14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung’s Galaxy Watch is often considered the only truly capable rival to Apple’s Watch, and while I don’t think this is necessarily accurate, there are several reasons many people embrace this idea.
First of all, Samsung is one of the companies that invest aggressively in wearables, and the Galaxy Watch itself is living proof in this regard.
Second, the South Koreans are trying to stay close to Apple with their very own innovations, like the rotating bezel that Samsung has used on several smartwatches already.
And third, Samsung developed its very own wearable platform for smartwatches and other devices, and this does nothing more than show the company is here in the long run.
Positioned as an Apple Watch rival, the Galaxy Watch isn’t necessarily an expensive gadget, but it’s not affordable either. And because customers no longer seem to be interested in spending big on electronics, Samsung had to adapt.
This is how the Galaxy Watch Active came to be, with Samsung trying to build a combination of the premium package on the Galaxy Watch, but with minor changes here and there to lower the price. Does it work? Let’s find out together.
The first thing you should know is that the Galaxy Watch Active launched with a $199 price tag, so it’s one of the most compelling products from a pricing perspective.
Like the Galaxy Watch sibling, the Active features a pretty exquisite design which clearly shows it was developed by a company that cares about premium looks.
The circular design, which I actually like more than the square-shaped Apple Watch, comes without a rotating bezel, as this was clearly one of the features that contributed to a higher price tag eventually.
The first thing I noticed after opening the box is that the Galaxy Watch Active is small. Or at least, smaller than I expected, and while I don’t have ridiculously large wrists, I think it’s more appropriate for women or people with small hands.
Unfortunately, there’s just one size of the Galaxy Watch Active measuring 40mm, so there’s not much you can do about it. I usually like larger watches, and after a couple of weeks wearing the Galaxy Watch Active, I still think it’s too small.
The main drawback of this reduced size isn’t necessarily the way it looks on your wrist, but its limited usability. Without a rotating bezel and with a 1.1-inch display, it’s pretty difficult to browse through menus, and I think you should give it a few days to get used to it.
I’ve never been a big fan of the rotating bezel on the Galaxy Watch, and although I liked it, I found myself using it on rare occasions. However, I wish I had it on the Active, especially given the small display.
With a resolution of 360x360 pixels, this is one high-quality AMOLED display. My daily driver is a Vivoactive 3 Music, so you probably understand that after using the Active for a couple of days I felt like a discovered a whole new world. In fact, a high-quality screen is what I think Garmin’s smartwatches/activity trackers need right now to compete against the top models out there right now.
The screen of the Galaxy Watch Active features vivid colors and good contrast, and the sunlight readability is excellent. You can adjust the brightness if you want, but be aware that the higher the level, the bigger the impact on the battery.
The design overall is compact, and the watch feels solid both in hand and on the wrist. There are two side buttons on the right, and while some complained they’re easy to miss, I actually like them because they’re not so obvious at first glance. You get used to them after a few days, and you’ll know when they are even without looking at the watch.
The back of the phone is all about the heart-rate tracking sensors, with a mysterious component placed on the side. It looks like a SIM tray, but it isn’t, as the Galaxy Watch Active does not feature LTE support. Instead, it’s a microUSB connector hiding under a small cover, and Samsung uses it for servicing. Some people could find it rather intrusive, but you can very well forget it’s there. And the most important, don’t try to open it! The watch’s IP68 rating could be affected if you break in there on your own.
The Galaxy Watch Active uses 20mm straps, and it ships with a silicon version inside the box. The band itself is soft, so the device overall feels pretty comfortable most of the time.
When it comes to hardware, you get a rather mixed package that includes both strong and weak points, and this is something that makes total sense given the price point.
The device comes with a dual-core Exynos 9110 processor clocked at 1.15 GHz and paired with 768MB RAM, the same as on the Galaxy Watch – however, note that the Galaxy Watch also came in an LTE flavor with 1.5GB RAM.
The rest of the hardware is nearly identical with the one of the Galaxy Watch, albeit you’ll also miss a few features. First and foremost, the Galaxy Watch Active features both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, with GPS support that includes GLONASS, GALILEO, and BDS. NFC support is also offering for wireless payments.
