Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Review: Android’s Finest Smartwatches

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro, are priced at Rs. 27,999 and Rs. 44,999 onwards, respectively. With Samsung’s interpretation of Wear OS and round Super AMOLED displays. This is the best android smartwatch available in the market.

The market for smartwatches built to work with Android smartphones is quite a vast one, particularly with the relatively recent entry of brands such as Oppo and OnePlus. Other brands such as Fossil and Amazfit have been around for a while, and have a strong presence as well. However, one name stands out for a number of reasons, with an established presence in the high-end smartwatch space - Samsung. The South Korean company recently launched its latest smartwatches in India, the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro.

Galaxy Watch 4 is similar to watch 5 in terms of features, operations on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 will feel very familiar to the older version.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, Galaxy Watch 5 Pro design and specifications:

In terms of Build and design between galaxy watch 5 and galaxy watch 5 pros, The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 (44mm) is a bit smaller than the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, and has a round 1.4-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 450x450 pixels. Although the display size and resolution are the same on the Watch 5 Pro, the dial is slightly larger and the case is considerably thicker.

In terms of weight, The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is a fair bit more at 46.5g, as compared to the Watch 5 which weighs 33.5g. This has a lot to do with the materials used; the Pro version has a titanium case, while the Watch 5 has an aluminium case. I quite liked how both devices felt to wear. While the Galaxy Watch 5 was lighter and slightly more comfortable, the Watch 5 Pro felt a lot more solid and premium, and is built to withstand impact and rough use.

The Galaxy Watch 5 & Watch 5 pro brings back the distinct, contemporary stylings we were introduced to with last year's Watch 4. If you're coming from a Galaxy Watch 3 or Watch 4 Classic, though, everything's very different. There's no rotating bezel in sight – instead, you interact with an invisible digital bezel around the screen.

Overview of Galaxy watch 5 & Galaxy watch 5 pro:

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro both have two physical buttons and microphones on the right side, while the left side has the speaker grille near the bottom. The undersides of the two watches are similar to the optical sensors for health and fitness tracking, although the finishing of the plastic is different on the two smartwatches. Both smartwatches have a 5ATM rating for water resistance. Samsung's Watch 5 also benefits from IP68-certified ingress protection against dust and water, swim-proofing up to 5 ATM, and MIL-STD-810H approval, meaning it's tested to withstand challenging conditions - including hard knocks and drops, temperature extremes, and more.

Display of Samsung Galaxy watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro

Both Watch 5 and Watch 5 pro sizes have circular Super AMOLED screens, with the 40mm model's screen measuring 1.19-inch and the 44mm model's screen sporting a larger 1.39-inches.  Galaxy watches are having better PPI compared to apple watches and also clearly beat other smartwatch brands like Amazfit, Garmin or Fitbit.

The Watch 5's display quality is very good. It gets bright, at up to 1,000 nits, so is easy to see outdoors, and Samsung's fun watch faces look lively and punchy. In fact, the whole interface consistently overlays rich, vibrant-coloured elements over inky, deep blacks that disappear into the bezel, making for an engaging UI.

The big upgrade to the Watch 5's display isn't in its tech, but in materials, though. It uses a far tougher sapphire crystal that's 60% stronger than the cover glass found on the Watch 4, according to Samsung, and as we mentioned, after a few knocks, it proved itself to be hardy enough for us.

Software and Performance of Samsung Galaxy watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro

Samsung's interface is called One UI and it has One UI 3, and interaction with it is very familiar if you're coming from another smartwatch. Swipe to the left-hand screen to see notifications, and keep swiping through the screens to the right of the watch face to cycle through your tiles. These are rich widgets of sorts, each giving you a peek into an app or feature, or a shortcut to the full experience. As for the smartphone app(s), to get the Watch 5 synchronized with your phone, you'll need to download the Galaxy Wearable app. Yep – while it runs Google's Wear OS, the Watch 5 won't work with the Wear OS app.

