[Fossil Q Founder] Rektifying:
Hello Everyone,

I just received my first ever "Smart Watch". The Fossil Q Founder. I purchased the leather band version. I am not really a watch person but I prefer a leather band over metal in general. I was actually due for a new watch as well being I lost my Seiko about two months ago. Other than my Q Founder the only other watch I have is my Rolex that belonged to my Grandfather. It is far to nice to wear daily though.

So, being I was in the market for a watch, I figured I may as well get a smart watch for the added functionality. It took me a while to make up my mind. It came down to the Huawei Watch and the Fossil Q Founder. The main reason I ended up going with the Q is the specs. I figured it may be a better investment with the Intel processor and 1GB of ram. I guess I was thinking it is " more future proof". I honestly preferred the design of the Q over the Huawei personally as well. The $275 price tag was just an added bonus. :) If only the Q had the Huawei display....

Aesthetics:

The overall build quality is very good in my opinion. The stainless steel case looks great, polished in some areas and flat in others. The finish is well executed. The leather band looks very nice as well. It appears to be made of high quality leather and the stitching should hold up for a long time. The charger even looks nice. It mimics the soft pillows found in watch boxes. The charging "disc" is slightly magnitized and lights up red while charging / blue when charged.

Performance:

The Q is very snappy. The Intel atom processor paired with 1GB of ram was clearly a good choice on Fossils part. I have yet to experience any lag. The display at 240ppi looks great. The Whites are truely White and the colors look really nice as well. I was wondering about the 240ppi. Obviously if you have the watch 4 inches from your face you can kinda see the pixels, but at a distance > 12 inches it appears very sharp. The 400mah battery should hold up well in the Q. It hasn't lasted me all day yet, but I have "Always on Display" turned on and being I have only had the Q for two days, I have been messing with it nonstop. lol. So I will update more on battery life later when it has a few more charge cycles and I am using it more normally.

Connectivity: The Q has Bluetooth 4.1 LE and WiFi. I believe the WiFi adapter in the Q only supports 2.4ghz, being it did not recognize my 5ghz network. I could be wrong though. I currently have the WiFi off because I am not sure why it is really needed. I just use it via Bluetooth with my Nexus 6. I have had zero issues with connectivity though. Once I had it paired with my Nexus 6, that was it. It always stays connected and connects instantly when powered on. I have yet to experience any type of connection issue.

Overall I feel the Q is an awesome smart watch and it is well worth the $275 for the leather or the $295 for the steel. This is all I have for now but I will update more later.

If you have any questions about the Q feel free to comment.

PS: I VERY carefully opened up the Q. I really wanted to know which Intel atom it is actually running. I couldn't find out though being the chip is covered with a metal shield. All I could see on the board was a Hynix chip, the vibration motor. It is actually very easy to get inside though. There are 4 tiny screws on the back side of the watch. Once removed, the circular housing slides right out of the watch housing. (The part with the lugs / where the band attaches) I will say that the battery is truely 400mah. The WH and V is printed on the battery. I did the math and it is exactly 400mah. Not 399, not 401, 400.

UPDATE:

I read an early article on the Q Founder from Android Police that stated it did have a speaker. This proved to be false. This was one of the deciding factors on my purchase of the Fossil. I was at Best Buy a couple weeks ago and was able to try on the Huawei Watch. I really liked it, and much more than my Fossil. It just seemed to fit me much better being it is not nearly as "huge" and I really liked the higher resolution AMOLED display with no "flat tire". I ended up ordering one from BH Photo being it was on sale for $300, no sales tax, and free overnight shipping. This is pretty much the same price I paid for the Fossil after tax, which I returned for a refund.

I did like the Fossil Q Founder, I really did. I just liked the Huawei Watch even more. Having owned both, I have no regrets going to the Huawei. If someone were to ask me today which to get, I would have to say the Huawei due to the display, speaker and battery life.