Samsung Galaxy Watch review

GSMArena team, 10 September 2018.

Introduction

Smart watches - lambasted by many and dismissed as a fad. Even believers are holding off from investing due to poor battery life. So does the new Galaxy Watch provide the answer to address the critics?

With its new Galaxy Watch, Samsung has combined design cues and durability from its Gear S3 and Gear Sport smartwatches while appealing to an even wider audience by making it available in two sizes and three colors.

The Galaxy Watch is embodied with new health, fitness and smartwatch capabilities courtesy of Tizen 4.0, optional LTE and a new HRM module, oh - and we mustn't forget Bixby makes its appearance for the first time on your wrist.

Is this enough to make the new Galaxy Watch Samsung's most appealing smartwatch offering yet?

Samsung Galaxy Watch (46mm) model-specific specs:

  • Case: Stainless steel - Silver with black bezel
  • Display: 1.3" (33mm) Circular Full Color Super AMOLED (360 x 360), Always On Display option, Corning Gorilla Glass DX+
  • Battery: 472 mAh, WPC based wireless charging
  • Dimensions: 46 x 49 x 13 mm
  • Wеight: 63 g (without strap)
  • Strap: 22 mm (Interchangeable)

Samsung Galaxy Watch (42mm) model-specific specs:

  • Case: Stainless steel - Midnight Black with black bezel / Rose Gold with Rose Gold bezel
  • Display: 1.2" (30 mm), Circular Full Color Super AMOLED (360 x 360), Always On Display option, Corning Gorilla Glass DX+
  • Battery: 270 mAh, WPC based wireless charging
  • Dimensions: 41.9 x 45.7 x 12.7 mm
  • Wеight: 49 g (without strap)
  • Strap: 20 mm (Interchangeable)

Samsung Galaxy Watch shared specs:

  • Durability: Water Resistant (5ATM / 50 meters), IP68, MIL-STD-810G Certified
  • OS: Tizen Based Wearable OS 4.0
  • Chipset: Exynos 9110 Dual core 1.15GHz CPU
  • Storage: 4GB Internal Memory
  • Memory: LTE - 1.5GB RAM / Bluetooth - 768MB RAM
  • Connectivity: 3G/LTE, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC, A-GPS/Glonass
  • Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyro, Barometer, new HRM, Ambient Light
  • Misc: Bixby, Microphone, vibration, speaker
  • Compatibility: Samsung, other Android: Android 5.0 or higher, iPhone: iPhone 5 and above, iOS 9.0 or above

To appeal to a broader audience, Samsung broke its dependence on Android last year by making its Gear and Health apps available for iOS, but do you sacrifice too much by not owning a Samsung or even Android phone?

We thought we'd take the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, and clutching our trusty iPhone, we strapped the 46mm Silver Samsung Galaxy Watch to our wrist for a week of work-and-play to find out.

Reader comments

  • Anonymous
  • 25 Sep 2023
  • qq6

I purchased the gear s3 in March 2020, at first all was great, but every time I had to download an upgrade, the watch stopped working until I deleted the app and reopened it. Last month I performed another upgrade this time the watch stopped char...

  • Sameer
  • 02 Sep 2023
  • BEY

I have bought samsung galaxy 4 lte watch a month ago and i had issues of over heating and battery drain. Hardly it works 4 hours even though i had optimized battery use will all tips except blue tooth connected to earbud and mobile samsung make. Wat...

  • CJ
  • 16 May 2023
  • IbI

Purchased this watch new back in March of 2020 and over three years later she still works flawlessly. Battery works great, no burns on wrist from monitor. Amazingly enough shes flawless, with no scratches or chips. I've been using the Spigen liq...