Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 review: The first take of a great future idea
This might be the best Android watch right now, but it’s still missing a few pieces.
I started with CNET reviewing laptops in 2009. Now I explore wearable tech, VR/AR, tablets, gaming and future/emerging trends in our changing world. Other obsessions include magic, immersive theater, puzzles, board games, cooking, improv and the New York Jets. My background includes an MFA in theater which I apply to thinking about immersive experiences of the future.
Expertise VR and AR, gaming, metaverse technologies, wearable tech, tablets Credentials Nearly 20 years writing about tech, and over a decade reviewing wearable tech, VR, and AR products and apps
I’d love to say the new Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. which starts at 250 (£249), delivers the ultimate Android watch experience. I can’t quite say that, but it’s close. After wearing Samsung’s newest watches for two weeks, however, I’ve liked it more over time. It’s the first to run a whole new Google Wear OS co-designed by Samsung and Google. and while I’d say the future looks promising, the present looks a little unresolved. In a sense, my final feelings now are still pretty similar to my first few days wearing them.
Samsung makes great watches. The Galaxy Watch 3 was a strong mix of fitness and health features and a lot of smartwatch connectivity. But Samsung’s Tizen OS and app store always stayed apart from Google’s Android ecosystem. The Galaxy Watch 4 has much of the same design and features as last year’s watch, but with more health sensor tech. The OS is the Big New Thing, though.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4
Like
- Lots of health-tracking features
- Excellent display, fast processor
- New Google OS includes Play apps
- Great watch faces so far
Don’t Like
- ECG and blood pressure features require a Samsung phone to use
- Samsung Health still the default health app
- Has Bixby instead of Google Assistant
- Only 1-2 days of battery life
Moving to Google’s Wear OS, a smartwatch platform that’s been around for years, means the Watch 4 runs Google Play apps and can theoretically be a lot more hooked-in to Android phones. I say “theoretically” because, right now, a lot of the key things on the Galaxy Watch 4 happen to run off Samsung apps, which require a Samsung account. It’s part of the Google ecosystem, but also stands apart from it.
The Galaxy Watch 4 can run Google Fit and other fitness apps, but Samsung Health is the only place where health features like ECG (electrocardiogram) and a new bioelectric impedance sensor for body analysis measurements can be synced. Some health features, like ECG (and blood pressure in some countries) need a Samsung phone to work, too.
Google Assistant, arguably the most important Google feature you’d want on a voice-connected smartwatch, is also a no-show for now. Samsung’s Bixby is the default.
It all adds up to a Samsung watch that feels more like a lateral move after last year’s Watch 3 than a whole leap forward. While moving to Wear OS is a big deal, and could mean this watch finally feels as integrated to Android phones as Apple Watches do to iPhones, it feels like the Samsung ecosystem Band-Aid hasn’t been ripped off completely. Based on how Samsung’s Galaxy phones run Samsung apps right next to Google apps, that may not ever be likely to change. And that makes this first Samsung-Google watch collaboration a tiny bit hard to recommend since I don’t know what future Wear OS watches could be like. Is Samsung’s version the best? Right now, yes, because I can’t think of any Android watch that’s as well-made and full-featured as the Watch 4. But remember, again, you’re really best off using this with a Samsung phone.
Google and Samsung: Together again (sometimes)
The new Wear OS-based operating system on the Watch 4 is the biggest change this time. The Galaxy Watch is Android-only, a shift from previous Galaxy and Wear watches that could also connect in a limited way to iPhones. The Wear OS experience feels a lot like other Android watches: swiping down for quick-access settings, up for an app tray, right for notifications, and left for “tiles,” which are like mini-app readouts.
The tile experience carries over from previous Samsung watches: fitness dashboards can be browsed, the weather checked, text messages scanned. It’s best used, for me, as a way to get to fitness functions fast. I can rotate the bezel or swipe a couple of times to start a workout, or get a body analysis, check blood oxygen, get an ECG scan.
Google Play is the only app store on the Galaxy Watch 4, so it hooks into existing Google apps like Fit, YouTube, and Maps. But the rest of the setup process feels very Samsung. You’re using a Samsung Wear app to pair the watch, and Samsung Health as the go-to fitness/health app.
