The Puma Connected Smartwatch is a result of a joint smartwatch venture between Puma and Fossil. The name is super plain and dull; however, the dullness does not continue in the tone of the watch (for the most part). The companies play it very safe with the Puma Smartwatch – it is appealing enough since it offers all the features that people who exercise regularly will love, but it does not furnish much else on top of that. It’s still more expensive than some of it’s nearest rivals, yet packs lower specs than the competing smartwatches. However, if you’re a fan of the Puma label, and are looking for a smartwatch, this could be right for you.
Puma Connected Smartwatch Release Date And Price
The Puma Smartwatch was launched back in November 2019. It’s currently widely available in the US and the UK and still has a hefty price tag, but you can find it for a little cheaper on Amazon.
The Puma Smartwatch comes in three colour schemes – Black/Grey, Rose Gold/White, and Yellow/Black.
You can expect prices to change slightly, depending on the colour you choose.
Design And Display
The Puma Smartwatch is unique – in that, it’s a watch that is both slim at only 11mm thick, yet also features a bezel, which makes it feel bulky and capable of handling some scrapes and dents. Depending on the colour you pick, the bezel can look more or less pronounced, with the Yellow/Black variant looking particularly bulky. Combined with the silicone strap, it looks like a non-Puma watch at first glance. Luckily, you can change the strap easily – and you can easily find other straps that are more comfortable or differently coloured.
The watch face size is decent, coming in at 44mm. Quickly glancing at the time will be effortless with the 1.19-inch AMOLED display looking appealing and sharp. The AMOLED display is very visible, and you will be able to use the watch no matter what the lighting conditions may be.
The strap has a Puma logo, and there’s another Puma logo on the rotating crown of the watch, which is used to navigate the interface. The logos aren’t too visible, and it’s a bit of a missed opportunity for the fans that like to advertise their brand affiliation.
Overall though, the slim design feels durable, and the screen looks sharp – making it perfect for users that are usually out and about.
Puma Connected: Specs And Features
Like other recent Fossil watches, such as the Michael Kors Access MKGO, the Puma Smartwatch also uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset. The 3100 chipset is the most recently-released smartwatch chipset from Qualcomm, making it the best you’re likely to find with Wear OS.
The watch has 4GB of storage and an inadequate 512MB of RAM – which is less than what the Fossil Gen 5 has, which is available for a similar price. The Puma Smartwatch comes with loads of features: there’s built-in GPS, heart rate monitoring, Google Assistant support, and support for GooglePay.
The watch synchronizes with your phone to display notifications, and it is waterproof up to 5ATM. These are standard features that almost all Wear OS-based smartwatches have, and there is no unique feature as such. Another similarity that the Puma Smartwatch shares with Fossil watches is that Spotify comes automatically installed.
However, there is no physical speaker on the watch. The Puma Smartwatch does feature a microphone for Google Assistant control, but it can’t broadcast audio. You only use it to control Spotify and not play any music from the device directly. You’ll not be missing out on much, though, since resorting to a smartwatch to listen to music is rare.
Fitness
When you’re separated from your phone, you cannot count on the GPS built into the watch. The GPS on the Puma Smartwatch is unreliable, and the watch’s location-finding is pretty awful. It takes a few minutes for the watch to acquire a signal unless it’s connected to a phone.
It is super annoying, considering that the watch is meant to be a sports-focused smartwatch that otherwise has all the usual features – the sweat-proof silicone band and support for Google Fit. The heart rate monitoring feature is pretty accurate when compared to other watches.
Battery Life
The Puma Smartwatch has a pretty standard battery life. You can expect about 24 hours of use on a single charge, but not much more, unless you switch it to the basic watch mode. The basic watch mode somewhat ruins the point of a smartwatch – but it will help you conserve battery if you’re running low. Overall though, Puma delivers a decent offering for a first attempt. Fans are hoping to see a software update that fixes the GPS issue.
Buy Puma Connected If:
You love the brand
Like a lot of smartwatches, users partially for the name. If you love wearing Puma watches and need a smartwatch, this will fit in nicely.
You want a lightweight watch
The watch is super light, and you’ll barely notice it. The stock strap feels a bit uncomfortable; however, it doesn’t hang off your wrist as a heavy watch would, though.
You want an eye-catching timepiece
If you love wearing watches that look different than the rest, you should go for this watch since it looks a lot different than anything Fossil has produced so far.
Don’t buy it if:
You want to run without your phone
The built-in GPS is slow and will irritate you if you regularly run without your phone. The GPS catches up eventually, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.
You want the best Wear OS smartwatch
While the Puma Smartwatch will offer you most of what you need, it’s not the best Wear OS smartwatch on the market. The battery could be better, and there no built-in speaker like some of the other premium smartwatches.
You don’t want to buy another watch strap
The colour-schemes aren’t too appealing, and the stock strap feels a bit uncomfortable. You can expect to buy another watch strap to be happier with how it looks and feels.
