Just a few days after updating its flagship line of Wear OS smartwatches, Fossil has unveiled a new wearable from its more affordable Misfit line as well: the Vapor X. Its key selling points, besides that less expensive price, are improved battery life and a lightweight, stylish design.
As with the Fossil Gen 5 smartwatches, it's the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor keeping everything running, and enabling new power-saving modes that should be enough to extend battery life from one day to three days (if you can live without certain features). That's paired with 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of internal storage.
On the outside, the 42 mm watch features a 1.19-in touchscreen and a lightweight aluminum alloy case that Misfit says makes this its lightest watch yet. Color options on offer are black case with a black strap, rose case with a white strap, gunmetal case with a green strap, stainless grey case with a navy strap, and "champagne" case with a lavender strap.
In terms of on-board features the Vapor X ticks a lot of the usual boxes, offering a heart rate sensor, NFC for making payments on the go, and GPS. It's also water-resistant to a depth of 30 m (nearly 100 ft), though Misfit also says the watch can only survive swimming at "shallow" depths.
Like the Fossil Gen 5 watches that were just announced, the Vapor X comes with the Cardiogram app on board, which essentially gives you a more detailed breakdown of your heart rate metrics. Spotify also comes pre-installed too, and you can save songs to the watch itself for playing on the go.
A full charge only takes a little over an hour, apparently, and the watch is currently being offered at the "introductory" price of US$200 instead of $280 (no word on how long that price is going to last for).
All of which makes the Vapor X one of the most appealing mid-range smartwatches out there at the moment. The latest Wear OS software from Google is included, complete with Google Assistant, but it's the style and the lower price that make this wearable stand out in an increasingly crowded market.
Previous Vapor watches have been a little hit and miss, but with the latest components inside, and just about every feature you could want on board (except perhaps LTE connectivity and a built-in speaker), the Vapor X has a lot of promise.
Product page: Misfit Vapor X
