The best Wear OS watches (January 2020)
In the early days of Android Wear, there were only a few decent smartwatch options — mainly from Motorola and LG. Since then, the platform has been rebranded to Wear OS, and many other companies have joined the Wear OS party. We’re now seeing Wear OS watches come from fashion brands and watchmakers instead of smartphone OEMs. There are plenty of options out there, so we’ve rounded up our list of the best Wear OS watches you can buy.
Aritcle Table Of Contents
- 1 Best Wear OS watches:
- 2 Fossil Gen 5
- 3 Fossil Sport
- 3.1 Fossil Sport specs:
- 3.2 More posts about fitness trackers
- 3.2.1 The best new wearables we could find at CES 2020
- 3.2.2 Hands-on: The new Amazfit Bip S has 40-day battery life, 5ATM rating, costs $70
- 3.2.3 Hands-on: The Suunto 7 is packed with features for serious outdoor enthusiasts
- 3.2.4 Withings ScanWatch launches with real, honest-to-goodness sleep apnea detection
- 3.2.5 10 best Android diet apps and Android nutrition apps
- 3.2.6 Realme might challenge the Xiaomi Mi Band in the cheap fitness tracker space
- 3.2.7 Fossil Hybrid HR review: Beautifully flawed (Updated)
- 3.2.8 AA essentials: The best running gear, running watches, and more
- 3.2.9 Seriously good deal: The best Wear OS smartwatch for $169 (Update: Back!)
- 3.2.10 Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 review: Solid smartwatch, inaccurate fitness watch
- 4 Mobvoi TicWatch Pro and TicWatch Pro LTE
- 5 Misfit Vapor X
- 5.1 Misfit Vapor X specs:
- 5.2 More posts about smartwatches
- 5.2.1 The Suunto 7 has a trick to make battery life last so long: It’s all in the SoC
- 5.2.2 The best new wearables we could find at CES 2020
- 5.2.3 Hands-on: The new Amazfit Bip S has 40-day battery life, 5ATM rating, costs $70
- 5.2.4 Hands-on: The Amazfit T-Rex smartwatch is rugged and cheaper than you’d expect
- 5.2.5 New Fossil Gen 5, Hybrid HR, and Sport colors offer something for everyone
- 5.2.6 Hands-on: Skagen Falster 3 is here with improved specs, custom battery modes
- 5.2.7 Hands-on: The Suunto 7 is packed with features for serious outdoor enthusiasts
- 5.2.8 Hands-on: Diesel’s new Wear OS watch is translucent and I’m here for it
- 5.2.9 Fossil’s custom battery modes are coming to more smartwatches: Here’s the list
- 5.2.10 Withings ScanWatch launches with real, honest-to-goodness sleep apnea detection
Best Wear OS watches:
- Fossil Gen 5
- Fossil Sport
- Mobvoi TicWatch Pro and TicWatch Pro LTE
- Misfit Vapor X
We made no changes to our list this month.
Wear OS is in need of a revamp, but the Fossil Gen 5 Smartwatch makes the best of a strange software situation with excellent hardware and performance. It’s one of a few smartwatches to feature 1GB of RAM instead of 512MB. Coupled with the Snapdragon 3100, the Gen 5 doesn’t lack in the performance section.
Also read: 5 best Wear OS games | 10 best Wear OS watch faces
Even the software is a positive. Google hasn’t prioritized Wear OS as it should, but it’s nice to have quick access to Google Assistant, Calendar, and other Google apps. The new Tiles feature also impresses and makes navigation a bit easier.
The Fossil Gen 5 isn’t cheap, but that’s the price to pay if you want the best Wear OS smartwatch.
Fossil Gen 5 specs:
- Display: 1.3-inch AMOLED
- SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100
- RAM: 1GB
- Storage: 8GB
- Battery: At least 24 hours
- IP rating: 5ATM
- Sensors: Accelerometer, altimeter, ambient light, gyroscope, heart rate, microphone, NFC, GPS
Fossil Sport
There’s a lot to like about the Fossil Sport. Not only is this a great watch for fitness use, it also features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset so performance and battery life are good.
Aside from the most recent Qualcomm wearable chipset, the Fossil Sport has a 1.2-inch AMOLED display with a 390 x 390 resolution, and inside it has a heart rate sensor, GPS, and NFC hardware so you can make payments with the watch via Google Pay.
