As much as I love smart gadgets, I hate charging them, especially a smartwatch, which has become a constant part of my life. The OnePlus Watch 2R ( review ), powered by WearOS, has been on my wrist for more than six months, with a battery life of about a week after each charge. Even then, some days, I’m wearing a dead smartwatch because I forgot to charge it.
Being a smartwatch user for over half a decade, I have come to understand one thing. Although smartwatches have become much more capable, in fact, as powerful as smartphones, my typical use case for a smartwatch was mostly limited to two features – notifications for calls and step tracking.
Considering my use cases, I feel most smartwatches are overkill, where I need to charge them at least once a week. When I started looking for a fitness tracker, mainly with good battery life, I discovered a Casio G-Shock that offers everything I need with up to two years of battery life.
GBD-200 has different watch faces. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)
I’m talking about the Casio G-Shock GBD-200 (GBD-200SM-1A6DR – G1196), which can also be considered a smartwatch as it can connect to a smartphone via an app and sync notifications, which comes at a retail price. 12,995 tag and can be bought for around Rs 11,000 on sale. However, with its very limited functionality, it’s definitely one of the dumbest smartwatches out there, and that’s another reason why it caught my attention.
Unlike most smartwatch reviews/opinions, I’m not going to talk about its display resolution, refresh rate, or color accuracy. For anyone considering the Casio G-Shock GBD-200, these things don’t really matter. But what does is its looks, build quality, and of course, battery life.
It’s been a little over a month since I replaced the OnePlus Watch 2R with the GBD-200, and I honestly haven’t missed much. In fact, I’m glad I don’t have to put it on to charge sometimes, where sometimes, I forget to put it back on.
Made like a G-Shock with a touch of transparency
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The G-Shock GBD-200 with its iconic square design has everything one would expect from a Casio G-Shock, including a 20BAR water resistance rating. It also has a shock-absorbing structure, making it a rugged watch. On top of that, it has Bluetooth connectivity and also has an acceleration sensor, where it can track steps, although it’s not as accurate as high-end smartwatches, where I saw a deviation of about 5 percent (on the high side). ) when compared to smartwatches like the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and the OnePlus Watch 2.
Despite wearing it continuously for more than a month, the strap made of silicone is very comfortable, and the neon-like transparent case makes the watch cool and trendy, which looks different in sunlight and in the dark. It’s a watch that can be worn 24×7, including when you’re swimming or showering.
If you are a runner, the watch can also log your activity where it can process distance and speed. In addition, it also has other key features such as world time, alarms, and different watch faces, some of which highlight step tracking, while others focus on displaying the time from two different time zones.
Battery life is almost the best part of this smartwatch
Although almost as smart, it can last up to 2 years on one battery. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)
Casio claims that the G-Shock GBD-200 can last up to two years per battery. Considering my experiences with previous G-Shock, the Casio is almost on point. I also made sure to disable all notifications from apps and enabled only call-related notifications, which can have a positive impact on battery life. If this watch can last more than a year on a single battery, it will be a win for me, and only time can answer that question.
The watch can be customized using the G-Shock Move app. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)
For anyone looking for a smartwatch primarily to receive notifications from your smartphone and step tracking, I believe the G-Shock GBD-200, for its asking price, is an excellent choice. Those who need less in terms of fitness tracking can consider models like the G-Shock DW-H5600-1, which may be a little more expensive but offer more fitness features like heart rate tracking. However, the battery life is not as solid as the GBB-200 and needs to be charged once every few days.
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