This isn't the moment that you were hoping for from the SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH 4. The electric shock is not going to revive the dying patient. After years of neglect, it is not even a coat of paint.
The coming together of two flawed parties trying to solve an intractable problem is the next best thing.
We're talking about Wear OS 3, which is the culmination of a long-awaited attempt to fish its platform out of the bowl, since it began to flounder in 2016 or so. We are also talking about the Wearable line, which hasn't changed much since it was first introduced.
When the two companies announced their partnership in May, the former gave up control of its OS to the Korean company and the latter committed to using Wear OS on all future watches. It was not clear if it would yield positive results for the entire industry or just the company.
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The halo effect of Wear OS 3 for existing partners is still being written off, but the best experience you can find today is delivered by the new device from Samsung.
On August 11 and August 27 the SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH 4 and 4 CLASSIC are available from several popular retailers, starting at $250 and $350, respectively. The watches can be found for less at Amazon and Best Buy.
In person, the extra 2mm on the Classic is obtained through the rotating bezel, which is the same as the one on the Watch 4.
If you're buying the larger version of the aluminum Watch 4, do yourself a favor and get the green one.
The Watch 4 comes in four colors: Pink Gold, Silver, Black, and Green. Both sizes of the Watch 4 Classic are limited to Silver or Black.
The new Maison Kitsun edition for $400 and the Classic Thome Browne edition for $800 are two of the great color choices for theGalaxy Watch 4.
Upgrading to the larger options adds another $30 on top of the $30 already added. The most expensive model is the 46mm Watch 4 Classic.
The best deals for today are from the SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH 4.
The best deals for today are from the SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH 4 CLASSIC.
The Watch 4 looks like the Watch 2 Active and the Watch 4 Classic, which is no surprise given the iterative approach to hardware design that has taken place over the past few years. The names are confusing, but there is a continuity that I appreciate.
The larger versions of both watches come with 20mm sport bands made of fluoroelastomer, a rubber that is generally comfortable and doesn't irritate the skin. The Classic has a ridged sport band with a traditional watch clasp, while the cheaper Watch 4 has a straighter band that terminates in the kind of loop clasp Apple popularized with the Apple Watch. I got to replace the sport band on the Classic with a lovely blue leather band from an old Victorinox because the Apple Watch doesn't support any quick-release watch strap.
| Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 | Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 44.4 x 43.3 x 9.8mm 40.4 x 39.3 x 9.8mm | 45.5 x 45.5 x 11.0mm The measurement is 41.5 x 41.5 x 11.2mm. |
| Weight | 30.3g (44mm) 25.9g is 40mm. | 52g (44mm) 46.5g is 40mm. |
| Display | Super AMOLED 1.4-inch (330ppi) There is a 1.2-inch Super AMOLED. | Super AMOLED 1.4-inch (330ppi) There is a 1.2-inch Super AMOLED. |
| Material | Aluminum case | Stainless steel case |
| Operating System | Wear OS Powered by Samsung | Wear OS Powered by Samsung |
| Processor | Exynos W920 (5nm) | Exynos W920 (5nm) |
| Memory | 1.5GB RAM 16 gigabytes of storage. | 1.5GB RAM 16 gigabytes of storage. |
| Battery | 361mAh There is a new power rating of 247mAh. | 361mAh There is a new power rating of 247mAh. |
| Sensors | AccelerometerBarometerGyroGeomagneticLightBioActive Sensor (heart rate)ECG BIA. | AccelerometerBarometerGyroGeomagneticLightBioActive Sensor (heart rate)ECG BIA. |
| Connectivity | LTEBluetooth 5.0Wi-FiNFC The location of the gps device. | LTEBluetooth 5.0Wi-FiNFC The location of the gps device. |
| Durability | 5ATMIP68 There is a mil-STD-810G. | 5ATMIP68 There is a mil-STD-810G. |
| Colors | GreenBlackSilver The gold is pink. | Black There is silver. |
| Band size | 20mm 20mm | 20mm 20mm |
The protruding lugs look great with a traditional band, but the fact that they curve down and inwards puts a sizeable gap between the watch's side and your wrist, a necessary sleight of hand to ensure the watch's 3-in-1 health sensor makes.
