Samsung Galaxy Watch Active Review: Our Complete Review – Watches / Bracelet smart health connected

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The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is Samsung's new smartwatch. The recipe is enticing since the device takes several qualities of the classic Galaxy Watch and applies them in a smaller and cute format. Here is our complete Review to find out what it's worth.

Technical sheet

This Review was made from a product loaned by the brand.

Design

Light, small, compact. In terms of design, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is really nice. While smart health connected watches fall easily into the thick wall, this is not the case of the latest South Korean giant.

To tell you the truth, we forget quite easily that the knock is around the wrist, as long as you do not tighten like a nag. Let's talk about the case first. With a thickness of 10.5 mm and a diameter of 39.5 mm, the Galaxy Watch Active is much less impressive than its Galaxy Watch. The object is therefore very inconvenient when it comes to playing sports. Idem when falling asleep.

This feeling is reinforced by the weight of the device: 37 grams with the bracelet (25 grams without bracelet). In other words, the housing itself does not cause any concern for comfort. Unfortunately I can not hide that I felt a little orphan of the very inspired rotary ring of the classic Galaxy Watch that I tested in October 2018.

In the Active version, all navigation is done through interactions on the touch screen. Is it a defect? Not far from here. Let's say rather that the circular crown is one of the advantages of the Galaxy Watch bigger … and more expensive. Another detail, however, a little more frustrated: around the display area, the black borders are clearly visible.

Their disappearance pure and simple is of the order of the impossible, but we would not spit for a little more finesse. To put it with numbers: the borders are a little more than 0.5 cm wide. On the 3.95 cm diameter of the case, this represents about 1.14 cm in total.

Let's go to the silicone bracelet. I have nothing particular to report on it. On the hottest days, it was slightly itchy, but it's not abnormal. Samsung provides a replacement in the box and, in this regard, be aware that, as usual on the brand's watches, the fastener is standard for easy replacement and customizations with the vast majority of wristbands available.

Since we are talking about the bracelet, note a particular inconvenience at the loop. Once the watch is attached, slide the remaining strap end underneath. This avoids clinging an unsightly tab that exceeds the wrist and is rather a good inspiration.

The problem is that you have to slide the silicone tip between the bracelet and your skin. And the sensation is … strange. Especially since one out of three, I found myself with a part of the pinched wrist in a funny way. It is done quickly enough, but again, the sensation is … strange.

Finally, note that the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is IP68 certified for waterproofing and 5ATM to allow it to be dipped to 50 meters deep.

Screen

It's obvious, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active benefits from an AMOLED screen. And as on the Galaxy Watch, the black pixels off are here exploited thoroughly since the entire interface is darkened. Nothing surprising so.

On this model, it is necessary to compose with a screen of 1.1 inch with a definition of 360 x 360 pixels. While it is obviously irrelevant to watch a video on such a small surface, despite the existence of Player4YouTube application, I can at least ensure that viewing the displayed content has almost never been a problem. I write "almost", because on two occasions when the sun hit particularly hard, I found that the maximum brightness lacked a bit of intensity in automatic mode. But really, just a strand and this is easily adjusted by manually pushing the level a little higher from the shortcuts panel.

Conversely, dials that are too light can be a little uncomfortable for the eyes when night falls. My favorite solution to remedy this is to choose a dark one. And if the dials offered by default do not sit, know that the Galaxy Store is full of choice. This is where I found my happiness.

A dark dial that I found on the Galaxy Store

Note also that the protection Gorilla Glass should avoid the glass to suffer too much from possible falls.

use

The beast is animated by an Exynos 9110 associated with 0.75 GB of RAM and 4 GB of storage. And to turn the whole thing, we find the interface always attractive Samsung, Tizen OS 4.0. Learning how to use the watch is a childish exercise and most tips are explained to you at the first start. By sliding your finger to the right, you can access the notifications. You can open them by tapping or erase them with a swipe up.

But let's go back to the main screen. From there, a left-click allows you to navigate between apps and widgets that you can customize to your liking. And to avoid having to do everything via the touch screen, you have two buttons available on the right side. The top key returns to the previous page while the bottom one is used to return to the health home.

At any time, you can lower the shortcuts panel to access general settings, notifications, or Bluetooth. This is also where you can turn off the touch screen recognition to go into the water without worry or launch the option that helps to find your smartphone by ringing it.

Putting the palm of your hand on the screen of the watch also makes it possible to put it in standby. This can do a lot to remember when trying to describe them in writing, but the gestures really come intuitively on One UI. We will appreciate a beautiful aesthetic harmony between the interface of the watch and the same name that propels the latest smartphones from Samsung.

By taking a tour on the Galaxy Store, you will find a wide range of applications of all kinds. As we said, you can enjoy YouTube, but also a web browser, several sports tracking services, Spotify, a flashlight, games or Google Maps Navigation platform that helps you find the right path during a route.

