Samsung Galaxy Watch review

Our Verdict

With four days of bombardment life, an attractive design, great fitness features — and did we mention the battery life? — the Samsung Milky way Scout is a footstep forrard for smartwatches.

For

Stylish design
Long battery life
Good fitness features
Built-in music storage

Confronting

Few apps for Tizen
Bixby far less capable than Google Assistant

Tom's Guide Verdict

With four days of bombardment life, an attractive design, great fitness features — and did we mention the battery life? — the Samsung Galaxy Watch is a step frontward for smartwatches.

Pros

+
Stylish pattern
+
Long battery life
+
Skillful fitness features
+
Congenital-in music storage

Cons

-
Few apps for Tizen
-
Bixby far less capable than Google Assistant

When the Samsung Galaxy Watch first came out, information technology proved there'southward a real identify in the world for smartwatches. Equally phones get bigger, it's increasingly handy to be able to simply glance at your wrist and notice the fourth dimension, who's calling or texting, the atmospheric condition, and more.

But one matter that kept me from buying a smartwatch: battery life, or, more than precisely, the lack thereof. Even now, a few years afterward I conducted this Samsung Milky way Sentry review, the best smartwatches will last ii days at the most.

The Samsung Galaxy Sentry doubled that meager endurance, which is one of the reasons it became the all-time sentinel for Android smartphone owners.

Editor's notation: The Samsung Milky way Watch and its successors, the Active 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, are existence replaced with the Samsung Milky way Watch 4 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Archetype, which has a refreshed design, a 3-in-1 health sensor for measuring eye rate, taking ECGs and reading body composition, and a new WearOS operating arrangement.

None of the older models will not get the merged software, only if you're interested in a refurbished model, or accept some questions about the features of your existing smartwatch, read the Samsung Galaxy Sentry review beneath.

Samsung Milky way Sentry: Toll and availability

Samsung offers the Galaxy Watch in two sizes and three colors. The smaller, 42mm model comes in either all blackness or rose golden, while the 46mm model comes only with a silvery case and blackness bezel and strap.

If you lot opt for the Bluetooth version of the 42mm model, it'll price you $329; an LTE version through T-Mobile is $379. Similarly, the 46mm Bluetooth model is $349, while the LTE version (too through T-Mobile) is $399.

Samsung Milky way Scout: Blueprint

There's a congenital-in tension with smartwatch design: They need a brandish large enough to bear witness information from apps and the like, yet tin can't exist then big that they look outrageous on smaller wrists.

We tried out both the 42mm and 46mm Galaxy Picket. My colleague Caitlin establish the smaller of the two watches a little large and heavy (1.73 ounces) for her tastes. I tried the larger model, which fit my wrist nicely. However, it'southward an even heftier 2.22 ounces. By comparison, the Garmin Forerunner 235 weighs 1.6 ounces, but that picket has an all-plastic blueprint

Only nosotros both loved the way the Galaxy Watches looked, despite their majority. The rose-gold model is a true rose golden, equally opposed to the pinkish that other manufacturers have tried to laissez passer off every bit rose aureate. (Caitlin's rose-gold Apple tree Watch Series 2 is pinkish; there'south no getting around it.) And the round example is rounder than those of by Samsung watches, including last yr's Gear Sport, which sported a squared-off example despite its round face.

The 46mm model of the Galaxy Watch has a silver case and a blackness bezel; the buttons on the correct side are besides topped with black condom with a raised pattern, giving them a dainty tactile feel.

While Samsung offers only the silverish option for the 46mm model, the 42mm watch is bachelor in rose gold or black.

Samsung advertises the new Galaxy Watch every bit being tougher than previous models; its screen is protected by Gorilla Glass DX+, and it'due south dust- and water-resistant to 165 anxiety. There's even an Squirt H2o function that forces liquid out of the spotter by diggings its speaker..

Samsung Galaxy Watch: Interface and Tizen Os

For meliorate and worse, Samsung is sticking with its Tizen operating organization. Organizationally, this Os is far better than Google'due south Wearable Os and, to some extent, Apple's Picket OS. Screens are logically laid out and can be easily reordered and customized with a few presses and taps on the Galaxy Lookout man's screen.

