season.
If Fossil sticks to its usual launch cadence, that could mean that this LTE watch is another Gen 5 variant, in which case, no thanks sir and madam.
I say this because Gen 5 runs on the now-outdated 3100 chip, which is the disappointing middle child of processors. Was it better than its predecessor, the 2100 chip? Yes, but it’s like asking if the water is wet. It was more like the promised 3100 Wear OS watches from good to great and what we got were Wear OS watches that sucked less.
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There’s a reason we haven’t seen LTE-capable Wear OS watches so far. Battery life, although improved with the 3100 chip, is still not great. Fossil 3100-powered smartwatches have to automatically switch battery modes to get enough power for sleep tracking. And even then, I never got real, the battery life of several days. LTE is a major drain. When Apple released the watch Series 3 in 2017, I clearly remember that the watch died after only a 20 minute call. (It has improved since then). I’m as confident in a 3100-powered LTE Wear OS watch as I am in politicians – none. The 4100 chip promises 25% more battery life, but the only 4100-powered smartwatch available right now is the TicWatch Pro 3, and that’s GPS only, which means we have no idea how runtime translates. extra battery in a cellular watch.
This is a bummer because Android users without Samsung phones still don’t have a flagship smartwatch that meets all the requirements for everyone. the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and Active2 are truly the best Android compatible smartwatches, but the best features, such as FDA-cleared ECGs, are limited to Samsung phone owners. An LTE-enabled Fossil watch would help Wear OS bridge the gap with rival platforms like Tizen and watchOS, but launching an LTE Wear OS watch with 3100 technology seems like a wasted opportunity.
Another hit is that during the summer, 9to5 Google reported that, based on Bluetooth SIG submissions, these same Fossil watches probably no run on the 4100 chip. It may have been in reference to what we now know to be Gen 5E. It’s also possible that Fossil could surprise everyone and launch a 4100-capable LTE-capable Gen 6 in spring 2021, rather than fall. If that happens, I’ll be the first in line to fire the confetti cannon. The sinking feeling in my stomach says otherwise.
For now, it is speculation. We’ll have to see what Fossil brings to CES 2021, although, in years past, it wasn’t typically where Fossil announced big changes to its flagship line. But if this rumored LTE watch is another Gen 5 variant, powered by the same old chip, I’m probably I will have to recommend people skip that one too.
