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Divest faraway representations and crazy nerdy dreams of what a smartwatch is supposed to be for a second, and instead think about what makes sense for a wrist device in 2018. You'll quickly realize that there is a huge gap between reality and expectations, because the idea of playing games or watching videos on a watch may seem crisp, but doing it on a screen measuring less than two inches is all simply miserable.
That's where Samsung's new Galaxy Watch comes in. In addition to being able to perform standard tasks such as relay notifications, counting steps and text response, the Galaxy Watch seeks to extend the true purpose of the modern smartwatch: track your health and your physical condition. .
What is it?
Samsung's latest smartwatch
Price
Starts at $ 330 (for 42mm), or $ 350 for 46mm
As
Large battery life, fantastic design and rotating bezel, more supported workouts, optional 3G / LTE stand-alone connectivity
Do not like it
Tracking activities can be difficult, stress monitoring still requires work, Samsung Pay only supports NFC (more MST), Bixby support is simply renamed S Voice
For the day before this year, the number of activities that Samsung software can automatically track doubled from three to six, while the total number of externals that can be monitored has further increased to a total of 39 different workouts, including specific items such as boards and lunges. stats on a high intensity interval training session. Samsung has also improved the sleep monitoring of the Galaxy Watch and added a new stress monitoring tool, although some are more useful than others.
Once a task reserved for fitness trackers, it is now essential to keep an eye on your wellbeing for all laptops. Some devices may offer fewer features in exchange for a lower price, while others may provide specialized tools for marathon runners, triathletes and more. But that still leaves smartwatches as universal devices that can be both a useful companion of a smartphone or a stand-alone gadget for tracking workouts.
For those who have paid attention to the evolution of Samsung smartwatches in recent years, the Galaxy Watch will be immediately familiar, which is a good thing. Looks are always subjective, but I think Galaxy Watch is the best-designed digital watch on the market. It features a rugged aluminum case on top and plastic on the underside, and stands out from the overly aggressive design of the Gear S3 to create something a little more sleek and sleek. I recognize that the 46mm revision unit I was wearing in the last few weeks is not small, but there are smaller 42mm versions for those who have problems.
Most importantly, Samsung did not use the Galaxy Watch control system. There are two buttons on the right side for Home and Back, which is just enough to quickly switch from one screen to the other without getting too complicated. And then there is the rotating bezel that can be rotated back and forth to navigate between notifications, widgets and applications. This is really one of the best examples of form and function that work together in harmony, mixing functionality that has been in place for hundreds of years and reorienting it so that it is perfectly adapted to the current technological landscape.
Twisting the telescope on the left allows you to scroll through the notifications as slowly or as quickly as you want, and as soon as you have nothing to read, you can simply tap the trash icon for delete them. Going right gives you access to all your important apps and widgets, so that music controls, the number of your calories and more are never far away. And with water resistance up to 5MM (over 150 feet) and models with optional 3G / LTE connectivity, you can do it all in a pool or without the help of a nearby smartphone if you wish it. to choose. The Galaxy Watch even comes with 4GB of onboard storage so you can stream music from the watch to a pair of Bluetooth headphones, so you can listen to music without having to carry your phone or pay for the most expensive with LTE.
In practice, the automatic tracking of activities works very well if your main forms of exercise are running or cycling. I ran into a situation where, for whatever reason, the Watch did not recognize the fact that I was running a mile on a treadmill, but this only happened once in a few weeks. Things like detecting a sideways movement were also pretty accurate, but sometimes it's hard to get the watch to start tracking your movement because you often have to wait a few seconds to find out if your hands are in square. to do exercises. The dream is that one day, a smartwatch will be able to automatically follow any exercise you do, and although the Galaxy Watch has not yet understood it, the way is open.
Regarding the sleep monitoring of the watch, Samsung now gives a better idea of the time you spent sleeping, what percentage represented a healthy sleep and even all periods of transition between different states of sleep. In my case, it was rather humiliating because, although I often try to have eight hours, my sleep efficiency really only lies in the 80s, which means that I am closer to six and a half or seven years. way to explain the constant bags under my eyes.
