36 passion Austin American-Statesman | February 2020

Fossil Explorist HR (Gen 4) Mobvoi TicWatch Pro If your heart is set on picking up The TicWatch Pro comes a powered by ’s Wear packing a feature that few OS operating system, Fossil’s Explorist HR other can offer: is well worth your attention. You’ll have ample battery life. The watch full access to Google’s growing catalog of can be manually switched Wear OS apps — Google Maps, Google Keep into Essential Mode, in much as well as access to Spotify or your Nest the same vein as the Apple cameras, for example. Thanks to Wear OS’ Watch’s Power Reserve mode. customizable application Tiles, I was able While in this low-powered to tweak the Explorist’s interface to near mode, you’ll be able to check perfection. Not fond of the aesthetic? No on the time for days on end. problem: The Explorist series comes in a You won’t, however, be able number of sizes, styles and colors. to use Google Maps or any of I found that the bracelet on this watch the other perks that come with was extremely difficult to remove links owning a watch powered by from. You may need to take it to a jeweler Google’s Wear OS. to have it properly adjusted. But not all While using the TicWatch watches in the Explorist series come with a Pro in Essential Mode, I found steel bracelet, so it may be a non-issue for it extremely difficult to read you. As with the , I was disappointed that the Explorist wasn’t able to its face in direct sunlight. Ad- make it through a full 24 hours of use before being recharged. Additionally, I noted ditionally, thanks to its older Qualcomm’s Snapdragon that the interface, which should be fast, fluid and easy to use, suffered occasional 2100 processor, even when you have the battery power slowdowns when navigating between apps. Fossil’s watches might be the best way to rock Wear OS, you’ll be doing so at noticeably slower to experience Wear OS right now, but they don’t offer a better overall smartwatch speeds than many other Wear OS devices allow for. experience than the Samsung Galaxy Watch does. From $275 at fossil.com $249.99 at mobvoi.com

BEFORE YOU BUY

What about fitness functionality? Wear. However, for some, the name was confus- A word on compatibility ing as most people know Android as the operating While all of the smartwatches in this guide offer Wear OS devices and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch system that runs their smartphones. Recently, Google some level of fitness tracking, I didn’t take their health are designed for use with Android smartphones. changed its wearables operating system’s name to and monitoring capabilities into consideration as However, they’re also compatible with iOS devices — Wear OS, in an effort to keep things simple. part of my research, for a number of reasons. Which although the user experience is less than stellar. With • Watch OS: Apple’s operating system for the smartwatch can most adequately meet your health the Galaxy Watch, for example, I found that I could Apple Watch is called Watch OS. Watch OS is based monitoring needs is something you should discuss receive text message notifications from my iPhone, on the company’s iOS operating system, sharing many with your doctor, not some fella trying to steer you but was unable to respond to them. The same goes of the same features and visual elements. However, towards a great smartphone accessory. for email. it’s been optimized for use on the Apple Watch’s small As such, for iPhone owners, I recommend staying display and to leverage its health monitoring, notifi- away from wearables that run on Google’s Wear OS Terms to know cation and other features that make the wearable the or Samsung’s Tizen operating systems. They’ll work Android: great piece of hardware that it is. • Google’s open-source Android operat- with your smartphone, but not well. • Tizen OS: Tizen OS is a flexible, Linux-based oper- ing system runs the majority of the smartphone hand- If you’re interested in a wearable that straddles ating system that can be used in a wide number of hard- sets in the world (although you can also find it used to both platforms with equal aplomb, check out Gar- ware categories including smart TVs, some smartphones operate some tablets and laptops). Popular handsets min’s smartwatches, like the vivomove HR. While sold outside of North America and smartwatches. The such as the Google Pixel 3a, the Samsung Galaxy 10 they’re deeply sports and activity oriented, their OS, developed and primarily used by Samsung, was and OnePlus 7 Pro use Android. smartphone integration is consistent across iOS and iOS: designed in an effort to reduce the company’s depen- • Apple’s iOS operating system is the back- Android. bone of what makes an iPhone or iPad tick. dence on Google’s Android OS. When used in Samsung’s • Wear OS: When Google first offered an operating Galaxy Watch, Tizen OS is a powerful operating system system for wearable devices, they called it Android that most users should find easy to use.