In August 2022, Samsung held its annual Galaxy Unpacked Event, where it unveiled its newest line of smartwatches, including the Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Watch5 Pro. As smartwatches begins taking traction in the mainstream, the Galaxy Watch5 is marketed as a “holistic health innovation” and Samsung’s “most durable and feature-packed” smartwatch yet.
We got the opportunity to test out if these claims are true — after one week with the Samsung Galaxy Watch5, here’s our first impression of this smartwatch.
What’s In The Box
- Galaxy Watch5
- Charging Dock
- User Guide
Specs At A Glance
- Processor: Exynos W920 5nm
- Display: 1.4” Super AMOLED
- Memory: 16GB, 1.5GB RAM
- Operating System: Android Wear OS 3.5, One UI Watch 4.5
- Battery: 410 mAh
- Features: Accelerometer, gyro, heart rate sensor, Samsung Pay
Build and Design
The Galaxy Watch5 we received was in Graphite colour, which is a standard, no-nonsense all-black that looks sleek and goes well with any outfit.
There’s not much of a difference in looks compared to the Watch4, the biggest change being the absence of the physical rotating bezel. The watch's face is slightly smaller and (personally) fits better on the wrist.
Apart from that, there are also two physical buttons on the right side of the Watch5, which can be customized as different shortcuts according to your liking.
UI and Health Tracking
The Galaxy Watch5 runs the One UI Watch 4.5 powered by Wear OS. The layout is intuitive enough, providing you know Samsung well enough to recognise the apps just by the icons alone.
The smartwatch pairs and syncs easily with other Samsung devices. Here, we paired the Galaxy Watch5 with the Galaxy Z Flip4 without any hitches.
In terms of health tracking, the Galaxy Watch5 offers a lot more than just counting steps. It can track all types of workouts including walking, running, cycling, and pilates, tracking your heart rate and burned calories as you go.
Another handy thing is the body composition measurement feature, which analyses your body mass index, muscle mass, body fat percentage, and water composition so that you can plan more effective workouts.
Battery
This is the first thing that caught my attention, and it’s not in a good way.
The Galaxy Watch5 has a 15% bigger battery than the Galaxy Watch4, and Samsung has promised up to 50 hours of battery life on the new Watch. Unfortunately, it did not quite live up to Samsung’s claims in this area – I got, at best, a little more than one and a half days of continuous use at full charge, even with blood oxygen monitoring and Always-On Display turned off.
That said, recharging is relatively fast. The smartwatch can fully recharge (2% - 100% in our tests) in just an hour, which isn’t too bad. Still, it’s a little disappointing that the watch has to be charged daily instead of weekly, unlike some of its other competitors.
Conclusion
The Galaxy Watch5 is certainly Samsung’s best smartwatch yet. While the upgrades are just small and incremental, the Watch5 certainly lives up to the most important thing a smartwatch should have: health tracking.
There is a whole slew of features on the Watch5 that we haven’t covered here yet, including the BioActive Sensor, sleep guidance programmes and personalised workouts. These will take some time to get the best results, so do look out for our full review!
In the meantime, check out the Galaxy Watch5 here!
Buy: Samsung Galaxy Watch5
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Buy Galaxy Watch5 and receive a free Hybrid Leather Band worth RM149!
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