Samsung Galaxy Watch5 review: Dependable fitness companion
For the last few years, Samsung has really upped the game in the smart wearable. The Watch4 series came with an innovative Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis(BIA) sensor for better body fitness tracking for users. Now, the latest Watch5, and Watch5 Pro series come with a refined design, durable body, 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 feature classical round dial design language. But, they differ in terms of display size, and battery capacity.
The generic model has a 1.4-inch circular super AMOLED screen (44mm model) with Sapphire glass protection to resist scratches and boasts armour alumnium case. The company offers matching high-quality soft wristbands. Overall, the build quality is very good and exudes premium not just in terms of hand feel on the wrist, but also visually to the eyes too.
[Note: The 40mm model comes with a 1.2-inch screen]
It comes with an IP68 certification, 5ATM rating and has passed rigorous military-grade MIL-STD-810G durability tests, and is said to be capable of working in extreme weather conditions and also able to sustain water pressure up to 50 metres depth.
And, most importantly the display with 450x450p resolution and pixel density of 321 ppi (pixels per inch), offers good readability even outdoors. I did not face 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 any premium Samsung phone, the apps are pre-installed and the device instantly initiates pairing.
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 will offer the widest array 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 to features a digital wheel, which makes use of an advanced touch-sensitive display and offers a good dial-interface to check notifications and scroll through features and widgets. Users just need to swipe the finger to the right to see the latest messages and notifications. And, on swiping to the 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.
If you swipe up, you will find all the apps installed on the watch. And swiping down on the home screen, you get shortcuts to settings, torch, display brightness settings, and more.
The Exynos W920-powered Galaxy Watch5 is deeply integrated with Google WearOS. It supports Play Store, comes pre-installed with Google Maps, Messages and more. Users can even install several other third-party apps related to fitness, even music apps such as Spotify too.
It also supports 'find my device' app to locate the misplaced watch via phone and also the former can also be used to find the phone as well. It has many such value-added features including the option to control music playing on the TWS earphones, adjust volume, even take selfies, and do many more things right from the wrist.
Also, with the Galaxy Wearable app, users get to add hundreds of colourful watch faces on the Watch5. There are enough combinations that can be custom matched with any outfit you wear for the day.
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The Sleep score is very insightful too. It offers detailed information on how long I had deep sleep, light sleep, REM (Rapid Eye Movements), and stayed awake in the bed, in addition to monitoring the blood oxygen saturation level. It can even detect and track snoring with recorded audio clipping with a time stamp. To my surprise, I snored for more than an hour. For this, users have to wear Watch and also keep the compatible phone beside the head, probably on the bed stand and enable the snore detection feature. And, it should be noted the snoring audio clips get deleted after the expiry of pre-set time (It offers three options-- 7 days, 31 days, and 100 days). Also, users can disable the record audio feature too.
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I am very impressed with auto fitness tracking, which is very sensitive to the movements of the owner. It automatically begins tracking once it notices I have been walking for 10 minutes and even stops when it senses I am stationary for a little over a few minutes. Indoors, just before starting Yoga, I turn on the tracking feature. But, most of the time, I go for a post-lunch walk at the office, I used to forget to turn on the walk feature, but Galaxy Watch always used to turn on walking every single time. Even while commuting from the office to the main bus stand, which is a little over a kilometre, I never used to turn on the tracker, but the Watch5 always ensured, the distance has been recorded and calculated burnt calories, and get accounted for the day.
The USP of the Galaxy Watch5 is the new BioActive sensor module, which works with a next-generation Optical Heart Rate sensor paired with an Electrical Heart sensor and Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) sensor. The latter is capable of measuring body skeleton mass, body water, body fat mass, and Body Mass Index (BMI) and this way, owners can track their body fitness better than before.
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As you can see in the screenshot (above), the fat mass of my body is very high and gives a wake-up call for me, to get started with workouts and not wait for January 2023, for another attempt at new year's fitness resolution. With such critical data points, it will really make you consciously start focusing on your body fitness.
Add to that, the Galaxy Health app offers a Food intake feature. With this, users can record the meals for the morning breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, evening snack, and dinner. It has some of the Indian food menus with servings and calories based on serving, But I wish Samsung could have more options, particularly related to South Indian cuisine. On the bright side, Samsung offers the custom option to add food names along with nutrition details and calories per serve details. This is a good initiative and I hope to see more details on South Indian food nutrition details in the coming months.
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However, to be on the safer side, it is best to consult a professional nutritionist and a doctor to get critical information on body fitness and what corrective measures can be taken.
And, with the Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Health app, users monitor their food intake and calories burnt, to make adjustments to their routine to get in shape faster.
As far as the battery life is concerned, it can last for one and a half days with auto tracking. And, for the second day, if there is a low battery level, the Watch is intelligent enough to notify you two hours before bedtime (based on your sleep time schedule) to charge the Watch and be able to track sleep in the night. It can fully charge from zero to 100 per cent within one and half hours (90 minutes).
Final thoughts
The new Galaxy Watch5 is just a moderate upgrade over the predecessor. But, it is still the best value-for-money fitness companion 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 skeleton mass, body water, body fat mass, and Body Mass Index (BMI).
The body fitness details the BIA sensor offers are quite enlightening and also a good motivator to start working to get in shape. And, with the Galaxy Health app, users can monitor food intake, sleep patterns,s and other important features, to get fit over time.
However, as I said 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.
Samsung Galaxy5 series comes in 44mm and 40mm models with Bluetooth-only and LTE (with e-SIM) variants with prices ranging between Rs 27,999 and Rs 35,999.
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