Hey guys, whatsup, welcome back to the channel.
So a few weeks ago I posted a review of which
smartwatch to buy in 2021. It showed some
of my favourite smartwatches of this year
and went into some detail about which brand
/ model might suit you, so if you haven’t
watched that then definitely check that out
here
But, there was a big caveat in that video
for Android users, which was to wait for the
release of Samsung’s new Watch 4.
So I pre-ordered one of these as soon as they
were announced and it’s finally here so
I wanted to give you guys my first impressions
and to bring you up to speed on what’s changed
since the previous Samsung Watch.
So let’s get into it.
What I’ve got here is the Galaxy Watch 4
Classic 46mm in Black Stainless steel and
I’ve got the ridge sport band in black.
This is the Bluetooth only option which costs
£369 or $245. If you’re someone who likes
their watch to have its own LTE or data connection
then that will add about $50 onto the starting
price. Just bear in mind that LTE or 4G versions
of the watch will require you to take out
an extra data plan with your mobile network
provider which usually costs between $5-10
per month. Personally, that’s not an expense
I’m willing to stomach when I can just teather
from my phone so I always go bluetooth only
with my smartwatches.
Anyway this classic model also comes in a
42mm version which is a nice touch for people
wanting a smaller design on their wrist, but
more interestingly there’s also a much more
modern and slightly cheaper aluminium model
now called the Galaxy Watch 4 which starts
at £249 or $299 and comes in Black, Green,
Silver and Pink Gold.
There’s also now a Galaxy Watch Design Studio
on the Samsung website, which is a really
welcome as Samsung’s website is not always
the easiest to navigate! So if you want to
customise exactly how your watch looks then
this is a great option, although I actually
got my watch directly from Amazon as it was
a bit easier.
Overall there just seems to be way more choice
of bands / colour options and customisations
available vs the previous watches from Samsung
which is great and Samsung seems to be moving
more in the direction of Apple in this respect.
So let’s open this up and see what’s inside
– it’s interesting how it’s essentially
a really basic unboxing experience. You take
the lid of the box and you’re straight into
it – no cover or sleeve or anything like you
might get on a more expensive watch.
And then inside the box you also get the magnetic
charger of course which I think people have
just come to expect now for smartwatches.
Just super simple, clips straight on and no
connectors you need to worry about, very nice.
But anyway first impressions of the design
of this watch are great. I’m going to stick
my neck out here and say that apart from the
Skagen hybrid watch this is probably the best
designed smartwatch I’ve seen so far – the
design is just absolutely stunning, and the
stainless steel finish is just so slick.
It’s like Samsung took everything about
luxury watches in terms of design and just
put it into a smartwatch – or at least that’s
what they’re trying to do.
I absolutely love the feel of the buttons
as well they just click really nicely and
then of course you have the rotating bezel
which doubles as an input method but it’s
just super tactile and quite addictive as
well to be honest! If you haven’t used one
of these before you’re going to love it.
I think the most important thing to say about
the aesthetic of the watch is that it feels
very understated. Some people wont like that
because it’s less of a statement peace, but
I’m personally a fan of the anonymous aesthetic
because it means it can be worn in multiple
different situations and still work, whether
that’s in the office, walking the dog or out
for dinner. If anything I actually think the
Watch 4 looks a little cleaner on the wrist
than the classic model. It’s more simplistic
in design, but either way they both look like
comfortable on the wrist and not too bulky
either.
When it comes to big updates from the previous
model the main news of course is in software.
So in case you weren’t aware Samsung’s
old watches ran on Tizen OS which was their
own proprietary OS platform. Now this was
surprisingly actually quite a popular bit
of software which is kind of unusual for Samsung
but it did come with some limitations around
3rd party software and it was also not as
closely connected to android as it could have
been.
Anyway Samsung have now done away with Tizen
and gone into partnership with Google to launch
what they’re calling Wear OS. So for the
Tizen fanboys this is going to be a bit of
a disappointment, but for most it will mean
a more consistent experience between phone
and watch, as well as allowing a lot more
access to 3rd party apps making it more of
a genuine competitor to the Apple Watch in
terms of usability. So I’m pretty excited
to see what this new software can do.
The new Wear OS 3 platform basically works
as a mash-up of what used to be Wear OS 2
and the old Tizen OS software that was used
to run former Samsung watches. So far, swiping
through menus feels pretty intuitive and everything
seems to live where you would expect them.
