Product review: Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20 smart watch
The Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20 is the answer to the question - what if I want a tough, outdoor watch with smart functionality and fitness tracking? With a signature large body as with all Pro Trek watches, the F20 sports built-in GPS for offline maps.
Design and build
The second (Android) Wear 2.0 OS watch from Casio is not one for the subtle design fan. The orange body, black bezel combo screams outdoors, and its 61.7x56.4x15.7mm size means it will peek out of most shirt sleeves. It weighs 92gm, so you will never forget you're wearing it. But this tough casing earns it a US Military MIL-STD-810 rating for durability and gives it water resistance to 50 metres.
Recessed into the bezel is a dual-layer 1.32-inch touchscreen LCD. The 320x300 pixel screen shows information from tools including a compass, altimeter, barometer, and a tide graph. There are also different customisable watch faces. The display brightness could be better.
The default watch face shows you time with analogue style hands overlaid on your current location on a map, with GPS coordinates and date to the left and right, respectively
In use
Once paired with my OnePlus 3, I could access all my phone notifications on the watch. It also offers limited connectivity to iOS devices. It prompts machine learning enabled quick-replies to messages, which I did use on occasion. The mic enables voice-to-text typing for longer messages.
Its other hero is the low-power GPS, which runs on Mapbox or Google Maps. Offline maps take some time to load. A quick voice memo feature came in handy to add a voice tag to any location I was saving. The deep bezel got in the way of touchscreen use at times and could take some getting used to. A separate Casio Moment Setter app gives you access to activity tracking information. This let me check speed, distance, as well as ascent and descent statistics.
Battery
The battery charges to full in under two hours. The best part was after about 16 hours of use, when the battery got to 15 per cent, the F20 switched to a low-power mode. In it, a secondary LCD displays a simple digital watch face.
Should you buy one?
The Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20 is for those adventure enthusiasts who insist on multi-functionality from everything they carry. A smartwatch equivalent of a Swiss army knife, if you will. Remember, it is a Pro Trek first and a smartwatch later, so calling functions and a heart rate monitor are missed. And when its smart functionality is not needed, it can switch to being a regular digital wristwatch that can last up to a month on a single charge. That is a very specific niche, but if you find yourself in it, the only reason I would pause for thought would be its price.
Price: Rs 36,995
Available at : casioindiashop.com
