Speaker 1: The galaxy watch five has a lot going for it. A gorgeous screen, new temperature sensor, a better fit on the wrist than before and a bigger battery. But even though this is still the best Android smartwatch you can get right now, I'm still left wanting more. This year, there are two additions, a 40 and 44 millimeter, regular galaxy watch five and a larger 45 millimeter galaxy watch pro this review is concentrating just on the galaxy, [00:00:30] watch five, but I have also reviewed the galaxy watch five pro to see that in depth review, you can click right up here or in the description. When Samsung came out with its new generation of where OS watches in 2021, they were the first cab off the rank. Fast forward a year later with the pixel watch on the horizon and a whole suite of new where OS watches coming really soon. There is a lot more competition for your money. Speaking of prices, you can find that linked in the description below, but let's get into the review of the [00:01:00] galaxy. Watch five.
Speaker 1: This watch looks pretty much the same on the outside as last year's galaxy. Watch four apart from losing the fan favorite physical rotating Beil on the galaxy watch four classic. I am not gonna lie. I do miss having a physical rotating Beil to navigate through menus and even just users, a fidget spinner, whenever I'm just sitting around and a little bit bored. There is a touch sensitive bezel that is active on the galaxy. [00:01:30] Watch five. It's the same as what we saw on the galaxy. Watch four. It does give you a little bit of haptic feedback that kind of clicks almost simulates the feel of a real moving BELE. When you do move your finger around the edge, it's precise enough if you go slow enough, but I would much rather Samsung have given us a little bit more physical real estate on that screen.
Speaker 1: Maybe an edged edge display, if possible, rather than having a touch BELE at all. I find myself mostly using the touch screen and [00:02:00] the buttons. The good news is if you are coming from last year's galaxy, watch four, you can actually use the same straps on the galaxy. Watch five. I was able to interchange and swap out the straps from my galaxy, watch four classic onto the watch. Five, the watch five has tougher Sapp, crystal glass than last year's model. I've been wearing the watch for about two weeks. And in that time, you know, I haven't exactly been gentle with it, but I haven't tried to destroy it either. I don't have any visible scratches or anything like that on [00:02:30] the glass or the casing itself. But of course, if that changes, I will update my full text review, which is linked in the description.
Speaker 1: All of this is galaxy watch. Five models are IP six, eight rated. That means that they are dust and water resistant. So they'll definitely be able to track things like your swims. And you know, if you need to take it to the shower, I guess you can just try not to get any soap with it, cuz that's probably not included under warranty. I really find that the redesigned back panel on the galaxy watch five helps it to sit much more snug against my wrist, [00:03:00] especially compared to last year's versions. And I definitely find it does help a lot with sensor accuracy, particularly around the heart rate sensor. And we will get into that just in a little bit.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk software. Now. This is the second generation galaxy watch. That's running the new S platform that's co-designed between Samsung and Google, but really it doesn't feel all that different at all. From last year's models, it's still running the same one UI [00:03:30] interface over the top. So it really feels much more like a Samsung watch than it does over as a Google watch that said all of the Google apps that you'd expect are on board and work really seamlessly. You can of course use Google maps. You can also navigate using the watch there's things like YouTube music. And most importantly, it now comes at launch. I like the galaxy watch for it comes with the Google assistant. So you can install that right on your watch. First thing I did replace [00:04:00] Bixby with the Google assistant. I think that was a very good call.
Speaker 1: Performance overall is really snappy. It's using the same processor as last year as well, which is kind of disappointing given that there's a new Callcom processor out there potentially that this could have used, but maybe it just wasn't ready in time to integrate it in the watch. But that being said, things like the speaker and microphone on board work really, really well. And this was with the Bluetooth and GPS version with my phone within range. Of course, if you get the [00:04:30] LTE or cellular version that costs a little bit extra, you can take calls on the go. Unfortunately, I did not get to test for that version, but stay tuned. I will update the full text review if I can get my hands on one. A lot of people ask me this question in my preview of the galaxy watches. Can you play music from the onboard speaker without Bluetooth headphones attached? Yes, I am so happy to report. You actually can either with the stock music app, when you have music [00:05:00] stored on your phone, you can also use a third party app, say like Spotify. If you have a premium subscription and listen to songs without headphones,
Speaker 1: Uh, look, most people probably don't use this feature, but I love it. You also get some new watch faces on the galaxy, watch five. I like them. They really pretty, they also have some extra ones with additional complications, so you can customize it with lots of different widgets everywhere. The good news is again, if you have a [00:05:30] galaxy watch for you are gonna get these watch faces in a future update. So that's really good news.
Speaker 1: Some of the input methods include a full size query keyboard. This actually works really well. I was able to swipe and send messages without too many errors at all. I would say if you have slightly larger fingers might be a little trickier on the 40 millimeter watch. Definitely a larger screen size would help with that. I actually found that speech to text was actually really [00:06:00] quite accurate in getting my Australian accent, right. And didn't give me anyway near the amount of errors I was getting with previous generations. So I really appreciated that overall though, the user experience is very similar to last year's galaxy watch four. And I know I keep saying this and I'm so sorry. I sound like a broker on record, but it really shows you just how much of an iterative update things have been so far, at least [00:06:30] in terms of workouts and heart rate sensor accuracy and all of those other health and fitness features on board.
