Casio Pro Trek Smart Review | WSD-F30 | Specs | Opinion

Casio Pro Trek Smart Review WSD-F30

This is a short review, so I will go through and give my opinions and experiences on several areas of the Casio Pro Trek Smart (WSD-F30) ie those that stood out to me the most. Bear in mind that I’m not going to talk about every suitable WearOS app that exists, of which there are many great ones. So there will be a LOT more that you can do with the WSD-F30 than I’ll cover here, although I WILL cover the onboard Casio apps.

Casio Pro Trek Smart Review WSD-F30

Setup and First Impressions

The WSD-F30 is a big-cased, outdoors watch with a high-quality, yet normal-sized screen. Better than that, it has a dual-layered, always-on screen where an LCD-like display often pops up to save battery and still tell you the time.

Whilst the overall looks are not my kind of thing, I definitely can see how others will like the rugged appeal of this watch and the Casio is well-made; feeling very durable and sturdy, both of those characteristics are delivered within the limits of a ‘sensible weight’.

Looking at some of the details: the watch face is well-protected by the raised bezel; the removable strap is not going to break anytime this century; and, indeed, everything oozes durability from the metal casing to the glove-friendly, over-sized buttons.

Casio Pro Trek Smart Review WSD-F30There’s no optical HRM on the rear of the WSD-F30, although some WearOS apps should let you pair a Bluetooth HRM. So this is definitely one of those outdoors watches where in winter it makes sense to wear over your jacket sleeves. However, what you lack in oHR you gain with a magnetic compass and barometric altimeter that can also be periodically GPS-calibrated.

Casio Pro Trek Smart Review WSD-F30WearOS requires that you set this up with your smartphone and that should work well when using most modern, android phones. Once you’ve set up the pre-canned apps you can add many others from Google Play such as View Ranger, My Radar and STRAVA.
Casio Pro Trek Smart Review WSD-F30

The OLED screen has a VERY nice and detailed resolution with great colours. My only criticisms here would be that I would have liked a larger screen that is more visible in direct sunlight and I would like the touchscreen to work better when wet – that’s touchscreens though, right?

Finally, the magnetic charger really requires you to use the OPTIONAL clip as it’s not strong enough to properly hold the charger in place.

Casio Pro Trek Smart – WSD-F30 Apps

Casio Pro Trek Smart Review WSD-F30If the screen resolution is important to you then you can forget Garmin, as the Casio will give you detailed maps via several apps which provide additional functionality. For example, Casio’s LOCATION MEMORY app gives several types of map such as satellite and road, as well as enabling you to curate your own map intelligence by dropping ‘markers’ along your route. So you might leave markers showing your coffee stop or a great fishing spot. I thought that was nice.

The maps have clever add-on abilities like being able to overlay your journey onto 3D Google Earth as well as standard abilities like being able to follow point-based navigation.

Competing watches like the Coros Vertix, Suunto 9 and Garmin Fenix 6 all have their own flavour of ‘ABC’ and the Pro Trek is no exception. However the Casio Pro Trek Smart’s altimeter, barometer and magnetic compass are prettier (!) and packaged with the Casio TOOL which also includes intelligence around sunrise/sunset times, tides & fishing and the ‘my graph’ activity tracker which includes the usual stuff like activities, steps and calories whilst also adding in a flavour of the outdoors with metrics like cumulative ascent.

Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F30 claims to support a wide range of outdoors sports including Trek, Snow, Golf, Fishing, Running, cycling, Paddling, Fitness, Surfing, Swimming and Horse riding. However these are supported by a combination of in-house functionality and 3rd party apps – eg surfing is supported by the excellent GLASSY app. The sports’ profiles delivered by Casio are ‘adequate’ and cannot be customised, thus, if you like them, that’s fine, but if not you’ll be able to get another 3rd party app.

Casio’s recommended 3rd party apps are Viewranger, Hole19, Glassy, Ski Tracks, FishBrain, MyPwimPro, Equilab, Exercise timer, Zombies run, Bike map and MyRadar. The latter is cool and shows images of the approaching weather front on your screen!

