Chris Townsend reviews a feature-packed smart watch for outdoor use
This review is part of our smartwatches gear guide, and was first published in the January 2019 issue of The Great Outdoors.
Quality and comfort
The Pro Trek is well-built and tough. I wore it for 32 days on the GR5 trail, including in torrential rain, and it was fine. It is big and chunky but not that heavy at 92g and I found it perfectly comfy.
Ease of use
The Pro Trek isn’t very easy to use. It takes time to learn the various button presses, screen swipes and screen taps –and requires a very good memory to remember all the sequences needed. Just turning the watch off – advisable at night on a long trip to save the battery life – requires six actions! Charging the watch requires care too. Attaching the magnetic connector is easy but it’s a very weak link and can be disconnected by the slightest touch. The colour maps don’t show much detail but they are okay when available. However on the GR5 I couldn’t always access them to download. It is possible to install ViewRanger.
Customisation options
You can choose from many watch face options, and switch between them according to the data you find most useful; I like the one that shows the altitude. The watch has a compass, an altimeter/ barometer and can record activity. It comes with Wear OS by Google, a version of the Android phone operating system. This provides Google Assistant for voice queries. Once the Casio Moment Setter has been downloaded to your smartphone, notifications for emails, phone calls and more are available, with the option of replying on the watch. A myriad Google apps can be downloaded via Wi-Fi – the watch has 4 GB of internal storage – such as Google Maps, Play Music, Google Translate and MyRadar (weather).
Accuracy
The GPS proved accurate. Trip recording was too.
Conclusion
The Pro Trek offers a huge array of functions, many of them useful to walkers and backpackers. But it’s not easy to use. For day walks and overnights battery life is okay. For longer trips you need a portable charger – and to take care not to knock the connector off.
