Fossil Q Nate Hybrid Smartwatch - Review
- Avichai Elimelech
- Sep 23, 2017
- 3 min read
I've recently been disappointed by the Withings Steel HR and was in the market for a new Hybrid Smartwatch with similar features.
Quoting from my last article: "The wearable market is growing rapidly these past few years, and one of those wearables is the smartwatch.The thing is, personally I’m not a fan of all that full smartwatch experience – looking at my watch every time I’m getting an email, Whatsapp message or phone call isn’t something I want to be doing while talking to someone.Lucky for me, there is a middle ground!"
The first time I heard of the Fossil hybrid smartwatch was at CES 2016, with the first generation of Fossil smartwatches - battery life wasn't good and the design was OK at best.
Less than a year later, they came out with the second generation of smartwatches with updated design and great battery life - and the Fossil Q Nate is one of them!
I'll start with the bottom line and elaborate later on:
PROs
Beautiful design - relative large watch face, fits larger hands better.
Great battery life - rated for 12 months of regular use (with phone connected notifications).
Simple intuitive app - Steps, Sleep, Smart features outline (And a really unnecessary Picture taking mode...). The app is currently compatible with Android OS 5.0+ or iPhone 5/iOS 9.0+.
Customizable watch buttons.
Wateproof up to 5ATM.
CONs
Heavy and big, not for everyone.
No heartbeat sensor.
No naps registered on the sleep counter.
Call notifications need practice on order to remember who's what number.
Steps tend to be a little inaccurate - about 5% off (Sometimes register while I sleep) - Personal opinion: The margin isn't that bad, and I believe it will be solved with firmware updates.
Design
Fossil isn't new to the watch market, and they developed their unique design a long time ago. The Fossil Q Hybrid line have that classical look to them, with very little bulk compare to a "dumb" watch.
WORD OF ADVICE: I recommend checking the whole lineup before deciding, I learned that what looked better on photos - looked worse in person or on the hand.
The watch is quite big and heavy - with a 50mm diameter watch face and over 200 grams - it isn't a small watch.
The watch band is 24mm wide and can easily be changed via quick release mechanism (See the picture above).
Something that I find here on the Q Nate, and most hybrid smartwatch manufacturers miss - illuminated dials! Yes, there is no backlight for the watch, but the dials glow for a while due to the Radium in it.
Smart features
Although classical looking, this watch quite a punch:
Regular watch feature:
2nd time zone.
Current date via the dials and numbers on the perimeter.
Next alarm (Alarm via vibrations).
24hr time (For you to know if it's 1am or 1pm for example)
Smarter watch features - remapping the button to do:
Ring my phone - handy while lost in the house, even works when the phone is on silent.
Take a picture - use it as the trigger for taking a picture if the phone is far
Music management - volume up, down or pause/play/skip a song.
Notifications - You can set the dials to show you a specific number on the watch face in case you get a notification from a specific person (call or text), you can even set it to alert a calendar event.
Bottom line:
The watch isn't perfect and it is by no means a full smartwatch, BUT it is one of the best implementation of the hybrid smartwatch I've seen. The smart features like the sleep tracking and step counting are handy, and the "Ring my phone" feature has been used by me more than once. I personally don't like the notifications it can handle, so I turned that feature off, but I guess that's the magic of the hybrid smartwatch - you can choose how smart it will be.
Would I buy it again? YES.
Do I recommend it to others? YES, with the foot note of not a full smartwatch.
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