Skagen Falster 2
The Skagen Falster 2 brings plenty of improvements like a GPS, heart rate monitor, and NFC. It's also beautiful, and has a great OLED display. Beauty is only skin deep, though. Wear OS 2.1 doesn't run well on the Falster 2's old hardware. Until some of the software issues are fixed, I'd recommend looking elsewhere.
I loved the original Skagen Falster. Even though it lacked features like GPS and NFC, its minimal design was something that kept me putting it on my wrist every day.
However, lacking so many features (for $300 no less) kept a lot of people away, so Skagen went back to the drawing board. Seven months later after the first launched, it announced the Falster 2.
This new watch fixes literally every one of our gripes with the first Falster, but unfortunately introduces a big issue along the way.
Skagen Falster 2 review notes: I've been using the Skagen Falster 2 for roughly three weeks, running Wear OS version 2.1 with build number OWDO.180822.001 on the August 5, 2018 security patch. It's been paired with my Google Pixel 3 for the duration of this review.
Design and display
Let’s start with the good stuff. I am in love with the Skagen Falster 2’s design. It’s minimal and light, and seems to be just the right size for most people’s wrists.
It has a 1.19-inch OLED display that, quite frankly, looks wonderful. Since it’s an OLED, the screen has deep blacks and bright whites. Also, all of the watch faces are black by default, which helps mask the bezel around the display.
Skagen nailed the Falster 2's design and display.
There are more buttons around the case this time around, which is really nice to see. The center button doubles as a rotatable crown, which makes scrolling around Wear OS much easier. It’s not as nice as the Apple Watch’s digital crown, but it’s certainly the best rotating button on a Wear OS watch I’ve used.
See also: Best Wear OS watches | Best smartwatches
Two more customizable buttons flank the center button, and you can program them to open any app of your choice. This is really convenient if you’re like me and frequently use Google Pay or control your phone’s music with your watch.
A couple last tidbits about the design: the Falster 2 comes with a 3ATM (30 meters) water resistance rating, and Skagen says the watch passed a 10,000-stroke swim test. You should be just fine wearing it in the pool or the shower.