Design: The bezel’s back
Samsung’s always made watches that feel good on the wrist, and the lighter-weight Galaxy Watch 4 is great to wear, for the most part. I tried both the larger 44mm Galaxy Watch 4 (aluminum body) and the 46mm Galaxy Watch 4 Classic (stainless steel). The Classic adds the physical rotating bezel that clicks, the same as the Watch 3 and previous Samsung watches, while the Watch 4 relies on dragging your finger around the display edge to for a touch-based “spin” like the Galaxy Watch Active and Active 2 (with some haptics-based feedback for “click”).
The Classic’s recessed Gorilla Glass display protects it from impact, but also makes pulling off some of the watch’s swipe-based interactions a bit harder thanks to that bezel. Also, it’s thicker and more expensive. I’m torn between Classic and the regular Watch 4, truly. I lean towards the basic Watch 4 because it does the same things more affordably and still looks good, but the more exposed glass could end up scuffing more over time. And the touch-based bezel is harder to turn than spinning a physical bezel, even if it’s a largely unnecessary action (you can do all gestures you need through swipes and taps on the display, or by clicking the side buttons). Also, if you’re a swimmer, that physical bezel makes the watch easier to operate when wet.
I didn’t look at the smaller Watch 4, but both bigger sizes looked great on my large wrists. The 20mm pin-release watch straps can be replaced with other bands, more like a standard watch strap than anything proprietary. The straps bulge out a bit from the lugs, though, making the fit look a little stiff on-wrist.
The Super AMOLED display looks great, bright and crisp and colorful. Samsung’s preloaded watch faces are also really lovely. The animated animals, cute characters, and frequently dynamic effects make this watch’s faces feel like the best ones I’ve seen outside of the Apple Watch. Most have lots spaces for complications (widgets for apps to show data, like weather or fitness info). Others have none. Google’s own Wear OS watch faces are available too, along with plenty on Google Play to check out.
The redesigned sensor array on the back of the Watch 4 looks sharp, and combines the electrical ECG sensor from previous watches, plus optical heart rate and a new impedance-based electrical sensor. It’s pretty to look at. It also feels less bulky than previous watches did.
Two side buttons bring up Samsung Pay (or Google Pay) when long-pressed, and Samsung Bixby for voice assistant stuff. Yes, Bixby. on that below. The buttons can be single-pressed or double-pressed for other home/back navigation, and can be assigned a few other limited actions in the Samsung Wear app that’s needed to pair the watches to your phone.
Body Analysis: A feature in search of a good use case
Samsung’s newest health sensor on the Watch 4 is electrical impedance, a sensor technology that’s found on some home scales, and even popped up on early wearables like the Jawbone Up 3. The impedance sensor uses electrical current to estimate body water content, which is used to calculate body fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass, and body water. The app asks for your daily weight, then after a 15-second scan (which is done by holding your middle two fingers against the watch buttons while staying still), it spits out a readout of BMI, muscle mass, body fat and water mass.
These readouts are a lot to deal with. Mine were all bad (in the red part of a green-to-red scale), along with numbers (like pounds of body fat or body water, or skeletal muscle). How bad were these numbers? Should I freak out? Samsung takes the data and imports it into the Samsung Health app, and charts the results over time. I can see my progress (or stasis), and. what then? Samsung doesn’t really help interpret what it all means, or how concerned I should be. What workouts should I do next?
New sensors are always a challenge like this. After all, blood oxygen readings (which aren’t medically accurate) were all the rage with Apple, Samsung and Fitbit last year, and I found that I basically started ignoring the data. Fitbit’s electrical-based EDA stress sensor on its Sense watch last year showed possible signs of stress in spot-check scans, but I never found myself using it much and never knew what to make of those results, either. Samsung’s body analysis tool feels intimidating and, for me, discouraging. I started to avoid it, because I already know I’m way too overweight.
Health: A Samsung world that expects a Samsung phone
Most people I know who wear smartwatches use them for fitness, to at least some degree. Samsung knows this, and has a core FOCUS on fitness and health on its watches. But that world is still Samsung app-based.
