Technology giants love creating their own standards. Most become expensive failures. Remember MiniDisc and BetaMax? They were two of Sony’s biggies. Technically sound as these formats were, they flopped.
These days the standards to aim for are software ecosystems, not physical formats. And Samsung is desperate for a hit. Bada was its Android rival. That failed. Bixby is its digital assistant, and not the first. It’ll take a series of miracles to make Bixby anywhere near as successful as Google Assistant or Siri.
The custom Samsung smartwatch platform used in the new Galaxy Watch and its Gear S-series predecessors is one of the best proprietary underdog platforms currently active, though. And, unlike Bixby, this latest watch capitalises on the failings of Google’s own alternative, WearOS.
A longer lasting smartwatch
Battery life is the main problem common to all Wear OS watches. A good result is a Wear watch that lasts 1.5 days, like the Huawei Watch 2. That’s bad, meaning you still have to charge it every day. Samsung says the Galaxy Watch lasts up to seven days off a charge. Or up to seven times longer than some WearOS watches. There’s a little more to this, though.
There are two sizes of Galaxy Watch. The larger 46mm diameter one has a 476mAh battery, much higher capacity than the 380mAh of the Gear S3. However, there’s also a 42mm version with a 270mAh battery Samsung claims lasts up to four days.
That is still better than any Android watch. But it’s not seven days. The larger Galaxy Watch also has the wrist-dominating presence of one of Garmin’s high-end Fenix watches, or a large chronograph. Such good stamina does seem slightly less impressive in this context. But it is still far better than other smartwatches with screens this vibrant.
Design
The Galaxy Watch looks less slick than the Gear S3, which is a real shame. The 42mm version comes in rose gold and black shades, while the 46mm has a two-tone silver and black look. The leather and stainless steel of the Gear S3 Classic is simply classier. Of course, these watches would look a little different if they did not have colour-matched ribbed silicone straps. The straps are replaceable.
These are the first Samsung watches of this style to be swim-ready, too. The older Gear S3 has IP68 water resistance, fit for submersion in 1.5m water, but not swimming as it does not account for the added pressure of your movements underwater. The Galaxy Watch has proper 5ATM water resistance, fine for use in a swimming pool, like an Apple Watch. Just don’t take it diving.
Fitness tracking
This is also, surprisingly enough, the first in this series to offer auto-tracking of exercise. All its predecessors were able to track a wide array of sports, but the Galaxy Watch uses an algorithm to auto-detect the kind of activity in progress, logging it as such after the fact.
Forty exercise types are available, although only expect auto-tracking of the basics. The Galaxy Watch probably can’t single out water polo with a movement-tracking algorithm. The watch is on-par with the Gear S3 in terms of raw sensor versatility. Both have an accelerometer/gyroscope, GPS, an altimeter, barometer, and heart-rate sensor on the back.
This isn't quite as hardcore a fitness watch as a Garmin Fenix 5, but it has the technical capability to capture the same kinds of raw data. It can send music to wireless headphones too, a feature only available in some sport watches.
Features
The Galaxy Watch makes a much better smartwatch than a Garmin, too. A rotating bezel has been the key feature of this series since 2015’s Gear S. It allows for more intuitive on-the-go navigation than other smartwatches as the interface was designed around it. And you didn’t have to block the display with your finger.
None of that has changed. Both sizes of the Galaxy Watch have 360 x 360 pixel AMOLED displays, with characteristic bold colour and deep contrast. These are touchscreens, and there are two buttons on the side as well. This relative wealth of control methods could be confusing, but it generally isn’t because just about everything is centred around the rotating bezel.
The app issue
For all its strong points, the Galaxy Watch still faces the same issue as its predecessors. Relatively few apps are available for Samsung’s watch platform.
It relies on integration with Samsung features like Bixby and SmartThings instead, and Samsung’s fairly deep exercise, food and health tracking app Samsung Health. Bixby is Samsung’s Google Assistant alternative, and SmartThings a smart-home platform that can control many IoT-style devices including Philips Hue lights.
This is where Samsung’s proprietary approach starts to taste a little gritty, particularly when Bixby is not as smooth or fully featured as Google Assistant. However, it’s largely an issue for the future, given most of us aren’t comfortable, or willing, to organise our lives through a disembodied robot voice just yet.
If the Galaxy Watch variants last seven and four days as claimed, this is enough to make them appealing among the many one-day alternatives. The 42mm version costs £279, the 46mm watch £299. LTE versions are due later this year through EE in the UK. They will use an eSIM, like the Apple Watch, which shares a phone number with your mobile.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
