Casio's new smartwatch features offline color maps and GPS tracking
The WSD-F30 runs on Google's Wear OS platform.
Today, Casio announced a new smartwatch running Google's Wear OS platform. The WSD-F30, which is aimed specifically at outdoor adventurers, is available in blue, black and orange. It sports a 1.2-inch dual-layer display, with a monochrome LCD and a color OLED 390x390 pixel screen. The WSD-F30 is water resistant up to 50 meters and is temperature resistant to -10 degrees C. The watch will be available starting in late January 2019.
The biggest new feature of the WSD-F30 is Extend Mode, allowing the use of offline color maps. Not only that, but offline GPS logging is enabled for eight hours of continuous use per day for three days. While in Extend Mode, the time and data is shown on the monochrome display only. Color maps only appear when a button is pushed. Extend Mode also features a standby mode that the user can schedule in order to preserve battery life.
The dual-layer display allows for maps to be shown in greater detail on the OLED color screen. The monochrome display adds more features than just the time: Now you can see compass bearing, atmospheric pressure and altitude as well. Multi-timepiece mode ensures that you can save battery by switching off the smartphone connection, GPS and color display, relying only on the monochrome screen. This will extend battery life to about one month.
The case is also 3.9mm more narrow and 0.4mm thinner than Casio's previous smartwatch, the WSD-F20. The case has a nano treated bezel and sports a new watch face called "Frontier." It has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. The battery life lasts for about 1.5 days of normal use.
Update, 4:00 PM ET: This article was updated to correct an error in the watch's stated battery life and to provide the watch's release time frame, listed on Casio's website.
