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Samsung's Tizen smart watch range has impressed me since the Gear S2 debuted, and the Gear S3 Frontier has been on my wrist for over a year after its debut. Now, Samsung has thrown this mark with the new Galaxy Watch, but has also reinvigorated this same hardware with a killer feature. Should you buy it? Spoiler alert, yes you should – here's why.
The best gifts for Android users
The Galaxy watch continues a trend of hardware killer smartwatch |
Samsung hardware is above all one of the most impressive features of wearable technology. The Gear S2, S3 and even Gear Sport are all beautiful watches with a ton of technology, and the Galaxy Watch is no exception.
The Galaxy watch is available in two sizes, 46 mm and 42 mm. Although none of them are particularly small, it's nice to see at least Samsung trying to meet the needs of people with smaller wrists. Personally, I spent my review period with the larger 46mm model and was impressed by this material.
On the one hand, the rotating bezel never gets old. This ingenious method of wrist grasping works wonders, is super-tactile and feels natural to use just minutes after attaching.
What I particularly liked about the Galaxy watch is how Samsung styled the larger variant. Rather than giving us a monotonous boring color, the silver 46mm Galaxy Watch has a two-tone design with black on the bezel and buttons, and polished stainless steel for the rest. I think it's beautiful, and that's fine with whatever group I use. I spent a lot of time on the standard silicone strap from Samsung, which is good, but I ended up changing to a custom leather strap that, in my opinion, really suits the design of the watch.
Regarding the rest of the material, the Galaxy Watch is 5ATM water resistant, just like the Gear Sport, which means it will not have any problem to take a dunk into the pool with you. It also charges wirelessly (but still does not work with any charger), has a heart rate sensor and built-in speaker for calls and / or music apps. The Samsung screen of each model is an OLED screen. Thanks to the DX + lens, I have no problem displaying it outdoors, even in direct sunlight.
Samsung understands how a smartwatch works |
One of the fundamental aspects of a smart watch is its software, and Samsung's software, at least if you ask me, is the king of the hill at the moment. Of course, Tizen has some glaring problems, but the end product is something that works ridiculously well for the user.
The first thing you will interact with on the Galaxy Watch is the watch face and the options are many. Samsung offers several integrated, analog and digital surveillance interfaces. Personally, I love the fact that Samsung is also taking advantage of the built-in speaker that emits a ticking sound when using some analog screensavers.
The new face "My Day" is very clear, but it can easily tell you the upcoming appointments throughout the day. Other monitoring areas have customizable complications that can display information such as other time zones, health information, number of steps, and so on. Of course, there are also tons of third-party surveillance surfaces that do a great job with this, and you can switch between them instantly by long-pressing the monitor dial and selecting a new one.
Scrolling the frame to the left displays your notifications. For me, it's been a long time now that one of my favorite pieces is that of a Samsung watch. Notifications are sorted in chronological order, provide a lot of information at a glance, and can even be processed in a few clicks.
On the other hand, scrolling to the right will reveal a collection of customizable widgets. These can include anything from health data to your calendar, which is fully customizable to your needs. For me, the first two pages are devoted to health and weather. They both provide me with useful information throughout the day, which I do not have to think about. I just watch my watch, I slip and I have the information I need. The Samsung software is incredibly simple in that sense, and that's a big part of why I appreciate it as much as I do.
In addition, Samsung has improved health features on the Galaxy Watch. As usual, it can track your heart rate, your steps, your calorie consumption and even your water / caffeine intake, but, best of all, Samsung has added better tracking of sleep and stress . I did not find too much use for that in my daily routine, though.
Applications are always a sore point for Tizen if you ask me. With third-party applications, there are some very good apps like Spotify, which supports offline downloads and local playback. However, the selection of Wear OS and the Apple Watch is much wider.
Surveillance surfaces are also a little harder to find than the selection you'll find on Wear OS, but there are still many options, as well as options such as Facer that let you create your own. Better yet, Samsung's software is improving, so applications are becoming less and less necessary.
From my point of view, Samsung not only understands the features that people are looking for on their watch, but also How these features should work. Tizen may not be for everyone in terms of appearance, but in terms of how it works, I would argue that nothing can be better – at least, nothing better that connects to a phone Android.
There has never been any true SmartWatch with battery life like this |
Where the Galaxy watch really shines is in the battery life. His phenomenal considering what we are looking at here. A smart watch with a color screen, appropriate applications and health features just should not last more than two days. Apple was impressed by the delivery of about 2-3 days with a charge. In contrast, a typical Wear OS watch has the chance to last a whole day.
For these reasons, we were all skeptical when Samsung announced that the Galaxy Watch could last six days with a charge. Well, I'm happy to announce that Samsung was right, but not unconditional.
During my first full charge with the 46mm Galaxy Watch, I lasted about 4.5 days of complete use, which I was expecting, while planning additional tests and setting system update. In the second round, I managed to use 5.5 days before throwing it on the loading dock. This is not enough at the request of Samsung, but it's very tight.
One thing I noticed in another cycle is that third-party surveillance areas have a significant effect on outcomes. Without changing anything in my watch, I still had a charge of barely 3 days. Another important thing to note is that activating the permanent standby dial will absolutely destroy the life of your battery.
Thanks to continued use over the last few weeks, I've seen just as good results. The Galaxy watch gives me regularly about 4 days of charge, depending on my use, some cycles lasting up to 5.5 days.
Really, it throws all the rest of the water. Although the 42mm Galaxy Watch only lasts 4 days, these numbers are still impressive. This is a watch that, without changing anything, you can actually pack for a weekend. It can only survive in one day with only 15 to 20% of its battery, before all energy saving modes are activated. It's really impressive and that's a reason in itself to buy this watch.
Final Thoughts |
As an Android user, there are a ton of options for a smart watch. Wear OS is packed with hardware, there are Fitbit offers and more. However, Samsung's Tizen is one of the best options and, with the release of the Galaxy Watch, I think the title is fully secure, at least for now.
Google has just given Wear OS a new and fresh coat of paint, new hardware is on the way, and the new Qualcomm chipset is making major improvements. The future is promising for Android smartwatches and Samsung, for now, is the king of the hill that everyone will have to try to beat.
At least it's on the Android side. Unfortunately, nothing beats the Apple Watch.
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