Skagen Falster 3 X By Kygo review: Elegant and fast
A TEST REPORT from Nils Ahrensmeier 
on June 30, 2020, 12:00 pm | 🔥 popular | Write a comment
The Skagen Falster 3 wants the typical Proproblems of a smartwatch: poor battery life and jerky performance. We tested the smartwatch extensively for you for a few weeks. The test report.
Smartwatches have always fascinated me. The technology is so advanced that we can wear small microcomputers on our arms. But Wear OS has not yet experienced the real breakthrough. This was mainly due to the poor battery life and the choppy performance. Is that different with the Skagen Falster 3? We tested them.
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What's in the box
The Skagen Falster 3 comes with the charging cable and normal paperwork.
Design and workmanship
For me, the Skagen Falster 3 is currently the most beautiful smartwatch on the market. It is minimalist, very good and of high quality and does not make itself noticeable on the arm. Compared to its predecessor, the case has grown from 40 to 42 mm, and Skagen is using the space for a larger display and a loudspeaker. We have the watch in the "X by Kygo" version. This would also have been my personal choice. The Norwegian DJ Kygo has already brought his own headphones onto the market in the past, the collaboration with Skagen was something new. What are the differences to the "normal" Falster 3 watches?
The X by Kygo has a matt black case with a black silicone strap, the only deviation from this look is a white loop embossed with "X by Kygo". A discreet X is also embossed on the top of the bracelet.
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- The Skagen Falster 3 is a really stylish watch. (Picture: TechnikNews)
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- The Always On Display is really very helpful, but it also drains a lot of battery. (Picture: TechnikNews)
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- The sensors and the charging area are located on the underside. (Picture: TechnikNews)
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- The loudspeaker can be used for phone calls, play music or for the Google Assistant. (Picture: TechnikNews)
Hardware
When it comes to hardware, Skagen only used the best. The hardware is identical to that Fossil Gen 5 smartwatch. As a major innovation for the Falster 2, we have the "new" Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 Proprocessor, a speaker and a larger display. Another major update was made to the RAM. This was doubled smoothly. Instead of the 512 MB as in the Gen 2, Skagen now uses 1 GB of RAM. This has a very significant impact on performance. I had almost no stutters at all: Wear OS runs really well with the hardware. Google Pay also works very well thanks to the built-in NFC chip - only the virtual PayPal Master Card does not work.
There are three buttons on the side of the clock. The middle button is also provided with a "crown". With this you can scroll in the menu, which is much more pleasant than scrolling with your finger. The buttons above and below the crown can be adjusted in the software because they start apps.
| Hardware | Skagen Falster 3 | Skagen Falster 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Display | 1.3-inch AMOLED | 1.2-inch OLED |
| Sensors | Heart rate, accelerometer, altimeter, ambient light, gyroscope | Heart rate, accelerometer, ambient light, gyroscope |
| connectivity | Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy | Bluetooth 4.1 Low Energy |
| Waterproof | 3 ATM | 3 ATM |
| Battery life | 1 day and new energy saving modes | 1 days |
| GPS | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| NFC | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Google Assistant | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Interchangeable tapes | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Loudspeakers | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Snapdragon Wear 3100 | ✔️ | ❌ (Snapdragon Wear 2100) |
Software
The software was back on Google's Wear OS. On the one hand, I think that's very good, because Wear OS is simply the best addition to Android smartphones, on the other hand, Wear OS is not really energy-saving. This also has a big impact on the battery life.
Wear OS has many good features. You can reply to messages, there are a number of apps, the built-in Google Assistant, Google Pay and much more. But unfortunately it is treated rather neglected by Google. There are few updates and Fossil/Skagen have here protrying to get everything out. They have developed energy-saving modes and their own watch faces. The watch faces are also customizable and I think they are very nice and simple.
The phone calls went surprisingly well. Instead of an E-Sim, Bluetooth 4.2 BLE is used here. The feature is only intended for short phone calls in a quiet environment. You should switch to headphones or the phone over a longer period of time.
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- This is what the Skagen Falster 3 looks like on the arm. (Picture: TechnikNews)
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- The watch faces are very easy to change or adapt. (Picture: TechnikNews)
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- This is the "dropdown" menu of the Falster 3. (Image: TechnikNews)
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- This is what the notifications look like in WearOS. (Picture: TechnikNews)
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- With the tiles you can easily set a timer or see the weather. (Picture: TechnikNews)
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- The Google Assistant also makes use of the new speaker. (Picture: TechnikNews)
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- The app view can be controlled with the crown. (Picture: TechnikNews)
Fitness
Wear OS watches are not smartwatches designed for proprofessional athletes are intended. If you do a lot of sport and would like to track it well and accurately, you should rather buy a Garmin or Fitbit. Nevertheless, Google Fit offers some sports modes. From A for aerobics to F for Floss Dance to Z for Zumba, everything can be tracked. Nevertheless, the values should not be interpreted as "health claims".
For all hobby athletes, tracking via GPS and the heart rate sensor should be completely sufficient. Swimming is also possible with the watch, as it is water-resistant up to 30M.
The Skagen Falster 3 has a lot of different sport modes. (Picture: TechnikNews)
Battery
Now it's getting exciting. My goal was to go at least a day without any complaints as my expectations of Wear OS are always pretty low. I actually have that without it Proproblem done. So I never once managed to get the clock empty in one day. On a normal day (getting up at 7 a.m. and sleeping around 0 a.m.) I had around 25-35 in the evening Procents left. But it's not enough for a second day.
The watch is charged with a magnetic charger - I would have liked an option for QI charging here. From 0 to 100 Procent, the Skagen takes just under an hour. Yes, you have to charge the watch every evening, but that doesn't bother me. There's no sleep tracking, so wearing it at night doesn't make any sense anyway.
Nevertheless, the battery life for a smartwatch is very poor, because the competing models from Samsung or Huawei have a much better battery life.
Price and availability
The Skagen Falster 3 is available in three different versions. Leather, blue, Milanese and in a collaboration with the Norwegian DJ Kygo (our present model). The RRP is 299 euros, but the watch is already available from some retailers for 250 euros.
Skagen Falster 3 conclusion
The Skagen Falster 3 is one of the best Wear OS watches on the market right now. It convinced me with its performance and design. The battery life is not good, but not as underground as it was two years ago. At that time I am with mine Asus Zenwatch 3 couldn't get through the morning without deactivating Bluetooth on the watch.
This is no longer the case. Wear OS has many features that I wouldn't want to miss anymore: Google Pay, replying to messages, apps like Spotify, Kicker or the endless number of watch faces.
Huawei and Samsung watches are still serious competition and I wouldn't rule out buying a Galaxy Watch in the future either. I'm still missing an option to pay on the smartwatches of the competition, but Huawei Pay is already in the starting blocks for Germany.
My colleague David did the last December too Fossil Sport tested.
Many thanks to Fossil for providing the test device. Of course, our opinion remains unchanged.