And while this seems obvious, much of the sleep tracking functionality comes from Samsung's ability to manufacture chips inside its watch, unlike the vast majority of Wear OS systems, which use Qualcomm to provide more up-to-date information. In the Galaxy Watch, Samsung claims that its Exynos 9110 processor is 35% more efficient than the Exynos 7270 from last year. I've always had five days of autonomy, but I have not managed to do my first four days of testing and have been over-testing as many features as I can.
This type of longevity is important because it allows you to leave the Galaxy Watch wireless charger at home for a long weekend. But this also contrasts with devices like Apple Watch, which has always struggled to last more than 18 hours. This means that while you can get some exciting new features like an entry-level ECG on the new series 4, you will not get stuff like sleep tracking because an Apple Watch has to be charged every night.
Conversely, monitoring the stress of the Galaxy Watch is not up to expectations. This does not mean that it does not work because it is easy enough to scroll the widget and quickly measure how you feel, but it does not automatically alert you as you wish. When I think of the benefits of stress monitoring, I imagine a device that will ping me just before the frustration reaches its maximum, then I review the simple breathing exercise of the watch to avoid further tension. That said, Samsung says it's about improving stress monitoring and could add something similar in the future.
The other big disappointment is Bixby Voice on the Galaxy Watch, which is really a rebranded version of S Voice. It's basically there to use your speech to send texts or activate things like activity tracking. However, requests such as traffic on your ride or the score of a football match – things easy to handle by Siri, the Google wizard and even the phone version of Bixby – tend to generate error messages.
And while a large library of useful applications has not yet made its appearance on a smartwatch platform, the ecosystem of the application Tizen Galaxy Watch remains quite thin. Many big names are available, including Spotify, which is now the streaming music platform of choice for Samsung, Strava and MyFitnessPal devices, although others like the Philips Hue Tizen app appear . I would also like to quickly mention that Samsung needs to do a better job of managing its apps and shops because trying to find things in the Galaxy Wearable app is often more boring.
But as a smartwatch that seeks to improve your well-being through heart rate monitoring and activity tracking, while being a smart companion or even a stand-alone training tool compared to LTE, the Galaxy Watch is is at the top of what a modern smartwatch can do. . Its design is superb, its interface is the best of all watches on the market and, although the starting price is 330 dollars, it is cheaper than a new Apple watch. And even though there is still a bit of refinement to be done before Samsung truly achieves the modern wearable dream, the Galaxy Watch is still stylish.
README
- The life of the battery on the standard version of 46 mm is about five days, with the small model offering about four days. If you add LTE connectivity, expect the battery life to decrease by a day or two.
- The design of the Galaxy Watch is simple but elegant, and its rotating bezel remains the best way to navigate in a smartwatch user interface.
- The number of training sessions that can be followed has risen to 39, six of which can be followed automatically. Unfortunately, monitoring can sometimes be a little complicated.
- Stress monitoring does not suit you, but Samsung is working to improve it in the future.
- Compatible with Android and iOS phones, although Apple phone users suffer from a slightly more limited feature set.
- The Galaxy Watch was built by Samsung Pay, but it only works on terminals equipped with NFC technology, but unlike the Gear S3, it lacks support for MST.
SPEC DUMP
Tizen OS 4. • 1.3-inch circular AMOLED display (360 x 360) • Exynos 9110 1.15 GHz dual core processor • 768RAM / 4GB storage for Bluetooth model • 1.5GB / 4GB storage for 3G / LTE model • Bluetooth 4.2 • 802.11 a / b / g / n wi-fi • NFC • GPS • Qi wireless charging support • Dust and water resistance IP68 • Pressure test up to # At 5 atmospheres • Supports phones running Android 5.0 or higher, or iPhones running iOS 9.0 or higher Sizes 42mm or 46mm
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