The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4G features
Samsung launched the 4G variant of the Galaxy Watch in India in October this year. Galaxy Watch is that the new one comes with 4G/LTE support at a price starting at Rs 28,490.
Design
The Galaxy Watch 4G, comes in two sizes: 42mm and 46mm. The 42mm can choose between Black and Rose Gold, whereas the bigger size is available in Silver only.
There are two buttons on the right side of the device, both of which have a textured pattern making them easy to distinguish. The upper one is the Back button, while the other is the Home button. Below the Home button is a microphone which can be used for taking calls on the watch. The left side of the watch has a speaker. On the bottom of the watch heart-rate sensor and the hardware for wireless charging. It has a Micro-USB port. The Galaxy Watch 4G is IP68 rated and is water-resistant up to 5ATM.
The 46mm Galaxy Watch came with a 22mm watch band made out of silicone. It was easy to remove and can be replaced by any band of the same size. We found the stock band comfortable even when we were sweating.
Specifications and Software
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4G uses Samsung’s Exynos 9110 SoC, which is a dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz. The Galaxy Watch has 1.5GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage which can be used to store music and apps. The Galaxy Watch also lets you pair Bluetooth headphones to it directly, eliminating the need for a smartphone.
The Galaxy Watch 4G runs Samsung’s Wearable OS which is based on Tizen. It can be paired with Android as well as iOS devices. In terms of app support it is limited compared to Google’s Wear OS and Apple’s WatchOS. Samsung has tried to reduce reliance on third-party apps by offering lots of features right out of the box. In terms of connectivity, the watch has Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, NFC, A-GPS, Glonass, and 4G LTE. It also has an accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, heart rate sensor, and ambient light sensor.
The SIM card needs to be inserted into the smartphone you use to set up the watch. The watch smartly switches off its own 4G capabilities when paired with a smartphone, and back on when you move out of range. You can override this and keep the watch connected to a 4G network at all times, but this will have an impact on battery life.
4G Performance and Battery life
Samsung’s AMOLED display on the Galaxy Watch 4G is vivid and has good viewing angles. Screen brightness is adjusted automatically based on surrounding lighting conditions. The bezel makes navigating easy, and has a simple UI of the smartwatch.
No noticeable lag or stutter while using the Galaxy Watch 4G, and the overall experience was exellent. The Galaxy Watch packs in quite a few fitness features, so for example, the watch will vibrate, reminding you to move a little. The total number of exercises it can now track is up to 39, 6 of which can be auto-tracked. These include walking, running, dynamic workouts, cycling, elliptical trainer, and rowing. There’s also a heart-rate tracker that kicks in every few minutes and keeps track of your pulse. Samsung has also equipped this watch with a stress tracker, which uses the heart-rate as the basis of its calculations. Lastly, we also get sleep tracking options, which gives you a break down of your sleep quality and classifies it into restless, light, and motionless sleep. A timeline of sleeping trends can be created to get a better idea of how you sleep, but no interpretations or suggestions are given.
The Galaxy Watch 4G has in-built GPS and cellular connectivity.
The Galaxy Watch would easily pull through 3 or 4 days of real-life use. There’s also a power-saving mode, which stretches the last 15% to almost half a day without killing off all the functions (calls, messages, and all notifications), which is mighty impressive.
The Galaxy Watch 472mAh battery capacity. Charging happens through an included wireless charging dock where the watch fits perfectly and takes a little more than two hours to go from 0 to full.