Underlying all the pre-canned activities is Casio’s MOMENT SETTER which is an app comprising of a series of flexible alerts that you can set before you head off. Whilst alerts are found on other watches, the novel introduction from Casio is that ENVIRONMENTAL conditions can also trigger an alert. For example, you can be prompted for events like ‘WARN ME 20 MINUTES BEFORE SUNSET”  and “DISPLAY THE ALTITUDE GRAPH WHEN THERE IS 100m OF ASCENT REMAINING”.

The final part of Casio’s app offering is their MOMENT LINK which allows you to map your group member’s locations even if they are not Casio watch users as well as to text them via voice-recognition on your Casio. I didn’t test that.

Sensor Accuracy

I’ve only performed more cursory tests on the Casio than I normally would whilst researching this Casio Pro Trek Smart Review. There is no optical HR to test and I have completed 3 runs totalling over 35km plus several smaller ones – but no elevation tests.

The GPS performance is VERY GOOD for easy GPS conditions but VERY AVERAGE when all GPS conditions are taken into account. Read more here…

Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F30 GPS Accuracy

Battery Life

There are pros and cons with Wear OS. The ‘pro’ is that you get a detailed screen but the con is that WearOS eats battery for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Casio have addressed this is a rather innovative manner with two screen layers – the beautiful, battery eating colour OLED touchscreen and the other battery-saving monochrome LCD.

Using that clever combo, Casio claim the following use-case scenarios for their 3 battery modes

  • EXTEND Mode – 3 days/2 nights with 8 hours of map display and GPS recording PER DAY. Bluetooth and WiFi are disabled
  • MULTI Mode – 1 month with GPS, WearOS and the colour screen disabled. The monochrome display does shows other sensor info.
  • NORMAL Mode – Up to 1.5 days of full usage though enabling GPS will lower this figure.

The full recharge time is 3 hours.

Well. Those are the official stats. Despite the battery-extending functions, in reality, a multi-day trip will require you to carry a battery pack.

Casio Pro Trek Smart Specs – WSD-F30

The F30 is slightly slimmed down from last year’s F20 model.

 

WSD-F20WSD-F30
Bezel diameter52.9 mm49.1 mm-3.8 mm
Case length61.7 mm60.5 mm-1.2 mm
Case wide57.7 mm53.8 mm-3.9 mm
Case thickness15.3 mm14.9 mm-0.4 mm

With the Apple Watch 4 (42mm) coming in with a screen size of 390×312px you can see that Casio’s 390x390px is good for this type of watch. Also note the WiFi connectivity is normal with WearOS. Plus the weight of 83g, whilst not lightweight, is still fairly light for a watch of this type.

Water Resistance5 bar (50 meters)
Environmental DurabilityMIL-STD-810 (United States military standard issued by the U.S. Department of Defense),*2 low-temperature resistance (-10°C)
Display1.2-inch dual layer display

Color OLED (390×390 pixels) and monochrome LCD

TouchscreenCapacitive touchscreen (anti-fouling coating)
GPSCompatible (including GLONASS and Michibiki)
Color MapsCompatible (supports offline use, can save up to five offline maps)
SensorsPressure (barometric air pressure, altitude) sensor, accelerometer, gyrometer, magnetic compass
MicrophoneYes
VibratorYes
Wireless ConnectivityBluetooth V4.1 (Low Energy)

Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n)

ButtonsMAP button, Power button, TOOL button
BatteryLithium-ion battery
Charging MethodMagnetic charging terminal
Recharging TimeApprox. 3 hours at room temperature
Battery Life

(When GPS Not in Use)

Normal use (color display): 1.5 days, roughly

Multi Timepiece Mode (timekeeping and sensors only): 1 month, roughly

(Varies according to use)

Size of CaseApprox. 60.5 mm×53.8 mm×14.9 mm (H×W×D)
WeightApprox. 83g (including wristband)
OSWear OS by Google
Operating EnvironmentWear OS by Google works with phones running Android 4.4+ (excluding Go edition) or iOS 9.3+. Supported features may vary between platforms and countries.

