Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsWarning For Those That Want Health Tracking
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2023
I had a primary goal in mind when I began to watch shop, and this would not only be my first smart watch, but first watch in general. I knew I wanted the basics of a watch, namely some addition to my style efforts, but getting back into fitness and living a healthy life; a tracker for all the things that may help gauge my progress.
Therefore, from a watch perspective, and style perspective, this watch crushes. It tells the time, and the highlight of this is the ability to change the watch face. You can go old school long and short hand, or new school with a digital display and dozens of options in between. The watch is slick, modern, and compliments any outfit. In my opinion, it far surpasses some of the watches out there such as the Apple version which is thick, more square, and an obvious smart watch. I love the Galaxy watch because it doesn't have any tell-tell signs of being a smart watch.
I wasn't sure what to expect out of a smart watch since this was my first. One of the most pleasant surprises is seeing the notifications pop up, without grabbing my phone. I frequent sites with two-factor authentication and seeing those codes pop right up on my wrist has been a major time saver. All in all, the immediate view of the time (basic watch functionality), notifications, and the basic customization and slick look drives this watch to be a great thing to own.
That however is where the dissapointments begin. As previsouly stated, I purchased this, largely, to be a fitness tracker. I was extremely interested in the sleep tracking as my sleep is terrible, and I'm trying to determine if I have sleep apnea (not from this alone). I also wanted a live time tracker of my heart rate as well as a step counter. I could have gone with cheaper options that do these things, such as the higher end fitbit, or even other smart watches on the market such as the fossil. I watched dozens of reviews on all of them, and ultimately settled on this watch, as I figured it would have the greatest synergy between it and my Galaxy S21 phone. I also figured that with it having a higher price point, that the tracking would be superior. Prepare for disappointment.
I don't know. Perhaps the tracking is fine but you have to be within the realm of accurate to feel confident in the results. For example, the sleep tracker is not tracking sleep. If I go to bed at 9PM, lay there for an hour, then sleep from 10-5, but also lay in bed after waking; the watch counts this from laying down to getting up, 9PM to 6AM. Night after night, I sleep with varying factors, some nights tossing and turning, but each morning, the watch gives me about the same result. Knowing I'm a poor sleeper, the deep sleep and REM time ratings simply can't be accurate. My previous partner use a fitbit, not even the highest end model, and the sleep rating for her felt a lot more accurate, not counting the time she laid in bed, but rather the time she truly slept.
It supposedly tracks blood-oxygen levels while you sleep. One day it showed me at 89%, not healthy but perhaps believable. Last night, it showed me at 55% which, I'm fairly certain I would be dead at that rate. I would think the watch may try to wake me if that was true. It supposedly tracks body-weight but I knew that wasn't correct when it put me at 9% - I WISH! The next day it put me at 14%. Sadly, neither are true right now.
The absolute most infuriating piece of this poor tracking is quite simply that it doesn't do it in live time. If I want to track my steps through out the day, I have to be "recording" my walk. It doesn't seem to capture my steps on an elliptical, although I can switch it to elliptical mode. Keep in mind there are so many different modes, you may be switching them constantly throughout a workout. The more annoying one in this situation is the heartrate monitor. I wanted to be working out and glance at my watch to see this in live time. Nope, you have to click on the heart rate, then run it to get your heart rate. Then, again, every time you want an updated rate.
Conclusion on fitness tracking; it sucks. I check my sleep record in the morning for very rough, arguably not accurate report on how I slept. If desperate, in the gym, wanting to know my heart rate, I can stop and run the reader and hope it's accurate. Compared to the treadmill reader, it is not accurate. All in, I would not recommend this for a fitness tracker.
And that's really where you have to question if you need a smart watch. I will keep this because it adds to my style, and I do love the notifications. However, the navigation, even with this being the 5th iteration of the watch, leaves a lot to be desired.
Swiping Right = Brings up notifications, but it's difficult to scroll to previous notifications
Swiping Left = Brings up available trackers such as the aforementioned step counter for various activities (but not things like the heart rate tracker even though those would be great here)
Swiping Up = Brings up an apps menu, of which I have used none. This is frustrating because it is pre-loaded with a dozen apps and you can't seem to remove ones you don't need. And Finally,
Swiping Down = Same as your phone - various indicators, silence functions, etc...
If you have a galaxy phone like the S21 or later that doesn't have a physical button, you're likely used to swiping right to go back - this does not carry over to the watch, you must learn to use a home button again. While you may want the heart rate counter, or step counter ready on the go, there appears to be zero way of activating those, other than the small buttons on the face that you can add, but only on some of the watch faces, most of which only hold a maximum of four widgets. AND, one of those widgets is the battery indicator. If you want to have a quick view of your remaining battery percentage, and you want to use another widget for the date, that only leaves 2 spots or less for the things you do want. Considering this watch supposedly tracks quite a few things, you're limited at clicking into only two points of tracking. AND, if you want to view more, you seem to have to go into your phone, change the watch face, and add those trackers, which will replace the other ones you may want to see. Conclusion; it's pretty crappy if you want to track multiple items as you can't just switch to those trackers from the watch face. They must be added in advance, or you have to pull out your phone and completely change how your watch is setup. I believe you can potentially add them as "Tiles" which is accessed by scrolling the screen in a circular motion but try doing that when you're in the middle of a workout.
While I've decided to award this watch only 3 stars, it is nice enough to recommend it. I'm not sure if any of the other models would have been better. Some folks complain about the battery life, but it charges so quickly, it's not a deal breaker for me. It's a nice watch, still worth the price, but the moral of the story; don't trust the trackers, nor expect an easy going time dealing with them.
I hope this review helps someone make their decision!
