Galaxy Watch 5 - If only it had a battery

**Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Review: A Great Android Smartwatch with Some Compromises**

I recently had the opportunity to review the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, a device that promises to deliver long battery life and impressive performance. Unfortunately, my experience was marred by some significant compromises.

One of the biggest issues I encountered was the battery life. Despite having a relatively small display (40mm), the watch still required daily charging, even with the always-on display enabled. This is particularly frustrating when you consider that Samsung promises up to 40-50 hours of usage time on a single charge. In reality, I found myself needing to recharge my watch every day, which is not exactly what you'd call "convenient." Furthermore, if you enable the Google Assistant wake word along with the always-on display, you'll likely only get a few hours of usage out of your watch.

To try and mitigate this issue, I downloaded an offline playlist from Spotify onto my watch and went for a 30-minute GPS run without my phone. This reduced battery life by about 21%, which is still not ideal. However, it's worth noting that the larger 44mm watch may offer slightly better results due to its bigger battery.

Another area where the Galaxy Watch 5 falls short is in terms of fast charging. While Samsung has improved this feature somewhat, it still takes around two hours to go from zero to 100%. This can be a significant drawback if you need to top up your watch on the go. However, it's worth noting that Samsung does offer a 30-40% charge in about half an hour.

Speaking of charging schedules, one feature I was looking forward to seeing more clearly is the touch bezel. Unfortunately, this feature seems to have been finicky even on my original Galaxy Watch 4. The watch 5 takes it a step further by making it almost impossible to use without moving your finger slowly around the border. It's easy to accidentally slide off the edge of the screen if you're not careful, and I found myself turning this feature off altogether.

The watch 5 also gets the job done as a health tracker, albeit with some compromises. Samsung Health is a decent app, but it lags behind other wearables in terms of social features and analytics. Additionally, there were several instances where my blood oxygen levels were reported to be abnormally low (around 80-88%), which would warrant further investigation from a doctor.

In contrast, the watch's ability to track sleep stages was impressive. It could reliably detect when I was sleeping versus awake in bed, which is more accurate than some other wearables on the market.

**Is it Worth Upgrading from Your Current Watch?**

So, is the Galaxy Watch 5 worth upgrading from your current Android smartwatch? The answer depends on your individual needs and preferences. If you're currently using a Samsung phone and are due for an upgrade anyway, the watch 5 may be the better choice. However, if you're not locked into Samsung's ecosystem or are happy with your current watch, it might be worth waiting to see how the market shakes out.

Rumors abound about upcoming wearables from Oppo, Mobvoi TicWatch, and Fossil, all of which promise to deliver improved performance and features on top of Wear OS 2. The latter is expected to arrive at the end of 2022, bringing significant enhancements over Wear OS 1. With so many exciting developments on the horizon, it's worth considering your options carefully before making a purchase.

