Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20: Rugged smartwatch sequel essential guide

GPS finally lands for Casio's Wear range - here's all you need to know
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The Casio WSD-F20, the Japanese company's second stab at the Android Wear market, was announced back in January and now the Wear 2.0-toting smartwatch is finally up for grabs.

The successor to the Casio Smart Outdoor WSD-F10 now falls under the company's Pro Trek Smart Series and delivers the feature we wanted most from the original: built-in GPS.

Wareable verdict: Casio WSD-F20 review

Read on to find out everything you need to know about the Pro Trek Smart...

Casio WSD-F20: Design and display

Casio's new smartwatch is still built for ruggedness and thankfully the watch specialist has managed to pack in everything without adding any extra bulk.

Measuring 61.7mm × 56.4mm × 15.7mm, it weighs the same 92g as the original.

Read this: Casio unveils limited edition Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20S

It's still water resistant to 50 metres as well and it's been built to military standards (MIL-STD-810) so it can handle a bit of rough and tumble.

Available in orange or black, you'll find the same 1.32-inch dual layer LCD 320 x 300 touchscreen display that jumps into monochrome mode when you're running low on battery. That battery life is roughly the same as before giving you a day's play with everything running, and a month if you're just using it in normal watch mode.

Casio WSD-F20: GPS and sensors

Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20: Rugged smartwatch sequel essential guide

As far as sensors are concerned, you'll still get pressure (air and altitude), accelerometer, gyrometer and magnetic compass sensors. This should help you in tracking a host of different outdoor activities including trekking, cycling, fishing, winter sports, and water sports.

Read this: Why Casio is backing outdoor smartwatches over hybrids

The big addition though, as mentioned, is GPS. Casio says the WSD-F20 features low-power GPS and will offer compatibility for Glonass and Michibiki satellite systems to improve tracking further. Along with support for colour maps, it's much better built for adventurers. For instance, it now supports the ability to download maps offline so you can trek and not get lost without relying on a data connection.

The onboard GPS also unlocks more features including GPS-based watch faces (think altitude and compass widgets) and a nifty sounding Location Memory feature - built in tandem with Mapbox.

This instantly reads the user's location and lets you lay markers by hitting one of the physical buttons on the side of the watch. You can leave voice notes using the built-in mic if you want to revisit an old spot and the W20 also improves activity tracking, particularly for snow sports to deliver additional data like maximum speed for each run.

Casio WSD-F20: Android Wear 2.0 and apps

Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20: Rugged smartwatch sequel essential guide

The Casio Pro Trek Smart is compatible with Android phones and iPhones running iOS 9 or above, and Google is running the software show once again. The good news is that the WSD-F20 has Android Wear 2.0 out of the box. The original WSD-F10 has already been upgraded to the latest version of Google's operating system as well.

Essential reading: When will Android Wear 2.0 come to my device?

While you'll get to benefit from all of the new Wear features including standalone apps, Casio has a bunch of its own applications that are designed for adventurers as well third-party apps that make use of the its features. That includes ViewRanger, MyRadar and Yamap for hiking.

In terms of its own apps, there's Moment Setter that sends alerts to the user, whether that's a reminder of the best fishing times or sunrise/sunset times. The Tool app uses the host of sensors to deliver real-time information on changes in the natural environment including altitude or air pressure.

A new Casio Moment Link app can display the current location of a group of friends on the display letting you communicate through text messages. This obviously requires the GPS and will apparently be an Android only feature. Sorry iPhone owners.

Casio WSD-F20: Price and availability

Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20: Rugged smartwatch sequel essential guide

The Casio WSD-F20 is available to buy now from the Casio website, priced at . That means it costs exactly the same as the F10 did when it launched last year.

Have any more questions about the Casio WSD-F20? Let us know in the comments section below.




How we test



Michael Sawh

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Michael Sawh has been covering the wearable tech industry since the very first Fitbit landed back in 2011. Previously the resident wearable tech expert at Trusted Reviews, he also marshaled the features section of T3.com.

He also regularly contributed to T3 magazine when they needed someone to talk about fitness trackers, running watches, headphones, tablets, and phones.

Michael writes for GQ, Wired, Coach Mag, Metro, MSN, BBC Focus, Stuff, TechRadar and has made several appearances on the BBC Travel Show to talk all things tech. 

Michael is a lover of all things sports and fitness-tech related, clocking up over 15 marathons and has put in serious hours in the pool all in the name of testing every fitness wearable going. Expect to see him with a minimum of two wearables at any given time.


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