Samsung Health isn’t bad at all. In fact, it’s got tons of features: sleep tracking and sleep score (which isn’t medically accurate, same as all sleep tracking on wearables, but can do a decent job overnight with sensing how well you were sleeping). Running, and run analysis. Blood oxygen. Food and water tracking. Steps, activity goals. Team activity sharing challenges. That new body analysis data.
I really appreciated the watch’s sleep tracking (much like Fitbit. the sleep score kept me somewhat aware of how bad my sleep habits are, and encouraged me to go to bed earlier). The automatic activity tracking, which kicks into a watch face with a live heart rate readout, is great for brisk walks and spontaneous workouts. It’s a really solid package.
But Google has its own pair of fitness-tracking apps: Google Fit, and the recently acquired Fitbit. Google Fit apps can be loaded onto the Watch 4 for tracking alongside Samsung Health, but Samsung still expects your data to flow through Samsung Health as well. Fitbit doesn’t have any Wear OS apps yet, but is expected to have some later this year. even so, there won’t be a chance of having Fitbit’s full tracking capabilities running on this watch anytime soon.
And there’s another wrinkle: you need to pair this watch with a Samsung phone to use the health features that have actual medical clearance. Why? I have no idea. The separate Samsung Health Monitor app that collects data from ECG and blood pressure readings is only available on Samsung’s Galaxy App Store right now, which means other Android phones can’t access it. It’s bizarre, since ECG wearables like Fitbit Sense just pair with normal Google Play apps.
An ECG is an electrical test for heart arrhythmia, similar to what’s on the Apple Watch Series 4 and later, or the Fitbit Sense. It’s FDA-cleared, but doesn’t detect heart attacks or other heart disease, and isn’t a replacement for seeing a cardiologist. Meanwhile, Samsung has a blood pressure feature that uses the optical heart rate monitor to get readings, once the watch has been calibrated using a physical blood pressure cuff. That blood pressure feature still isn’t cleared for use in the US yet, and in other areas of the world you’ll still need a Samsung phone to use the Health Monitor app.
Bixby does some useful things: it can handle voice dictation well enough to respond to notifications on Slack when I get a message midday. It can set timers and handle basic functions. But it won’t hook into the rest of Google. Without Assistant, this watch doesn’t really feel very Google-like at all.
Performance: Fast. Battery life: Two days (or less)
The Galaxy Watch 4 feels very fast, and loads apps faster than any Android watch I can remember. It’s not always as lightning-quick as the latest Apple Watch, but it still feels great. The watch’s new chipset seems to be a very good sign of where other Google watches could go as far as feeling more responsive.
Battery life? Not as great, alas. I swapped the Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic on my wrist for weeks, putting one on when the other ran out of batteries, sleeping with the watch overnight. Battery life never was better than two days. And that’s with the always-on watch face turned off. When it’s on, I only got about a day of use before needing a charge. And the smaller watch may have even shorter battery life. Also, if you get an LTE-equipped model that doubles as a phone (which I didn’t get to test and costs extra), expect battery life to be even less. Same with using the watch for GPS-enabled workouts.
Charging is reasonably fast, though: About half an hour gave me enough top-off battery to wear for the rest of the day if needed.
My impressions for now: Promisingly incomplete
Here’s the real question looming over the Watch 4: it’s the first of a new line of Google Wear OS-enabled watches coming down the road. Others may not get the new OS until 2022 : Fossil’s next watches. Mobvoi’s newer TicWatch models, and a promised Fitbit Wear OS watch.
Samsung is leading the pack with the first effort, and the Galaxy Watch 4 has a lot going for it. But it still doesn’t feel like One Unified OS to make me feel like I’m solidly in one ecosystem. That’s because I’m not: it’s still Samsung’s watch world, with a Google layer underneath.
Maybe that was the idea all along. Maybe the watch will get even better over time. But will the next Wear OS watches be similar, or even better? I can’t tell. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 may be the best option for now, and it doesn’t feel as fully perfected as I expected.
It may not be the ultimate Android watch, but it’s the best Android watch for now.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Vs 3: A Quick Comparison
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch 4 last week. It’s equal parts bold and familiar.
If you are planning to buy a Samsung watch this year and have plenty of dollars to spend, get the Galaxy Watch 4. There are no “fire sale” Galaxy Watch 3 deals online at the time of writing, and the changes in the new watch are dramatic enough to make the older version a bad buy at anything close to its original price.