Speaker 1: The galaxy watch five does have quite a bit. It does of course track over 90 different workout types. It can also auto detect a range of different workouts, including things like outdoor walks, runs and elliptical workouts. This was really reliable for me in terms of kicking in after 10 minutes of doing say an outdoor walk, it would pop up when I forgot to start the activity [00:07:00] and say, would you like to track this walk? And it would give me credit for that previous 10 minutes that I'd already done. I definitely find the heart rate sensor on the galaxy. Watch five is more accurate than the galaxy watch four. And to verify this claim, I did test against a chest strap. I did a couple of different workouts, but really for a steady state cardio workout, say like a walk or a light jog. The watch actually did a really good job of keeping close to the strap.
Speaker 1: There's also a bio impedance sensor on board. This [00:07:30] is able to track your body composition. So talking about things like overall fat levels, as well as muscle composition. Now I'm not really a heavy user of this feature at all. So it's pretty much the same as what we saw last year on the galaxy watch four. However, I can see it being pretty useful for somebody. If you're trying to say lose weight or build muscle, you can also set targets over time, which might be really nice if you're working towards a particular goal, there's also an ECG [00:08:00] or electrocardiogram app. It is FDA cleared and it does help detect signs of atrial fibrillation. It is an on demand sensor though. It's not doing any background checks or readings say for irregular heart rhythm, like something like the apple watch or the Fitbit does. So do keep that in mind.
Speaker 1: The other thing to note is that this is one of the features that you will need to pair the galaxy, watch five with a Samsung phone to actually be able to use. [00:08:30] I did pair this watch with a pixel and ALA. You cannot access the Samsung health monitor app and you need that to access the ECG. And we gotta talk about that skin temperature sensor, cuz that's the big you feature on the galaxy. Watch five. I wish I could tell you more about it, but at the time of recording, it is not active. Now this is located on the underside of the watch. We can see exactly where it is. Samsung has said that this will be used during [00:09:00] sleep tracking, potentially to help detect signs of fever, maybe even to help track menstrual cycles. Again, I will keep you updated in the full text review when this actually gets updated. And maybe by the time you watch this, it will be updated as well. So I hope it's gonna come sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1: All right. It's the part you've been waiting for? I know it's the part that gets me excited about smart watch reviews. I mean, not really, but it's really important to talk about battery [00:09:30] life because if you've gotta keep charging your watcher all the time, that's pretty annoying. Now what I can say is that the galaxy watch five does have a larger capacity battery than last year's models. Doesn't make a huge difference in practice. Not really. And I'm kind of disappointed to say that I really tried to push this watch to reach the Samsung claims of total battery life. It could potentially achieve. I really struggled to get there. So Samsung [00:10:00] claims that this particular model, the 40 millimeter galaxy watch five can reach up to 40 hours of use. However, I don't know how I would possibly get there without turning off all of the essential features that I would wanna smartwatch for using airplane mode most of the time and just using my watch to tell the time again, kind of defeats the purpose of a smart watch.
Speaker 1: Now my regular usage includes things like getting a few notifications from my phone throughout the day. I also use a few apps [00:10:30] sparingly and the Google assistant maybe once or twice and do a 30 minute, one hour GPS workout. I also try and track sleep with the always on display turned off. I'm able to get 24 hours between charges on the galaxy, watch five. So better than the watch. Four, at least the watch four 40 millimeter that I was using. It's still not as good as it could be if I turn the always on display on that number reduces to around 21 hours. So if I do [00:11:00] wanna track sleep overnight, I do need to put the watch on its charges to give it a little bit more juice before the morning. Fortunately, you can do some quick charging on the galaxy watch five. You can go from flat to 45% in 30 minutes. That's the claim. I also tested it out with a timer. I was able to pretty much get that number on the money. However, you do need to also budget in a 25 wat adapter, a SBC adapter to reach those numbers. And guess what? Doesn't come in the box. I guess just the same as the [00:11:30] apple watch. When you know that fast charger doesn't come in the box either. It's good that it's there, but it is an extra investment, especially if you don't already have a 25 watch charger or more for your Android phone.
Speaker 1: So in some, the galaxy watch five really does have a lot of great features. It is definitely the best Android watch for now, but there is a lot, lot more upcoming competition that really could give this a run for its money. And if you do have last year's galaxy [00:12:00] watch form, there's not a huge reason to upgrade unless you want something like the larger galaxy watch five pro that has some additional sports features, a more durable construction and of course a slightly larger battery. Thank you so much for watching again, if you have any additional questions about the galaxy, watch five, hopefully I've answered those for you in my full text review, that's linked in the description and make sure you check out the full review of the galaxy. Watch five pro. See ya.
