Samsung Galaxy Watch5
Samsung just announced the $279.99 Galaxy Watch5 and $449.99 Galaxy Watch5 Pro. Both watches boast an improved battery life with that all-important faster charging – zero to 45% hero in 30- minutes…wow!
Gone is the much-loved rotating bezel which some Samsung fans definitely won’t like but they might like the 45mm Pro version which has premium materials and is supposedly more geared towards outdoor devotees. If that’s too big for your wrists the non-Pro version comes as a 40mm option to the standard 44mm size.
Features
FeaturesOne of the new headline features is sleep coaching and more advanced sleep tracking made possible by the new body temperature sensor which is meshed with the BioActive sensor from the older Watch4, so that still delivers HR, ECG and body composition analysis.
There’s a decent headline set of hardware features to cover outdoors usage with the usual GPS, WR50 water rating, MIL standard durability, plus IP68 dust and water resistance. The Pro version even claims ‘up to’ 20 hours of GPS recording which is pretty good on the face of it. Talking of the face, the pro model gets an improved Sapphire display to complement a super-sturdy and light titanium shell.
Smart features are also pretty good with contactless payment support, WiFi, optional LTE and the more unusual addition of the latest Bluetooth 5.2 which offers long-range support as well as the potential for reduced battery consumption with music playback.
Wear OS & One UI
Better hardware always sounds good to techy writers but most people want to be able to do more stuff and, although underpinned by hardware capabilities, that essentially comes from software. Watch5 gets Samsung’s latest, greatest One UI Watch 4.5 interface sitting atop Wear OS 3. Delving under the techiness sees you will get Google Assistant as well as Bixby plus the ability to use Deezer and SoundCloud if Spotify and YouTube Music aren’t your thing.
Also interesting is voice navigation with Google Maps from the wrist. Similar to Apple and Apple Maps but instead with a navigation solution that is good ;-). Some rudimentary navigation features are added with sports in mind, namely back-to-start and the ability to download and follow GPX routes.
PreOrder the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro now with shipping on August 26th. Prices start at $279.99 for Watch5 whereas the Pro starts at $449.99. LTE versions cost an extra $50.
Thoughts
There seems to be some movement and improvement here from Samsung.
The reality of the success will come from what Google can deliver with the underlying Wear OS features. The pandemic seemed to stop development there for too long but finally, the Google behemoth is also moving. It’s definitely a case of watch this space to see what comes from Google as today’s Samsung announcement isn’t earth-shattering.
More Details: Amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.eu
Galaxy Watch5 & Galaxy Watch5 Pro Product Specifications
| Galaxy Watch5 | Galaxy Watch5 Pro | |
| Material and Colour | Armor Aluminium case with Sport Band – 44mm: Graphite, Sapphire, Silver – 40mm: Graphite, Pink Gold, Silver | Titanium case with D-Buckle Sport Band – Black Titanium, Grey Titanium |
| Dimensions and Weight | – 44mm: 43.3 x 44.4 x 9.8 mm, 33.5g – 40mm: 39.3 x 40.4 x 9.8 mm, 28.7g | 45.4 x 45.4 x 10.5 mm, 46.5g |
| Display | Sapphire Crystal – 44mm: 1.4″ (34.6mm) 450×450 Super AMOLED, Full Colour Always On Display – 40mm: 1.2″ (30.4mm) 396×396 Super AMOLED, Full Colour Always On Display | Sapphire Crystal – 1.4″ (34.6mm) 450×450 Super AMOLED, Full Colour Always On Display |
| Processor | Exynos W920 Dual-Core 1.18GHz | |
| Memory | 1.5GB RAM + 16GB internal storage | |
| Battery | – 44mm: 410mAh (typical) – 40mm: 284mAh (typical) | 590mAh (typical) |
| Charging | Faster Charging (WPC-based wireless charging) | |
| OS | Wear OS Powered by Samsung (Wear OS 3.5)[5] | |
| UI | One UI Watch4.5 | |
| Sensors | Samsung BioActive Sensor (Optical Heart Rate + Electrical Heart Signal + Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis), Temperature Sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Light Sensor | |
| Connectivity | LTE[6], Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4+5GHz, NFC, GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo | |
| Durability | 5ATM + IP68 / MIL-STD-810H | |
| Compatibility | Android 8.0 or higher and with more than 1.5GB of RAM[7] | |
More Details: Amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.eu
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It promotes itself as outdoor watch, yet uses Google Maps which is basically useless in outdoors.
It’s just me or it seems that as depending on Wear OS battery life cannot improve as Garmin or Coros do so they focus in fast Charging. And It seems that Apple would do the same with Watch Os 9.
Anyway for outdoor purposes this can’t be a good choice. As smartwatch maybe.
fast charging is a hardware thing and is important for devices that have hi-res screens and restricted battery lives.
garmin has no magic battery-saving thing. its down to the choices they make with hardware and restrictive software
yes it cant be a good choice for a pro-outdoors user but for a weekend adventurer…maybe
I mean, it’s not Samsung’s fault(they make the best Wear OS SmartWatch possible), but they focus on fast Charging trying to fade the problem with battery life if someone compares with other outdoor watches.
Google has had enough time to optimize their OS but they haven’t believe in it till now.
I’m one of those who would want to see the features of Garmin on a platform like Wear OS totally compatible with my Samsung Android phone
Actually I consider that it kind-of is “Samsung fault” – as they are responsible for the Exynos SoC in these watches.
Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 is promising 5 days battery life on Wear OS, although there are no smartwatches with this SoC on the market yet – so nobody knows if these numbers are real (but nobody tested the 3 days claim for Samsung Watch 5 Pro either).
fast charging is actually quite good imo.
it makes the apple watch much more usable once you get into a routine. mine rarely runs out of juice.
But for outdoor purposes? It’s advertised as outdoor watch. Just an example, a weekend hike in the Pyrenees. Some trail runs or long hikes.
About the Exynos SoC if it’s a problem for Samsung in Aug 2022, it doesn’t seem better for the incoming months and years due to the World context and a possible electronic components shortage.
it’s never going to compete with ‘pro’ outdoors watches like Garmin, Suunto and Coros for outdoors usage. It’s for Weekend Warriors.
Seems I’m the Weekend Warrior 🙂 I have been Garmin watches (+eTrex devices, bike computers in the past) user for last 10 years or so, now owning Epix2, but GW5+ looks tempting. I know GW5+ is way inferior to E2 when it comes to fitness, but E2 sucks as smartwatch when compared to GW5+. Battery times are getting to acceptable level (+fast charging you mentioned is also a thing) and fitness/outdoor capabilities are getting good enough. If only there would be solid OSM off-line navigation app for WearOS…
i should clarify my earlier comment “weekend warriors who want a SMARTWATCH”….same people with iPhones would buy an Apple Watch (which I have and which i use quite a lot 😉 ). my adventures fall into the weekend warrior categories too but my tri training probably pushes me out of it and into Garmin-land
That pro is one ugly watch. The whole indented watch face look. The mechanical bezel was the best part of the galaxy watch. And they killed it. I wouldn’t touch this anyways because it won’t work with any IOS products.