Galaxy Watch Active vs. Apple Watch Series 4: Which is the better deal?

[MUSIC] Can the $200 Samsung Galaxy watch active give you just as good of a workout as the $400 Apple watch? We put them through some heavyweight challenges to find out. This is Apple Watch Series 4 versus Samaung Galaxy Watch Active. Let's start with design, and here it really comes down to the round versus square question. Except unlike the original Galaxy Watch, the Active doesn't have that fancy rotating bezel. The Apple Watch you'd see the option of a 40 or 44 millimeter watch face while the Galaxy Watch Active only comes in 130 9.5 millimeter version. It's also slightly lighter and thinner than both sizes of the Apple Watch. Both offer different metal finishes and swappable bands to personalize your look but the Galaxy Watch Active has way more watch faces to choose from. We've been testing these smartwatches out for about a week at this point kinda switching back and forth. And Lexy last time we tested out the traditional galaxy watch, it was a no brainer for me when it came to design I was drawn to that round watch face and the rotating bezel of the galaxy watch. This time around I'm a little less clear as to which one I prefer. I still love that round watch face On the Galaxy Watch Active. But, because it's more barebones now, it does look a little bit cheap. And, it is like half the price. It is. It's more than half the price. Which is why we love it. Yes, so I mean, it's' not suprising that it feels a little bit like less premium than the Apple watch. So, in that case, I might just go with the Apple watch for the design. Just aesthetically in my opinion. Well, I don't, I think I love the Galaxy Watch Active way more than the Apple Watch when it comes to the look and the feel. The only thing that I really didn't like about the Galaxy Watch Active was the size of the bezel. Obviously When you had the actual rotating Bessel on the original galaxy watch, it was hiding that. But now you can actually see like where the screen ends you know where the edge of the watch actually stops and begin. Where the apple is more edge to edge. But yet again. The Galaxy Watch Active is so much lighter to wear, especially if you're doing a workout. I feel like I can always feel when the Apple Watch is on my wrist. The Galaxy Watch Active, I just feel like it's so light, I hardly even notice it's there, which is great, especially if i'm doing something really high intensity, I never feel like I'm actually tracking it. I'm just doing my thing. The Apple Watch I might, it's kind of a little heavy. It's always there. [MUSIC] These watches have almost everything when it comes to fitness features. The Apple Watch has 14 workout types built in, while the Galaxy Watch has 39. They can automatically detect certain workouts, and they're both water resistant up to 50 meters to track your swims. Both watches have an optical heart rate sensor for tracking calories burn, another health feature. The Galaxy watch also uses it to detect sleep and stress while the Apple watch uses it for the ECG. The or electrocardiogram app and it notifies you of high or irregular heart rhythms that may signal something more serious. The Apple watch also uses its sensors for fall detection. [MUSIC] While the Galaxy Active watch has over the Apple watch at least natively is sleep tracking. I didn't think I was a big fan of sleep tracking until I've tried it on the earlier Galaxy Watch and now the Galaxy Watch Active. It gives you a great breakdown of specs. Whereas on the Apple Watch, it's only available through a third-party app. And I just didn't find it was giving me the same level of accuracy. The Galaxy watch was, say for example, I was awake one night for maybe like thirty minutes to an hour. Always feels like an eternity, the Galaxy watched me while I was awake. The third party app on the Apple watch just didn't. It was like he had a great night sleep and no, I did not. So hopefully, first party sleep checking is coming soon to the Apple watch. Through a watch os update or even the series 5. So, fingers crossed for that. But, what about some of the other health features? When it comes to the fitness tracking though, I did have a couple of issues with the Galaxy Watch Active. I liked looking at my heartrate when i'm exerting myself on a run. For example, if i'm going up hill, or if i'm doing a sprint, I always look down to make sure that I am reaching my [LAUGH] My max heart rate. The Apple Watch is not perfect, but it catches up pretty quickly. Whereas the Galaxy Watch, it takes about eight minutes into my run to start detecting my heart rate. And then once I'm going, it takes a while to catch up to my actual heart, whereas the Apple Watch does it a lot faster. And that makes me question the accuracy of the calorie tracking and the fitness tracking in general of the Galaxy Watch Active. I could be wrong. It just That made me question it because they both offer very interesting health features the Apple Watch launched the EKG or ECG electrocardiogram app, where you can take it from your wrist and you can also have those notifications of the high heart rate, low heart rate, and irregular heart rate and then the galaxy watch Saw that and they're like we're gonna raise your EKG and we're gonna get blood pressure on the watch. And then I was like, my god, that's so exciting! But then it turns out there are a lot of caveats. It's still very much in beta. You have to sign up to be part of this study, and then you have to go through a huge log process, then you have to calibrate it with an actual cuff. It's more like come join us on this experiment because it's not a full fledged working blood pressure monitor contrary to the EKG app on the watch. Like, Apple went through the studies, they got the FDA clearance. It seems just like a finished, mature product. And I think that's Speaks as a metaphor for the watch itself. Both near and notifications from your phone, you can text, place a call, and have a variety of third-party apps to choose from, which is basically everything you'd expect from a smart watch. The Galaxy watch active works with both Android and iOS devices. The Apple Watch only works wtih other Apple products. But you have GPS, and the Apple