If you’re considering buying a new smartwatch, you may want to hold out. The Fossil Gen 6 has just leaked in full, including details regarding its specs, price and release date.
The information was shared by German tech site WinFuture on August 18.
According to the report, the Fossil Gen 6 will feature a 1.28-inch OLED always-on display (416 x 416) with a brighter screen and more colours compared to its predecessor, the Fossil Gen 5.
The watch will come in 42mm or 44mm sizes with various designs, most of which are water-resistant up to 50m. They’ll also come with a variety of wristband options, including straps made of leather, fabric and metal.
One of the most important factors here is performance. According to WinFuture, the Gen 6 will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus chipset and will offer significantly faster performance when compared to the Fossil Gen 5. It also includes 8GB of internal memory.
The Wear 4100 Plus launched in mid-2020, making it at least a year older than the still-to-be-announced Snapdragon Wear 5100. Nevertheless, the chip is a clear upgrade next to the 2018 Snapdragon Wear 3100 that powered the Fossil Gen 5.
According to the WinFuture report, the Gen 6 will also take advantage of Bluetooth 5.0 and GPS support, and will include sensors on its rear to help power tracking features such as activity goals, steps, sleep, heart rate, cardio levels, spO2 and running routes.
As far as battery life goes, the Gen 6 will apparently feature a 24 hour battery life, along with an energy-saving mode for multiple day use, both of which were previously featured on the Gen 5. Battery life was the single con listed in our review of the Gen 5, making this news slightly disappointing.
When it comes to charging, the Gen 6 will reportedly be capable of hitting 80% battery in 30 minutes and 100% in just an hour.
The report seems to predict that the Fossil Gen 6 will be the first smartwatch to launch with the new Wear OS after Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4, which would allow it to support apps that other operating system’s don’t.
However, Google has previously revealed that upcoming smartwatches from Fossil won’t come running Wear OS 3 out of the box and that users will instead be given the option to upgrade to the new operating system next year (which involves completing a factory reset). For this reason, it seems more likely the Gen 6 will launch running Wear OS 2.
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According to the report, Fossil plans to launch at least three versions of the watch for men and women, with prices ranging from €299 to €329. That’s around £255 to £281 here in the UK, or $349 to $384 if you’re in the US.
We’ll have to wait until Fossil launches the device to find out whether the above specs ring true. Luckily, we shouldn’t have to wait long as WinFuture expects the smartwatch to launch on September 27.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