In terms of sensors, the Active features the following: accelerometer, barometer, gyro sensor, HR sensor, and light sensor.
In a real-life scenario, this means you get nearly the full offering in this $199 package, so at first glance, it’s really not that bad.
The biggest difference between the two is the battery. While the Galaxy Watch features a 472 mAh unit, the Active’s battery has been reduced to just 230mAh. Both use the same Qi wireless charging system.
On paper, this doesn’t sound worrying, but it could be when using it as your daily driver, especially if you’re the kind of person who exercises a lot. As we know already, the GPS module is the biggest battery hog on smartwatches, and the Galaxy Watch makes no exception. Run for an hour with GPS tracking on and you lose more than 20 percent of the battery, and the battery impact could be even bigger if you listen to music using Bluetooth headphones.
For a casual user that exercises occasionally and relies mostly on the smartwatch side of the device, a recharging cycle every 30 hours is recommended, though I think that plugging it in during the night is the best way to go.
Like all regular smartwatches that double as activity trackers, the Galaxy Watch Active can almost do them all, so you get running, cycling, and so much more. There’s support for a total of 39 activities, and you can also install third-party apps like Strava should you want expanded functionality. You can get stats like burned calories, distance, and other estimates that are also available on the Galaxy Watch.
Sleep tracking is also available, and given the dimensions of the watch, it’s actually very comfortable to wear to bed. Samsung uses the same auto-tracking mode as on the larger and more expensive sibling, so the Galaxy Watch Active begins logging data when you fall asleep, but also when you work out, should you not begin a session manually.
In terms of hardware, there’s not much you lose when compared to the Galaxy Watch, and if you’re the kind of person who works out only occasionally, you’ll be fine with it.
One little thing that you should have in mind, though. I noticed that every once in a while, the Galaxy Watch doesn’t track all your steps, and as compared to the Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music and Fitbit Ionic, it misses a few steps every once in a while. At the end of a running session, I estimate that the Galaxy Watch Active misses approximately 10 percent of the steps, which isn’t necessarily a lot, but is something that you would otherwise want to be tracked.
Jumping over to the software side, I still love the Samsung’s Health app, which is pretty much the only true rival to Apple’s Health.
More notable on the Galaxy Watch Active is its stress level measurement, which keeps an eye on your heart rate peaks and sends a notification whenever you need to relax. This is clearly a welcome feature, but I don’t think it’s 100 percent accurate at this point, as there were moment when it actually warned of high stress level when I was, in fact, about to fall asleep.
The device also features with a blood pressure monitor feature that isn’t enabled right now, but it should be in a future update.
Regarding software, I think this new version of Tizen, which on the Galaxy Active 3 is 4.3, is better optimized than the previous releases. I could be wrong, but I think the Active loads notifications and apps faster than the Galaxy Watch, mostly thanks to what I believe to be small tweaks to animations.
My Galaxy Watch is still running Tizen 4.1, with no word on a new update to version 4.3, so it remains to be seen if and when the device receives the new software how these animations are optimized.
THE BOTTOM LINE
It’s pretty clear that Samsung’s purpose here was to create a slimmed down version of the Galaxy Watch. By launching a more affordable smartwatch, Samsung can go after customers that Apple continues to ignore. These are the people who don’t want to pay several hundreds of dollars on a smartwatch and would rather go for a cheaper alternative.
At first glance, it’s mission accomplished for Samsung. The Active is 20 percent smaller and 60 percent lighter than the Galaxy Watch, and you can really feel it. However, I still think the Galaxy Watch is too small for normal wrists, so I wish Samsung launched a bigger version too.
In addition to the typical package, the Galaxy Active also comes with neat extras, like the stress measurement that uses heart rate tracking and variance calculations to send you warnings when you should relax. However, as I said in this review, this feature isn’t necessarily accurate, albeit it’s nice to have it around.
All in all, there’s not much to complain about the Galaxy Watch Active, and despite being a more affordable version of the Galaxy Watch, I think it can very well be considered an alternative too.
But the most important thing is that the Active allows Samsung to expand in a market that has until now been ignored by high-end wearable manufacturers. And if the company keeps insisting for this approach, the Galaxy Watch series overall can become the best choice for anyone who wants premium features at a lower price.
