Something to look forward to: Not so long ago, it looked as if smartwatches might be consigned to tech's "fad" folder, but recent times have seen the wearables' popularity surge. Companies are bringing out new models, while some firms are making their first foray into the market. One of those in the latter camp is Puma, which will soon release a Wear OS device aimed at runners and other fitness fans.
The company unveiled the aptly titled Puma Smartwatch at IFA this week. The culmination of 12 months of work alongside the Fossil Group, the watch features a 1.19-inch round AMOLED display inside a nylon and aluminum 44mm case.
In addition to sporting 4GB of storage and 512MB of RAM, the Puma Smartwatch comes with the latest Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset, which has four A7 cores, a digital signal processor and an ultra-low-power co-processor in a configuration Qualcomm calls big-small-tiny.
Qualcomm said last year that Wear 3100-based smartwatches would have a much better battery life than their predecessors. Puma says its model will last for 24 hours, which is still probably less than people were hoping for.
Being Puma, the smartwatch is aimed at sporty types. It's lightweight (0.06 pounds), swim-proof, and comes with the usual features found in similar wearables: step tracking, heart monitoring, GPS, weather updates, and some training apps. You also get NFC payments along with Google Assistant and Spotify integration.
While some have reported that the Puma Smartwatch is being released in November, others claim it'll launch in October. But we do know for certain that it'll cost $275 and be available in black, white, and neon colors.
2019 has seen shipments of smartwatches increase YoY, with companies including Garmin and Fossil announcing compelling new models.