Today in Las Vegas at CES, Casio have taken the wraps off their latest entry into the wearables space. Their outdoor smartwatch named WSD-F20 is a rugged smartwatch with all you’d expect from Casio in this way however it also adds a number of great features.
For starters, it runs Android Wear 2.0, this means that anything you can do on your friends watches is identical. Casio have added some other apps by default to help you follow a bush trail, log spots when you’re playing and plenty more. Some of the common sensors added in include compass, sensor and accelerometer.
The biggest additions include the GPS functionality and coloured mapping. The GPS additions allows the phone to trek without the phone. Allows you to quickly check location, path and current travels without a problem either. GPS in the watch means that it is independent of the phone. Inside the watch is also bluetooth and wifi.
Casio has looked at the things that we do when we travel including taking pictures of moments. Casio has added this in to remind you to take a photo of the sunset, or just gaze at it, or perhaps show you the average speed after one hour of riding.
While it is a smart watch, it is not anywhere near as the cost of any other common delicate smartwatch. This is thanks to the dual layer LCD and military grade, 50m water resistant, construction.
One of the sad things though is that you’ll be charging it daily from the minute you buy it. Battery life for normal use is rated at roughly one day or if you only use it as a watch you’ll get a month out of it.
The Casio WSD-F20 is available in orange or black from April 21 for $500 in the US with Australia to follow quickly after.
We spent some time going hands on with the Casio and really enjoyed it, you can feel how tough it is yet see the sophistication in the software it is running, a very impressive wearable. As a result, EFTM has awarded the Casio WSD-F20 the Best Wearable of CES 2017 award.