In addition to the home screen, which shows the date, time and battery level (depending on which watchface you utilise), at that place are screens for the weather, recent apps, health stats, calendar, contacts and more than. Press and concur on any of these screens, and you can move them further upwardly or back in the rotation.

The rotating bezel on the Galaxy Watch continues to be a defining characteristic. Spinning the punch is a nifty culling to swiping or trying to poke at something with your finger. For case, y'all can swipe left or right to admission dissimilar screens, or you can rotate the dial, which has a satisfying clicking machinery.

Press and hold on the watch-face screen, and you tin change its colors, design, complications and more.

I also like that y'all take granular control over notifications, apps and more. You can respond to notifications, such as text messages, in a variety of ways: dictating your reply, choosing one of multiple emojis, using a quick reply (such as Yes, OK or Talk to you later), typing out a response using an on-screen keyboard or using your finger to draw letters.

The Tizen OS is too speedy. With few exceptions, the watch responded instantly to my swipes, presses and taps. It doesn't hurt that the Galaxy Lookout man has a much newer processor than all Article of clothing Bone watches, which use a Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU that's 2 years sometime.

To be fair, Google has made some major improvements to Wear Bone that should bring its functionality on a par with that of Tizen. And a new scrap is also expected this fall that should speed newer watches upwards, including Google'southward own rumored Pixel Spotter.

Samsung Galaxy Sentry: Fitness features

The Milky way Watch introduced automated do-tracking for six workouts, including running and cycling. If you enable location detection (GPS and wireless networks) in the watch's settings menu, the watch is supposed to record your route. However, this didn't work for either of u.s.a. over the course of several walks, runs and bike rides. Rather, the map view showed a general location of where we were, merely the mileage recorded was pretty shut.

When nosotros manually started a workout, the watch's GPS locked on within 30 seconds, whether we were in the urban center or in the suburbs, and it accurately tracked our movements. Nosotros also found that the scout was accurate when recording our centre rates, though it would occasionally fail to appear on the display.

While there are a dearth of Tizen apps from bona fide companies, Under Armour has been one of the few that has made its apps — MapMyRun, UA Record, Calorie Counter and Endomondo — uniform with Tizen.

I've used the MapMyRun app on my telephone and other devices for several years, and I like its implementation on the Galaxy Spotter. The app lets yous choose from among numerous activities and can be prepare to give vocal status updates at given distances or times.

Y'all tin also customize, to a limited extent, what appears on each status screen (pace, time, eye rate), and you can swipe between various screens and then that the information that's almost important is what's most prominently displayed. That's a skillful thing, because the smaller data points are hard to read while you lot're running.

More than: The Doctor on Your Wrist: How Smartwatches Are Saving Lives

I just wish you could change these screens before starting an exercise. One other nice affect: As your heart rate ramps upwardly, the groundwork color of the app changes, from blue to green to reddish.

Samsung Galaxy Sentinel: Battery and charging

Samsung claims that the LTE versions of its watches will go the distance; the 270-mAh battery in the 42mm model volition last up to 3 days, while the 472-mAh battery in the 46mm model volition last upwards to four.

While we have merely the Bluetooth models to test, their endurance seems to be roughly the same equally the LTE versions. I used the 46mm model, and after charging it fully one night, I wore it for the next four days, receiving email notifications, checking my heart rate and using auto activity tracking, before the watch drained down to less than 20 percent.

Keep in mind, though, that using GPS for tracking your exercises will crusade the battery to bleed much faster. Thirty-infinitesimal runs using both GPS and the heart charge per unit monitor dropped the battery charge by between six to 7 percentage. We await forward to putting Samsung'due south LTE claims to the test.

More than: Apple Scout vs. Samsung Galaxy Watch: Which Smartwatch Is All-time?

Like Samsung'south previous watches, the Galaxy Watch sits on its side in the included wireless charging dock. I like that the display automatically rotates 90 degrees, so you lot tin can use it equally a mini-desk clock.

Samsung Galaxy Watch: iPhone compatibility

For the bulk of this review, I tested the Galaxy Scout paired with a Samsung Galaxy S8, but one of the "benefits" of Tizen is that information technology works with iOS devices, as well. You can't say that about the Apple Spotter.