Also note that while some apps on your smartphone simply send a notification that you can not really interact with, that's not the case with email services.

SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger … As soon as I received a written message, I could respond with phrases suggested by the watch or directly by dictating the words.

The process could be faster, but it is effective.

Be aware that received notifications trigger small vibrations around your wrist. You can of course disable them, but they are pretty well dosed.

Also, Samsung Pay is available on the watch which is NFC compatible. Depending on the bank where you have an account, it may be handy to pay without contact and quickly when you buy.

Activity monitoring

Heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, GPS, accelerometer … The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is well equipped to analyze your physical activity. The device is effective to detect itself as soon as you lend yourself to a session of walking, running or cycling long enough.

The watch does not take long to encourage you to continue your effort. The positive tone is always present at the end of the exercise. Indeed, whatever the intensity of your effort, you will be rewarded with a brief text of congratulations. Some will see some form of hypocrisy, others will feel more motivated to improve.

Personally, I am rather part of the second group of people … even if Very good, always active To which I was entitled to lift my chair and do 5 rotations bust me a little raised to the sky – especially since there is a slight concern of posting.

In this regard, I must say that when you stay too long idle, the Galaxy Watch Active sends you a notification offering a short exercise. I mentioned the bust rotations, but you can opt for bending, stretching, squatting … If I found the watch rather accurate in motion detection overall, it happened that the accelerometer crashes without detecting what I was doing as part of an exercise – and I guarantee you that I followed the instructions. This only happened twice in two weeks.

With the Samsung Health widgets, the South Korean-designed sports app, you'll be able to practice drills to get a feel for the time spent doing the effort, the calories you spend, your heart rate. Depending on your achievements, you will receive badges for climbing so many floors, market so many kilometers, beat such a record, etc. The idea, here too, is to send very positive waves.

Note that Samsung Health also exists on your smartphone for an overview of your recent activities more enjoyable to view on a phone screen. The app also gathers the data recorded on your nights sleep, your stress level and your heart rate.

The application is also available on Android and iOS.

It was quickly mentioned, the watch can regulate the level of stress of the user by offering a breathing exercise. The functionality is classic: a blue rosette grows and decreases and you have to stall your inspirations and your expirations on the same rhythm. As for the heart rate monitoring, it is quite autonomous and regularly measures the heartbeat. You can also decide to activate this option yourself. Just think of doing this by sitting down and taking a little time to rest.

As to tracking sleep, it is activated automatically, is accurate to detect the period during which you are in the arms of Morpheus and gives you several details on the different phases of rest that you have crossed during the night.

Autonomy

With its wasp waist, the Galaxy Watch Active could not afford the luxury of shipping a big battery. It is therefore necessary to be content with a battery of 230 mAh. For comparison, we have a capacity of 472 mAh on the Galaxy Watch.

In terms of stamina, the knockout hardly has to be as convincing as her older sister. The most striking anecdote that comes to mind is the following: Friday night, at 19h, I remove the Galaxy Watch Active from its charging base with 98% battery. I go out with friends, briefly consult some notifications during the evening and then go to sleep with. The next day, Saturday, I walk for nearly 4 hours in the streets of Paris, motivated by the encouragement of the watch that congratulates me for my activity. Around 19:30, the watch warns me that the battery level is around 15% and invites me to activate the energy saving mode. Wanting to Review the device, I decline the proposal. New outing with friends, I consult two or three times my notifications and then forget that I wear the smart health smart health connected object around the wrist. Around midnight, several minutes past, I had no more juice.

What the story does not say is that I left the charger in the office and so I could not use the watch all Sunday … Anyway. The main thing about this adventure is that the Galaxy Watch Active was battery-powered for just over 24 hours. Note however that with my walk Saturday, activity monitoring was particularly sought.

On slower days, the watch comes to endure the daily for a little more than 48 hours before sending the notification to switch to energy saving mode. As a reminder, this option blocks applications and widgets and passes the entire interface in black and white. Only time and notifications remain searchable. In the end, autonomy is fairly accurate, but not necessarily disappointing. Let's say that to be really quiet, we recommend reloading the watch every 36 hours.

For charging, it takes approximately 2:30 to go from 0 to 100% with the base 5W wireless charging. You can also use the reverse wireless charging of the Galaxy S10.07

Communication

You can not make a call with your Samsung Galaxy Watch Active. It will offer you to get a call when a contact will try to reach you, but the knock will then signal you to take the call on your smartphone. Not very relevant at once.

The watch is smart health connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth 4.2. The range will vary depending on the smartphone, but after pairing with my Galaxy Note 9, I could move about twenty meters with two or three walls in obstacle before being disconnected.

Price and availability

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is available in France at the recommended price of 249 euros.

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