Announced in 2018, the Samsung Galaxy Watch is the cheaper alternative to the Apple watch for most people, and with its design now imitating that of a traditional wrist watch, you’d need to look a bit closely to be able to tell that its a smart watch. There’s a wide variety of options from the Galaxy store to consider for your personal health app, and with the opportunity to pair both Android and iOS smartphones, cross compatibility won’t be an issue. The Samsung Android watch takes the top spot on our best android smartwatch list, and if you want to know why, make sure you get to the end of this review. You can also take a look at the full best smart watch list.
Why We Like It – Samsung Galaxy Android Smartwatch
The Samsung Galaxy Watch is a clear winner for anyone that wants a smartwatch that stands up to what the Apple watch has to offer, and with a battery life that pushes towards 5 days, it’s not hard to see why. Still, the watch faces a lot of flack for not supporting third party apps and using Bixby over Google Assistant, but despite that, we still think it’s the best smartwatch you can get right now.
- Three to Five day battery life
- Rotating Bezel
- Wide range of fitness tracking abilities
- Samsung Pay doesn’t work on international version of watch
Performance
Running Tizen 4.0, the Samsung Galaxy Watch features an intuitive user interface that’s slightly easier to navigate through compared to Wear OS, as well as a bunch of sensors that allow it to do accurate fitness tracking and sleep tracking. There’s also a wide variety of built-in Samsung health apps that you can use, though you’ll have to be restricted to downloading from the Galaxy store because of the limited third party app support. Battery life is also dependent on which variant of the watch you choose, since the 46mm one offers a better battery life of three to five days on a single charge compared to the smaller 42mm option can only do two days to three days. The smart watch features Bixby as its on-board virtual assistant, and just like the S Voice on the Gear S3, most people aren’t very enthusiastic about it. Almost everybody feels like Google assistant would’ve been a much better alternative, and if the lack of it on the Samsung Galaxy Watch is a dealbreaker for you, then you might want to consider the ticwatch pro smartwatch.
Related: If you like this watch, you might be interested in our Fitbit Versa 2 Smartwatch review.
Design
Unlike the Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Android Smartwatch that’s available in up to 6 color options, the Samsung Galaxy smartwatch is available in either Rose Gold, Midnight Black or Silver, and we believe any of the three choices will look great on your wrist. It’s also available as two sizes – 42mm and 46mm. For both options, navigation is pretty simple as it only involves the use of the two buttons on its right and the rotating bezel. On the underside of the watch, there’s a heart rate monitor that picks up on how fast your heart is going, and even with all that, many people still argue that the build quality of both the Galaxy Watch as well as the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active isn’t as good as that of the Apple watch series. Surprising, isn’t it?
Value
Made for the outdoors, the Samsung Galaxy Watch comes with a 5ATM water resistance rating, meaning it is resistant in water for up to 50 meters in depth for 10 minutes. This means you can get caught up with it under the rain, but you’ll have to be a bit careful when you go swimming with it. For those that want to be able to use the Samsung Pay feature, you’ll have to make sure that you’re buying the US version of the watch over the international one. Google Pay on the other hand works great with the fossil gen 5 smartwatch, so there’s that option in case Samsung Pay doesn’t sound too good. Connectivity wise, the Samsung Galaxy watch supports Bluetooth, GPS, NFC and Wi Fi just like the Galaxy watch active, but it mainly connects to your iPhone or Android phone or tablet through Bluetooth. If you want a watch that’s affordable with a lot of excellent features, check out our 321OU Smartwatch review.
Samsung Galaxy Android Smartwatch Wrap Up
If users who wear OS watches would overlook the need to have third party apps installed on the Samsung Galaxy Watch or the Galaxy Watch Active, the watch would probably make for a good alternative to Apple watches. Eitherway, both the 42mm and the 46mm Galaxy Watches offer good battery life, so you’ll be able to use them for a decent amount of time before you need to lay them down for a charge.
