In late August, Samsung launched the company's new premium smart wearable Galaxy Watch4 series in India.
Just a few days, Galaxy Watch4 along with Watch4 Classic were made available at stores in the country.
DH has received the standard Galaxy Watch4 (Silver) Bluetooth-only model (SM-R870) review unit. I spent a few hours with it and here're my initial thoughts about the Samsung's new watch.
Design and build quality
Our unit is a 44mm model. It features a 1.4-inch Super AMOLED classic circular dial screen with 450×450p resolution. It supports full colour Always On Display and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass with DX+ shield. It comes with a 361mAh cell.
There is also a 40mm size model and it sports a smaller 1.2-inch Super AMOLED screen with 396×396p resolution, supports full Color Always On Display, and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass with DX+ shield. It houses a 247mAh battery.
The Galaxy Watch4 comes with 5 ATM, IP68, and MIL-STD-810G military-grade durability standard ratings. This Watch is tailor-made for outdoor junkies and the design is yet simplistic and can be worn on any formal occasion too.
The company is offering Steel and Aluminium case options. Ours is the latter. It is sturdy and the Samsung has done a good job with a silver variant with a matte finish and the buttons (power and back) are polished to shine, exuding a premium visual appeal and hand-feel. The silicone strap is soft and sturdy.
User-interface
It took me around 10 minutes to set up the watch on the Galaxy A52s. I have to note that Samsung's new phones can automatically detect new Galaxy-branded smart wearables nearby and the user just has to follow the on-screen instructions.
If you happen to have a Samsung tablet and another handset, it is good practice to sign in to a Samsung account to create a backup of data and this will enable it to sync the latest health data on all Galaxy devices.
Once it is fully set up and ready to operate, the user interface of Google's new Wear OS on Galaxy Watch4 offers swipe gestures that take you to the latest notifications on the left side and the individual apps to the right. If you swipe the screen down, it brings the options such as settings, display brightness, vibration mode, does not disturb mode, Theater mode, and more.
Swiping up the screen, it shows the trademark Wear OS home page that lists all the apps installed on the Watch4 under the same roof, placed three a row. You have to scroll all the way down to find all the apps. The app icons are circular in design and big enough to launch the individual app with a finger touch on such a compact modular screen.
Also, the touch-sensitive bezel around the dial works like charm just like the predecessor. Thumbs up for keeping it Samsung. It just makes navigating on the Watch4 better.
With Wear OS, the Galaxy Watch4 gets a proper Android app including the popular Google Maps, which is a big advantage for exploring a city walking through the streets.
It is powered by a 5nm class 1.18GHz Samsung Exynos W920 dual-core chipset, 1.5GB RAM, and 16GB storage.
Another notable aspect of the Galaxy Watch4 is the Samsung BioActive Sensor (Optical Heart Rate + Electrical Heart + BIA: Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis). It is capable of measuring body skeleton mass, body fat mass, and Body Mass Index (BMI), which are critical in improving the health of an overweight person.
I will be checking it out more keenly and how it can help me reduce my BMI from 26.2 to under 24-18.5 healthy range.
The Watch4 also supports ECG (Electrocardiogram) app to check irregular heartbeat conditions. It can also monitor stress, sleep pattern, track activities such as walking, running, rowing, treadmill workouts, badminton, and several sports.
It also features Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, and Light Sensor.
Initial thoughts
So far, Samsung Galaxy Watch4 has worked smoothly and the integration with Google Wear OS makes the user interface refreshing to operate the Watch with swipe gestures and most importantly access to more Android apps than ever before.
Also, I am quite psyched to check out the capabilities of Samsung's advanced BioActive Sensor. Please come back for the full review. If you have any queries and want me to test a particular feature of the Galaxy Watch4, please share it in the comments section below.
Price details of Samsung Galaxy Watch4 series:
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