Once you install Galaxy Wearable from the Play Store (if you're using a non-Samsung smartphone), you can pair and customize your Watch 5's smart features. You're not done, though. First, you need to download an altogether different app, Samsung Health, to take advantage of any of its health tools, and then you'll need the Watch 5 Plugin before you can really start using your wearable.

Samsung galaxy 5 series have the phone call functionality of the Watch 5. Unlike some other smartwatches, you can initiate calls from the Watch 5 too, calling anyone in your phonebook hands-free (but not wrist-free). Volume was loud, and our voice was heard clearly too – though the feature won't work well if you've recently submerged the Watch.

In terms of specifications, both watches use Bluetooth 5.2 for connectivity and are powered by an unspecified 1.18GHz dual-core Exynos W920 processor, with 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage (7.5GB of this is user accessible). There is also dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS, and NFC for additional connectivity functions. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 has a 410mAh battery, while the Watch 5 Pro has a larger 590mAh battery.

Fitness Feature of Samsung Galaxy watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro

Fitness tracking on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro was very good, although I strangely got slightly different results on the two devices despite them being similar in terms of tracking hardware. The Watch 5 recorded 1,007 steps when I manually counted 1,000, while the Watch 5 Pro recorded 997. The difference wasn't much, and the error margin was less than one percent on both devices. 

Starting with sleep, Samsung Health's new sleep tracking system includes more in-depth guidance and promises to deliver better insights into your slumber, going so far as to automatically serve up a month-long sleep plan. Sleep tracking was decent, and offered useful insights into the quality of my sleep, apart from the number of hours I was asleep. What made sleep tracking difficult was the fact that by nighttime, our Watch 5's battery was already very low on heavy-use days, even with a morning charge. This forced us to charge it up in a rush just so it would make it through sleep, so we could track it for this review. We had the same issue with the Apple Watch, though not Huawei, Garmin or Withings watches.

You might be thinking that Wear OS means the Watch 5 syncs with Google Fit, and it does, but not by default. Out of the box, this is a Samsung Health gadget (and Samsung Health doesn't sync with Google Fit). You can, however, install Google Fit and switch out your defaults, but you'll be saying goodbye to the integrated metric monitoring Samsung's Watch makes a big deal of – specifically, sleep and body composition. 

GPS tracking slightly over-reported the distance walked during an outdoor walk, but the difference was small enough to be ignored. Heart rate tracking was excellent on both watches, both while moving or sitting down. 

Blood oxygen tracking was accurate as well, but getting a complete reading was in itself the tricky part. Manual readings can only be taken when sitting with your arm placed in a particular position, and I often had failed attempts despite following the instructions. When I did get a successful reading, the results were accurate (compared to a pulse oximeter). The devices are also able to measure body composition through a simple test, but I wasn't able to verify its accuracy.

Battery of Samsung Galaxy watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 has a 410mAh battery, while the Watch 5 Pro has a larger 590mAh battery. The Galaxy Watch 5 ran for around 1 day, 15 hours on a single charge, while the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro ran for 2 days, 3 hours with similar conditions and usage. This is pretty good given the functionality of the devices, and charging is quick on both smartwatches with the included magnetic chargers.

Final Verdict: Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Review

Both Samsung galaxy watch 5 and Galaxy watch 5 pro are premium smartwatches that are neck to neck with the apple smartwatch. However, there are a few exceptions in terms of Battery performance. The devices are true all-rounders, offering full-fledged smartwatch capabilities, as well as accurate fitness tracking and excellent connectivity options. The software combination of Wear OS and Samsung OneUI Watch is also a strong differentiator in the segment. 

In terms of value, the galaxy watch 5 is better since the pro model does not have significant changes compare to it's price.

For best Moto g62 tablet cover click here 

For Samsung Galaxy watch 4 screen protector click here

•Buy pixel 4A  tampered glass click here

 

•Buy Sandisk Memory card - Click here