Today we get to see the fruits of Google and Samsung’s smartwatch collaboration: the new Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. This is a huge step in the world of Android wearables, because, after years of trying to go it alone with its own Tizen platform on smartwatches, Samsung is finally biting the bullet and collaborating with Google on its operating system.
For Samsung, it seems they are hitting a bit of a reset button with its wearables lineup. Yes, there’s the Wear OS operating system, but Samsung is also taking the opportunity to tweak the branding on its ranges.
So instead of splitting its smartwatches between the Active and regular ranges, now there’s the default Watch 4 and the more premium Watch 4 Classic that has the iconic rotating bezels. The Watch 4 is best thought of as a successor to the Watch Active 2 from 2019 (which means that, yes, Samsung has skipped the Active 3, RIP), while the Watch 4 Classic with its chunkier design and rotating bezel. Basically, the Galaxy Watch 4 is now the default, and the Classic is the step-up version.
The Watch 4 Classic starts at UGX 1.2m ($349) for the Bluetooth model, rising to UGX 1.4 ($399) for the LTE model, while the Watch 4 is a little less expensive with a starting price of UGX 879k ($249) (or UGX 1m ($299) with LTE). Both are available to preorder today, and ship August 27th.
Watch 4 series Design & Exynos W920 processor
The big difference between the two models is that the Watch 4 Classic has one of those physical rotating bezels that we’ve liked so much on Samsung’s previous smartwatches, while if you opt for the standard Watch 4, there’s a touch-sensitive bezel accessible by swiping at the edges of the screen. The Watch 4 Classic is also made of a more premium stainless steel rather than the aluminum you’ll find on the Watch 4. On the right of both watches are a pair of control buttons.
The lack of a physical bezel means the Watch 4 is the more compact of the two models, and it’s also around a millimeter slimmer than its predecessor, the Active 2. The Watch 4 is available in 40mm and 44mm versions, while the Watch 4 Classic is available in 42mm and 46mm versions. But both ranges have the same screen sizes and resolutions, with a choice of either a 1.2-inch 396 x 396 display in the smaller body or a 1.4-inch 450 x 450 display in the larger one. That means higher resolution screens across the board, particularly if you opt for a larger model.
External differences aside, internally both watches share a lot of the same specs. They’re both powered by the same 5nm Exynos W920 processor, paired with 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Battery capacity varies between sizes, but Samsung reckons you’ll average around 40 hours of battery life regardless of the model. There’s LTE on select models, but if you were hoping for 5G, you’ll be disappointed — Samsung says it doesn’t think it’s worth it because the amount of data smartwatches process is too small.
One Watch UI
The biggest milestone change for Samsung from its previous smartwatches is that the Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic aren’t running their own Tizen operating system. Instead, their software is the result of a collaboration between Samsung and Google, which was announced in May. Samsung is branding the watches’ operating system as “Wear OS Powered by Samsung” although Google has called it Wear OS 3. But either way, the hope is that it combines the best of Tizen with the best of Wear OS.
On Samsung’s watches specifically, the interface you’re looking at is One UI Watch, which is effectively Samsung’s skin sitting on top of Wear OS. Think of it as Samsung’s One UI software on phones, which works with Google’s Android. It gives the Watch 4’s interface a similar look and feels to Samsung’s previous Tizen-powered watches.
One obvious improvement of running an operating system developed with Google is that the search giant’s apps are available to use. There’s Google Maps for getting around, Google Pay, and YouTube Music. The one big question mark surrounds Google’s voice assistant, especially given the reputation of Samsung’s own voice assistant Bixby. Samsung tells me Google Assistant won’t be available at launch, and it’s an open question whether it’ll arrive at a later date. For now, that means Bixby continues to be your only voice assistant option.
As Samsung previously announced, the smartwatches are also capable of syncing some settings from your phone like do not disturb and your blocked callers, as well as automatically installing watch apps when you have the phone version installed (a big improvement over Tizen’s old manual process).
Fitness
There are also new health features to talk about with the Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic, many of which focus on Samsung’s new 3-in-1 BioActive sensor. It combines an optical heart rate sensor, electrical heart sensor, and a bioelectric impedance analysis sensor which means detection of everything from atrial fibrillation to blood oxygen levels and body composition. It’ll also monitor your blood pressure in certain markets, although not in the US.
Samsung’s pitch is that in addition to detecting this all individually, its new smartwatches do a better job at giving you a holistic view of your overall health. There’s a new Body Composition measurement tool, which works by having you place two fingers on the watch’s right buttons and then gives you a bunch of metrics like your skeletal muscle mass, body fat percentage, and metabolic rate to poke around in. Samsung hasn’t mentioned whether the watch will sync with Google’s Fit or Fitbit accounts, but it feels like this could leave the watches packed with an almost confusing number of different fitness-tracking services.
That’s what makes this year’s smartwatches, and Google and Samsung’s collaboration in general, so exciting. It banishes so many of those little issues, like a lack of native Google apps, that have been problematic for Samsung’s recent watches. Last year we said it was time for a change from Samsung.
