Samsung Galaxy Watch Review and Features

Smart watches are becoming day by day more popular due to their features and fitness tracking abilities. Samsung Galaxy watch is a new variant of smartwatch from Samsung. Galaxy watch is very well designed, good looking and almost looks like traditional wrist watch. Galaxy watch is available in two different sizes i.e.42 mm and 46 mm. 42 mm model available in two colors i.e. Midnight Black and Rose Gold while 46mm model is only available in Silver color.

Galaxy Watch Features and Design

Galaxy watch is a pure round watch with circular touch screen. The display of 46mm watch is 1.3 inch and 42mm variant with 1.2 inch, both are come with AMOLED display with corning Gorilla protection.  Galaxy Watch also has always on display feature but it drains more battery. You can turn on its careen by twisting your wrist as the same gesture used to see time in normal watches.  On right side there are two buttons upper one is back and lower one is home button. Home button also works as power button if you press and hold it for long time. One rotating bezel is also provided on the watch for easy navigation through menus, widgets & notifications. Compared to touchscreen navigating through bezel is easier and convenient. Galaxy Watch also has a microphone near to home button on the right. The left side of the watch only has a speaker for voice call and listen music (although watch is not made to use as headphone). Using Galaxy watch you can also make calls with its microphone and speaker.

The 46mm design is bulkier and bigger than 42 mm version; battery of 46 mm long lasts more than 42mm. In general usage it lasts to 3-4 days easily while small version lasts for 1-2 days. The 42mm design has 270mAh battery and 46mm has 472mAh battery capacity. The weight of 46mm watch is 63 gram and 42mm watch is 49 gram. Both watches are built from stainless steel. If you are fond of big size watches and already habitual to bulky designs than go for 46mm otherwise 42mm is a well size for all ordinary people. Backside of watch there is heart rate sensor that placed on the center. Galaxy watch come with wireless charger in the box, the only way to charge this watch is its proprietary wireless charger. Samsung Galaxy watch is water resistant up to 50 mtrs. The black watch bands are made out of silicone which is available in two sizes i.e 22 mm and 20 mm. Watch default strap has quick release pins that make it easy to swap it out without any special tools. The band is very comfortable and sweat resistant. Watch can be used during swimming due to its water resistant feature.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Hardware and Software

Samsung Galaxy Watch  based on Tizen software and has Exynos processor which is a dual core processor clocked at 1.15 GHz. It comes in Bluetooth and LTE variants internationally, but in India the watch has only launched in Bluetooth version. The Bluetooth version gets 768MB of RAM while LTE version has 1.5GB of RAM. Both watches designs have 4GB internal storage.

Other features of Galaxy watch:

Galaxy watch has thousands of watch faces available that can be downloaded. Many watch faces are customizable where you can change colors, designs as per your choice. This watch has very good fitness tracking features, and different mode for walking, running, cycling, swimming, treadmill etc. Also it detects automatically when you start exercise without manually entering into mode e.g. when you crosses 900 steps it detects that waling is started and completes automatically when you finished with calorie burn details and distance covered in kms. Galaxy Watch also came with Barometer and GPS sensors to track your walking and running more accurately without dependence on your phone. There is option for floor climbing which automatically detect and count one floor of climbing if you climb a 9mtr high floor. The most impressive feature we are getting is that it tracks and records your sleep very well. Many information are available on Samsung Health app e.g. how much is the sleep efficiency in percentage, REM, light sleep, deep sleep etc. Other feature that impress is that it gives you a notification with vibration if you do not move your place for more than one hour.

Galaxy watch has thousands of watch faces available that can be downloaded. Many watch faces are customizable where you can change colors, designs as per your choice. This watch has very good fitness tracking features, and different mode for walking, running, cycling, swimming, treadmill etc. Also it detects automatically when you start exercise without manually entering into mode e.g. when you crosses 900 steps it detects that waling is started and completes automatically when you finished with calorie burn details and distance covered in kms. Galaxy Watch also came with Barometer and GPS sensors to track your walking and running more accurately without dependence on your phone. There is option for floor climbing which automatically detect and count one floor of climbing if you climb a 9mtr high floor. The most impressive feature we are getting is that it tracks and records your sleep very well. Many information are available on Samsung Health app e.g. how much is the sleep efficiency in percentage, REM, light sleep, deep sleep etc. Other feature that impress is that it gives you a notification with vibration if you do not move your place for more than one hour.

Connectivity options on the watch include Bluetooth 4.2, wifi, NFC, A-GPS, and Glonass. NFC is mainly for Samsung Pay, but its functionality not enabled in India yet. Also there are many sensors available like accelerometer, gyroscope and ambient light sensor.

We have tested this this watch with OnePlus 5T and found no such big compatibility issues, sometimes Bluetooth connectivity took longer to connect when disconnected, but this happens very less. To use this watch you need Samsung wear app to install in your phone and also it is better to use Samsung Health App to be used for better results of sleep recording and different fitness and exercise data.

Samsung Galaxy Watch price and final words

Galaxy watch is economical if compared with Apple watches but costlier if compared to other Smart watches available in market based on Google wear OS.

Pros:  

• Tizen based software is very good in view of performance and battery life.
• Bright and sharp display with always on functionality.
• Good fitness tracking features.
• Impressive sleep recorder.
• Rotating Bezel.

Cons:  

• Proprietary wireless charger
• Costlier than other smart watches available
• Notification reading on watch took some longer if watch is in sleeping mode.  

Galaxy watch 42mm & 46mm model priced at Rs. 24990 & Rs. 29990 on Flipkart in India. So if you are thinking to buy a smartwatch Galaxy watch could be a good option in the price range of Rs. 25000 –Rs. 30000.