Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsCapable watch, lighter and sleeker, but battery life is poor, with other problems
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2021
This is my third Samsung watch and is slightly improved in some ways from the Gear Sport I had before. But there are also some things that are shockingly worse, mainly battery life. A day and a half at most. Daily recharging is the norm. My old sport would easily go two days before needing a charge.
Also not a big fan of the sleep tracker, which unlike the earlier version, doesnt seem to measure how well you sleep. Sleep scores vary wildly from night to night and it seems to provide the highest scores on the nights you have worst sleep. This is odd since it does measure things the Sport did not, like REM and blood O2. (Snoring too but have not used that yet) But those do not seem to provide the information to actually measure good sleep.
Othewise, it's a fairly good watch. It is thinner and sleeker than before. Screen resolution is a bit better.
Health functions all work well. Automatic detection of walking and other activities, more than were available before. Integrates well with a Samsung phone and the excellent Samnsung Health app.
Built in speaker and microphone, which is new for me, means the watch can make notification sounds and you can handle phone calls via the watch, if your hearing is good. And use Bixby to issue voice commands, which sort of works.
The ECG heat function seems sort of pointless. It does measure it but spits out a raft of warnings about how it really does not mean anything and wont detect a heart attack or any other kind of heart problem. This was probably mandated by some worthless federal agency. But if so, why bother? All you get is a chart like you would get at a doctor if had it done. With little to no explanation of what it means. Useful if you are a cardiologist perhaps. Not so much for anyone else.
Setting up Samsung Pay was a major problem. It took several days before I could get past endless error messages ...and to try again. When it finally worked , it suddently mposed a daily ritual that was not there before. The watch is locked every morning or after charging and will do nothing, until you enter the Samsung Pay pin. A big of pain. In the past, you entered the PIN only when using Samsung Pay.
Not a big fan of the virtual scroll (my Sport has a rotating bezel) but it sort of works. The silicone band is comfortable but am not a big fan sliding the part of the band past the buckle UNDER the band , instead of through a loop. How much would it have cost to add a loop, which is available on the Classic version? The big hole in band necessary to make that necessary creates a weak point in the band and it will break in short order. I will be surprised if it lasts a year. Really dumb penny pinching idea.
In the end, a capable watch with more than its share of warts that really should not be there given how many generations it has been aroung. It should be always getting better but seems to be getting worse on some fronts.