For now, I'll conclude my review by saying that the Galaxy Watch 5 is still an excellent Android smartwatch, but not without its caveats. Its battery life, fast charging, and touch bezel are all areas for improvement, which may deter some potential buyers. Nevertheless, if you're in the market for a high-quality wearable with impressive performance and features, the watch 5 is definitely worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ensamsung has finally done it after years of hoping dreaming and waiting we finally have an android smartwatch that can give the apple watch a run for its money with the galaxy watch five faster performance a refined touch bezel excellent battery life and no more compromises for android users who don't have a samsung phone after just one short year wear os 3 has reached its full potential chef's kiss that's what i wish i could have said about the galaxy watch 5 but for better or worse the watch 5 isn't that different from the galaxy watch 4. seriously if it wasn't for the different colors i'd have a hard time picking these two watches apart like the watch 4 the galaxy watch 5 comes in two sizes 40 millimeters and 44 millimeters and you can choose between bluetooth only and lte versions it has mostly the same sensors and health tracking features like built-in gps ecg readings body composition analysis blood oxygen monitoring and advanced sleep tracking also got the same sleek minimalist design and the same exynos w920 processor and sorry friends no physical rotating puzzle here you'll have to stick to the watch 4 classic if that's a feature you really want i know it sucks but more on that in a bit you'd need eagle eyes to spot the major design changes this time around the back of the watch 5 is slightly curvier and that's so that the sensor array can make better contact with your skin which in turn is supposed to improve accuracy despite the curvier back i didn't notice much of a difference in how the watch 5 felt on my wrist all that means is it still comfortable for everyday wear fitness and sleep tracking the watch 5 also has a new infrared temperature sensor the thing is it doesn't really do much yet it allegedly makes sleep tracking slightly more accurate but samsung basically added it so that developers can tinker around with it for future health features speaking of sleep tracking samsung says the improved 3 in 1 bioactive sensor in the watch 5 means you get more advanced sleep coaching features though you have to wear the watch for a whole week before you get any tips or insights otherwise the watch 5 will track breathing and heart rate data blood oxygen levels and analyze your sleep stages it can even detect if you're snoring without needing your phone like the watch for none of these things are particularly exciting and i get why the watch 5 is such an iterative update because frankly it can be until google launches its pixel watch later this year samsung doesn't have much if any real competition when it comes to android smart watches the only other wear os 3 watches that are available right now are the galaxy watch 4 the galaxy watch 4 classic and the mont blanc summit 3. and that last watch is a whopping 1 290 dollars compared to the watch 5 which starts at 279.99 one of the biggest issues i had with the galaxy watch 4 is that you still got the short end of the stick if you didn't have a samsung phone even though wear os 3 was supposed to give users the choice between samsung and google apps the watch 4 was still very much a samsung product when it launched because some google apps just weren't ready yet but it's been a year since then google assistant is available now and that means you never have to put up with bixby again if you don't want to literally replacing bixby was one of the first things i did setting up the watch i also immediately downloaded google wallet and didn't bother with samsung pay i've never been able to customize services to that extent on a samsung watch at launch before that's fan freaking tastic another thing i really dug were some of the updates on one ui watch 4.5 with one ui watch 4.5 samsung's added a ton of new accessibility features and that includes visibility enhancements like color filters and color correction and the ability to turn off animations or blur effects i really appreciate that because i have such bad eyesight so it lets me read things on a small screen much easier accessibility is one of the things that wearable devices really need to improve on so this is great to see from samsung samsung also made it easier to type on the watch 5 with new keyboard options you can now dictate swipe to type and use handwriting to text or search for apps in the play store but while these changes were awesome i can't help but feel that samsung dropped the ball when it comes to battery and the touch bezel let's start with battery life this was the area where the watch 4 and watch 4 classic majorly disappointed they were supposed to get 40 hours on a single charge but i almost never actually got that most days i saw about 20 hours so i was pretty hopeful when samsung said it increased the size of the battery on the watch 5 by 15 for the 40 millimeter and 13 for the 44 millimeter unfortunately i still had to charge this 40 millimeter review unit every day with the always on display enabled you're simply not going to get anywhere near the 40 to 50 hour samsung promises for the watch five and if you enable the hey google wake word for google assistant on top of the always on display you'd be lucky to make it through the entire workday on a day where i had both these features enabled i took the watch off its charger at 9am with a hundred percent and was left with about 9 at 5 p.m that was a day with heavy usage and about 60 minutes of gps activity but that's still not great bob you'll get more mileage if you turn off the always on display and make a conscious effort to save battery but even doing all that i never got more than 24 hours with the 40 millimeter watch 5. for some extra context i turned off the always-on display downloaded an offline playlist from spotify onto the watch 5 and went for a 30 minute gps run without my phone that's that battery by a whopping 21 i went on another 50 minute gps run with my phone and without the music and that drained my