So, what’s new, and is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 worth a purchase?
Design
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 looks similar to the Galaxy Watch 4. Or, to be more specific, the Watch 4 Classic versions do.
This time Samsung has merged its two watch lines into one family. The standard Galaxy Watch 4 watches, available in 40mm and 44mm sizes, are more like successors to the Galaxy Watch Active 2.
They have glass tops, without the raised bezel you get in the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic watches. The Classics are available in 42mm and 46mm sizes, and have the rotary bezel controller that made using a Galaxy Watch 3 feel so distinctive.
Build quality in both generations is comparable. Samsung uses steel and toughened glass in each case.
Display quality has been bumped up slightly, though. Screen resolution goes up to 450 x 450 pixels, as seen in the largest 46mm variant, from 360 x 360 pixels in the biggest Galaxy Watch 3. It’s no major reason to upgrade, though, as both watches look sharp.
Samsung has also doubled internal storage, from 8GB to 16GB. This offers more room for apps, and offline Spotify playlists, supported in both generations.
Wear OS vs Tizen
The big change this year is Samsung’s shift from Tizen software to Wear OS, made by Google.
This isn’t hugely obvious on day one because Samsung co-designed the software and put its own One UI layer on top. It has tried to make Wear OS look a lot like the Galaxy Watch 3’s interface.
Samsung’s excellent fitness and exercise features stand out most in the Galaxy Watch 4, just as they did last time around.
It doesn’t immediately seem all that different. However, Wear OS gives the Galaxy Watch 4 a brighter future than the Galaxy Watch 3.
How long will Samsung actively develop or support Tizen if it has switched to Wear OS? Google’s Wear OS is also likely to see a resurgence of interest from third-party developers, as the next flagship Fitbit watch will also use the platform.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 runs what is most likely a dying platform. Wear OS looked pretty unhealthy too until now, but the Galaxy Watch 4 might turn that around.
Battery life
Not every change in the Galaxy Watch 4 is an upgrade. When the Galaxy Watch 3 originally came out Samsung rated the largest model’s battery life at 56 hours. While I never found this panned out in reality — two days a more realistic target — such stamina would get you close enough to three days of use.
The Galaxy Watch 4 is rated at 40 hours, effectively two days minus the time you spend sleeping on the second day.
This suggests that if you use your watch for GPS run tracking of a decent length, you will often need to recharge it every day to ensure its battery does not deplete before bed time. It’s disappointing given how often Google claimed dramatically improved battery life in this new version of Wear OS.
Body Composition
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The two watches have the same core sensors for the most part. They can take an ECG reading of your heart, will monitor your heart rate 24/7, use GPS for outdoors exercise tracking, and can track blood pressure in some territories. As in the Galaxy Watch 3, that last one will need to be cleared by the relevant governing body before being unlocked.
Body Composition is the key new sensor-based feature of the Galaxy Watch 4. It works like a body fat analyzer scale, passing a weak electric signal through your body to estimate how much fat, muscle, bone and water accounts for your total weight. I wrote a separate piece on how it works in person.
It’s a neat addition to a fitness-heavy smartwatch, although is unlikely to offer flawless accuracy.
Compatibility
Several reports suggest the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 will not work with iPhones, which was not an issue in the Galaxy Watch 3. This is likely a restriction of the new version of Wear OS, and could potentially change in the future.
Perhaps more concerning, Samsung’s website also suggests a few of the Galaxy Watch 4’s most advanced features require a “Galaxy” phone, a Samsung in other words. However, this seems odd given the requisite Samsung Health software can be downloaded on any current Android.
I’ll look into these potential roadblocks when I get a Samsung Galaxy 4 in to review. You can currently pre-order one of the watches now. They are due to ship from August 27.
I have written about technology for over a decade, with a FOCUS on everything you might wear, put in a or fit in a bag. Subjects I cover include mobile phones, fitness tech, computing and cameras. You’ll find the thousands of news articles, features and reviews I have written over the years at WIRED, TechRadar, TrustedReviews, Wareable, Stuff.lint and others.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Vs 3: A Quick Comparison
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch 4 last week. It’s equal parts bold and familiar.
