Samsung Galaxy Watch first impressions: Best features and what it's missing
Samsung Galaxy Watch first impressions: Best features and what it's missing
2018-08-24
this is the Samsung watch a fresh take
on the old gear SmartWatch that feels
like a hybrid between last year's s3 and
gear sport with a slightly different
look new paint job larger battery and
toned down version of Samson paint
okay so first starters you're gonna have
to take this with a grain of salt
because I haven't even had 24 full hours
with this watch
but here's kind of what I've learned so
far also my main concern for my
SmartWatch is actually the Fitness
features for this video now let's start
with the obvious this watch looks pretty
sleek with the same round watch face and
rotating dial it comes in a 46
millimeter screen option and this 42
millimeter version that still looks kind
of large on my wrist but it's a big
improvement over its clunky manly
predecessors the rose gold finish
obviously helps but it also comes in
black and silver with swappable bands so
this is the first gear watch that I as a
woman would be comfortable wearing all
day it actually looks really nice I'm a
huge fan of the round watch face and the
dial as a means to control it it still
looks kind of chunky from the side but
I'm actually ok with that and the straps
are swappable but it's not that easy to
swap them out so say if I'm going for a
run it's not like I could swap it out
for a sports band very easily you kind
of have to take some time with it and
you have to have very delicate fingers
which I personally don't the next big
improvement is supposed to be the
battery life samsung says it can last up
to three days on a charge or up to four
days for the larger model but that might
be optimistic given our experience so
far though in theory you will be able to
wear it all day and all night
so I've been wearing the watch now for
about 20 hours and it's already at 11%
this is a watch that's supposed to last
three whole days now keep in mind I've
been shooting with it all day so the
screen has been on a lot and I did use
it to track my sleep so I would say that
I used it more a little bit more than
the average consumer but still it's
barely gonna make it to the 24 hours and
if you are really into sleep
this is an important feature so check
back with us about the battery life
because it could be a pain point for me
personally and then extra juice is key
for sleep tracking which the watch does
as well it counts the time and quality
of each session based on heart rate and
movement full disclosure I hate tracking
my sleep mainly because I don't get
enough of it and seeing that I don't get
enough of it it's kind of depressing but
I did sleep with this lot and I was
happily surprised that it was not that
uncomfortable to sleep with it did track
my not only the quantity of sleep as its
supposed to but also the quality and I
get I guess some the information was
semi helpful what I didn't like was that
it didn't give me contact so it says
okay I've slept four and a half hours in
deep sleep but it doesn't tell me what
that compares to is that normal is that
good is that bad is that terrible
I have no context for that it also uses
heart rate to detect stress levels which
is new to the watch Simpson says it
sends you a notification when it detects
a spike in stress levels based on heart
rate during a period of inactivity and
suggest you take a breather apparently I
haven't been too stressed out in the
last 20 hours because I haven't received
a notification about it but I have taken
my stress test manually and I don't know
that it's all that accurate it's so
subjective that I feel like this feature
feels a little bit gimmicky I like that
they're trying to be proactive about
using your heart rate for the different
things and telling you to relax but like
I said it's there's just so many factors
that play into stress that I don't know
that it can get it right TBD in fact
health seems to be a big part of this
refresh the Samsun watch checks all the
marks when it comes to sensors heart
rate barometer and GPS it can measure up
to 39 different activities and detects
six of those automatically running being
one of them
and this time it's good to track your
swims both in the pool or in saltwater
what's also cool about the watch is the
level of customization you can reach on
the interface you can pretty much
program anything from your shortcuts to
the layout of your workout app it also
has its own watch face store which means
endless design options on your screen so
I'm definitely looking at the fitness
features when I look into buying a
SmartWatch and and this one was pretty
good I liked all the activities that it
offers I can't really speak to the
accuracy of it because I've only taken
it on on one run and I kind of had to be
clicking through to find the stats that
I wanted to see during my run but I
suspect that if I spend a little more
time just kind of adjusting and
customizing the data to what I want to
see that would be solved and that's a
huge plus of this watch is that it's
super super customizable everything from
the shortcut screen to the workout
screen you can select what you see first
and and I really like that about it the
amount of control I have over what I see
in the way that I use it but the sleeker
design and larger battery come at the
expense of MST the technology that
allows Samsung pay on the Galaxy phones
and gear s3 to work on older credit-card
machines this watch is NFC only like
most other mobile payment systems out
there I was really disappointed to find
out that this watch didn't have the MST
like the gear s3 had so that would have
really differentiated this watch and it
doesn't have it according to Samsung it
would have made it a lot more bulky so
they prefer to add the larger battery to
it the watch starts at 329 dollars for
the smaller Bluetooth connected model
with an increase in price for the larger
watch face and LTE connectivity which
will vary from carrier to carrier what's
clear is Samsung is broadening its reach
with the Samsung watch giving consumers
especially the female kind a few more
reasons to buy it as you can see this
was a very very early first impression
I'm gonna keep testing it out I'm gonna
take it on more runs I'm gonna workout
with it I'm gonna
test out more smart features and the
connectivity so come back in a couple of
weeks maybe a month to see our full
review and in the meantime let me know
what you think of the sim so watch
what's your first impression hit me up
on the comment section below or on
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