watch 12 you might get better results on the larger 44 millimeter watch just because the battery is bigger but i would never call this true multi-day battery life that said samsung has improved fast charging it still takes about two hours to go from zero to 100 but you can get around 30 to 40 in about a half hour that's enough to get you home or power a night of sleep tracking it doesn't fully take the sting out but it does make your charging schedule a bit easier another thing samsung whiffed is the touch bezel it was finicky on the watch four but it almost seems worse on the watch five you have to move your finger slowly around the border everything just flies by really fast it's also much too easy for your finger to slide off the edge if you're not careful and forget about it if you've got sweaty fingers from working out or just finished washing your hands you just don't have any of these issues with the physical rotating bezel i actually ended up turning off the touch bezel completely because you don't need it on wear os powered by samsung but i'll admit i'm pretty sad about it as a health tracker the watch 5 gets the job done but you have to make a few compromises first off you have to commit to using samsung health it's a fine app but it's a bit lacking in the social department if you're someone who enjoys friendly competition you also have to take accuracy with a grain of salt there were several times where the watch 5 said my sleeping blood oxygen levels dropped somewhere between 80 to 88 first of all those are seriously abnormal levels that would warrant a trip to the doctor it's also way off to what i got on the same nights from my aura ring i also saw some big discrepancies with my sleep stages though overall the watch 5 could reliably tell when i was sleeping versus when i was awake in bed if you're wondering if you should upgrade from the galaxy watch 4 hold your horses you've already got everything that's good about the watch 5 on your wrist and i just didn't see enough of an improvement in battery life to warrant the cost it's a different story if you got a samsung phone and are currently on the galaxy watch active or active 2. samsung will be ending support for those watches after this year and you're just going to get a better overall experience on the watch 5. for all my quibbles and complaints this is still hands down the best android smartwatch you can buy for now there's a hell of a lot of change coming to android wearables this fall on top of the pixel watch we're also expecting to see smart watches from oppo and mobboy ticwatch that feature qualcomm's snazzy new snapdragon w5 plus platform that chip might be even more powerful than what samsung's got in the watch 5 and the watch 5 pro we're also expecting fossil to come out with a whole new lineup and those watches might also support the w5 plus not to mention google's long promise that certain wear os 2 watches will get the upgrade to wear os 3 before the end of 2022 android owners are about to get a lot more options on the wearable front and if you're not locked in samsung's ecosystem it might be worth waiting to see how things shake out well that's all she wrote for the galaxy watch 5 but if you're curious about the watch 5 pro i'm about to get my hands on one of those too drop a note in the comments about any features you're curious about and thanks for watchingsamsung has finally done it after years of hoping dreaming and waiting we finally have an android smartwatch that can give the apple watch a run for its money with the galaxy watch five faster performance a refined touch bezel excellent battery life and no more compromises for android users who don't have a samsung phone after just one short year wear os 3 has reached its full potential chef's kiss that's what i wish i could have said about the galaxy watch 5 but for better or worse the watch 5 isn't that different from the galaxy watch 4. seriously if it wasn't for the different colors i'd have a hard time picking these two watches apart like the watch 4 the galaxy watch 5 comes in two sizes 40 millimeters and 44 millimeters and you can choose between bluetooth only and lte versions it has mostly the same sensors and health tracking features like built-in gps ecg readings body composition analysis blood oxygen monitoring and advanced sleep tracking also got the same sleek minimalist design and the same exynos w920 processor and sorry friends no physical rotating puzzle here you'll have to stick to the watch 4 classic if that's a feature you really want i know it sucks but more on that in a bit you'd need eagle eyes to spot the major design changes this time around the back of the watch 5 is slightly curvier and that's so that the sensor array can make better contact with your skin which in turn is supposed to improve accuracy despite the curvier back i didn't notice much of a difference in how the watch 5 felt on my wrist all that means is it still comfortable for everyday wear fitness and sleep tracking the watch 5 also has a new infrared temperature sensor the thing is it doesn't really do much yet it allegedly makes sleep tracking slightly more accurate but samsung basically added it so that developers can tinker around with it for future health features speaking of sleep tracking samsung says the improved 3 in 1 bioactive sensor in the watch 5 means you get more advanced sleep coaching features though you have to wear the watch for a whole week before you get any tips or insights otherwise the watch 5 will track breathing and heart rate data blood oxygen levels and analyze your sleep stages it can even detect if you're snoring without needing your phone like the watch for none of these things are particularly exciting and i get why the watch 5 is such an iterative update because frankly it can be until google launches its pixel watch later this year samsung doesn't have much if any real competition when it comes to android smart watches the only other wear os 3 watches that are available right now are the galaxy watch 4 the galaxy watch 4 classic and the mont blanc summit 3. and that last watch is a whopping 1 290 dollars compared to the watch 5 which starts at 279.99 one of the biggest issues i had with the galaxy watch 4 is that you still got the short end of the stick if you didn't have a