If you are planning to buy a Samsung watch this year and have plenty of dollars to spend, get the Galaxy Watch 4. There are no “fire sale” Galaxy Watch 3 deals online at the time of writing, and the changes in the new watch are dramatic enough to make the older version a bad buy at anything close to its original price.
So, what’s new, and is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 worth a purchase?
Design
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 looks similar to the Galaxy Watch 4. Or, to be more specific, the Watch 4 Classic versions do.
This time Samsung has merged its two watch lines into one family. The standard Galaxy Watch 4 watches, available in 40mm and 44mm sizes, are more like successors to the Galaxy Watch Active 2.
They have glass tops, without the raised bezel you get in the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic watches. The Classics are available in 42mm and 46mm sizes, and have the rotary bezel controller that made using a Galaxy Watch 3 feel so distinctive.
Build quality in both generations is comparable. Samsung uses steel and toughened glass in each case.
Display quality has been bumped up slightly, though. Screen resolution goes up to 450 x 450 pixels, as seen in the largest 46mm variant, from 360 x 360 pixels in the biggest Galaxy Watch 3. It’s no major reason to upgrade, though, as both watches look sharp.
Samsung has also doubled internal storage, from 8GB to 16GB. This offers more room for apps, and offline Spotify playlists, supported in both generations.
Wear OS vs Tizen
The big change this year is Samsung’s shift from Tizen software to Wear OS, made by Google.
This isn’t hugely obvious on day one because Samsung co-designed the software and put its own One UI layer on top. It has tried to make Wear OS look a lot like the Galaxy Watch 3’s interface.
Samsung’s excellent fitness and exercise features stand out most in the Galaxy Watch 4, just as they did last time around.
It doesn’t immediately seem all that different. However, Wear OS gives the Galaxy Watch 4 a brighter future than the Galaxy Watch 3.
How long will Samsung actively develop or support Tizen if it has switched to Wear OS? Google’s Wear OS is also likely to see a resurgence of interest from third-party developers, as the next flagship Fitbit watch will also use the platform.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 runs what is most likely a dying platform. Wear OS looked pretty unhealthy too until now, but the Galaxy Watch 4 might turn that around.
Battery life
Not every change in the Galaxy Watch 4 is an upgrade. When the Galaxy Watch 3 originally came out Samsung rated the largest model’s battery life at 56 hours. While I never found this panned out in reality — two days a more realistic target — such stamina would get you close enough to three days of use.
The Galaxy Watch 4 is rated at 40 hours, effectively two days minus the time you spend sleeping on the second day.
This suggests that if you use your watch for GPS run tracking of a decent length, you will often need to recharge it every day to ensure its battery does not deplete before bed time. It’s disappointing given how often Google claimed dramatically improved battery life in this new version of Wear OS.
Body Composition
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The two watches have the same core sensors for the most part. They can take an ECG reading of your heart, will monitor your heart rate 24/7, use GPS for outdoors exercise tracking, and can track blood pressure in some territories. As in the Galaxy Watch 3, that last one will need to be cleared by the relevant governing body before being unlocked.
Body Composition is the key new sensor-based feature of the Galaxy Watch 4. It works like a body fat analyzer scale, passing a weak electric signal through your body to estimate how much fat, muscle, bone and water accounts for your total weight. I wrote a separate piece on how it works in person.
It’s a neat addition to a fitness-heavy smartwatch, although is unlikely to offer flawless accuracy.
Compatibility
Several reports suggest the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 will not work with iPhones, which was not an issue in the Galaxy Watch 3. This is likely a restriction of the new version of Wear OS, and could potentially change in the future.
Perhaps more concerning, Samsung’s website also suggests a few of the Galaxy Watch 4’s most advanced features require a “Galaxy” phone, a Samsung in other words. However, this seems odd given the requisite Samsung Health software can be downloaded on any current Android.
I’ll look into these potential roadblocks when I get a Samsung Galaxy 4 in to review. You can currently pre-order one of the watches now. They are due to ship from August 27.
I have written about technology for over a decade, with a FOCUS on everything you might wear, put in a or fit in a bag. Subjects I cover include mobile phones, fitness tech, computing and cameras. You’ll find the thousands of news articles, features and reviews I have written over the years at WIRED, TechRadar, TrustedReviews, Wareable, Stuff.lint and others.
Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Classic Review
I’m PCMag’s expert on fitness and Smart home technology, and I’ve written more than 6,000 articles and reviews in the 10-plus years I’ve been here. I unbox, set up, test, and review a wide range of consumer tech products from my home in Florida, often with the help of my pitbull Bradley. I’m also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade.
The Bottom Line
The high-end Galaxy Watch4 Classic features a stainless steel design and a rotating bezel backed by a better software experience and more third-party apps than previous Samsung smartwatches, though you can get a similar experience for 100 less with the standard Watch4 model.
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.
Pros
- Attractive classic watch design
- Rotating physical bezel for easy navigation
- Bright, sharp display
- Fast processor
- Body fat and composition measurements
- Tracks snoring
- third-party apps than previous Samsung watches
Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Classic Specs
Despite earning high praise for last year’s Tizen-based Galaxy Watch3, Samsung ranked third (Opens in a new window) in the global smartwatch market, behind Apple and Huawei. This year, Samsung is hoping deeper Google integration will help attract more buyers to its latest flagship smartwatch, the 349.99 Galaxy Watch4 Classic. Featuring the unified Google/Samsung Wear OS platform, the Watch4 Classic brings Google Maps, the Play Store, and a better selection of third-party apps to your wrist than any of Samsung’s previous Tizen watches. Though its battery life remains the same, the Watch4 Classic offers a few other notable updates from last year’s model, including a faster processor for smoother scrolling, a higher-resolution display for crisper visuals, expanded memory for music and app storage, a sensor that can measure your body fat, and a useful snore-tracking feature. It’s the best high-end Wear OS we’ve tested, though we give slight preference to the standard Watch4, which costs 100 less and sports a more streamlined design. Either way, if you’re in the market for an Android-compatible smartwatch, the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 series is hard to beat.
A Stainless Steel Design With a Rotating Bezel
Samsung‘s 2021 smartwatch lineup includes two models: the flagship Galaxy Watch4 Classic featured in this review, and the more affordable Watch4. The watches are compatible with smartphones running Android 6.0 or later with 1.5GB of RAM (sorry, iPhone users, they don’t work with Apple’s iOS).
The Galaxy Watch4 Classic features a stainless steel case and the same rotating bezel as the Watch3. It comes in 42mm and 46mm sizes in black or silver, starting at 349.99 for the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi model or 399.99 for one with LTE connectivity. The company also plans to offer a limited edition rhodium-plated Watch4, created in collaboration with fashion designer Thom Browne, in September.
The standard Watch4, which replaces the Galaxy Watch Active line Samsung last updated in 2019, sports a minimalist design with no rotating bezel and an aluminum case. It starts at 249.99 for the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi model, or 50 more if you want LTE connectivity. It comes in 40mm and 44mm sizes in black or silver; the 40mm model also comes in pink gold while the 44mm one is also available in green.
Apple Watch SE
Garmin Venu 2
Fitbit Sense
Amazon Halo
For this review, Samsung sent me the 42mm Bluetooth-only Watch4 Classic in black, as well as a Galaxy Note20 Ultra phone to pair with the wearable for testing.
The Watch4 Classic comes with a Ridge Sport fluoroelastomer (FKM) rubber Band in size small/medium (which fits wrists ranging from 5.1 inches to 7.5 inches) or medium/large (for wrists 5.7 to 8.1 inches). The Watch4 comes with a plain FKM Sport Band with no ridge detail. Samsung sells a variety of accessory straps for the Watch4 series, including a 49.99 Hybrid Leather Band for a classier look, and a 39.99 Extreme Sport model with air holes for sweaty workouts.
Aside from the Watch4 Classic’s rotating bezel and stainless steel case, there are no other upgrades from the standard Watch4. Both have the same battery, connectivity, internal memory, operating system, processor, sensors, and user interface. They have 5ATM and IP68 ratings, meaning they are waterproof to a depth of 164 feet for 10 minutes, and can withstand dust, dirt, and sand. They also meet the MIL-STD-810G military standard, so they shouldn’t have any trouble withstanding drops, extreme temperatures, shock, vibration, low pressure, or high altitude.