It’s not the best fitness watch around, but it’s probably the best Wear OS watch for fitness you can buy.
Fossil Sport specs:
- Display: 1.19-inch OLED
- 390 x 390 resolution
- SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100
- Storage: 4GB
- Battery: 350mAh
- IP rating: 5ATM
- Sensors: Accelerometer, altimeter, ambient light, gyroscope, heart rate, microphone, NFC, GPS
More posts about fitness trackers
The best new wearables we could find at CES 2020
Hands-on: The new Amazfit Bip S has 40-day battery life, 5ATM rating, costs $70
Hands-on: The Suunto 7 is packed with features for serious outdoor enthusiasts
Withings ScanWatch launches with real, honest-to-goodness sleep apnea detection
10 best Android diet apps and Android nutrition apps
Realme might challenge the Xiaomi Mi Band in the cheap fitness tracker space
Fossil Hybrid HR review: Beautifully flawed (Updated)
AA essentials: The best running gear, running watches, and more
Seriously good deal: The best Wear OS smartwatch for $169 (Update: Back!)
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 review: Solid smartwatch, inaccurate fitness watch
Mobvoi TicWatch Pro and TicWatch Pro LTE
The Mobvoi TicWatch Pro’s best feature is its display — it actually has two. It features a transparent and low-power FTSN LCD display, placed on top an OLED display. The top FTSN display shows you basic info like the time, date, your heart rate, and your step count. You can also switch to the OLED display, which shows off all of the features of Google’s Wear OS. When you switch to the OLED display, you are in TicWatch Pro’s Smart Mode, and can use all its features and functions. Switching to the low-power FTSN LCD display puts the watch in its Essential Mode.
When you switch back to Smart Mode, all of the heart rate and activity info gathered by the watch’s Essential Mode sync up and transfer to the onboard Wear OS. Battery life in Essential Mode can last up to 30 days, though using the smartwatch in Smart Mode cuts that to just two days.
Mobvoi also released an upgraded version of the TicWatch Pro called the TicWatch Pro 4G/LTE. It essentially has the same specifications as the original TicWatch Pro with the addition of 4G LTE connectivity.
Mobvoi TicWatch Pro and TicWatch Pro LTE specs:
- Display: 1.39-inch touchscreen FSTN LCD and OLED
- 400 x 400 resolution
- SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100
- Storage: 4GB
- Battery: 415mAh
- IP rating: IP68
- Sensors: Accelerometer, gyroscope, e-compass, PPG heart rate sensor, ambient light sensor, low-latency off-body sensor, GPS, NFC
Misfit Vapor X
The Misfit Vapor X is one of the best Wear OS watches you can buy, but it’s so far down on our list because it’s so expensive. With only minor upgrades over the Fossil Sport, the Vapor X costs nearly $300 — quite a bit more than Fossil’s sporty watch.
However, the Misfit Vapor X is a capable smartwatch. It has the latest processor, Google Pay support, and GPS and heart rate sensors. Performance and battery life suffer a bit, though, so we’d only recommend you buy the Misfit Vapor X if you’re really interested in the design.
Misfit Vapor X specs:
- Display: 1.2-inch AMOLED
- 328 x 328 resolution
- SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100
- Storage: 4GB
- RAM: 512MB
- Battery: 330mAh
- IP rating: 3ATM
- Sensors: Accelerometer, altimeter, ambient light, gyroscope, heart rate, microphone, NFC, GPS
Did we miss something in our best Wear OS watches list?? Be sure to tell us what you think in the comments below!
More posts about smartwatches
The Suunto 7 has a trick to make battery life last so long: It’s all in the SoC
The best new wearables we could find at CES 2020
Hands-on: The new Amazfit Bip S has 40-day battery life, 5ATM rating, costs $70
Hands-on: The Amazfit T-Rex smartwatch is rugged and cheaper than you’d expect
New Fossil Gen 5, Hybrid HR, and Sport colors offer something for everyone
Hands-on: Skagen Falster 3 is here with improved specs, custom battery modes
Hands-on: The Suunto 7 is packed with features for serious outdoor enthusiasts
Hands-on: Diesel’s new Wear OS watch is translucent and I’m here for it
Fossil’s custom battery modes are coming to more smartwatches: Here’s the list
Withings ScanWatch launches with real, honest-to-goodness sleep apnea detection
