Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this watch over Thanksgiving when it was on sale 30% off ($178.00). I thought at the price of $178.00 this was very competitively priced with other smartwatches, and significantly cheaper than many of them. This is the first smartwatch I have owned. The watch uses Android Wear 2.0. I currently use a Samsung Galaxy S7, so this review is from the perspective of an Android user. The watch can also function using iOS. The watch is IP67 rated for water resistance and has an OLED screen. The design of the watch is great. The watch face is rose gold. To me it almost looks gold, so I'd say it's a very subtle rose gold. I prefer the leather band for day to day wear, it's a subtle tan color. The watch looks very professional and stylish. I actually think it's a cute watch, and one of the few that's not too bulky for my wrist. I have very tiny wrists, and while the watch is still big, it does not look bad. I clasp the strap on the second to last hole and it fits me well without moving around. Syncing the watch to my phone was very easy. You download Android Wear onto your phone and then can follow the instructions to connect the watch. I had no issues doing this and the setup was painless. I had to update my watch a few times when I first started using it to get the latest security patches. Once you get the watch completely up to date you are good to go. This watch display is OLED and it looks gorgeous. The watch display is fully round, so it does not have a flat tire look like previous Fossil models. The watch interactions are flawless for me so far, no lagging or stuttering. If you swipe up it displays some watch quick actions (airplane mode, turn the watch screen on/off button, battery level display, do not disturb button, and a settings button). If you swipe right it allows you to change the watch face. If you swipe down it displays your notifications. To review a notification you just click on it, and at the bottom you can click the button to display more options (ie. delete the notification), if you swipe right it dismisses the notification. If you click the crown button on the watch it pulls up your apps. You can swipe through the list by touching the screen and scrolling down. The crown only functions as a button, it does not rotate to scroll through your lists. Overall I've found it easy to learn how the watch functions and how to control actions on it. I just use the default watch face you see in all the images. You can hold down on the watch face and it allows you to customize it. For instance, you can change what is displayed from the default (date, steps, time in a different zone, and agenda on the button at the bottom). I changed mine to display the date, the weather temperature, and the battery; I left the agenda at the bottom. The battery life is excellent for me so far. I went 12 hours yesterday and the watch did not go below 50% (it was in the 50s when I placed it back on the charger). Right now I've had the watch on for 4 hours and the battery is at 91%. I am not a heavy user, but I do check notifications frequently. I have the always on display active, but I disabled the tilt to wake function. It seemed like every time your wrist moved the watch would wake up. That would likely be a big battery drain. I have the brightness set to automatic. I do notice my phone's battery drains faster having the watch paired to it, which is a shame, but the actual battery on the watch is very good. I have only downloaded a few apps to the watch. I've used Google Maps, Uber, and Google Play Music. The Google Maps app is very neat. You have to input your destination onto the phone's Google Maps, but then if you open the app on the watch it will show you directions on the screen and vibrate shortly before you need to turn. I really liked this functionality on the watch, and if you don't have a car dock for your phone, it allows you to check your watch rather than looking down at your phone. The Uber app is also nice because you can hail an Uber without having to use your phone. The Google Play Music app I was disappointed in and ultimately uninstalled. I was hoping if you pulled up Play Music it would pull it up on your phone as well, but it doesn't do this. Essentially you would need to pair the watch to a bluetooth speaker or headphones to use it. If I open Play Music from my phone, even with the app uninstalled on the watch, it allows me to play/pause the music from my watch. To me there was no real point having the Play Music app physically on my watch. There are other apps you can download for the watch, such as calculators, Google Keep for creating lists, Pandora, Spotify, and many more. The app selection seems pretty good. You can also use Google Fit to track steps, or track your workouts. I have not messed with these functions much. I doubt this watch is as good as a fitness watch would be about tracking steps or workouts. If you mostly want a smartwatch for those features, you're better off just buying a fitness watch. However, if you just want to use these features from time to time, they are probably adequate using Google Fit, but as I said, I haven't used them much. Texting on the phone is simple. I saw some reviewers who had texting shortcuts appear on their watch, but these aren't on mine. I'm not sure if using Textra on my phone impacts this or not. My watch allows me to provide voice to text, physically write the text, or use a keyboard. Mine has the Google Keyboard on the watch. You can probably download alternative keyboards from the Play Store. The keyboard is very tiny, so it will be hard to type much using it. However, you can use swipe on the keyboard, which actually makes it a lot easier to use. I don't use swipe texting on my phone, but on the watch it's probably the best way to text someone unless you have pre-saved responses. Google Assistant is also on the watch. You hold down the crown on the watch and Assistant will open. The voice recognition is actually really good. I haven't used this feature too much, but it's there for those who use Assistant. My watch also syncs to my Gmail so I get email notifications. This is very much appreciated, as I can just delete junk emails from the watch. I get a lot of emails to my phone, and when I only check at the end of the day, there is often a lot of junk to sift through. Quickly deleting them from my watch makes my life simpler. The charger that comes in the box is just a USB cable with a magnetic pad on the other end. You just clasp the pad to the back of your watch. It's easy to use, but it'd be nicer if the cable came with a charging brick or if the charger came with a docking stand. It doesn't look like Fossil even makes a docking stand. I will likely be ordering one to go with the watch. Now for the downsides of this watch. The biggest negative to me is that the watch does not have a speaker. The larger Gen 3 Fossil Q Explorist does have a speaker. I'm not sure if the size of the Venture is cause for the lack of speaker or not. The speaker would allow you to actually answer calls from your watch. I'm not sure how much use this feature would get, but it would still be nice to have the functionality. Another downside is there is no NFC on this watch, so you cannot use Android Pay. There is also no built-in GPS. I really wish this watch had a speaker and NFC, as then it would have everything I would want. Due to my small wrists, there really aren't many smartwatch options for me, and I don't have a need for a fitness watch. I am an Android user, so cannot buy an Apple Watch. Aside from those couple drawbacks, I really do enjoy this watch. I subtracted 1 star due to the lack of a speaker and NFC. I hope in the future Fossil will incorporate these functions into their smaller sized smartwatches. Overall though, this is a great smartwatch and one I would recommend. It gets the basics of a smartwatch right and looks good as well.