Ever since the 17th century, watches have become synonymous with luxury and class despite offering a very basic function of time-keeping. Not only essential, wristwatches especially have been linked to a person’s high work efficiency, ethics, class, and some other social identifiers.

From keeping a track of your vital stats, to reminding you to perform armchair stretches, to facilitating phone calls, letting you watch YouTube videos, or even playing games, Samsung’s wrist computer is very useful – and it also shows you the time – but do all of the smart features shoved into this small puck justify the price of Rs 29,990? We’ll be taking a look in the review below.

The Galaxy Watch is available in both – 42mm and 46mm sizes – allowing you to choose the size that fits your wrist the best. Let’s take a look at the specifications of the Galaxy Watch.

It is not very surprising to see the same specifications crammed into the Samsung Galaxy Watch as available on any leading smartphone a little short of ten years ago, until you actually sit and ponder over it. I hope that my detailed review of the Galaxy Watch will help you make a decision on whether to buy it or not.

The Galaxy Watch sits neatly within a box. This is what I found inside the box

  • Samsung Galaxy Watch
  • Samsung wireless charger
  • Micro USB cable
  • Charging brick

From my very first glance, the Samsung Galaxy Watch struck me differently than any other alternative. This is because of brushed stainless steel chassis and slight heft make it resemble a premium watch – it might almost strike you as a watch from a luxury brand at first glance. The body alternates between areas with chrome and matte finishes, and the smooth round housing adds to the sense of symmetry.

On the right side of the watch lie two buttons with dedicated functions. The upper button is useful for going a step back in the interface – and sadly is the only way to do so. I wish that swiping from left to right worked as a way to go back, as it does in some of the cheaper smartwatches. The lower button serves the function of a Home button and takes you back to the main watch face from whichever screen you are in. When you’re already on the watchface, the Home button can be used to open the list of apps. 

However, you get the liberty to use any standard 22mm watch strap or band with the Samsung Galaxy Watch, which is useful.

Display

The 46mm version of the Galaxy Watch comes with a 1.3-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 360×360 pixels. The smaller variant uses a 1.2-inch display with the same resolution, so it might be a tad bit sharper but I have had no problem with the readability or sharpness of the bigger display whatsoever.

Performance

If I had a limited set of words to introduce Galaxy Watch to Samsung fans, it can be described as a crossbreed between the Gear Fit and the Gear Sport, and designed on the lines of Samsung’s Gear S series.The Galaxy Watch is a successor to the Gear S3, but it follows the same design as the latter, something which is also seen in Samsung smartphones.

To start with, let us first take a look at the smart capabilities of the watch. It currently runs on Tizen 4.0.0, and I got that update a few hours after unboxing the Galaxy Watch. For those of you who might not know, Tizen is an open-source operating system with Samsung as one of the backers, and the biggest of its customers too.

The OS, although initially adopted for all many different forms of smart devices including smartphones and tablets, Tizen now seems to be limited mostly to devices like car instrument cluster panels, smart washing machines and refrigerators, and almost all Samsung smartwatches.

You can add a variety of favorites, ranging from favorite modes of workout to favorite apps, to favorite contacts to be able to save your time. Additionally, you can take screenshots on the Galaxy Watch, store music on the watch, or even control music-related apps using the watch itself.

Like most other smartwatches, you get a host of watch faces to choose for the Samsung Watch. Further, you can also customize certain faces made by Samsung. The watch also shows notifications which you can reply to from the watch without even picking up the phone. Lastly, you also get the option to set a lock pattern or code and the watch’s display locks instantly after the watch is taken off the user’s wrist.

The screen is tiny enough to not be able to accommodate a full-sized QWERTY keyboard but you do get a T9 setup for typing in text in apps which support text input. You also get a numpad and a tray dedicated to emojis, so that you can light your conversations up.

2. Fitness and Sleep Tracking

If you’re committed to getting fitter or maintaining your health regime, visible progress can not only keep you engaged but also motivate you to hit the gym even when you’re still sore from the previous day’s workout. This is where a smartwatch like Galaxy Wear works wonders.

However, when it comes to automatic tracking, I’m not entirely convinced about the Galaxy Watch’s abilities. During my use in the last 10 days or so, the automatic workout detection did not turn on even once. I even tried resetting the watch twice in the hopes of getting the feature to work but all these efforts have been futile.