Samsung says the 42mm Watch4 Classic measures 1.63 by 1.63 by 0.44 (HWD) and weighs 1.66 ounces (sans strap), while the 46mm model measures 1.79 by 1.79 by 0.43 inches and weighs 1.83 ounces. But there’s a catch: Samsung’s depth measurements exclude the health sensor that protrudes slightly off the back, so the watches are actually a bit thicker than stated. Including the sensor, my 42mm review unit is almost 0.5 inches thick. It’s noticeably thicker than the Apple Watch Series 6, which measures 0.42 inches in depth.
For everyday wear, the watch should feel “snug but comfortable,” with enough room to let the skin underneath breathe, Samsung says. During workouts, the company recommends tightening the watch for the most accurate health measurements.
The 42mm Watch4 Classic has a 1.2-inch, 396-by-396 Super AMOLED display, while the 46mm model features a 1.4-inch, 450-by-450 screen. No matter the size, the display is bright and beautiful, offering a resolution bump from last generation’s already vibrant and easy-to-read 360-by-360 screen.
Scrolling is smooth and responsive thanks to the Exynos W920 (Opens in a new window) processor. Samsung says the 5nm chip delivers 20% faster CPU performance and 10 times better graphics performance than the Watch3’s Exynos 9110. As for memory, it packs 1.5GB of RAM (a 50% boost from last year’s model) and 16GB of internal storage (up from 8GB).
The Watch4 Classic and the Watch4 both have two physical buttons on the right side: a Power/Home button on top, and a Back button below. You also use these buttons when taking a body composition scan, which I’ll discuss in detail later in this review.
Like the Apple Watch, battery life is a major limitation here. Samsung says the 42mm model’s 247mAh battery and the 46mm’s 361mAh cell offer up to around 40 hours of juice on a charge, similar to the Watch3. In my testing, the Watch4 Classic lasted 29 hours with normal to heavy use and the always-on display disabled before its battery dropped down to 5% and I put it back on its charger. In other words, you should expect to charge the watch daily. With the always-on display enabled during a day of heavy testing, it only lasted 19 hours. The Apple Watch Series 6 lasted around 25.5 hours in testing with the always-on display enabled.
Fortunately, you won’t have to wait around very long for the Watch4 Classic to charge. Samsung says it juices up faster than the Watch3, and just 30 minutes of charging provides 10 hours of battery life. While it’s charging, the watch lets you know how long it will take to get to 100%.
To preserve battery life, the Watch4 Classic offers a power-saving mode that disables the always-on display, limits CPU speed, decreases screen brightness by 10%, limits background processes (including network usage, location, and syncing), reduces the screen time-out to 15 seconds, disables wake-up gestures, and disables software updates. When the battery gets low, it will ask if you want to enable power-saving mode.
If you’re in search of a longer-lasting wearable, the Fitbit Versa 3 promises more than six days of battery life on a charge. In testing, it still had 79% battery life after 24 hours of heavy use with the always-on display enabled, so you definitely don’t need to charge it on a daily basis.
Google on Your Samsung Watch
One of the biggest changes in this generation of Samsung smartwatches is the switch from the company’s own Tizen mobile operating system, which powers the Watch3 and its predecessors, to the new Wear OS platform.
Earlier this year, Samsung partnered with Google to merge the Tizen and Wear OS systems in an effort to attract more third-party developers and better compete with the Apple Watch and watchOS. The Watch4 Classic and Watch4 are the first wearables to run the new unified platform, which features popular Google apps such as Google Maps and the Play Store, as well as Samsung standbys like Samsung Pay for mobile payments and SmartThings for Smart home control. The Google Maps app is a particularly welcome addition to the Watch4 series, bringing turn-by-turn driving, walking, and cycling directions to your wrist.
This is the first time Samsung has used an Android-based smartwatch operating system since the Gear Live in 2014. On Galaxy smartwatches, the new operating system is officially called Wear OS Powered by Samsung. On other smartwatches, it will somewhat confusingly have a different name: Wear OS 3 by Google (Opens in a new window).
