Casio G-SHOCK Smartwatch Review: Gee, Shockingly Bad Timing By MrMobile [Michael Fisher]

//This video is sponsored by Surfshark VPN. Did you know that one of the most famous watch brands in the world owes its existence to an accident? Nearly four decades ago, Casio engineer Kikuo Ibe dropped and shattered a treasured timepiece passed down from his father. He was so affected by this, that he decided to make a watch so durable it couldn’t be broken by dropping it. In 1983, after building two hundred prototypes, Ibe’s team released the first Casio G-SHOCK … and in the thirty-eight years since, these robust wristwatches have ringed the wrists of special forces operators, Air Force pilots … even astronauts. It took until 2021 for Casio to merge that legacy of durability with a feature set complete enough to be called a smartwatch, and the result is this GSW-H1000. Under other circumstances this would be a stellar starting point for a new chapter in G SHOCK history.

But in watches more so than most things, it really is “all in the timing” … and sadly, there’s never been a worse time to build or to buy a Google-powered smartwatch. //INTRO Before we get to the platform, let’s talk about the hardware that does such a good job of setting this G SHOCK apart. Casio drew heavily from its ProTrek Smart series here, a line of Wear OS watches that I used to find almost comically large … and which are utterly dwarfed by this Kelvin-timeline monstrosity. The G SHOCK corrects the most glaring flaw of the ProTrek Smart by adding a heart rate sensor, while preserving the dual-layer display that Casio first brought to market in 2016. It works just the same way as it does on the ProTreks and on some TicWatch models from Mobvoi: when the main 1.2-inch LCD times out, a secondary LCD flashes to life above it, showing time, date, step count and battery life in large monochrome segments. No matter how bright or readable color smartwatch faces get, none of them will ever be as effortlessly visible in all lighting conditions as this one.

When you run out of battery power, it’s this display that takes over in Timepiece Mode to give you an estimated additional 30 days of dumbwatch duty. Charging is familiar too: a magnetic pin pops into a pusher-sized plug at the ten o’clock position, taking the watch from empty to full in a pokey three hours. I miss the charging light from the ProTrek, as well as the slightly sharper display, the changeable bands and the sportier colors – but Casio did bring over an awful lot of ProTrek DNA on the software side. From basics like the compass altimeter and barometer to my personal favorite tool watch feature: tide tables for major waterways. And now that there's a heart rate sensor you get an activity hub to track a variety of workouts, as well as a companion app on the phone to manage that exercise tracking and, if you want, overlay your stats on a custom video.

As you know, that’s not really my bag but for what it’s worth the step counts were consistent with other wearables I use every day. And the apps are sensibly designed so that while you're exercising, the touchscreen is disabled - making excellent use of those meaty pushers on the side. Those buttons factor in to the G SHOCK's over-the-top "armored industrial" sort of aesthetic. The materials are high-quality, with a titanium backplate, aluminum 2-o’clock pusher, double buckle tongues on the band, and mineral glass over the watchface (Casio wouldn’t tell me which brand of glass). It’s comfortable to wear, too, with these soft rubber spacers doing a great job of filling what would otherwise be huge gaps between skin and band.

And even though it’s double the mass of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3 it somehow doesn’t feel it. About the only thing I’d change from a physical standpoint is the height: at about 20mm, the casing towers so high above the touchscreen that tapping it really does feel like you’re reaching into the watch. An active crown, or rotating side button, would have helped with this … but its omission makes sense here given the focus on durability and water resistance. The watch is rated to 20 bar, or about 200 meters of depth … far deeper than most buyers will ever see (hopefully). // But given all the added space Casio had to work with here, there are some missed opportunities.

There’s no NFC, so forget about paying for your coffee with your watch. Also absent is automatic brightness, which adds a small but irritating extra step once or twice a day. There’s a microphone – but no speaker. Bluetooth and WiFi but no cellular. And then there's battery life: this much casing volume would suggest an enormous power reserve, but the G SHOCK is a one-and-a-half-day smartwatch, possibly two and a half if you disable some of the more power-hungry features and stay away from apps that use the GPS.

Also, you know how I’ve been saying Wear OS has gotten a lot more responsive over the past year? Well, you wouldn’t really know it by using the G SHOCK. The initial setup tutorial was very slow, recalling the worst of watches from 2019 and before. One morning my alarm went off on time but I couldn’t dismiss it; I had to restart the watch. That old chestnut, the disconnecting-for-no-good-reason, reared its ugly head on one afternoon. And lag and stutter is common throughout the interface, despite the three-quarters-of-a-gig of RAM onboard.

Casio wouldn’t tell me what processor powers the G SHOCK, so I can’t confirm this, but Device Info 360 revealed a system-on-a-chip with specifications consistent with a Samsung Exynos 9110 or similar. Processors like that do well for Tizen-based smartwatches like the Galaxy Watch … but Wear OS is heavy. In my experience it needs either a full gig of RAM and a Snapdragon 3100, preferably 4100, to really shine. If the G SHOCK really does have a three-year-old old dual-core Exynos at its heart … that’s not a great sign for its long-term viability. Of course you might say none of that matters – because of the news that Google and Samsung just dropped earlier in May, which single handedly put a hold on nearly all Wear OS smartwatch recommendations until the fall.

That news, after the break. //SURFSHARK A At its 2021 I/O developers conference, Google announced it’s partnering with Samsung to co-develop a redesigned version of Wear OS – one that will finally address some of the platform’s longstanding issues. That’s great news for the entire smartwatch community … but probably only for those who buy watches released after the new Wear OS debuts later this year. As of today, Google hasn’t said any existing watches can be upgraded to the new platform, and when I asked Casio I got a “TBD, stay tuned” response from them as well. That platform reboot has made it very difficult to recommend buying any Wear OS smartwatch right now.

About the only ones I’d even consider are those with the very newest chipset – that’s the Snapdragon 4100 from Qualcomm – or watches you can get at a deep discount, so you won’t feel as nasty a sting if they don’t last as long as you want them to. Well, this thing costs $700. On its own that wouldn’t necessarily torpedo it; really it's an enthusiast brand, so it's similar to (for example) Montblanc in that you’re paying a luxury tax of sorts just for the name. And in the G SHOCK portfolio of aggressive, assertive designs... this armored chonkster fits right in.

I have no trouble believing it could pass at least two of the three so-called “triple ten” qualifications that all G SHOCK watches are supposed to bear: 10-bar water resistance and survival from a 10-meter drop (10 year battery life on this model is probably a stretch). But it doesn’t have a guaranteed update to the new Wear platform, and if the silicon at the heart of it really is as old as it seems, it’s highly unlikely it’ll get one. Until those questions about its longevity are answered, I’m afraid I can’t recommend this one – no matter how cool it looks. //This review was produced following seven days with a GSW-H1000 review sample provided by Casio, but as always the manufacturer had no editorial input or early look into this content, nor did it pay a fee for its production. Please subscribe to theMrMobile on YouTube and the socials, so you don’t miss a followup should Casio ever commit to an update that would warrant a re-review of this device.

TNT TFW and SMMF.

Source : MrMobile [Michael Fisher]