samsung phone even though wear os 3 was supposed to give users the choice between samsung and google apps the watch 4 was still very much a samsung product when it launched because some google apps just weren't ready yet but it's been a year since then google assistant is available now and that means you never have to put up with bixby again if you don't want to literally replacing bixby was one of the first things i did setting up the watch i also immediately downloaded google wallet and didn't bother with samsung pay i've never been able to customize services to that extent on a samsung watch at launch before that's fan freaking tastic another thing i really dug were some of the updates on one ui watch 4.5 with one ui watch 4.5 samsung's added a ton of new accessibility features and that includes visibility enhancements like color filters and color correction and the ability to turn off animations or blur effects i really appreciate that because i have such bad eyesight so it lets me read things on a small screen much easier accessibility is one of the things that wearable devices really need to improve on so this is great to see from samsung samsung also made it easier to type on the watch 5 with new keyboard options you can now dictate swipe to type and use handwriting to text or search for apps in the play store but while these changes were awesome i can't help but feel that samsung dropped the ball when it comes to battery and the touch bezel let's start with battery life this was the area where the watch 4 and watch 4 classic majorly disappointed they were supposed to get 40 hours on a single charge but i almost never actually got that most days i saw about 20 hours so i was pretty hopeful when samsung said it increased the size of the battery on the watch 5 by 15 for the 40 millimeter and 13 for the 44 millimeter unfortunately i still had to charge this 40 millimeter review unit every day with the always on display enabled you're simply not going to get anywhere near the 40 to 50 hour samsung promises for the watch five and if you enable the hey google wake word for google assistant on top of the always on display you'd be lucky to make it through the entire workday on a day where i had both these features enabled i took the watch off its charger at 9am with a hundred percent and was left with about 9 at 5 p.m that was a day with heavy usage and about 60 minutes of gps activity but that's still not great bob you'll get more mileage if you turn off the always on display and make a conscious effort to save battery but even doing all that i never got more than 24 hours with the 40 millimeter watch 5. for some extra context i turned off the always-on display downloaded an offline playlist from spotify onto the watch 5 and went for a 30 minute gps run without my phone that's that battery by a whopping 21 i went on another 50 minute gps run with my phone and without the music and that drained my watch 12 you might get better results on the larger 44 millimeter watch just because the battery is bigger but i would never call this true multi-day battery life that said samsung has improved fast charging it still takes about two hours to go from zero to 100 but you can get around 30 to 40 in about a half hour that's enough to get you home or power a night of sleep tracking it doesn't fully take the sting out but it does make your charging schedule a bit easier another thing samsung whiffed is the touch bezel it was finicky on the watch four but it almost seems worse on the watch five you have to move your finger slowly around the border everything just flies by really fast it's also much too easy for your finger to slide off the edge if you're not careful and forget about it if you've got sweaty fingers from working out or just finished washing your hands you just don't have any of these issues with the physical rotating bezel i actually ended up turning off the touch bezel completely because you don't need it on wear os powered by samsung but i'll admit i'm pretty sad about it as a health tracker the watch 5 gets the job done but you have to make a few compromises first off you have to commit to using samsung health it's a fine app but it's a bit lacking in the social department if you're someone who enjoys friendly competition you also have to take accuracy with a grain of salt there were several times where the watch 5 said my sleeping blood oxygen levels dropped somewhere between 80 to 88 first of all those are seriously abnormal levels that would warrant a trip to the doctor it's also way off to what i got on the same nights from my aura ring i also saw some big discrepancies with my sleep stages though overall the watch 5 could reliably tell when i was sleeping versus when i was awake in bed if you're wondering if you should upgrade from the galaxy watch 4 hold your horses you've already got everything that's good about the watch 5 on your wrist and i just didn't see enough of an improvement in battery life to warrant the cost it's a different story if you got a samsung phone and are currently on the galaxy watch active or active 2. samsung will be ending support for those watches after this year and you're just going to get a better overall experience on the watch 5. for all my quibbles and complaints this is still hands down the best android smartwatch you can buy for now there's a hell of a lot of change coming to android wearables this fall on top of the pixel watch we're also expecting to see smart watches from oppo and mobboy ticwatch that feature qualcomm's snazzy new snapdragon w5 plus platform that chip might be even more powerful than what samsung's got in the watch 5 and the watch 5 pro we're also expecting fossil to come out with a whole new lineup and those watches might also support the w5 plus not to mention google's long promise that certain wear os 2 watches will get the upgrade to wear os 3 before the end of 2022 android owners are about to get a lot more options on the wearable front and if you're not locked in samsung's ecosystem it might be worth waiting to see how things shake out well that's all she wrote for the galaxy watch 5 but if you're curious about the watch 5 pro i'm about to get my hands on one of those too drop a note in the comments about any features you're curious about and thanks for watching\n"