Samsung revealed a number of new tech at their recent event in San Francisco. We will be reviewing all of the items and will update you about their pricing, specs and of course my opinion on the devices.
Today we are going to start with the Galaxy watch Active because we’ve been hearing about this a lot lately, especially with the leaks about its design and the notorious missing pestle and surprisingly enough the actual watch was very close to all those rendered photos that we’ve been seeing and yes, of course, there is no rotating bezel.
Design:
Smart Watch owners love the rotating bezel and for Samsung to create a new watch without one, well that’s just plain blasphemy. However, I will give you my take on why you may still want to consider purchasing it even without a mechanical bezel.
So here are a few reasons why you may want to consider purchasing it, first of all, I would say the design now I know this is a subjective reason because many people may actually dislike the look but to be honest I don’t think it looks bad at all it’s definitely sleeker looking than any of the other Samsung smartwatches.
It has more of a modern look to it – there aren’t any sharp edges on it and without the bezel, it has a nice clean and smooth surface. So in many ways, you can see design cues here from the Apple watch which already has a very good market presence and it’s Samsung’s main competitor for tech gadgets.
In general offering a different design may not necessarily be a bad thing here especially if Samsung is trying to appeal to the female population because now the watch has a smaller size of 40 millimeters and unfortunately this one is not going to come in any other sizes except that 40 millimeters but it will come in a variety of different colors including black, silver, rose gold and even a bluer version.
Another thing that I would like to mention about the design is that the watch is very light weight. It weighs in at only 25 grams compare that to the Galaxy watch 46 millimeter which sits at 63 grams and the smaller 42 millimeter version of the Galaxy watch also weighs in at 49 grams so this new active watch is about 50% lighter than any other models which makes it the perfect companion.
It’s meant to attract the fitness lovers out there and too and by fitness lovers, I also mean swimmers because this watch comes with the same impressive water resistance rating as the Galaxy watch and the gear sport which another reason why you may want to consider this watch.
Software:
The fitness tracking is, of course, related to the software and all the activity improvements that you get here so, for example, the S Health here has expanded to include new stress management and breathing features.
Fitness activities now include 21 indoor exercises plus 39 track workouts and are now capable of ECG and blood pressure monitoring. Although there’s been no specific information released yet as to how that’s actually going to be measured and all these new features can be accessed through the new user interface which includes Bixby voice and of course Samsung’s voice assistant.
This is included in the newest version of the Tizen operating system which means the active watch will be compatible with all Android phones that are running Android 5.0 and later and it will also work on any iPhones running iOS 9.
Battery:
The most important thing to keep in mind is the battery size of 230mAh. This watch is almost half the size of the battery in the larger galaxy watch model so I would expect that you will need to charge the new active watch every single day.
The compromise here is of course because of the sleeker design and the light weight of the case so it may not be a major issue for you especially if you’re gonna wear this only for fitness purposes. Also, charging once a day it’s not really a big deal especially if you get the S10 which allows you to wirelessly charge your watch just by placing it on top of the phone.
Hardware:
Lastly, in terms of hardware keep in mind that the active watch comes with the same features as the Galaxy watch which also, unfortunately, means you’re gonna be stuck with only 4 Gigabytes of internal storage.
It is powered by Exynos 9110 processor paired up with 768 Megabytes of RAM. The screen resolution is of 360 x 360 pixel and has 302 PPI density. It is an AMOLED panel so the colors look really vibrant and Saturated. All in all the hardware is capable to get you through all the things that you expect from a smartwatch.
Pricing:
Another reason why you might want to consider grabbing this one is the price. It is already available for pre-order in the US and Canada and at a very competitive price. You may argue that the lack of certain features and smaller size makes it unworthy but if you are looking for a smart March that’s fitness oriented small and lightweight then this is a great buy as it’s at least $100 cheaper than any of the other Galaxy watch models.
Verdict:
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is really impressive in my opinion considering the price tag. You get all the good features the only concern is the lack of bezel for navigation purpose which might turn many people away but I don’t see it as big of an issue. Style wise I like this watch more and would recommend you guys to buy.