The Galaxy Watch 5 is quiet, stylish, and very smart. Everything about it is impressive, from its ability to run third-party apps to its fitness features. The main problem is that the battery only lasts one day, so if you don’t want to charge it every night, you should get the Pro or something less smart.
When you take the Watch 5 out of its box, you’ll notice that it has a simple, neutral look. The metal frame is strong, and the sapphire glass face is stronger than ever. It’s definitely tough enough to use in our time for day-to-day life. Over the years, the rotating bezel gained fans, including some of our own writers.
[content-egg-block template=offers_logo hide=price]I’m fine with it going away, but I know that many people, including my fellow Galaxy Watch 5 reviewers, will be upset. It keeps the watch thin, and again, if you love the bezel that much, just get the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. Other than that, the bottom of the Galaxy Watch 5 has been reshaped to make it rounder.
This gives the watch more surface area to touch the skin, which Samsung says helps the biometric sensor collect more accurate data. As for how long it will last, the watch is waterproof up to 5ATM and has an IP68 rating.
The screen is made of sapphire crystal glass, which Samsung says is 60% less likely to get scratched than it used to be. The Galaxy Watch 5 is available in Graphite, Silver, Sapphire (only 44mm), and Pink Gold (40mm only). It comes with silicone straps, but Samsung also sells other bands that can be switched out.
There is 16GB of built-in storage, but you can only use about 9GB once the Galaxy Watch 5 is up and running. That’s more than enough space to store a lot of apps, watch faces, photos, and music files, so there’s nothing to complain about there.
The Galaxy Watch 5 lets you make and receive calls; the quality is fine. You can connect a pair of earbuds to get better sound, but the built-in speaker works just fine. The Exynos W920 dual-core chipset that runs the Galaxy Watch 5 is the same one that ran the Galaxy Watch 4 and 4 Classic from last year. Performance is fine, and I only noticed a few small problems right after setting up the watch, when it was still getting used to itself.
The batteries in both the 40mm and 44mm versions of the Galaxy Watch 5 are bigger than what they were in their predecessors. The 40mm Galaxy Watch 5 has a 284mAh battery, which is more than the 247mAh battery in the 40mm Galaxy Watch 4. The 44mm version has a 410mAh battery, which is a nice improvement over the 361mAh battery in the Galaxy Watch 4.