SAMSUNG Galaxy Watch5 (40mm) Review – Best Android Wear Available

SmartWatches today, they provide information, time, health data, behaviors, patterns and workout guides. These are the common modern traits of a Smart Wearable device today. But ever since Samsung’s move from Tizen to Android Wear has definitely gave advantages with more enhancements and upgrades over certain features on how we use our wearables.

Today we will dive in to the review of the Samsung Galaxy Watch5, a wearable that is kind of serious in specs and features, but still fun and fashionable watch on your hands.

Do take note that the Galaxy Watch5 series came in 40mm and 44mm variants, however what we cover in this review will cover both in terms of functionalities.

Unboxing and Contents

The Samsung Galaxy Watch5 comes with the following:
1 X Watch itself
1 X USB C to magnetic charging cable
1 X User manual and Quick Start Guide, Warranty Statement

Design & Display

The Galaxy Watch5 weighs around 29 Grams with its surrounding frame body of the watch covered by aluminum, which wearing it towards any small to medium size wrist feels lightweight and comfortable with the included wrist strap size in the box. The strap portion is removable and easy to maintain with its soft rubberized material but strong with colors matching your watch which you can wipe the whole watch and strap with a soft cloth and wear it back to your wrist. The unit that we are reviewing here is in Pink Gold which represents color that matches social vibes and modern fashion.

Display wise, the Galaxy Watch5 that we are reviewing here features a 1.2 inch AMOLED display which is a nice size to wear with small to medium size wrists, with good display contrast and colors under bright sunlight. The Samsung Galaxy Watch5 (40mm) is also waterproof with up to 50 meter depth and the glass display is protected by Sapphire Crystal.

There is only two button on the watch facing towards the right side of the watch, one button that is back to homescreen while the other one is customizable, but by default it is set to Samsung Pay. It comes in three color choices, Graphite, Silver, and Pink Gold, which is the same color and design language to some of it’s flagship Galaxy S and Z series of Smartphone within Samsung’s lineup.

Features and Tracking

The Samsung Galaxy Watch5 has a few standout features as below :

• 3-in-1 BioActive Sensor
  Enables the watch to monitor Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis sensor, Electrical Heart sensor (ECG – Varied by country), and Optical Heart Rate sensor (HR)
• Sleep Tracker
  As the name says, tracks sleeping stages, bedtime planning and snoring detection with alert.
• Body composition app
  Measures weight, skeletal muscles, fat mass, BMI
• Samsung Pay App
  Takes the advantage of the Galaxy Watch5 built in NFC chip to make payments by just touching the compatible VISA/Mastercard credit/debit card payment terminal.
• Blood Oxygen (Sp02)
  Measures Blood oxygen on your body, and it is configurable as manual track or continuous, can be used together when you are sleeping or resting.
• Stress Monitor
  Monitor your stress and breathing control, it can be configure as a constant monitoring to provide a much detail results throughout the day
• Sports and Exercise Tracking
  This Watch can calibrate and customize based on the user’s needs up to 90 modes, from Cycling, Walking, Swimming, Yoga, Running, Hiking and more. The tracking is also compatible with gym based exercise and its activities.

Software, Connectivity & Experience

The Samsung Galaxy Watch5 runs on Google Android Wear 3.5 with One UI Watch 4.5 from Samsung, setting up is easy and straightforward, all you need is to download Samsung Wearable App from Google Play Store, install it, turn on Bluetooth on both the phone and watch and follow the steps give to connect together.

Further customisation can also be done such as changing watch faces and adding in your own emoji. Do take note that the Watch5 series is only compatible with Android 6.0 and above phones for now and it is best to have Samsung Account so you can upload your data to the cloud and sync with your other Samsung devices. Besides that, any compatible Android Wear Apps can also be installed from Google Play Store, providing even greater flexibility to more usage, and you can even listen to music or audio from your Galaxy Watch5.

Once the connection is established via the Wearable App, you can also pair it with other Samsung Accessories such as the Galaxy Buds Series, which provides seamless integration with all Samsung’s own accessories. Also remember to register with a Samsung account if you don’t have one. All connectivity can be done via Bluetooth connection with BLE and after that you can configure to use WiFi. A single charge thru the supplied magnetic USB cable will get you around 2.5 days at most of usage which power saver will be prompt when reached below 20% before recharging it. To my personal preference, I am ok with charging once every 2 days with most the features turn on with some notifications off and monitoring when experiencing with this Watch, and being a full fledged Android Wear, to me it is considered as a good performance with good amount of 1.5GB RAM and 16GB of internal memory although I still wish it could last a bit longer on the battery life part.

Technical Specifications

Verdict and thoughts

The Samsung Galaxy Watch5 is a fashion combo full fledged Android Wear Watch that does it all, from showing it around, casual wear, fitness and wellness that is one Watch that fits all purpose together. With so many features integrated and upgraded battery capacity, it is set to priced at RM1099 for 40mm model and RM1199 for the 44mm model and widely available via online stores and Samsung Authorised Outlets.

For more information and pre-purchase on the Galaxy Watch5 series, visit HERE to find out.

Special thanks to Samsung for loaning the product for review