Casio WSD-F10 Android Wear Smartwatch Review

By: Salah Benkahla

Just a few years ago, I never thought I'd be wearing a Casio smartwatch on my wrist, so I have to say that it brings me pleasure to review the 2016 Casio WSD-F10 that runs Android Wear. I recall a meeting with some of the brand's own dedicated employees who seriously questioned the value of smartwatches in the context of "connected wearable technology devices." Undoubtedly, companies like Casio - who, in their own opinions, "have been building smartwatches for years" - harbor their own ideas and notions about what consumers want and how smartwatches should behave and look.

By mid-2015, there was still no word of an official Casio smartwatch, and it prompted me to write anessay on what a Casio smartwatch should be like in May of that year. I did that because I felt the popular Japanese "technology watch" maker was in a fantastic position to create an amazing smartwatch product. Less than a year later, in January of 2016, Casio finally did it, and announced their first official connected smartwatch with the WSD-F10 here.

This now puts me in a unique situation because I'm reviewing a product that I made a wish list for prior to it ever being announced. The question, then, becomes: did Casio live up to my own personal expectations in terms of its seminal smartwatch product? And, more importantly, where do they go from here?

In essence, the Casio WSD-F10 runs Google's Android Wear operating system platform, using their own case and screen hardware, as well as a few other little interesting features that make the watch different from other smartwatches out there. For most consumers, the real allure of the Casio WSD-F10 will be its superior durability over many other smartwatches, as well as the inclusion of various built-in sensor technology that Casio fans have come to expect in models coming from the Pro Trek or G-Shock family. I happen to like the fact that the Casio WSD-F10 is among Casio's products that is produced in Japan - whereas most smartwatches are produced in China.

Fit and finish for the Casio WSD-F10 is very good. It isn't a G-Shock in terms of overall durability, but it feels like one of the better-made plastic Casio watches with a premium feel and great textures on the case. If I had to make any complaints about the case itself, it would be that it is very large in size, and that the charging port (located at 10 o'clock) feels a bit "exposed."

With that said, case size is as big as it is probably because of the battery. Remember that in the smartwatch world batteries are currently the weakest link, and brands need to use amply sized batteries contained in the cases so as to ensure at least a day's worth of wear. I will, however, say that despite the rather massive proportions of the Casio WSD-F10, it is very comfortable. How is that so? Well, the watch doesn't weigh that much at just 93 grams, so you don't even really feel it there, and the strap happens to fit quite snugly too.

The Casio WSD-F10 is 56.4mm wide, 61.7mm tall, and 15.7mm thick. As a sporty outdoors watch, this is fine, but don't be the guy trying to wear this with anything even remotely formal. Since the Pro Trek, Casio has made it clear that its outdoors watches are made for where suits should never go. As of now, Casio offers the WSD-F10 in a metallic orange-colored body (WSD-F10RG) as well as this black one (WSD-F10BK)... and also a red (WSD-F10RD) and green model (WSD-F10GN), for now. I prefer the black, as it helps visually reduce mass, and the orange one looks too much like a toy for big boys. When you have a watch this size, you don't need to call extra attention to its girth.

Casio designed the case with three buttons, two of which are proprietary to Casio's systems over Android Wear. The middle button that is located where the crown would be is the "home" button which activates the screen or takes you back to the home screen. The other two buttons are actually semi-programmable and allow you to select from a series of apps that they can launch - which proves quite useful.

As much as I love touchscreen on devices (and I say this as someone who desperately misses physical keyboards on smartphones... oh Blackberry, why did you have to leave the land of the relevant?), I find physical buttons to be very (very) useful. Not only can you feel for them with your fingers and not have to look at what you are doing, but they also tend to not suffer from things like lag and other issues which come from "virtual buttons." while I agree that smartwatches need touchscreens, I really dislike the "de-buttonification" of technology because, frankly, I hate shoving my oiling fingers on the screen that I am otherwise trying to actually look at. I remember the first time I was prompted to play a game on a smartphone, and was like, "you are telling me that the direction controls and buttons overlap the screen I am trying to look at?" Talk about intrusive UI...