The digital crown has its virtues, but there's still nothing like using Samsung's rotating bezel to navigate around Wear OS.
Go for the more expensive Classic model if you can. There is nothing else like it, and the tradeoff is worth it for the rotating bezel. I like a good rotating crown, but there is something so satisfying about scrolling through notifications, tiles, and menus without touching the display. The Watch 4 uses a hack similar to the one that was on the Watch 2 Active, but it is difficult to use. The watch 4's responsiveness was improved by a September 2021 update.
The display on each watch is great, as usual, by the way. I was surprised to see that both sizes are sharper than their predecessors and that each panel is slightly brighter. The larger Watch 4 and 4 Classic, which share the same 1.4-inch panels, are nearly twice as sharp as the Watch 3 and Watch 2 Active, which translate into more legible text at smaller sizes and less aliasing around images.
There are two buttons on the side of the watch that pull triple duty. A single press of the top button always goes home; the same action on the bottom button returns to the previous screen, which is often home because most apps aren't that deep. If you hold the top button, the power menu will light up, and if you hold the bottom button, the pay button will light up.
Samsung also improved the haptics in the Galaxy Watch 4 series, but they're still not as good as the Apple Watch.
The BioActive sensor on each button is used to pulse mild electrical signals through your body to produce BIA and ECG readings, which is more useful than the traditional chronometer style of last year's watch.
The Watch 4 has a motor that makes sounds. The Watch 4 has a higher-quality linear motor that is much easier to use than the Apple Watch, which is not used nearly as much.
I think people want to know if the transition to Wear OS is good for the watch platform, and if Wear OS as a whole is better than it used to be.
The first question I can answer is yes. Existing users will not feel alienated while benefiting from access to the Play Store and general Wear OS niceties, as the company has tried to recreate as much of its Tizen-basedUI flow as possible. Older notifications are accruing further and further from the main watch face on the far left of the navigation. The real estate to the right of the home screen is the same as it was on Tizen, with the quick settings menu still at the top. The main difference between Wear OS 3 and Tizen is the fact that the app cloud is very similar to the Apple Watch, and every bit as frustrating to use.
I encourage you not to get carried away by the idea of Wear OS on theGalaxy Watch, as I said previously, this isn't the massive reinvention many people wanted or were expecting. Instead, it is much like the existing Wearable experience with access to the Play Store and the limited selection of Wear OS apps. Since Wear OS is so closely tied to the core notification framework, you get better notifications than on Tizen, but the real upgrades are being able to open Google Maps for turn-by-turn navigation or use Google Keep to check off groceries from a shopping list as you wander.
Don't overthink Wear OS on the Galaxy Watch; it feels very much like Tizen but with access to Google apps and services.
You will get updated versions of Spotify, Strava, and others when they are released, as well as versions that didn't exist on the existing platform. Developers are more likely to build a Wear OS companion app if it is an extension of an existing Android experience because millions of SAMSUNG phone owners will be wearing Wear OS watches. We will see how it plays out soon enough.
The feature called Tiles was added to the Wear OS. Think of Tiles as a way to quickly access information on the watch face, as well as start a workout, check the weather, or start a timer, without having to open an app. During its recent developer conference, the company said that it is working with dozens of companies to build Tiles into their Wear OS apps. It is one of the best additions to the platform.
Wear OS has a feature called custom watch faces. The ones included on the Watch 4 are lovely and varied, but there are new options as well. Facer is an app that lets you pay for premium options from artists and designers, and Pujie Black is where you can design your own.
It appears that the company is not blocking long-term customization in certain areas, even though this is very much a SAMSUNG-first experience right now. The ability to download the Google Assistant from the Play Store will be arriving in the coming months, according to an update from February 2022.
The ability to install a custom launcher is hidden in the settings. You will be able to choose a new default health service provider when Wear OS 3 is updated to support the new Health Services features.
