Fossil brings battery saver modes to older generation watches
As of today, Fossil is bringing the new battery saving modes introduced in 2019 to older generations of watches via a software refresh.
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WearOS watches are known for their notoriously poor battery life. The fifth generation of Fossil watches, which were introduced starting August 2019, help the situation a bit through something the company calls “smart battery modes”.
In normal mode the watches can keep ticking for about a day. Switch on the smart battery modes and they’ll help you extend your battery for several days. This is, of course, with limited functionality but users can still enjoy important features such as notifications and heart rate.
The four settings include a Daily Mode, Extended Mode, Custom Mode and Time-Only Mode. The first of these works with most functionality enabled. The second disables all radios except Bluetooth. The third allows users to choose which functions to switch off. The fourth mode is meant to be used when you’re running low on juice as it turns off WearOS altogether.
The company had confirmed a couple of months ago this functionality will come to some older generation devices. It’s held good on its promise and a software refresh available from today is porting the battery saver modes to every Fossil watch with a Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor. This includes the Fossil Sport, Skagen Falster 2 (despite its 2100 chip), Kate Spade Scallop Sport, Diesel Axial, Puma Smartwatch, Diesel Axial and Michael Kors MKGO.
Fossil is attending CES 2020. The Las Vegas event officially begins later today but we’ve already had news on the new Diesel On Fadelite. It will also benefit from the updated software. This is a Wear OS timepiece that comes with the typical Fossil Group Gen 5 smarts packed into an extremely unique see-through design. News on other new Fossil Group watches will surely come our way in the next few days.
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