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We live in an era where everything almost happens in the blink of an eye. We no longer have the patience for the complicated life, and we’re surrounding ourselves with tools that make everything so easy for us. A house isn’t just a house anymore; it has to be smart and ready to meet our needs only from a voice command. A watch isn’t just a watch anymore as it comes with GPS and functions that help us train better or have a fantastic hiking trip.
With the rhythm of today’s life, nothing comes with just one function. As it’s not enough for us anymore.
Why is Casio such a big player on the watch market?
The Japanese market hit the market decades ago and has been manufacturing digital cameras, calculators, mobile phones, electronic musical instruments, digital and analog watches for so many years now.
Even though its innovations are many, when it comes to watches, Casio stood out for the very first time in the 80s with the very first G-Shock.
It was a determined Casio engineer that created a watch that had shock-resistance and water resistance, among many other abilities. Several building technologies made that possible (the urethane protecting the elements inside and the floating timekeeping modules inside the structure are two of them).
To this day, G-shock watches come with vibration resistance, low-temperature resistance, gravity resistance, electric shock resistance, and toughness.
What’s to say about the Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20 series in a nutshell?
The Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20 is the second-generation smartwatch from Casio. It runs Google’s Wear OS, and it comes with basic outdoor function. It can also see and interact with notifications from the phone.
Even if the new series isn’t very different from the previous WSD-F10, the Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20 does come with a GPS, which any outdoor enthusiast is going to love. The color maps work even offline, and the watch is a bit thinner than its predecessor.
Some are going to be tempted to compare the Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20 with the mainstream devices. Bear in mind though that the new GPS outdoor watch is instead for the customer that likes a bit of dirt under the nails while enjoying the outdoors.
There aren’t many smartwatch alternatives that rock the outdoors features, which is why the Trek’s combo of Wear OS smart features and the tracking functions for cycling, hiking, skiing, snow sports, fishing or canoeing stands out.
The detailed look
As there are several aspects to talk about on a smartwatch, let’s go step by step with each of them.
Design and screen
The watch comes with built-in GPS, supporting both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’s compatible with Android 4.3 or later and iOS 9.0 or later.
Some are going to say that the watch strikes as rather bulky, but we say that it’s made for the outdoor challenges. It has a faux metal finish plastic casing and an oversized black protective bezel that combine great with the silver metal stud screws.
It’s one rugged watch, and you’re going to wear it only for your hiking trips, for sure. It’s not going to fit under the cuff of your shirt, so you cannot take it for a casual meeting in the office.
The watch features a 1.32-in dual layer touchscreen display that is highly responsive. Transitioning between features and screens is easy too. You can smoothly go from the color to the monochrome mode for saving some power. Anyway, when the power gets low, it does it automatically.
You may select one of the five-level brightness for the screen. However, reading it in daylight may be tricky at times.
The build is smart as the watch comes with three big side buttons on the right side (Tool, Power and App). They’re easy to reach and not trying to press.
You don’t have to worry about the accidental shutdown as two button guards protect the Power button. You may give the Tool and App buttons various functions. However, you can use the App button for loading the maps and the Tool button for launching the Compass.
The watch comes with plenty of sensors: accelerometer, a pressure sensor for air pressure and altitude, magnetic compass and gyrometer.
As toughness is fundamental for an outdoor watch, the Pro Trek Smart includes a MIL-STD-810G standard military-grade levels of protection. It has water resistance up to 50 meters, so it’s going to handle sweat and some rain. You shouldn’t take it when diving or swimming.
One thing you’re going to like a lot is the built-in mic that allows you to take notes and tag them to the current location.
The watch comes in all black, black and white, black and green highlights, and black and orange combinations.
GPS, maps, and tracking
The watch includes GPS, Glonass and QZSS. It has a digital compass, and you can use offline maps.
The precision of the GPS is, and you may use the other apps for increasing the accuracy, for preserving the battery.
The Location Memory app lets you save the track, whereas the list of pre-loaded activities is good enough. You may mark and store places using pins, and you can even assign an emoji for the places you’ve been at.
Interface and features
There are many functions of Wear OS, and you should know that you can use most apps such as Google fit for general activity and fitness tracking as well. Even if the watch works with iOS too, it seems that it runs smoother with an Android.
It’s easy to customize the face and to operate the functions. Many are going to enjoy the Moment Settler+ which allows you to designate various notifications and actions for multiple activities. You may even use the watch for reminding yourself to rehydrate.
Battery life
We don’t have the technical details, but it seems that the battery gives you a day usage, depending on the apps and features you’re running throughout the day. You can go with the monochrome mode or reduce the GPS precision for extending the battery’s life a bit longer.
What is it that we like less?
Bells and whistles aside, some parts could use some improvement.
Many are going to see it as a rather bulky watch with screen visibility that could definitely get better. The power cord docks onto the watch with a magnet clip which falls a bit more often than you’d want.
The watch doesn’t include a heart rate, which some outdoor enthusiasts may look for in an outdoor watch.
What’s the verdict?
The Pro Trek Smart is for the real outdoor customer that takes all the hills and rivers without giving it a second thought. It has the build, and the essential features for that kind of experiences and its minor flaws don’t compromise its overall value.
RESOURCES
Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20 review: Page 3 | TechRadar
WSD-F20 Development Story | PRO TREK Smart WSD-F20 | Smart Outdoor Watch | CASIO
