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Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20 Smart Outdoor Watch REVIEWED
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May 29, 2025
All that's missing is the kitchen sink in the slick Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20 Smart Outdoor Watch. Altimeter, barometer, compass, GPS with mapping and tracking, pedometer, and so much more, all jammed into a Wear OS 2.1 interface. It works with iPhone / iOS 12 too, but you really want to use the Pro Trek with an Android phone to get the most out of the Wear OS interface. Tech expert and watch afficionado Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ checks out the Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20 after wearing it for a few months. There's a lot to love about this technological marvel, but a few drawbacks that are worth knowing before you decide to proceed with a possible purchase. Learn more at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2DyIjUD
View Video Transcript
0:00
a smartwatch with altimeter and
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barometer and a whole lot more let's
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have a look Dave Taylor here and I'm
0:14
looking at this this is the casio
0:16
protrek smart outdoor watch now it has a
0:20
more specific name it's the ws DF 20
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we're now to call it that anymore it's
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just a really cool SmartWatch now turns
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out that it's actually running Android
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wear OS so it's actually running Android
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on the watch so it's a SmartWatch which
0:36
is great because it gives you a ton of
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features but Casio itself has said what
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would a hiker what would a backpacker
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what would a skier what would an outdoor
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enthusiast really want out of a watch so
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it has a lot of features that include
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that to go ahead and take it off so you
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can see a little bit better so first off
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it's pretty thick and it's pretty big
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it's actually 61 millimeters across and
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this is something that's gonna really
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stand out if you have a very slim wrist
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so I won't say it's a masculine design
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but it's definitely a big heavy watch
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now there are all sorts of buttons and
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stuff on it so let's start on this side
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the top button is the tool button the
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middle button is the power button and
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then the bottom button is the app button
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and it gives you all sorts of
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interesting features and capabilities on
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the other side is the charging circle
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and then there are two buttons that are
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kind of a mystery I'm guessing it's
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something to do with how it does all its
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sensors but there's literally no
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documentation that explains what those
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do so whatever they don't do anything oh
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by the way it does not track your heart
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rate so it's not actually a personal
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fitness monitor but let's talk about it
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anyway so it's the Android wear 2.1 it's
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running which is the latest version of
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android wear which gives you lots and
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lots of watch faces and lots of
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capabilities because you need to have an
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android phone available it does work
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with the iPhone but the iPhone interface
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with androids where OS is less fun
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than having it on an Android phone for
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example if I had it paired to my iPhone
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then I would get notifications but I
2:21
wouldn't be able to respond to them
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because I'm getting it from an Android
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phone and this is a pixel 3 if you're
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curious because I'm getting it from an
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Android phone I can actually respond on
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the watch pretty sweet now let's talk
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about the fact that I can do things like
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get notification here right and on the
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app itself there's a way to take
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screenshots that's how I've actually
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done all of this so that makes life easy
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too so like I said lots of available
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faces and some of them give you
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interesting things like here's a watch
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face that actually includes a map and
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shows you where you are now
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here's another watch face I actually
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love having all the watch faces and the
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nice thing is is in the Google Play
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Store there are lots of Android faces or
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where OS faces I guess we should call
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them and so all the ones that I've tried
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pretty much all of them have worked on
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this particular watch occasionally I've
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installed something and it just doesn't
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seem to be available either in the app
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or on the watch I'm not sure what that's
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about but where OS like everything else
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with Android has some rough edges to it
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so let's see the watch itself is also
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mil standard 810g which makes it a
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hundred and fifty foot water-resistant
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so you can wear this as a dive watch if
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you want I don't know that they
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recommend this is not actually
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specifically a heavy-duty diving watch
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but if you're out for a hike and you get
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stuck in a rainstorm or something your
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watch isn't gonna get messed up that is
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a really nice thing now we talked about
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at the beginning having the tool button
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on the top right I really should just
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take it off it's so much easier for you
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to see what's going on so the top button
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is the tool button right so that gives
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you access to things like the digital
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compass like the altimeter like the
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barometer all those different sort of
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built-in features you just push the
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button and step through them all now you
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also can have some fun with this so
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here's that picture that I took when I
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was up in Loveland Pass Colorado and
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just to convert it 3323 meters is ten
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thousand nine hundred and two feet
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it airs kind of thin up there but the
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watch was still working so that was good
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so it has a barometer so here's my
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activity tracking you can see I walked a
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fair bit today haven't done much in the
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way of cardio yet but that's okay but it
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doesn't have any heart rate monitor or
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anything so these are just simple
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analysis of sensors on your wrist I
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suppose if you had your hand in your
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pocket for your entire walk it might not
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register it yeah so it goes now the
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thing that really makes this fun that
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really differentiates is it has a
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full-color google map built into it so I
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can push the lower button or the app
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button and assuming the watch hasn't
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fallen asleep it will actually give me a
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map now here's a close up so you can see
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not only do you get a map view but you
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can also track routes which is super
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cool so if you're gone on a hike and
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you're trying to figure out you know and
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you need can you consume in to get
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really close in the map but if you're
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trying to figure out where do we leave
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the car you can actually use your watch
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to help you figure all that out this is
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crazy cool now one of the other things
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it has it is a built-in microphone so
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you can actually use it and say hey
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Google and then you can actually
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interact with it without having to
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suffer through all of the frankly a
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little annoying interface with just sort
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of the nature of smartwatches is they're
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really tiny little screens and you don't
