Hands on: The Fossil Sport Smartwatch could be a game-changer

Announced back in November, Fossil's Sport Smartwatch is among the first to use Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform. That in itself is kind of a big deal, as the 3100 uses an entirely new architecture. Qualcomm calls it big-small-tiny, and it's similar to big.LITTLE but scaled down for smartwatches. In other words, it's much better at power management, allowing for better battery life and more ambient display features.

I met with Fossil at CES, and this is the first time I've seen it in person. I did not walk into that meeting expecting to be writing this hands-on article, but here I am, because this device is awesome. It's one of the best smartwatches I've handled.

As soon as I picked it up, I was immediately impressed. I typically wear an Apple Watch, mainly because I've historically felt that the Wear OS market was severely lacking in major area; well, since Motorola doesn't make the Moto 360 anymore. All of the Android watches I get are big, bulky, and kind of ugly.

When I picked it up, it was so light that it felt like a dummy unit. I jokingly asked if there was a battery inside of it. This watch is so comfortable to wear that I'd probably pick it over any other smartwatch on the market. Well, not probably.

There are also some new features that have to do with the ambient display, something that's made possible by the Snapdragon Wear 3100's power management. You can now have ambient displays in full color, and you can also have moving second hands. Again, it's a better experience than before.

The Fossil Sport Smartwatch comes in two sizes: 41mm and 43mm, and the former uses 18mm bands while the latter uses 22mm bands. They both have a 1.2-inch AMOLED display with a 390ppi pixel density, but the larger one just comes in a bigger footprint.

But the cool part is that this device starts at only $255. Unfortunately, it's out of stock just about everywhere, and you can only get it from Fossil stores and Fossil.com.

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