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As you might already know if you read my blogs I have an Android and Apple Phone, this has led me to look at other smartwatches that I can use with my Android phone. So over the past few weeks, I have been trying out the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and I have some thoughts that I would like to share with you.
Design:
I really like the design of the Galaxy watch. It comes with a more traditional circular face which I like and is one of the things that I missed from wearing a standard watch.
in terms of screen size I went for the larger 44mm version it does have a bit of bezel but nothing too extreme and it here where you can swipe your finger round to scroll through the tiles etc. The watch comes with an AMOLED display which is a really nice screen and is plenty bright enough to see in bright sunlight. the glass used for the screen is Gorilla glass so it’s very durable and I have not noticed any scratching on the screen so far.
Casing:
The Galaxy Watch 4 comes with an Aluminium metal frame which gives sleek look to this watch. You can also choose from 3 different colours, black, green and silver, I went for the green colour which I think looks really nice and something a bit different from the standard colours that are generally on offer.
I like the Aluminium as it does give the watch a nice premium feel to it without it being overly heavy, I often forget that I am wearing it.
Bands:
As with pretty much all smartwatches you can swap out your watch strap to change it up from time to time. I must admit that I haven’t changed the strap that I have on mine as I do like it as it’s pretty comfy and looks smart enough.
If you do want to get new straps there are plenty of third-party ones available on Amazon and they are not all that expensive.
Health Features
This watch packs in a lot of health features which are all really useful, it also has some additional ones that I haven’t seen on other smartwatches.
Activity Tracking:
The watch will track your daily activity, you can do this via the Samsung Health app or via Google Fit if you don’t have a Samsung phone. It does this by tracking your active times, steps and your active calories
I like the fact that the watch will prompt you to get moving if you haven’t for a period of time. You can share your progress with friends I believe but I didn’t get to try this as most of my friends are rocking iPhones.
Workouts:
There is an extensive number of workouts to choose from so there are not going to be many that you are not going to be able to find. As per other watches, it will track your max and average heart rate along with distance etc. You will also be able to see your heart rate zones which is really useful if you are training or wanting to lose weight.
Another great thing about this watch is that it will start to auto record a workout and it does need you to kick it off as it does on the Apple Watch.
Heart Rate Monitor/ECG:
The heart rate monitor is really good on this watch and will track your average heart rate and you are able to go into the watch and check what your heart rate is whenever you want. It’s also great for when you are exercising and you are wanting to keep track of what your heart rate is during that workout session.
You can also take an ECG using this watch, not this works better if you have this pair with a Samsung Phone. You will need to download an app to be able to monitor it. There is also the function to take your blood pressure but you will need to configure this with a blood pressure machine so it, is not one that I have tested but is a useful feature.
Like the Apple Watch, this will also track your blood oxygen levels. Not something that I tend to look at but is one of those features that most smartwatches seem to have today.
Sleep Tracking:
I really like the sleep tracking on this watch. It doesn’t just tell you how long you have been in bed or asleep it also provides you with the detail of the sleep cycles and how long you were in each of them.
You will be able to see this on the watch itself but to get more detail as always you will be better going into the health app on the phone. You can also put the watch into bedtime mode which is also reflected on your phone, I am not sure if this is just if you have a Samsung phone or any android phone.
For someone who is just getting into sleep tracking it’s nice that the watch is light as I can find it irritating sometimes having a watch on throughout the night.
Body Composition:
This is an interesting feature as it measures your body composition. You can use the watch to track your Weight, Skeletal muscle, fat mass, body fat and BMI. I am not sure how accurate this is but it’s quite useful to see roughly where you are and where you might need to make improvements.
Stress
The watch also has a feature that tracks your stress levels. Again I didn’t really use this feature that much at all, mainly because I honestly just forgot that it was there.
Health App:
This is where a lot of the data that you collect on your watch ends up. Again if you have a Samsung phone this will be in the Samsung Health App or you can use the Google Fit app.
I do like the way that the app is set up and makes it nice and easy to find the data that you are looking for. It’s pretty similar to what you get on Apple but just slightly different aesthetically.
Notifications:
Notifications come through quickly maybe not as quick as I have found on the Apple Watch but more than fast enough. It also gives you some quick response options when responding to notifications such as What’s App and it has an open on phone open which is interesting. I personally don’t use these features as I will generally go to my phone to read/open my notifications.
Notification will take up the watch face and you are able to swipe through them from the notification tile. You will also get a red dot to notify you of any notification that you have pending.
If you want to reduce the number of notifications you can go into settings on your phone and select which ones you want to receive.
Always on Display:
Again as with most smartwatches, you have the ability to turn the Always on Display on and off. I do like the display and find that when you are not actively interacting with the watch it dims the screen down quite low. You can activate the screen by raising your wrist or your can tap your hand on the screen to activate or deactivate the screen.
Battery LIfe:
The battery life is not bad and I have found that I can generally get about 24hrs out of the watch before having to charge it up again. This would be longer if I didn’t have the Always on Display on as this does tend to drain the battery as with most other watches on the market.
If you are looking for longer battery life then you will need to look at something like the Mobvoi TicWatch.
Watch Faces:
There are plenty of watch faces available on the Galaxy Wear app that you can choose from and you can also install more via the Google Play Store. I think that there is a good variety on the play store with a good number of free ones but if you really want to buy one there are plenty that are reasonably priced.
Complications:
You are able to change up the complications on your selected watch face. This is really easy to do by going into the watch app on your phone and changing the watch face from there.
Conclusion:
I have been impressed with the Galaxy Watch 4. It’s packed with health features, some I used a lot others not so much but still all of them are nice to have on there. I think that the biggest thing for me with this watch is the design, I really like having a circular watch especially after wearing an Apple Watch for several years.
One thing that I would like to point out is that to really get the most out of this watch it’s best to have it paired with a Samsung Phone. Not that it doesn’t play nicely with other Android phones because it does it’s just like Apple it works better with the Samsung Ecosystem. Whilst we are on playing nicely you will not be able to use this watch with an Apple Phone. So if you have a Samsung Phone I would certainly recommend looking at getting this watch.
In terms of price you are looking at spending around the £250 mark so not the cheapest but certainly the most expensive and as you can see you will get a lot of features for your money.