Casio Pro Trek Smart Comparisons

The Casio Pro Trek Smart’s specs are quite good for the WSD-F30. Maybe the screen could be bigger and maybe the battery could be better.

WSD-F30WSD-F21HRWSD-F20
Display1.2-inch, dual-layer display – OLED (390 × 390 pixels) and monochrome LCD1.32-inch, dual-layer display – Color TFT (320 × 300 pixels) and monochrome LCD1.32-inch, dual-layer display – Color TFT (320 × 300 pixels) and monochrome LCD
TouchscreenYesCapacitive touchscreen (anti-fouling coating)
GPSYesCompatible (including GLONASS)
Colour MapsYes(supports offline use)
Environmental DurabilityMIL-STD-810GMIL-STD-810G
Low-temperature resistance (−10°C/14F), 5-bar (50-meter) water resistance*2
SensorsCompass (magnetic) sensor, pressure (air pressure, altitude) sensor, accelerometer, gyrometerOptical sensor (heart rate), Compass (magnetic) sensor, pressure (air pressure, altitude) sensor, accelerometer, gyrometerCompass (magnetic) sensor, pressure (air pressure, altitude) sensor, accelerometer, gyrometer
Heart Rate MeasurementNoYes, ValencellNo
OtherMicrophone, vibrating alertMicrophone, vibrating alertMicrophone, vibrating alert
Charging TimeApprox. 3 hours at room temperatureApprox. 2.5 hours at room temperatureApprox. 2 hours at room temperature
Battery Life**3Not Using GPS / Up to 1.5 days*4, Using GPS (Prioritizing battery life) / Up to 30 hours*4, timekeeping and sensors only / Up to 1 monthNot Using GPS / Up to 1.5 days*5, Using GPS (Prioritizing battery life) / Up to 20 hours*5*6, timekeeping and sensors only / Up to 1 monthNot Using GPS / Up to 1 or more days*7, Using GPS (Prioritizing battery life) / Up to 25 hours**7, timekeeping only / Up to 1 month or more
No. of Downloaded Maps SavedApprox. 5 placesApprox. 5 places1 place
Point NavigationYesYes
Measured Values on Monochrome DisplayYesYes
Export of Activity Records from Casio AppsLOCATION MEMORY, ACTIVITYLOCATION MEMORY, ACTIVITYLOCATION MEMORY
Display of Latitude / Longitude Information with the TOOL AppYesYes
Size (H × W × D of the watch only)Approx. 60.5 × 53.8 × 14.9 mmApprox. 61.7 × 57.7 × 16.8 mmApprox. 61.7 × 57.7 × 15.3 mm
Weight (including wristband))Approx. 83 gApprox. 81 gF20: Approx. 92g
F20A: Approx. 90g
Possible Band Sizes (when attached)Soft urethane band: 140-210 mmSoft urethane band: 145-210 mmSoft urethane band: 145-215 mm
Removable Band (Slide Lever Type)Width: 23mm

 

Also: Snapdragon 2100 is used making operation slightly sluggish from time-to-time.

Price, Availability & Discount

Availability is restricted to selected outlets. So in the USA try REI and in the UK try Cotswold.

Prices are about £450 and $500-550 or Eu500-550. Buying from REI in the USA will give you an annual rebate of about 10%

HLocal Stockists here

 

 

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5 thoughts on “Casio Pro Trek Smart Review | WSD-F30 | Specs | Opinion

  1. If you are runners the best option for WSD-F30 is to install TOP MACHINA. Very simple and very usefull App

  2. TOPmachina is out of Wear os – no idea why it happend. It was very good app. Alternative is Ghostracer. Unfortynatelly I decided to sell my watch. Very poor GPS and very very poor and illogical Casio software. Sport GPS watch has no running app while you can easy find fishing app :):):). Battery disapears in 12-15 hours in normal usage. In my opinion Casio should delete soft completely including Wear OS ans create new custom one from the scratch. Otherwise it Casio Musunderstanding 3.0

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