Table of Contents
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active – Introduction
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is upgraded to the Gear Sport. This is a lite version of the flagship Galaxy Watch, which focuses on the monitoring of fitness and well-being. It was announced earlier in the year, with Samsung’s new Samsung S10 Unpacked. After spending some time with the latest smartwatch, we can safely say that Samsung has delivered an elegant entry-level smartwatch that should appeal to a broader audience. More focused on fitness, he loses some features of his big brother but can just enough to make a better buy for most people.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active – Design
People familiar with Samsung’s smartwatches will immediately notice the missing rotating bezel. I’m disappointed that it was gone, as it gives precision when navigating to the Tizen’s side-scrolling interface. But the good news is that thanks to its absence, the Galaxy Watch Active is 20% smaller and about 60% lighter than the Galaxy Watch. The device is so discreet that it slips under all the sheaths of my jackets and I sometimes forgot that I wore it.
This small size is excellent for comfort, but overall, I think the Active looks bland and generic without glasses. Maybe it’s because I have the robust black version instead of the silver, green or pink gold options. At least it is not ugly, and it goes with the most of my outfits. Both buttons help things once you understand what they are doing. By pressing the top, you return to a page, the bottom, the watch, or all applications when you are already at home.
Also, you can hold down the top button to launch Samsung Pay and long press the down button to turn the watch on or off. By default, double-clicking the bottom button calls Bixby, but you can customize it to launch any of the twelve apps, create a reminder, set the alarm, start a workout, or view your latest app.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active – Display
A full screen around the OLED 1.1-inch screen is compressed, which reminds me of how Samsung could have equipped a rotating bezel here (okay, I’ll stop complaining). The screen is a little small, but there is still to look at the data. I noticed that there was not as much information on some screens as an Apple Watch, which has more screen.
The quality of the screen, however, is close to perfection. The colors are well saturated; the blacks are so deep that the screen is confused with the bezel around it, and the text is bright thanks to a resolution of 360 x 360. It can become vivid enough to see in full sun. It’s fantastic, and one of the main highlights of the watch. It is also water resistant up to 5 meters deep (and is also IP68 certified), which means you can wear it when you go to the pool for a dip. A swimming track is also included here to help you do most of that.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active – Battery
Battery life is not a significant asset for Galaxy Watch Active, but it’s better than most smartwatches to work with the Google Wear OS. I often finished a day at work (around 6 pm) with about 60% remaining. The screen was set to the always off in this test. Carry him to bed, and he will be able to follow your sleep and go through half the next day before needing a supplement. The days I took the watch off my wrist when I arrived home and did not use it to monitor my sleep, I was able to spend two full days of work without a load.
Keep the always-on screen, and the watch will reach about 50% by 18 hours. It will survive the night to follow your sleep, but you will probably have to recharge it in the morning to spend a second day out of the watch. If the watch is nearly empty and you are not near a charger, you can turn on the power save mode from getting a grayscale home screen with many features.
There is another mode called “Watch Only,” which can give you several days of battery if you do not stay near a charger for a while. When I had only seven percent left, the Watch Only mode claimed he could give me two more days and 12 hours with Watch Active. In this mode, you can only see the time, nothing else.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active – Health and Fitness
As long as your goal is to stay in shape, the Galaxy Watch Active will nudge you when you have been inactive for a long time. He will not tell you to go out to run, but instead, recommend torsion of the torso. Also, you can see how much time has been elapsed since you have been inactive on some default monitor faces. You have some popular third-party applications such as MyFitnessPal, MapMyRun, Strava, and Spotify, which even lets you download tracks for offline listening.
The Galaxy Watch Active features automatic workout tracking for six routines and tracks a total of 39 different workout routines. This includes everything from running to weight, lifting to swimming. The re’re different profiles for indoor and the outdoor swimming. You can even set the length of your pool before following your swimming practice on the watch. As it has a GPS chip, you can also track your shopping without having to carry a smartphone with you.
It works well, and I have not encountered any problem not only with getting the watch but also with its GPS signal throughout the period. Also, It can actively monitor your heart rate throughout the day and also uses it for its stress monitoring function. It’s essentially a measure of the variance of your heart rate. If you notice that you are too stressed, the smartwatch will recommend breathing exercises. All health and fitness data is transmitted to the Samsung Health app on your smartphone.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active – Performance
With the Galaxy Watch active watch, you’ll get high-end internal components to power your watch. Inside is an Exynos 9110 chipset, a 1.15 GHz dual-core processor. This is the same technology that was inside the Galaxy Watch, and that is coupled with 750 MB of RAM.
This configuration gives power to the watch, and it is particularly fast if you compare it to some Wear OS watches equipped with the older Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset. The applications you want to use on the watch are loading as fast as other smartwatches, and we have never noticed a shift in the interface of the watch.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active – Software
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active incorporates the latest version of Tizen, which was one of the most limited smartwatches operating systems. It’s still not as perfect as watchOS (that’s what the Apple Watch uses) or Wear OS (it’s what used to be Android Wear), but it’s matured a lot.
It’s beautiful and easy to understand. Tap the display or tap the button at the top right to display the face of your watch. From the re, you can see your past notifications by scrolling to the left or the widgets if you scroll right. All notifications received on our iPhone when using Watch Active have appeared on our watch, but there are not many features apart from reading what they say. Instead, you will bring your phone to interact with them.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active – Conclusion
This is the smartwatch if the first entries on your shopping list are that your Samsung watch looks great on your wrist and it is comfortable to wear during training. It’s not the smallest device on the market today, but it’s a particularly bright and the beautifully designed color display and metal design. Battery life is not a good thing to talk about, but it is enough to spend a few days, and wireless charging makes it easy to charge.
The capabilities of the Galaxy Watch Active pleasantly surprised me. The design is simple but elegant, the display is exceptional, and it is without a doubt one of the most comfortable smartwatches on the market. Some limitations remain in the form of application and Bixby support. The first has long been a problem and has not been entirely in the hands of Samsung, but the company must ensure that Bixby works much better, and as soon as possible.
The Galaxy Watch Active would be the smartwatch that I would buy if I started in smart watches. It offers much more than you expected and does a decent job of monitoring health and fitness. It is an excellent value for money at only $200.