However, every bit with Wearable Bone, using Tizen with an iOS device is not a great experience. Interactions are much more express. While you tin can view notifications from e-mail, Facebook and more, you tin can't respond to them. You can respond to text messages, just not iMessages, and y'all can't initiate text letters, either. Nor can y'all send email.

It was more difficult to discover apps, too; but those that are free volition show upwards. And if you're looking to use Samsung Health, be aware that GPS is not supported.

Samsung Milky way Watch: Apps

The one area where Tizen lags behind both Apple and Google is in apps. While Samsung says there are more than than 70,000 Tizen apps, adept luck finding annihilation from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Instagram or many, many others. That really limits what yous can do. For example, while you tin can receive and reply to notifications from these apps, such as Facebook Messenger or Twitter, yous can't initiate a message to a contact in that app.

Good luck using Google Maps to find directions. Instead, y'all have to utilise the Hither WeGo app; formerly a Nokia product, the maps look smashing and provide directions for driving, transit, walking and more. I liked that if I started directions on the WeGo app on the telephone, they automatically appeared on the watch.

Still, for those Android users who are deeply invested into Google's ecosystem, it's a bit of a drawback to lack access to that visitor's apps.

There are scores upon scores of watch faces bachelor, many of which cost anywhere from 99 cents to $2. You should be able to find enough free faces to satisfy your horological desires.

More than: Smartwatch Buying Guide

Samsung Galaxy Watch: Bixby

Alexa, Google Assistant, Cortana, Siri, Bixby: Every company wants its ain personal assistant, only not all of them have put in the work to brand the plan worth using.

Bixby, Samsung's take on voice assistants, is probably the least functional of all. On the Galaxy Lookout man, Bixby did piece of work well for some tasks, such every bit calling and texting contacts, looking up the weather condition, and starting workouts. Still, information technology failed at other bones questions. "Do the Yankees play tonight?", "Become directions home," and "Turn off my floor lamp" all returned the same respond: "I could non find the reply to your question."

Bixby could get me directions to Yankee Stadium via the Here WeGo app, providing options for car, public transit, walking and biking; nonetheless, the watch's screen went bare as the sentinel was calculating everything, requiring me to reawaken it. Directions are suited for the lookout man's small screen: A large arrow dominates the brandish, telling you the management of your next plough. Beneath that is the distance to the turn and the name of the street.

Samsung Galaxy Watch: Smart home integration

Synergy! Somewhat. Samsung is slowly working its SmartThings smart-home capabilities into the company's other products, from refrigerators to vacuums to routers. A SmartThings app for the Milky way Watch also lets you control smart home devices from your wrist. I institute the app a bit tedious to load the status of all my smart dwelling devices (of which in that location are dozens), but after that, I was able to turn lights off and on very chop-chop by pressing a button on the watch'south brandish.

You tin use the lookout man status every bit an automation condition, but with some limitations. You can set continued devices to change if the status of the watch indicates you lot're awake, sleeping, working out or not working out — so, if you're working out, you tin can have the lights plough on and have a smart speaker play music.

Still, I wish you could create an automation based on the watch's location. So, for example, if y'all were going out for a run (and leaving your telephone behind), SmartThings would automatically lock the door behind you and plough off the lights.

Samsung Galaxy Watch: Verdict

For its battery life lonely, the Samsung Galaxy Lookout is the best smartwatch for Android users. Being able to go four days without a recharge is reason plenty to pick upwardly this device. We also really like the Tizen interface, which is intuitive and easy to navigate, whether you're swiping across the screen or using the lookout's handy rotating bezel.

Having onboard music storage — essential for those who want to travel light when working out — is also a key differentiator from smartwatches running Google's operating system. That said, there are far fewer apps for Tizen than there are for Habiliment Bone, and Bixby is well behind Google Assistant.

iPhone owners should stick with the Apple Spotter, as the integration is much more robust and seamless. Just until Google (and others) come out with Clothing Os watches that can go the distance with the Milky way Sentinel, Samsung's wearable is the one to get.

Michael A. Prospero is the deputy editor at Tom'south Guide overseeing the dwelling house, smart dwelling, drones, and fitness/wearables categories, as well as all buying guides and other evergreen content. When he's non testing out the latest running scout, skiing or training for a marathon, he'southward probably using the latest sous vide machine or some other cooking gadget.