Wearables
Should you upgrade to Samsung Galaxy Watch 5?
The recently launched Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 series offers the best smartwatches in the market to date. It features two models – Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, both are almost the same, except for durability enhancements in the latter model.
In case you already have a Samsung smartwatch, you may have aware of the premium and flagship grade functionalities. As the company has officially introduced the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro for consumers, is it worth upgrading? Let’s discuss:
Galaxy Watch 5 vs Watch 5 Pro
The Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro come with a whole new sapphire crystal display, Samsung’s improved BioActive Sensor, and an Exynos W920 chipset with 1.5 GB RAM. The Watch 5 offers 284 mAh and 410 mAh battery in the 40mm and 44mm variants, respectively.
The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro features a big 590 mAh battery, which can last around 80 hours. Compared to the Standard variant, the Pro model is slightly thicker due to its titanium casing. However, the Galaxy Watch 5 features an “Armor Aluminum” casing that protects the smartwatches greatly, but not as good as titanium.
Launched back in 2021, the Galaxy Watch 4 was the first Samsung smartwatch lineup to introduce Google’s Wear OS operating system, ditching the Tizen OS. Since the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 are just one year old, Samsung is offering better trade-in deals while upgrading to the Watch 5 or 5 Pro.
At the moment, the Galaxy Watch 5 is the latest smartwatch offered by Samsung, but it brings the same operating system as the Galaxy Watch 4, which is a year old now. The Watch 4 also debuted the first generation BioActive sensor, which consists of three chips in a small package.
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 features a 247 mAh battery in the 40mm casing, while the 44mm size carried a 361 mAh pack, meanwhile, the same battery capacity is also offered in the small and large variants of the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, respectively, with up to 40 hours backup.
Similar to the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro, the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic packs lots of the same specifications such as the Exynos W920 chipset, 1.5 GB RAM, and 16GB of storage in addition to the battery capacity.
Galaxy Watch 4
In case you owned the Galaxy Watch 4 or Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, it’s a difficult decision to upgrade to the Galaxy Watch 5 or not. Meanwhile, the Korean tech giant has attractive benefits including big trade-in deals so you can get the Watch 5 by paying a minimal amount of around $200.
As mentioned, the Galaxy Watch 4 is not an older generation smartwatch, some basic features like sleep tracking work impressively. However, the Galaxy Watch 5 introduces promising battery life, which is at least 10 hours extra than the Galaxy Watch 4, on paper.
In addition, the Galaxy Watch 5 brings the new sapphire crystal display, which is much more scratch resistant than the Gorilla Glass found on the Galaxy Watch 4. We can take it as a big upgrade of the Galaxy Watch 5 over its predecessor when it comes to durability.
On the other hand, the Watch 5 Pro embeds the 2nd generation BioActive sensor which will provide you with better health stats and data for monitoring. Still, it remains a difficult decision whether you should upgrade to the Galaxy Watch 5 or not. Let us know through social media.
Galaxy Watch 3
Galaxy Watch 3 is now two years old and runs Samsung’s own made Tizen OS. While the company has already denied bringing the Wear OS-based One UI Watch upgrade to the Galaxy Watch 3, upgrading to the Watch 5 or 5 Pro would be a great decision.
Wear OS-powered smartwatch offers better support with Google and non-Google apps. The Watch 4 and Watch 5 series devices introduce even more possibilities we found in the Watch 3 or older watches by Samsung. Talking about trade-in benefits, you can grab up to $190 credit while upgrading to the Watch 5.
Galaxy Watch 5 & 5 Pro Price
The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro comes with a starting price tag of $279, which is available in Bluetooth and Bluetooth + LTE configurations. Color options include Graphite, Pink Gold, and Silver for the 40mm and Graphite, Sapphire, and Silver for the 44mm model.
The price of the Galaxy Watch 5 pro starts at $449.99 for the Bluetooth version and $499.99 for the LTE version. The Golf Edition is also available on Samsung.com, price starting at $329.99. Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro offers three color options – Black Titanium, and Gray Titanium.
Samsung Android 13 Coverage:
- Samsung Android 13 One UI 5.0 Eligible Devices
- One UI 5.0 Update Progress Report
- One UI 5.0 Beta – Registration Guide
- One UI 5.0 Beta – Rollback Guide
- One UI 5.0 Beta ROM – Download Link
- One UI 5.0 Features and Tweaks
Thanks to the One UI Watch’s Universal Gestures, Samsung Galaxy Watch models are suitable for everyone. The feature enhances accessibility and allows you to navigate without having to touch the display or the rotating bezel (or the virtual bezel) at all.
Users of Samsung Galaxy Watch can activate the Universal Gestures through the Accessibility sub-menu under Settings. The “make a fist” gesture selects an item while making a fist twice opens up the Action menu, or activates Universal gestures.
Follow our socials → Google News | Telegram | X/Twitter | Facebook | WhatsApp
The pinch moves to the next highlighted item while a double pinch returns to highlight the previous item. The Action menu showcases different available actions based on the active app or menu. Interestingly, users having no disabilities would also find the Universal Gestures feature useful.
// Via
Verizon has started releasing the November 2023 update for Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic in the US. The update brings improvements and enhancements to provide a better experience.
November 2023 update for Verizon Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic can be identified through the build version ending with AWK4 in the US. This update is already available in Korea.
The latest update improves the stability and performance of the device. According to the release notes, the company has simplified the names of some stock apps by removing “Samsung” from them. These apps are:
- Samsung Health > Health
- Samsung Pay > Pay
- Samsung Wallet > Wallet
- Samsung Global Goals > Global Goals
To install the latest update, you just need to open the Galaxy wearable app on a connected Android phone and navigate to Watch Settings>> Watch software update >> Download and install. If an update is available, tap the “Update now” option, and on the Watch software update’ screen, tap “Install now”.
Samsung and Île-de-France Mobilités launch a new phase of experimentation on the dematerialization of transport tickets which will allow you to validate your ticket or Navigo pass with a Galaxy Watch 4, Watch 5, or Watch 6 series smartwatch in Ile-de-France Mobilités, France.
Île-de-France Mobilités is in the process of converting transport tickets and is stepping up its efforts to increasingly dematerialize them. The objective is to make the lives of Ile-de-France residents easier and to save them time by purchasing, recharging, and validating their transport tickets instantly.
Follow our socials → Google News | Telegram | X/Twitter | Facebook | WhatsApp
Financed by Île-de-France Mobilités, this experiment will make it possible to test the purchase of tickets from your smartphone to store them on the connected watch and validate them on the terminals of the Île transport network -de-France Mobilités.
The experiment is open to 10,000 testers, Wear OS-powered Galaxy Watch owners can register for this phase today.