Samsung Galaxy Watch 5: Everything new, from a better battery to skin temperature sensors

Galaxy Watch 5 revealed at Samsung Gallery Unpacked event Wednesday, is the company’s latest attempt to make the best Android watch after last year Galaxy Watch 4. This time it comes with a larger Pro model to match, with both models set to release on August 26th along with the new one. Galaxy Buds 2 ProAnd the Galaxy Fold 4 And the face 4.

Last year’s watch was the debut of the new Google Wear OS 3 — which Samsung co-developed — and while not perfect, it included an ambitious set of new health sensors aimed at bringing bio-impedance and wrist-based fat measurements to Samsung Health.

2022 is a whole new story. Google has pixel clock We arrived this fall, promising a combination of Fitbit and Google’s automated smarts and design. Meanwhile, the new Samsung watches promise a longer battery life compared to last year, a skin temperature sensor, and the sapphire crystal is supposed to be more durable for the watch face instead of Gorilla Glass. The Pro’s ultra-thin battery promises days of wear between charges, which is a trend Apple says it will follow. next watch This fall.

Now play:
Watch this:

Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro

8:01

Is 5 o’clock worth having? Or the Pro model? Or should you wait to see what the Pixel Watch is all about? Samsung’s first out of the gate in this fall’s wave of watches, so let’s break down what you’ve got. We can’t compare the others yet, because they’re not here yet. But Samsung’s latest watch model feels like a more modest upgrade over last year, with some notable changes in the equation.

Price: Wide range with some discounts

Samsung’s Bluetooth-only Watch 5 will start at $280 (£269, AU$495), with the LTE version starting at $330. But the Pro model with larger titanium batteries starts at $450 (£394, AU$725), or $500 for the LTE version. Samsung is offering some trade discounts on pre-orders: $75 off the 5 Watch, or $125 off the Pro if an “eligible” watch is traded, plus a $50 credit for accessories. Other retailers may end up getting sales and merchandising discounts, too.

Battery life: extra boost

The previous Watch 4 had a 361mAh battery in the 44mm version, or 247mAh for the 40mm version. The Watch 5 has a 410mAh battery in the 44mm size, or 284mAh on the smaller model. That should in theory give the battery more life, although who knows exactly how much; The last Watch 4 lasted about two days or so on my wrist.

The biggest jump comes in the new Watch 5 Pro model, which has a massive 590mAh battery. That could mean three days of battery life, depending on usage. Samsung is promoting the larger Pro (with a higher cost and titanium case) to GPS runners, or outdoorsy folks who may want more durability and battery life.

Skin temperature: Another watch joining the trend

The Samsung Watch 5 has heart rate sensors, a bio-resistance electrical sensor, and an ECG sensor from the previous Watch 4, but the infrared-based skin temperature sensor is new — on Samsung watches at least. Temperature sensing has been a recent trend in wearable devices: Fitbit Watches owned it for a few years, amazon aura her gangster, and aura ring He owns it and the next Apple Watch is said to own it.

Skin temperature will be added to the rest of Samsung’s health metrics to build different ways of perceiving changes in wellness, but it’s unclear how that might develop. Based on past experience with other skin temperature sensors, this is how it works: results are relative, not specific, and focus more on changes over time than any particular thermometer-like reading. I’ve found that it can help pre-sense a potential illness, but how Samsung uses it is still unknown.

Design: Familiar (and a bit bigger for the pros)

The Watch 5 appears to have similar dimensions to recent Watch 4 models, but it’s a few grams heavier for both sizes. Color options include graphite, sapphire, rose gold, and silver.

Meanwhile, the Watch 5 Pro with a larger battery is noticeably larger, with an extra millimeter thick, and an additional length and width of more than a millimeter over the 44mm watch. At 46.5 grams, it’s noticeably heavier, crawls around nearly twice its weight. Last year’s 40mm watch (25.9g). The titanium case comes in black or gray, with a D-buckle on the sport strap.

Samsung added a bunch of new watch faces this year, in addition to a collection that was already excellent last year. These watch faces and their colors will provide most custom looks for most people, anyway.

One thing that seems to be gone, however, is that physical rotating bezel that was present in the classic Watch 4 design. Samsung’s touch bezel is now the default way to interact, but the company will keep the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic in the lineup if you want a watch with a physical dial.

more durable?

Samsung has moved to the sapphire crystal for the Watch 5, which it promised would be 60% harder. Does that mean better scratch resistance, or improved durability from shattering?

The Watch 5 Pro, of course, promises a better sapphire crystal, as well as a titanium case around the watch (versus the aluminum on the regular Watch 5).

Other specifications

Both watches have optional LTE models with cellular on board (there’s no 5G this year, though no other watch has 5G as well), plus 5 ATM water resistance for swimming. The same set of health sensors is present on both models including ECG, heart rate, temperature and bio-resistance sensors. The watches also include 16GB of storage for music or apps, dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2.

Notably, none of the watches use the recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 chip, which promises better battery life and comes to another Wear OS . watches later this year. Instead, Samsung is using its own 1.18GHz dual-core Exynos W920 processor, which appears to be the same as the Watch 4. Last year, watch processors aren’t something most people eagerly look forward to, and it’s not yet known how much better. It could be the new Qualcomm chipset.

Android only, but specially designed for Samsung phones

Like last year’s Galaxy Watch 4 (and other new Wear OS 3 watches that we know of), the Watch 5 won’t work with iOS. It is only for Android phones (according to Samsung, Android 8 or higher, with more than 1.5GB of RAM). But, more specifically, the ECG, tension and bio-resistance sensors only work with Samsung phones. Last year, these health features needed to power Samsung phones, too.

If that remains true, that would be a big limit on how attractive the Watch 5 is to most Android phone owners: It’s worth waiting for Google’s Pixel Watch, which is expected by the end of the year, to see how its health features compare. The biggest difference with the latest Samsung watch this year is that it won’t be the only Wear OS 3 watch available anymore.