Fossil Q Explorist HR (Gen 4) Smartwatch: Impressive looks but lacks in the battery

The Fossil Q Explorist HR (Gen 4) smartwatch (Model: DW6F1) is a Wear OS-based smartwatch made by the Fossil Group. It has a round bezel with a masculine look and feel and water resistance up to 98 feet. It doesn't support SIM-based mobile communications but has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi options to pair and synchronize with a smartphone. The watch was first announced in August 2018 and subsequently released later in the same month in the US and elsewhere.

Fossil Q Explorist HR (Gen 4) - FTW4016

The watch case is made of stainless steel which is available in 6 attractive color combinations. Some popular case colors are stainless steel, smoke stainless steel, brown leather, tan leather, black leather and black silicon. Printed on the back panel is the Fossil logo, the model number, a CE marking and the country or origin, which is China.

The one that I will review here is the SKU variant FTW4016 that comes in a blue stainless-steel case with tan leather straps which was purchased in November 2018 when it was retailing in Amazon.com for $178.50 before taxes. The delivery was fairly quick, and I had the device in my hands in two days. It comes in a hard cubical box which includes the smartwatch with the battery built in, a magnetic charging dock with a USB cable, and a quick start guide. The same was selling on Fossil.com for $179 with an original listed price of $275 before taxes. This 2023 review is based on experiences after its use in the last 4.5 years.

Setup

Setting up the device is simple. Before powering up for the first time, charge it till 100% using the provided magnetic charger. Install the Wear OS app on your smartphone and pair it with the watch using Bluetooth.

Fossil Q Explorist HR in the box

Display

The touch screen display consists of a 1.4-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 454 x 454 pixels. The 16M color screen displays pretty crisp and vivid colors and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. The interface is nice, and the screen is pretty responsive.

Calling

As the smartwatch doesn't include a built-in speaker, it doesn't allow to speak over the device itself. It, however, does show notifications for incoming calls and let you receive or reject calls directly from the display. To carry on the conversation, you have to use your phone. This is useful though when you are driving with your phone connected to the vehicle's infotainment system.

Messaging

The messaging application displays Short Messaging Service (SMS) messages on-screen. If you have other messaging apps installed, like WhatsApp, they can also be displayed.

Sensors

The device has several inbuilt sensors for accelerometer, ambient light, gyroscope, and heart rate.

Performance

The watch runs the Wear OS by Google on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 CPU with 512 MB RAM and 4 GB of internal storage. It is compatible with phones running Android OS 4.4+ and Apple iOS 9.3+ and handles most tasks smoothly, sometimes with a little lag after all these years.

Audio Quality

The device doesn't have an in-built speaker.

Microphone

An in-built microphone allows you to use voice commands to perform a variety of tasks - which includes performing a web search.

Camera

The device does not feature a camera.

Internal Storage

The internal memory of 4GB provides storage for installing a fair number of apps from the Google Play Store. You can also store music in the internal storage and play them straight from the watch.

Expandable Storage

There is no option for additional storage.

Battery

One major component of a wearable device is the battery as that is what keeps it going. The smartwatch is powered by a non-removable 3.8V APack 1ICP4/25/30 330 mAh Li-ion battery packed into the casing. The watch charges from a small magnetic charging dock with an attached USB cable. It supports rapid charging that can get the battery up to 80% in an hour. The battery life at the time of purchase was about a day with moderate usage but this has deteriorated significantly over the last couple of years.

Connectivity

The Q Explorist HR allows synchronization with a smartphone via Bluetooth 4.1 LE. It also connects through Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. There is no option for cellular connectivity through a SIM card. GPS is in-built so the watch can use GPS even when it is not tethered with the phone. It also supports NFC at 13.56 MHz which lets you make payments from Google Pay even when your phone is not with you.

SAR (Specific Absorption Rate)

The highest SAR value for this smartwatch is 0.40 W/kg on the face and 0.60 W/kg on the wrist. The SAR limit for a wrist-worn mobile device set by the FCC is 4.0 W/kg.

FCC ID

The FCC ID for the device is UK7-DW6A and the reports are available here.

Warranty

The product comes with a 2-year manufacturer warranty on the device. For me, within a month's use, the leather band was damaged, and the Fossil support told me that the accessory was not supported within the warranty. It took some convincing to get a replacement band from them.

Reviews

On Best Buy the watch is rated 4.2 out of 5 with 81% recommendation based on 196 customer reviews. Amazon has also rated it 4.2 based 4,400 customer reviews.

Conclusion

The smartwatch has performed well over the years and the body and display is still intact with no scratches. I have seen the battery life deteriorate pretty fast over time. The look and feel are still attractive.

The product page for the FTW4017P is here.

The user manual is available here at ManualsLib, and here at the FCC ID database.