Renowned calculator and watchmaker Casio is dipping its toes into the smartwatch market. The Japan-based electronics company opened the year by launching the WSD-F10 Smart Outdoor Watch, a rugged smartwatch running on the Android Wear platform and built under strict military standards specifications.
The WSD-F10 Smart Outdoor Watch is optimized mainly for outdoor use, as the name suggests. The smartwatch is water resistant for up to 50 meters, it has excellent display protection and it is so tough that it can survive a long fall, according to Phandroid.
The main motivation behind the Casio WSD-F10 is to create a rough and rugged smartwatch without sacrificing aesthetics. It has all the features of a standard smartwatch; compass, a pressure sensor and it can display real-time details about its user's immediate environment and activity levels.
The smartwatch has a "tool" button that gives real-time data about direction, air pressure and altitude, sunrise and sunset schedule even tide and user activity graphs. Since the smartwatch runs on Android Wear, users can download outdoor focused apps like Runkeeper, ViewRanger and MyRadar.
The Casio WSD-F10 is available in four color variants; black, green, orange and red. It features a 1.32-inch dual-layer display which can be configured to display information in bright hues. Users can extend the smartwatch's battery life by activating the Timepiece Mode, the device's power saving feature which turns off smartphone communication.
According to PC Mag, the WSD-F10 can last up to a full day on normal use. When Timepiece Mode is activated, it can last for more than a month. Charging the smartwatch takes up to two hours.
For users who wants to sync the Casio WSD-F10 into an Android smartphone, they need to make sure that their phone is running on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or later versions. Apple users are currently out of luck since iOS connectivity is currently unavailable but Casio said that it will arrive soon.
The Casio WSD-F10 Smart Outdoor Watch will hit the market in April and will have a price tag of $500. Some may bat an eye for its hefty price tag but many tech analysts consider it as an excellent alternative to the Apple Watch or the Tag Heuer smartwatch, both having a price tag of more than $500.