In the end, I must talk about the feature that I really like – and rely upon. It is the Galaxy Watch’s ability to identify your stress levels and assist you with a deep breathing exercise.

Although older, rather typical smartwatches from Samsung such as Gear S3 were not suitable for swimming or diving (Gear Fit 2 Pro was), the Galaxy Watch can, in fact, be used for swimming for up to a depth of 50 meters.

There is no limitation on the duration for which this smartwatch can withstand being under water, meaning that even if you don’t go out for swimming, you can very well wear this while lazing on the side of a pool or a jacuzzi for hours.

The Galaxy Watch comes 4GB internal storage which can be used for apps, screenshots, but the most useful application is storing music files on the watch. With the system apps pre-installed, you get around 2.5GB of free space, which means you can store around 400 MP3s – depending on the bitrate. Thanks to this, you can listen to music using the speaker on the side, or connect a Bluetooth headset to the watch.

Even though limited in number, the catalog of apps available for the Galaxy Watch has some useful apps. These include an unofficial (poorly optimized yet usable) YouTube app, a web browser – with which you can use the T9 keyboard, official Uber app, and a viewfinder-cum-shutter interface for your smartphone’s camera – which creepily works even without unlocking your smartphone.

I’m sure after look at the bundle of features, you must curious about the battery’s backup in different use cases and scenarios. Mostly, from actively using the watch to look at my notifications, interacting with it for music, games, tracking my health etc., I have been able to reap a battery life of more than 30 hours per charge. This is with GPS turned off and the Always-On display active.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch is capable of connecting over Bluetooth and comes with an inbuilt GPS for outdoor tracking. Besides this, there’s always Wi-Fi onboard and the watch uses the Wi-Fi credentials directly from the connected smartphone. To keep a track of whatever data the watch collects, you must install the Galaxy Wearable app from the Google Play Store or iOS App Store.

The watch keeps connected to Bluetooth for a distance of almost 10 meters and notifies you every time it disconnects from the phone. Further, the app uses Wi-Fi to connect to the Galaxy Store, but it requires the connected smartphone to facilitate the link, download essential elements, and install updates. One would think the Wi-Fi connection helps sync Samsung Health data to your phone, but that does not happen.

In terms of consistency, I found the Samsung wearable app is most useful when connected with a Samsung phone. I tried using the watch with a OnePlus 6 and faced frequent interruptions. Every time I opened the Samsung Wearable app, it would reconnect to sync the data. Further, this also obstructed the flow of notification and despite the Galaxy Watch’s ability to notify your for calls, I would miss calls.

As we’ve seen in the sections above, the Galaxy Watch is an impressive gadget and definitely a watch with a beautiful appearance. I’ve come to like the finesse of the user interface and how it swings between an incredibly useful and powerful tool for pro users and a fidget toy for really casual gaming. Let’s take a brief look at the pluses and minuses of the Samsung Galaxy Watch.

Pros:

  • Rotating ring eases navigation
  • Tactile buttons
  • Beautiful and very bright AMOLED display
  • Interactive and bug-free UI
  • Elaborate fitness sleep tracking
  • Swimming-readiness
  • Great battery
  • Stress monitoring
  • Spotify and Soundcloud support
  • Can be used for calling
  • iPhone support

Cons:

  • Limited app support compared to Wear OS
  • Automatic fitness tracking is sketchy
  • Limited 4GB onboard storage
  • No microSD support
  • Requires proprietary wireless charger
  • No dedicated sensors for blood oxygen level or swimming

SEE ALSO: Amazfit Stratos Review: Affordable, but Cutting Corners

I’ve come to really admire the Galaxy Watch or its minimal and user-friendly UI. It performs fairly well when it comes to tracking your vital stats while exercising or sleeping, except at times when it fails to track sleep data or turn on activity tracking automatically.

Nonetheless, the solid battery life, rotating dial, and the impressive AMOLED display are what should compel a Samsung smartphone user to check this watch out. The 42mm variant comes slightly affordable at Rs 5,000 lesser but beside the smaller form factor, you also get a much smaller battery, which might impair the kind of impressive battery we’ve noticed in our review.