This is the Galaxy Watch 4 and it's considered
to be the smartwatch to buy for Android. So I bought it.
It comes with a bunch of different features but it's the core features that are most interesting
to me. This is the 44 millimeter version without LTE. Let's start off with the software.
When I first heard this watch supported YouTube music and Spotify, I was sold. But in reality
the experience is mixed, depending on what app you use. Spotify is the most refined one, with
the ability to stream music and play individual songs. Songs can be shuffled or played in order.
There's a few minor quirks though, like the lack of search or seek function. Now these minor issues
aren't actually that bad compared to YouTube music. What's wrong with it? Well, everything.
There's no music streaming, so playlists have to be downloaded, and the only way to play the music
is by shuffling. That's right, you can't even select what songs you want to play.
The only thing I can really do is skip the song or play and pause. Another alternative is to use the
Samsung Music Player. The experience is slightly better but you still have to download the songs
onto the watch. And the only way to do that is through your phone. This means music management
is a nightmare because you can't even create your own playlists. Basically what I'm saying is this:
if you don't already have Spotify then don't get this watch for music. One of the key selling
points of a smartwatch is notifications. I've been using this watch with my Poco F3
and I'm happy to report that I haven't missed a single notification. And in the settings,
I can individually select what notifications show up as for how they look. Here's some examples.
Notifications from different apps show up as individual cards.
The notifications are also synced so clearing them from my watch also clears them from my
phone and vice versa. The only downside is that the screen is a bit too small for
replying to messages but luckily there's voice dictation and it works pretty well.
Samsung Pay comes pre-installed and has a shortcut by long pressing the back button.
Google Pay is also available and can be found on the play store. Both these apps work really well
and setup is straightforward. There's also Google Maps when navigating. The watch shows turn-by-turn
information and personally, I don't really use it because it's really distracting when I'm driving.
Now there's a bunch of fitness tracking features including body composition workout and sleep.
This data is fun to have but shouldn't be taken too seriously. The funny thing is,
the marketing material talks about all these fitness measurements but the fine print
completely Nopes out of that. Now that we're done with apps let's talk about customizing this watch
Almost every review I've seen talks about the thousands of different watch faces
you can download. But what they don't tell you is that it's hard- like really hard- to find
the perfect watch face. Trust me, I tried. What ended up happening was I just wasted a bunch of
time only to revert back to the stock watch face. What's interesting here is that there's actually a
program that allows me to make my own watch face. If I know exactly what I want, I can just design
it. This program is called watch face studio and it's made by Samsung themselves- and the best
part about it is that I don't even need to write a single line of code. Everything is drag and drop.
It's really a hidden gem because none of the promotional material talks about it and none of
the reviewers talk about it either. Just as an example this is the first watch face I've made
inspired by the Honda dashboard. It looks pretty simple but what's cool about it is that I can
change almost any aspect of this watch face. If I don't like the color, I'll change it. Watch hands,
I'll change it. Background, you get the idea. This program starts off as a blank canvas
and then you can add elements as layers. It's very similar to photoshop or clip studio paint
and if you work with those before it'll feel very intuitive. Here's another example of a watch face
that I made and I'm using this as my daily driver. It's based off of the digital dashboard stock
watch face but there's several small differences. Perhaps the biggest one is that the progress bar
actually goes counterclockwise this means when step counts increase the thing also rises up.
I've been doing a lot of tweaking and it turns out app shortcuts can also be added. This is huge
because one of the major downsides to this watch is the lack of shortcuts there's only one button
that can be reprogrammed and that's the home key. This is because- like typical Samsung style-
every other shortcut is linked to Samsung's own apps. For me this really sucks and so I created
my own shortcuts here I've added a stopwatch and Google Pay. Unfortunately google assistant
isn't available for this watch so I can't create a shortcut for it. Now you're probably thinking this
is pretty cool - how do I get started? Well... it's complicated. When I first saw Samsung's
introduction video, it seemed easy enough- just download the program add some components, hit
run and you're off to the races. But it's never that easy. For me, I had an extremely hard time
just connecting the watch to my laptop because that video didn't say anything about debugging
mode or downloading android drivers. What's worse- there's no real instructions, so when
I ran into issues the expectation is to just google it or use the forms. To give you an idea,
this watch face took me about three days to complete. I spent the first day just trying to
connect the thing to my computer. The next two days were a lot more fun, where I experimented
with different elements and complications. Anyways it was a full three days of ups and downs,
but like they say it's not about the journey it's the destination. And I've definitely arrived.
This watch face -which I'm currently using, is truly unique, personalized to my taste.
Besides software I want to quickly go through some specs and design. This 44mm version retails for
280USD or 370CAD, but it's often found on sale. Compared to the 40mm it's got a bigger battery
and a bigger screen, and compared to alternatives it's one of the cheapest smart watches with mobile
payments. The operating system is Wear OS3 and for users it's not that different from Wear OS2.
The key changes are really intended for developers to make app development more streamlined.
Maybe in the future, as OS3 matures, we'll see some more user-centered changes. As for hardware,
battery life is pretty good I'm able to get about 3 days without using the always on display.
When playing offline music the battery drains about 20% per hour. It charges wirelessly and
takes about two hours from zero to a hundred. The cable is pretty flimsy, and reviews do say that
it's easily broken. A replacement is pretty expensive at 30 dollars. There's a total of
16 gigs of storage eight and a half of which is used by the operating system. As for the design I
really like how minimal and slim it is. The watch itself is actually quite delicate with a body made
out of aluminum and the screen made out of glass. There's no physical bezel like the watch classic,
so the screen is prone to damage. I couldn't find screen replacements for the US, but in Australia
it's 200 Australian. If you're wondering that's about 140USD or about half the price of the
watch. It's expensive, but luckily there's a bunch of screen protectors and case options.
Personally I've been using the cheapest one I could find and it's been working out pretty well.
One other feature I like is that the buttons are offset. I've previously used the fossil
hybrid but the crown would dig into my hand whenever I bent my wrist. With these buttons,
that's no longer an issue. Alright we've covered a lot of things here so let's summarize.
The galaxy watch 4 watch face can be personalized thanks to watch face studio.
Notifications and mobile payments work consistently even with non-Samsung phones.
Design and battery life are both very well done. As for downsides- Google assistant is not
available and shortcut keys have very limited customizations.
YouTube Music is poorly implemented, but hopefully that will change in the future.
Materials used are very delicate and screen repairs are costly.
Overall, the Galaxy Watch 4 is a great watch with most of the features working as expected. Apps
that need improvement like YouTube Music can be done through software updates. If you currently
own a Wear OS2 watch, I'd hold off on buying this one because it's really not that different. For
me, 280USD is expensive but I got it because I needed offline music. Jogging without carrying
my phone around is really a game changer for me. Alright that's it like and subscribe.