Anyhow, I say all of the above in part as praise for Casio adding a couple more buttons to the Android Wear formula - and I hope in the future we get even more buttons. Buttons, buttons galore is all this smartwatch lover wants for the holidays! The top button is labeled "Tool," and it controls a variety of Casio-made apps which mostly focus around the sensors that the watch has internally. This is great because it isn't using data from the phone, which increases the wrist watch's autonomy.

Press the Tool button and you can cycle through various app screens. In the "Casio Moment Setter+" app that you need to download on your phone, you can adjust the various apps you cycle through and remove some or rearrange them. For me, pressing the Tool button initially opens up the compass app. You can then access other apps such as the barometer, altimeter, and sunset and sunrise times, along with various graphs about your treks and adventures. Casio designed all the graphical user interface of these apps, and I think they are for the most part nicely done. Colorful and modern, they even evoke what feels like a new design language from the brand.

The inclusion of the compass, barometer, and altimeter sensors in the Casio WSD-F10 not only helps this watch be a "real" Casio sports watch, but also helps distinguish it from the crowd. I am a huge proponent of smartwatches that have their own sensors and don't just rely on those from the host phone device. Where some consumers might find the watch lacking is the absence of features such as a heart rate monitor, etc., that timepieces such as the Apple Watch have. With that said, Casio intends for the WSD-F10 and future smartwatches to speak with other devices and sensors. For example, when the Casio WSD-F10 launched, so did a jacket-mounted body reference EX-FR100 camera that you can control with the watch. This accessory isn't sold officially in America, but when I was traveling in Japan in February 2016 the Casio EX-FR100 was for sale all over the place. Like other brands which offer additional fitness accessories, I have a feeling the universe of companion products could easily grow.

The other button on the case is located at 4 o'clock and is labeled "App." Slightly more flexible in its customization, you use the Casio Moment Setter+ app to select a large range of installed applications that this button can launch. For me, I have it set to launch a weather application. While I really like the presence of the two additional pushers on the Casio WSD-F10 case I found that they are disabled when the watch screen is not activated. That means you need to first activate the screen and then push them. It means an additional step, and I hope that perhaps in a future software update you will be able to directly push them without having to first press the middle button.

Casio employs a dual LCD screen technology which means that the Casio WSD-F10 has an always-on screen (which can be disabled, of course, to save more power) that indicates the time and date at all times. I don't say this lightly, but the watch would not be nearly as interesting to me without this added layer of functionality. This isn't the only Android Wear smartwatch to use this tech, but Casio does it very well. I first experienced this when looking at the more expensive TAG Heuer Connected Android Wear smartwatch here.

While I love my Apple Watch, I have to say that I dislike looking at a blank watch dial as it makes the device lack soul. The Apple Watch comes alive nicely when you are using it, but it and other smartwatches that do not have an always-on state option will be vestiges of the past before long, in my opinion. The future of smartwatches - as simple as it might seem - is in them having always-on states where you can read information on the dial at all times whether or not the main screen is on. Once you get to experience this, you'll not likely want to go back.

Casio doesn't seem to let you adjust the look of the always-on state screen, which is a shame. I say this because, for me, one of the most enjoyable things to do with a smartwatch is regularly change the dials. I feel that the value a lot of major brands such as Casio bring to the smartwatch space is their years of experience designing attractive and functional watch dials. The Casio WSD-F10 comes pre-loaded with stock Android Wear watch faces as well as a few of their own which most people will prefer. There are moderate levels of color and functionality customization in the screens, but I personally thirst for more. I would gladly even pay extra for well-designed new watch faces, and I want them to come with even more personalization options aside from a small handful of color choices. If you are going to offer a watch dial that allows for customization, then go for broke.

Of course, people can download any number of third-party watch faces to any Android Wear device - that isn't the point. What I am asking for is well-designed and nicely curated watch faces from the brands I love... but with a lot of choices among them. To keep things interesting, Casio would easily benefit from releasing new watch faces for the WSD-F10 (available though its app) each month.

