The Samsung Galaxy Watch is still a robust and well-loved smartwatch with a handsome design and tactile rotating bezel, plus battery life lasting up to five days.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch is still one of the most refined smartwatches you can buy today thanks to its attractive design, cohesive user interface and, importantly, four-day battery life. Despite being out for a few years, it still competes with the Apple Watch 6, and in some ways it can be better as well. The Galaxy Watch looks and feels like a high-end wristwatch, with a circular stainless steel case and stylized bezel. It’s both stylish and functional because, like the previous Gear S3, the bezel rotates to cycle through its various on-screen menus. More than Apple’s fifth watch, though, it competes with its successor, the Galaxy Watch 3 (don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything – there was no Watch 2). This new watch brings upgrades in a range of areas and if you’re looking for a new Samsung watch it’s worth checking out our review of it so you can see any improvements. This is the most satisfying way to navigate a smartwatch. Your fingers won’t cover up the watch’s small, hard-to-accurately-target touchscreen (an issue with any smartwatch), and the rotating bezel: an idea exclusive to newer Samsung watches. The older Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is cheaper than the Galaxy Watch, but it doesn’t feature that rotating bezel. Thankfully, the new Samsung Galaxy Active Watch 2 has a rotating digital bezel, with haptic buzzing to simulate a ‘tactile’ feel when spinning through menus. It is, however, more expensive than its now-discounted predecessor. And we’re expecting even more price drops for the Galaxy Watch during the upcoming deals season, which starts with Amazon Prime Day on October 13 and 14, then continues through Black Friday in late November. We’ve seen discounts on the Galaxy Watch in years past, and expect even more savings now that its successor has been released. You also won’t find rotating bezels supported by Google’s Wear OS, while Apple’s watchOS uses a less intuitive rotating digital crown button on the side. This is one of two reasons why the Galaxy Watch runs Samsung’s Tizen software, not Wear OS. To see the Samsung Galaxy Watch in action, watch our hands-on video below: The other reason for the Tizen operating system is battery life. We found that the larger 46mm Galaxy Watch lasted a solid four days with normal use during our two months of testing. We checked messages, fetched constant notifications, tracked workouts, played Spotify, and talked to Bixby, Samsung’s mostly terrible AI. Samsung says the smaller 42mm Galaxy Watch lasts three days.
