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.