Watch has an LTE version that costs $100 more. So you can get texts and call without your phone. And only the, The Apple Watch has a built-in speaker. The Galaxy Watch lets you dictate text and use a voice assistant, but it does rely on the phone to take calls. The Galaxy Watch Active has an immediate advantage that's really clear, is that it works with both iOS and Android. That being said, of course if you're pairing The Galaxy Watch Active with an iOS device, you don't get as many of the functions And the ease of replying to notifications, as you would, say if you're pairing the watch with another Galaxy device, which is obviously the optimal use case, but considering the Apple watch only works with IOS, I think it's immediately a huge advantage, especially for someone that isn't stuck to one platform exclusively, that maybe swaps phones every year or so, and changes eco systems, it's just a big advantage. That's a good point. However, [MUSIC] There are some features that you are missing out on, aside from the whole pairing thing but that the Galaxy Watch Active just doesn't have that the Apple Watch does. In this case, a speaker. And that might not be important for you. We've determined that nobody wants to hear Bixby anyway. Hey Bixby. Hey Bigsbee. Nothing. Nothing Hey Bigs- Finally there we go Takes a couple tries Two or thre times But on the galaxy watch she sounded kind of scary anyway, so we don't want to hear her. But it is kind of nice to be able to respond on the go. There is often times I can't find my phone, and I like end up taking a call even though obviously the speaker quality is, By no means great on the Series 4, it is convenient to have, it's something I've gotten used to. Also, the LTE option, that's something the Galaxy Watch Active doesn't have. I've gotten used to not taking a phone on a run. And because I feel safe enough that if I really needed to call a Lyft or an Uber, or if I needed to take Text someone or make a call, I run outside a lot so that's an important feature for me. Now that I've gotten used to running phone free that I don't get on the Galaxy watch. They both work exactly the same when it comes to mobile payments. So both NSE based, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay Just still upset that there is no MST support on the Galaxy Watch Active, same as the Galaxy Watch. I know i say this, and people are like, well, of course it doesn't have MST. But it's- But it's- The big part of Samsung Pay that is the reason why- We love Samsung Pay. We love Samsung Pay, exactly. Wave. I was impressed that even at it's pricepoint, I was used to the Fitbit that is the same pricepoint, didn't get as many notifications, you can't do as much with the notifications. I can even reply to a What's App message on the Galaxt Watch Active, so it's pretty good at just mirroroing all the notifications, and let you have, let you take action ito the notifications. Even at it's pricepoint, which was, Impressive Yeah. I noticed that I had the Galaxy Watch Active paired to a Galaxy S10 and the Apple Watch paired to an iPhone 10 and both were on LTE, the phones both receiving the same notifications from my accounts I did notice that the Galaxy Watch Active was just a little bit slower to get the actual notification push to the watch than the Apple Watch was from the iOS device. Interesting. Yeah. [MUSIC] Both watches let you store music locally. But the galaxy watch active has better Spotify support than the Apple Watch so you can download entire playlist if you're a premium subscriber. The Apple Watch only gives you basic playback control on Spotify, but you get a lot more options on Apple Music. And if you have the LTE version, you can actually stream your music and podcasts As for battery life, we tested both during a normal day. With a commute to work, a 45 minute workout, tracking our sleep, having notifications turned on, and listening to a bit of music, we got almost 2 days out of the Galaxy Watch Active, and just under a day and a half on the 40 mm Apple Watch. Now, this is by no means scientific, and your mileage may vary. But essentially, both will require charging them daily. The Galaxy watch active also has a charging superpower if you own a Galaxy S10. You can charge the watch from the back of the phone. So Vanessa, now we have to make a decision, is the winner for you, the Apple watch series four, or is it Galaxy watch Active? I'm a little torn on this one only because I think the most important feature in a smart watch for me at least are the fitness features. And in that sense I would give it to the Apple Watch Series 4 if I want to spend on a watch that will be a great fitness companion. I think that one is the winner, it felt just a little bit more seamless. And it also felt like it was more accurate in my tracking based on my usual routes and everything I do on a regular basis. That said, there's a huge draw back and that's the price. It cannot compete with $200 of Galaxy Watch Active and the Galaxy Watch Active [MUSIC] It's a great watch. It's just not at the same level as the Apple Watch. But it's so much cheaper. And I am cheap and so that's tearing me up inside. It's just two different playing fields, really. I know. I love pretty much every thing that the Galaxy Watch Active can do. The proce point, the fact that it's really light. It works with iOS and Android. Even if you don't get everyhting that you can do on Android. Or at least a Galaxy phone on iOS you still have great functionality there. But then you go to the Apple Watch and it is so much more seamless in terms of setting up, in terms of tracking, navigation even. That bezel, the lack of the bezel, in the Galaxy Watch Active from the older and more expensive model Really makes a difference in terms of that ease of use navigation for me. So it's two different price points and two different playing fields. Choose. Okay. [LAUGH] $200, you cannot go wrong with the Galaxy Watch Active. But if you are on iOS and you're going to spend money on a smart watch anyway, it's going to be the Series 4. So what do you guys think? You've seen the video, choose your winner and let us know on the comment section below and come back to cnet YouTube page or more of these types of verses. [MUSIC]