In terms of durability, the Casio WSD-F10 is water-resistant to 50 meters and is said to satisfy military MIL-STD-810 durability standards for shock and environmental resistance. Let's be clear that a Casio G-Shock would win in a fight, but the Casio WSD-F10 can more than hold its own in the wild compared to many other currently available smartwatches. This is the first smartwatch I've personally worn that I feel like I want to rough and tumble a bit.

Going out in nature with the Casio WSD-F10, the device feels at home with a bright screen that is easy to see in direct sunlight and useful features. With that said, you can see the battery life drop over the course of a few hours which reminds you that this is still a device that needs to be tethered to a charging port each day. Casio uses a proprietary charging cable, and if you lose it, then you aren't gonna have a good day. I've actually spoken to a scary amount of people who've simply lost their smartwatch charging cables. In the future, something needs to happen where these devices don't need extra accessories to carry with you in order to charge them.

The limited battery lifespan on the Casio WSD-F10 is not the fault of the device or Casio, but a natural drawback given the state of smartwatches today. I almost want to wear a more traditional light-powered Casio sports watch in addition to the Casio WSD-F10 as a backup device. When Casio and other brands are able to offer full smartwatch functionality without having to connect a host smartphone device and offer a few weeks to a few months of battery life, then I promise you these devices will be adopted by mainstream consumers in truckloads. There is just so much inherent possibility and fun you can have with a device like this and the apps.

Sometimes, I like to turn off phone notifications altogether and just use features like weather and map data or more complicated sensors' data applications to remind me of what smartwatches make available that even traditional Casio sport watches cannot. I find that a lot of the haters who dislike smartwatches simply haven't played with them enough to tweak their operation to best suit them.

In many ways, this is not the fault of consumers, because the devices themselves are still not designed with perfect user interfaces. For instance, to fully control the watch, you need to use both the onscreen settings, the Android Wear app on your phone, as well as the Casio Moment Setter+ app. That is essentially three pieces of software, and simply too complex for mainstream consumers. Eventually, this will all be refined - this is Casio's first smartwatch, after all.

When it comes to design, I have no problems with the look of the Casio WSD-F10 despite its gorilla-size (that I find charming a lot, actually). The interface of the software that Casio designed is generally very good and useful, and I like how they are branching out into new aesthetic codes when it comes to how they are designing the screens. I'll say that the Casio software and screens look far sexier than the stock stuff you'll find in Android Wear.

There really aren't many drawbacks to the device which aren't inherent to current Android Wear or smartwatches at this time. Of course, there are more features included in Android Wear that I am not covering, but it doesn't make sense for me to re-review the operating system each time I talk about a new device. Casio's debut entrant into the smartwatch space is a solid effort worthy of the Casio name, and I know this is just the beginning. It does command a slight premium price over some other Android Wear smartwatches, and even the base Apple Watch sport. With that said, you do get some extra functionality and it still costs 1/3 of what the TAG Heuer Connected does.

You'll find lots of little gems to enjoy in what Casio designed for the WSD-F10, and while it doesn't replace their existing world of smartwatches, it signifies the birth of a very important new family of products from the extremely capable Japanese watch maker. Price for the Casio WSD-F10 smartwatch is $500. wsd.casio.com

Necessary Data
>Brand: Casio
>Model: WSD-F10 (WSD-F10BK as tested)
>Price: $500 USD
>Size: 56.4mm wide
>Would reviewer personally wear it: Yes.
>Friend we’d recommend it to first: Outdoors guy or gal comfortable with Casio and ready to see how connected technology aids their adventurous pursuits.
>Best characteristic of watch: Attractive, sporty design in a well-built case with welcome extras such as "triple sensor" technology that Casio brings to the table. High-quality, in-house-designed watch faces, but there could be more of them with more customization.
>Worst characteristic of watch: Normal pitfalls of current Android Wear devices including battery life and sometimes cumbersome ways of adjusting settings. Large size of case might turn off some despite comfortable wear on the wrist.