The good news is that the stuff runs well on the watch. The W920 is a dual-core chip with 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, and unlike every Wear OS watch I have ever used, it is also the most recent one. When you ask the watch to do something, it just does it, and you don't have to stare at the insipid circular loading prompt.
When it was announced that the watch had up to 40 hours of battery life, it appeared to signal that it had solved the problem of Wear OS watches needing to be charged daily. The good news is that the Watch 4 and 4 Classic, at least the larger sizes, do survive the 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 The good news is that it isn't enough to call the Watch 4 a two-day device.
The watch lasted a day and a half without any issues, because it was used as normal, with the always-on-display disabled but raise- and touch-to-wake enabled, tracking a workout, and regularly checking notifications. The always-on-display did not affect battery life that much, but I am concerned about sleep tracking.
This isn't the multi-day watch you may be hoping for, but you can easily get away with wearing it all day, tracking your sleep, and charging it in the morning.
I used the watch for three days with AOD enabled. I wore a sleep tracker to track my sleep. I was in the low double-digits when I woke up. I put it on the charge while I was getting ready in the morning, and it had 50% by the time I left the house to take my child to school. I charged it up to 100% when I got back.
If you are the kind of person who needs a smartwatch to last multiple days, it will be difficult to do here, but you can and likely will get more than 24 hours from it. The caveat is that I didn't use the gps at all, but I heard anecdotally from other people that it destroys the battery.
If the Watch 4 charged faster, the battery wouldn't be a problem. It takes nearly two hours to charge from dead to full, which means if you wear it overnight and charge it while getting ready for work or school, you will only bring it up 25%. If you want to charge it at home, you will need to buy another one for the office. This area needs to be improved next time.
One of the primary purposes of theGalaxy Watch 4 is to track health, and it pairs nicely with Wear OS. The Watch 4 series has the same outlay out health features, including a 3-in-1 BioActive sensor that pulls off heart rate, blood pressure, ECG, and Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis, which is new to smartwatches but familiar to anyone.
I used both the Watch 4 Classic and Watch 4 interchangeably throughout my week testing the series, trying to determine if having a phone from a company such as Samsung is an advantage. All health features, including BIA, can be done on the watch and sync to the health app on the phone.
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If you are doing traditional activities like running, biking, swimming, or rowing, the Watch 4 will automatically detect your movements, which makes it easy to work out with. Other exercises, like weight training, need to be manually selected. If you are a casual exerciser who just wants to track runs or count calories burned during a high intensity interval training session, the Watch 4's sensors appear to be more accurate this time around.
I used the Apple Watch Series 6 on my left wrist, the Apple Watch 4 on my left wrist, and the Fitbit Sense on my right to compare metrics as I did a high-intensity Supernatural VR workout, which I absolutely love and look forward to every day. Supernatural uses a smartwatch app to feed live heart rate data into its experience and only makes it for the Apple Watch and Wear OS, so I'm pretty thrilled I'll be able to continue wearing the Watch 4 without having to throw on an Apple Watch. I wore all four for fun.
I have never been a fan of Fossil watches and have had issues with Fitbits in the past, but the numbers I got from the Watch 4 appeared to be within a few BPM of the Apple Watch during every peak and valley. I didn't have the chance to test the gps for accuracy, but I will update this review once I can do some outdoor runs.
The social element is severely lacking compared to its competitors. There are only a couple of challenges you can issue to your friends, and they are both step-based. calories burned or minutes moved are notholistic goals. When you win a challenge, you don't get feedback or badges from the company to promote further competition. It may seem like a small thing, but these small changes are what make Apple and Fitbit so sticky.
While the BIA sensor on the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic isn't as powerful as what is built into a standalone scale, it is a helpful addition to assist users in the health journey.
I am less interested in the availability of the BIA tool than the fact that it was helpful to add it to a watch. Scales are used to figure out fat and muscle percentage, as well as the overall body mass index, with the help of BIA sensors. The Watch 4 requires you to manually enter your weight every time you use the Body Composition feature, but if you don't have a scale at home, the tool is useless. If you do, you need to weigh yourself before you use the BIA sensor.
Improvements have been made to the Body Composition feature. The Centr fitness program and the watch will provide even deeper insights into the readings from the watch.