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want to have hundreds of buttons so you
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have to try to figure out how to get it
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all to work now not much else to talk
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about other than the fact that it has h
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the battery life right so let's talk
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about that so if you have GPS on and
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you're using all the features and you're
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just making this like a big thing then
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it's gonna run about 25 hours so that's
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the same as an Apple watch and honestly
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25 hour battery life really stinks it's
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really annoying to have to charge it
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every single day but with this watch at
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least you're using a whole lot of
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technology along the way to figure out
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where you are to track your position and
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you know figure out your altitude all
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that sort of stuff now if you go into
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time only mode and just get sporadic
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notifications it can run up to 30 days
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yes an entire month on a charge
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now having said that let me say one of
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the weak links here is the charging
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cable so I showed you that they have on
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the top left side they have this little
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circle well it's a magnetic connector
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and it's a custom connector that I've
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never seen on any other device so you
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plug it in and the magnet holds it in
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place and then you just plug it into any
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sort of USB wall charger the problem
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with this is if you lose the cable
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you're out of luck you literally have no
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other option for charging your watch now
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a lot of smart watches have that problem
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and I've seen ones where they have
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little cradles that you put underneath
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I've seen other kinds of weird
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connections because I understand from
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the company's perspective they're trying
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to solve the problem of we don't want
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anything really big on the side of the
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watch we don't want anything that
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actually goes into the watch mechanism
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because that affects things like being
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weatherproof but from the consumers
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perspective it's really frustrating to
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have a very unique custom cable so the
7:39
reviews of red people that you know use
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and have this particular watch or
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something in this family the first thing
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they do is go and buy a second charging
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cable just in case because here I am now
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I have my watch I really like this watch
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it's really cool and oh the battery's
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dying I don't know where my cable is I
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don't know how to charge it there's no
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other option it doesn't do wireless
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charging it doesn't have some sort of
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micro USB connection or anything it's
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there charger or zip and that's a little
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frustrating now while we're talking
8:11
about it let me also say that I really
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like this watch but I don't love the
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watch it's big the having to charge
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every 24 hours is frustrating and where
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OS I know I'm running 2.1 which is the
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latest and greatest and I can see
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significant strides forward and
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improvements but I'm still not a huge
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fan now I do like the fact that even
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when it's in basic like super battery
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saving mode there's still something
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shown on the screen particularly if
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you're outdoors you can still see what
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time it is which is nice and that's a
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huge improvement over the Apple watch
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I'm they really have got to nail that
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battery issue
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I want my watch to always be showing the
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time and then maybe if I want to have
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other features that I'm accepting that
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I'm consuming more battery power the
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Apple watch is literally just a blank
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black rectangle unless you do something
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to get it to wake up
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that's tedious now this does that but
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it's not a blank black circle and of
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course the circles cool so it actually
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displays the time that's a win but where
9:18
OS is still needing a couple of major
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revisions this whole SmartWatch thing is
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still a little clumsy and it's very
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confusing especially to do things like
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take a screenshot holy cow this is like
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four levels of things that have to
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happen and it's not even clear at what
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point it's actually capturing what's on
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the SmartWatch screen which of course
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after like five seconds wants to get
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back to the main time display and after
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5 or 10 more seconds wants to actually
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go into battery saving mode because this
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is trying to minimize its use of battery
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while I'm trying to actually get a
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screen capture there's probably a
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setting that lets me adjust that but
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then I have to suffer through the wear
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OS interface and tapping and swiping and
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tapping and swiping and swiping and
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tapping and hoping that my finger which
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is not the tiniest finger in the world
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is precise enough to get exactly the
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setting I want so there is some inherent
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level of complication with this on the
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other hand if you're an outdoor
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enthusiast and you love the idea of
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having like altitude and barometer and
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having a map and having it track where
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you are holy cow all of this and
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something this small is a remarkable
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technological accomplishment so only
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thing left to talk about is the price
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but before we get to the price do me a
10:40
favor and subscribe to my channel I
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really appreciate that and if you have a
10:45
where o s watch or you have some sort of
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activity watch for outdoor use let me
10:49
know in the comments tell me what you
10:51
have tell me how you use it and tell me
10:54
if you still use it after that you know
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the blush of that first week actually
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wears off and you actually have to think
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about well if we're going for a day-long
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high
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is this gonna be alive for a day or is
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it gonna run out of battery so hopefully
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that would not be an issue but it's all
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stuff to think about now we'll just talk
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about the price cuz it's pretty spendy
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this is the casio protrek wsd f20 smart
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outdoor watch and it will cost you five
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hundred dollars at amazon.com it comes
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in all black or there's also a version
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that has orange highlights on the watch
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face that are on the watch edge actually
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like the orange one better but this is
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the one Casio sent me to review so we
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got the all black anyway I hope I've
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been really clear about the pros and the
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cons there's a lot to like about this
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and the next generation of this watch is
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going to be quite remarkable so this is
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Dave Taylor and I am gonna wear it I'm
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gonna put it back on my wrist and I'm
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gonna figure out how much I have to
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change I have today while I walk around
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which means I'll patch you in my neck
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[Music]