In recent years, Samsung has really taken the game to the next level in terms of smart wearables. The Watch4 series came with an innovative bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) sensor for better body fitness tracking for users.
The latest upgraded Watch5 now comes with a refined design, durable casing and more, making it an ideal smart wearable option for Android phone users. Here are my thoughts on Samsung’s premium device.
Design and display
Both the new Watch5 Pro and the Watch5 have a classic round dial design language. But they differ in terms of screen size and battery capacity.
The generic model has a 1.4-inch round super AMOLED display (44mm model) with sapphire glass protection to resist scratches and features an aluminum armor case. The company offers matching high-quality soft wristbands. Overall, the build quality is very good and exudes premium not only in terms of hand feel on the wrist, but also visually to the eyes.
[Note: The 40mm model comes with a 1.2-inch screen]
It comes with an IP68 certification, 5ATM rating and has passed rigorous military MIL-STD-810G durability tests, and is said to be able to operate in extreme weather conditions and also able to withstand water pressure down to 50 meters.
Most importantly, with a 450x450p resolution and a pixel density of 321 ppi (pixels per inch), the display is also easy to read outdoors. I have not encountered any pressing issues to complain about. I was able to read notifications and even weather details without any problems.
User interface and capabilities
Like any of the previous Galaxy Watches, the new generation Samsung smart wearable is very easy to set up. Just install the Galaxy Wearable app on your Android phone. If you own a premium Samsung phone, the apps are pre-installed and the device will start pairing immediately.
It hardly takes a few minutes to complete the process. And to get more fitness insights, users need to install another app, Galaxy Health. The latter offers the widest range of data points, such as sleep score, snore detection, heart rate information, SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation), and more.
Like the Watch5 Pro, the generic model features a digital steering wheel, which uses an advanced touch-sensitive display and offers a good dial interface to check notifications and browse features and widgets. Users just need to swipe their finger to the right to see the latest messages and notifications. And by swiping left, you can view the widgets such as sports modes (supports 90 plus physical activities), weather details, daily activities, stress, heart rate tracking app, SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation level) and more.
Swiping up will find all the apps installed on the watch. And if you swipe down on the home screen, you’ll get shortcuts to settings, flashlight, screen brightness settings, and more.
The Exynos W920-powered Galaxy Watch5 is deeply integrated with Google WearOS. It supports Play Store, comes preinstalled with Google Maps, Messages and more. Users can even install various other third-party apps related to fitness, even music apps like Spotify.
It also supports the “find my device” app to locate the lost watch over the phone and the former can also be used to locate the phone. It has many such value-added features including the option to control music on the TWS earphones, adjust the volume, even take selfies and do many more things from the wrist.
The Galaxy Wearable app also allows users to add hundreds of colorful watch faces to the Watch5. There are plenty of combinations that can be custom matched to whatever outfit you’re wearing that day.
The sleep score is also very insightful. It provides detailed information on how long I had deep sleep, light sleep, REM (Rapid Eye Movements) and stayed awake in bed, in addition to monitoring the oxygen saturation level in the blood. It can even detect and track snoring with recorded audio clips with a timestamp. To my surprise, I snored for over an hour. This requires users to wear Watch and also hold the compatible phone next to their head, probably on the bedside stand, and enable the snore detection feature. And it should be noted that the snoring audio clips are deleted after the expiration of the preset time (it offers three options: 7 days, 31 days and 100 days). Users can also disable the audio recording feature.
I am very impressed with automatic fitness tracking, which is very sensitive to the owner’s movements. It automatically starts tracking as soon as it senses I’ve walked for 10 minutes and stops even when it feels like I’m standing still for a little over a few minutes. Inside, just before starting yoga, I turn on the tracking feature. But usually I go for a walk after lunch at the office. I used to forget to turn on the walk feature but Galaxy Watch always turned on walk every time. Even while commuting from the office to the main bus stop, which is a little over a kilometer, I never turned the tracker on, but the Watch5 always made sure to record the distance, calculate calories burned, and take into account kept day by day.
The USP of the Galaxy Watch5 is the new BioActive sensor module, which works with a next-generation optical heart rate sensor in combination with an electrical heart sensor and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) sensor. The latter is able to measure body skeletal mass, body water, body fat mass and Body Mass Index (BMI) and in this way owners can monitor their body condition better than before.
As you can see in the screenshot (above), my body’s fat mass is very high and gives me a wake-up call to get started with workouts and not wait until January 2023, for another attempt at fitness resolution for the new year. With such critical data points, it really makes you consciously focus on your body fitness.
Add to that the fact that the Galaxy Health app offers a food intake feature. It allows users to register the meals for morning breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, evening snack and dinner. It has some Indian menus with portions and calories based on portion, but I wish Samsung had more options, especially regarding South Indian cuisine. On the plus side, Samsung offers the custom option to add food names along with nutritional details and calories per serving. This is a good initiative and I hope to see more details about South Indian food nutrition details in the coming months.
However, to be on the safe side, it is best to consult a professional nutritionist and a doctor to get critical information about body condition and what corrective actions can be taken.
And with the Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Health app, users can track their food intake and calories burned to adjust their routine to get in shape faster.
As far as the battery life is concerned, it can last up to a day and a half with autotracking. And for the second day, if the battery is low, the watch is intelligent enough to notify you two hours before bed (based on your sleep schedule) to charge the watch and sleep at night. can follow. It can be fully charged from zero to 100 percent in an hour and a half (90 minutes).
Final Thoughts
The new Galaxy Watch5 is only a moderate upgrade over its predecessor. But it is still the best value for money for Android phone users.
It is more durable and offers longer battery life than Watch4. And comes with an innovative Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) sensor, which can measure body skeletal mass, body water, body fat mass and Body Mass Index (BMI).
The body fitness details that the BIA sensor provides are quite enlightening and also a good motivator to get started getting in shape. And the Galaxy Health app allows users to track food intake, sleep patterns and other important functions to get fit over time.
However, as I mentioned in the Galaxy Watch5 Pro review, Samsung should try harder to get the necessary regulatory approval to activate the ECG feature on the Galaxy Watches in India.
Must read | samsung Galaxy Watch5 Pro review: Bigger, more durable and more reliable smart wearable
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