Casio G-Shock GBA-900 Review – An interesting alternative not only for athletes

Tags: Review | Casio | Men's | Classic

15.8.2022 | 7 MIN | 1x comment

If you want to stay fit, you have to move. And so that the "moving" has some meaning and results, it's often a good idea to use a watch to track all of it. There's a whole lot of them on the market, but the overwhelming majority falls into the category of so-called smart watches. These are often linked by a uniform and, for some, boring appearance, as well as dependence on the charging cable. However, Casio shows us that it can be also done differently with its G-Shock GBA-900 model.

The first model of the G-SQUAD collection that's intended for lovers of an active life, the GBA-800, was already introduced back in 2018 and we covered it several times in our magazine.

This durable fitness tracker impressed us not only with its functions and appearance, but also with a pleasant price and its improved successor, the GBA-900 model, is trying to build on its success – and successfully so.

At first glance, the dial seems to not change as much, but the opposite is true. The GBA-900 also relies on the tried-and-true analog-digital design this time, so we can read the time at the first glance in all watch modes, which is very practical and I personally like this solution the most.

The basic shape of the hands remains the same, but the area of luminescence increased and thus legibility in the dark, or at night. The main display of the watch is also slightly larger, which shows information better. The smaller circular display that shows the connection to the phone and at the same time graphically indicates the percentage of steps taken has been moved to the left side.

What's new with this model, though, are two smaller displays - one at nine o'clock and the other at twelve o'clock. The former serves as an indicator of an active alarm clock and acoustic signaling throughout the hour, the latter as a graph of efficiency during exercise. The metallic treatment of the indices also works effectively, thanks to which the GBA-900 looks a little more valuable than its predecessors.

Also new is the texture of the dial, which can also be found on the watch strap. These tend to be stiffer and not exactly comfortable with G-Shocks, which is due to the material used, i.e. resin or resin, if you will. Fortunately, this is not the case with this model, where instead of resin we find softened polyurethane. The strap is so pleasantly soft and pliable.

I was also pleased with the small distance between the individual holes of the strap, thanks to which I had no problem with the watch being too tight or loose on the hand, which unfortunately is not the rule for all G-Shocks, and owners of such DW-5600 certainly know about what i write In addition, the holes are larger than usual and similar to the GBA-800 at both ends of the strap and thus also serve as ventilation, which is certainly nice for a watch focused on sports.

However, we can also find additional and fairly large ventilation holes in the place where the strap is attached to the watch case, so it can be seen that good breathability was an important point when designing this model. I also praise the strap loop with a lock, thanks to which it does not tend to "wander" in any direction and holds nicely in place.

What also positively surprised me about these "Gs" was the fact how well they fit even on smaller wrists. In the catalog, in the dimensions column, we find the numbers 51.2 x 48.9 x 16.6 millimeters, so it might seem that this is a model that will fit well on the hand of a well-fed guy, but in reality it will also fit thinner individuals.

The main reason, apart from the flexible strap, is the use of wedge-shaped inserts, which can be found in the place below the mentioned ventilation holes. The watch literally hugs the wrist and fits really well.

This time, Casio decided not to use a carbon mixture for the construction of the durable case, as we have become accustomed to recently, but traditional resin. And yet the watch is pleasantly light and weighs only 61 grams. So if you are looking for really comfortable G-Shocks, then the GBA-900 model should definitely not go under your radar.

The vast majority of the new G-Shocks can cooperate with a smartphone, which especially the long-time fans of these watches are not so fond of. I admit that I understand and respect this opinion, but given that the watch is not dependent on the phone in any way and works fully even without the phone, I personally consider it a big plus and if I don't want to, I don't have to use the connection with the phone at all.

This is also the case with these "Nine Hundreds". It is still true that this watch will be just fine even without a mobile phone, but unlike models that use the phone "only" for simple function settings or time synchronization, the GBA-900 interacts with a smartphone a little more and not using a connection with it would be a wasted opportunity... So what can this Power Trainer, equipped with the module number 5641 in cooperation with the G-Shock MOVE app, actually do?

At a price of around a hundred and forty euros, we cannot expect gadgets such as a heart rate sensor or blood oxygen measurement, but it still offers a lot. The basis is a built-in three-axis accelerator, thanks to which this watch is able to count not only steps, but also distance traveled and speed in kilometers.

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It is clear that the distance traveled is only indicative for a watch without a GPS receiver, but Casio thought of that as well. If you connect the watch to the phone and activate its GPS, the GBA-900 will recalibrate itself after a certain time and the measurement will be much more accurate in the future, even if it is not connected to the phone. I have tried them myself in real life to see if it's true.

GPS settings, data from the G-Shock MOVE app and from the Zepp app of the Mi Band smart bracelet.

For comparison, I took the Xiaomi Mi Band 6 bracelet on the same hand, which I otherwise use for my occasional sports activities. The reality showed that the G-Shocks initially slightly undermeasured the distance traveled compared to reality, but after some five hundred meters they really calibrated and after that the measured values already corresponded to reality.

As for the number of steps, the measuring was correct right from the start, and both the G-Shocks and the Mi Band showed basically the same value at the finish line. G-Shocks also use the number of steps found to calculate burned calories, but here, due to the absence of a heart rate monitor, it is understandably only an indicative value, and as I found out, the value of burned calories on the display increased, even when I was not wearing the watch at all.

Similar to the other models of the G-SQUAD collection, they will also offer an interval timer, i.e. a programmable countdown, which is especially suitable for so-called circuit training. You can set up to 20 exercise sets including breaks according to your needs, and each set can be repeated up to 5 times. The watch then acoustically alerts you to change exercises, so you don't have to be unnecessarily distracted by looking at the display during exercise.

The GBA-900 will also offer an improved 24-hour stopwatch, even with memory. In this way, you can track not only time periods, of course with an intermediate time, but also lap times, speed and length of individual circuits. The watch will then save the measured values ​​(up to 50 records) and you can review these not only directly on the watch, but of course also in the app on your mobile phone and evaluate your progress similarly to the predecessor GBA-800.

However, what the "Eight hundreds" could not do was display notifications... Yes, the GBA-900, as one of the very few G-Shocks, can display and sound an incoming call, SMS, but also an email or a message from a communication application. However, due to the concept and technology of the display, you will not see the name or number of the caller, and of course you can also forget about the text of the incoming message.

The only thing you will see and hear is a beep (fortunately loud enough) and a small icon on the display, showing, depending on the type of pictogram, whether someone is calling you, whether you have received a message or an email. In the flood of smartwatches, which today are able not only to display messages, but also to answer them directly, God knows what, but something is better than nothing, am I right?

Even thanks to this, let's say, simpler variant of notifications, this watch is not demanding on energy and works even without annoying charging and even on a single CR2025 battery for two whole years. Fair, what do you say?

Similar to other G-Shocks, this model is of course resistant to all kinds of impacts, in addition it is water resistant to 200 meters and also offers other functions such as the time of the second time zone, 5 alarms and, in addition to the luminescent hands, also really powerful LED lighting, both on the dial and the display, which can be activated not only with a button, but also automatically by raising your hand towards your face.

In addition, the GBA-900 can help you find a forgotten phone, can calibrate hands that have been thrown away by magnetism or impact, or can warn you about a low battery.

Final verdict

In my opinion, the GBA-900 model is a damn good kind of G-Shock. For a slightly higher price than its predecessor, it offers many more features and as a bonus they throw in a really thoughtful design and comfort like few G-Shocks, making it a more than worthy successor to the original GBA-800. So thumbs up to Japan for me!

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