IFA 2018 | Casio's WSD-F30 is a longer-lasting and (slightly) slimmer rugged smartwatch

Casio has been in the smartwatch game for a few years now, and while their wearables are feature-packed pieces of tech, they are rather bulky and unwieldy. The Japanese watch and electronics manufacturer hopes to change that perception with the new WSD-F30, the next iteration of their Pro Trek Smart line.

The new watch retains the features of its older brother, the WSD-F20, but manages to pack them into a case that is about half a millimeter thinner than the WSD-F20. It’s still a chunky watch, measuring 60.5 mm x 53.8 mm x 14.9 mm (HxWxD). The 1.2-inch dual-layer display is also a hair smaller, but packs in more pixels (390 x 390 vs. the WSD-F20s 320 x 300). The display is also switching to an OLED panel with a monochrome LCD layered on top, which should mean a sharper, richer display with better contrast and punchier colors. The OLED screen should also be more visible on hiking trails and during other outdoor activities, something that might be important for an outdoor-focused watch.

Arguably the biggest upgrade is battery life. While the WSD-F20 was rated to last about 1-2 days, the WSD-F30 is rated to last 1.5 days with the color display on and up to 3 days with a new “Extend Mode” that turns off the color display and various wireless radios. Offline maps stored on the watch are still accessible in Extend Mode.

The WSD-F30 carries over most other features from the WSD-F20, including offline map storage (up to 5), GPU compatibility (including GLONASS and Michibiki), a MIL-STD-810 durability rating, and water resistance up to 5 BAR (50 meters). It’ll run the latest version of Wear OS upon its release, which Casio hints may be in January 2019. There’s no word on the price as of yet.

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