Most notably this means Watch 4 users will
now be able to use the likes of Google Maps
and Strava, as well of a whole host of other
useful quality-of-life improvement mainstream
apps that were never seemingly available on
the Tizen versions of the Watch. For now,
getting Google Maps alone back and being able
to download smartphone and smartwatch versions
of the same app onto both devices are long
overdue wins that are worth celebrating. So
I’m pretty excited to see what this new
software can do.
Apart from that there’s a few minor feature
upgrades for example BIA which measures body
composition via the water, fat and muscle
in your body via electrical signals. In fact,
the watch can actually measure this over time
so you can track your metrics and try to get
them into a healthier zone. This is actually
a pretty cool feature and is supposed to be
accurate to 98%.
Samsung has also doubled internal storage,
from 8GB to 16GB. This offers more room for
apps, and offline Spotify playlists, supported
in both generations.
When it comes to battery life, Samsung are
now saying the watch has multi-day battery
life with an average duration of 40hrs (or
roughly 2 days depending on your use). As
always with things like battery, only a long
term review will stress test this but one
disappointing thing to note is that the original
Samsung Watch had an average duration of 4
days so the trend is not a great one.I hope
this is more to do with software optimisation
than anything and I’m holding out hope that
in time this will improve. Still, battery
in the watch is one of the most important
specs so we need this to hold up to lots of
use.
The other big news is that the Watch 4 doesn’t
seem to be compatible with iPhones unlike
the Watch 3, so if you have an iPhone and
were hoping to get one then sorry, it looks
like it’s going to be exclusive to android
phones from now on, with certain features
specifically exclusive to Galaxy devices although
it’s not really clear what those are exactly.
Aside from that the watches have the same
core sensors for the most part they did previously.
They can take an ECG reading of your heart,
will monitor your heart rate 24/7, use GPS
for outdoors exercise tracking, and of course
can track blood pressure as well.
When it comes to the introduction of blood
pressure monitoring, the feature itself is
really quite cool, especially if this is something
you need to track more frequently at home
due to any health conditions. One thing to
note about this though is that unfortunately
to set-up the feature in the first place you
have to calibrate it with a proper blood pressure
monitor. So that’s something to be aware of,
because if you don’t have access to a blood
pressure monitor initially to calibrate the
watch then you wont be able to use the feature.
Once it’s up and running I personally found
it to be pretty easy to use and reasonably
accurate as well, but it’s certainly not going
to replace the accuracy of a proper upper
arm blood pressure monitor at this stage.
Finally, let’s also just cover the band
of this watch quickly, so as I mentioned I’ve
got the ridge sport band here which is a new
edition and I chose because I think it looked
the best / most in keeping with the black
stainless steel and probably the most multi-functional
as well vs something like leather which is
more of a dress band. One of the things you’ll
notice about the new Samsung bands is that
they actually but up much more closely to
the watch face than previous models. So less
of a classic watch design in that respect
and more of a modern look. Personally I don’t
love the look of that, but that’s just personal
preference I guess. Aside from that the band
itself is actually quite comfortable on my
wrist which is great but using this for exercise
you’ll probably want to switch it out for
one of the sport bands with holes in it to
help with sweat reduction and to allow your
skin to breathe a bit more. These days it
seems like people keep a selection of bands
hanging around for different occasions anyway
so just something to consider if you’re
looking at getting one of these.
So guys in summary, I’m a big fan of this
new watch. The new interface feels reasonably
snappy and easy to use and it’s great that
we’re now getting more options for 3rd party
apps.
All in all, if you’re an Android user and
you’re looking for a genuine allrounder
smartwatch then the new Samsung Watch 4 is
definitely worth checking out.
If you’re trying to decide between a Samsung
watch and an Apple Watch then the decision
has now been made for you, it simply comes
down to the ecosystem you’re in. To be honest
that’s probably a good thing anyway as the
fluidity and optimisation between the two
devices is going to be way cleaner.
If you’re looking for something else then
remember to check out my review of all the
other top smartwatches from 2021.
I’m really keen to hear what you guys think
so let me know whether you’re going to get
one in the comments below as well as what
you like and don’t like!
Anyway that’s all for now, remember to subscribe
and hit the notification bell if you haven’t
already.
I hope you enjoyed the video and I’ll see
you guys next time.