A smart scale, which features larger electrodes that are likely to produce more accurate results, is a better option for people who are into quantitative living. Wyze sells a smart scale for under $30 and the best option is under $100.
The other concern I have is for people who may abuse the data they have access to. Given that a reading only takes 15 seconds, there is a genuine concern that those tracking weight loss may rely on it for trend data that can easily be manipulated by merely drinking. As someone who struggled with weight loss in the past and used metrics like fat percentage as a bellwether for my success or failure, I think it's time for the company to do more to educate its users about the Body Composition feature.
The Watch 4 series tracks sleep and does it well. I wore it to bed a few nights in a row and compared it to the data obtained by my Nest Hub, which has been passively tracking my sleep for months. Light, Deep, and REM are some of the sleep stages that are tracked by the company. The sleep coaching feature was added to the health app in the February 2022, update.
I am pleased with the fitness suite of theGalaxy Watch 4 even if it doesn't live up to the standards of competing platforms. There is a lot of room for improvement. Being on a platform where newer versions of Strava, MyFitnessPal, and others have access to the same sets of data that the Watch 4 Generates, much of it richer and more accurate than on previous versions, is a good thing.
Should you buy the watch?
I like the Watch 4 Classic a bit better than the Watch 4. There are no major differences between it and the 4, but the inclusion of the rotating bezel makes navigating through Wear OS 3 more pleasurable. The little bit of speed increase helps when you use your watch constantly.
Is the Watch 4 compatible with custom watch bands?
Both the Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic support 20mm bands. I haven't had any issues with reliability or comfort once the straps are installed, because the lugs are shaped a little awkwardly, making it a little difficult to install third-party straps. Make sure the band you buy supports quick release.
Is it possible to charge the Watch 4 on a charging device?
The Watch 4 supports wireless charging based on the Wireless Power Consortium. Unfortunately, the only chargers that will work consistently with the Watch 4 are the ones sold by SAMSUNG. There is a magnetic puck in the box and a line of wireless chargers that have a dedicated spot for the watch. While there are some third-party wireless charging stands that do work, they are prone to overheating, which can shut down or break your watch if you are not careful.
Don't buy a small wireless charging device expecting it to work with your watch. If it doesn't have the name of the company on the box, it probably won't work, but we will let you know if we find any worthwhile replacements.
What else do you want to know? Additional answers will be added to the FAQ based on your questions.
The Watch 4 is largely peerless at the moment. It would be irresponsible to recommend an older, inferior Wear OS watch from a company like Fossil or one of its many subsidiaries. Not only are those watches using older, less powerful hardware, but the software experience just doesn't add up, and aside from backporting a few features like Tiles, will not continue to be supported.
The Fitbit Sense or Versa 3 are capable of their own on their own, though still geared towards health tracking, rather than replying to messages on your wrist. If you're considering one of the company's pricier products, know that you're investing more in the community of loyal users and its robust suite ofholistic health and workout tracking.
The Apple Watch Series 6 is the obvious competitor to theGalaxy Watch 4, but a proxy war makes both incompatible with their respective operating systems. It is difficult to talk about the Apple Watch as a separate product because it is linked to the iPhone. The best way to use the watch is with a phone from the SAMSUNG group. The good news is that no one should be afraid of adding one of these watches to their wrist.
You should buy this.
If you buy this, you shouldn't.
If you are looking for a watch that is compatible with Android, I can't recommend anything other than the Watch 4 Classic or theGalaxy Watch 4. The clunky elements of Wear OS 3 on the Wearables betray a tension between its desire for a lock-in and its investment in the platform.
Even if you don't own a phone, there's a lot to like about this, you can use a variety of payment methods, keep your interactions to a minimum, and embrace health.
The cheaper Watch 4 is boring, but both watches are well-built, have intuitive controls, and perform like a dream. This is the best Wear OS that has ever existed.
If you can get the extra $100 for the Classic, you will get the best smartwatch on the market.
The review was published in August of 2021. The following changes were made in March 2022.
The review was updated in October of 2021.
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