Google says certain previous-generation Wear OS smartwatches, including Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 3 and TicWatch E3, will be eligible for an upgrade to Wear OS 3, but the update won’t arrive until mid 2022 at the earliest. Samsung tells PCMag that the Galaxy Watch3 and other Tizen-based Galaxy smartwatches will not be eligible for an upgrade to Wear OS. Instead, Samsung has promised (Opens in a new window) to continue providing software updates for its Tizen-based smartwatches for three years from their launch date. As I detailed in my Watch3 review, third-party app support on Tizen is fairly limited. The new Wear OS platform offers a wider selection.
In the Google Play Store on the Watch4 Classic, you can find some big name apps like Any.do, AccuWeather, Citymapper, Google Fit, Google Keep, Google Pay, Google Slides, IFTTT, iHeartRadio, Lifesum, Nike Run Club, Kamoot, Pandora, Shazam, Telegram, and Todoist. Samsung and Google are also promising new and improved versions of Spotify, Calm, Strava, adidas Running, Swim.com, and Flo Period Tracker in the near future. They say YouTube Music and Bitmoji will also be coming to the platform.
Still, some popular apps available on the Apple Watch are missing from Wear OS, including Audible, CNN, Messenger, ESPN, Runkeeper, Starbucks, The Weather Channel, and Uber. At this point, Apple’s watchOS still has the widest selection of third-party apps.
The Watch4 series also features Samsung’s new One UI Watch interface, which is designed to offer a more seamless cross-platform experience across Galaxy smartphones and watches. With One UI Watch, compatible apps downloaded to your phone via Google Play are automatically installed on the watch. Certain settings, including Do Not Disturb hours, blocked callers, and world clocks, also automatically sync from your phone.
Setting Up and Getting to Know the Watch4 Classic
In the box, you get the watch, a quick start guide, and a power cord (though you’ll need your own USB port or power adapter).
To set it up, you need to download the Galaxy Wearable app if you don’t already have it on your phone. When I opened the app on the Note20 Ultra, it automatically started searching for devices to add, and quickly found the Watch4 Classic. Next, it displayed a number on the watch’s screen and in the app, and asked me to confirm that they were the same.
During the setup process, the app asks for permission to access your device’s location and link the Watch4 Plugin (Opens in a new window). In a series of pop-ups, the Watch4 Plugin then asks for permission to access your contacts, calendar, phone call logs, and the photos, media, and files on your device. It also asks for permission to make and manage phone calls and send and view SMS messages. Next, it asks you to agree to Google’s terms of service, optionally link your Google account, and copy your account details to the watch.
Just like with any feature-rich smartwatch, you have to spend some time exploring the Watch4 to figure out where everything is and what it does. You can navigate its interface in several ways: with swipes and taps on the screen, the physical buttons on the side of the watch, the rotating bezel, gesture controls, and by voice with Bixby.
From the watch face, you can swipe left to access the various tiles (including daily activity, workout tracking, body composition, sleep, weather, calendar, ECG, heart rate, and stress), swipe right for notifications, swipe down for the quick panel menu (to enable Bedtime mode, the always-on display, connect Bluetooth headphones, and more), and swipe up for apps (including Google Maps, the Play Store, Samsung Health, Samsung Pay, Bixby, and others, which you can organize as you like).
To go back, swipe right or press the physical Back key (the lower button). To go to your most recently used app, double press the Home key (the upper button).
In Settings, there’s an option to select your favorite app, so you can quickly launch it by double pressing the Home key. You can also optionally change the Back key to show your recent apps when pressed.
The default watch face is pretty cluttered, so changing it was one of the first things I did after setting up the watch. You can easily change and customize your watch face in the Galaxy Wearable app. On the watch itself, you can touch and hold the watch face screen, swipe left and right to browse the various options, then tap the one you like to set it. There are lots of fun, customizable watch faces to pick from, but if you don’t like any of the default options, there are more available for download via the Play Store.
With gesture controls, you can accept calls by waving your forearm up and down, or dismiss calls, notifications, and alarms by rotating your wrist twice.
With Bixby, you can use your voice to open apps, compose messages, and more. To talk to Bixby, just press and hold the Home key. There’s also a Voice Wake-Up option, which when enabled will let you summon the virtual assistant by saying, “Hi, Bixby.”
Connecting wireless headphones to the Watch4 Classic is easy. Just swipe to the quick panel menu, then tap the Bluetooth headphones icon and it will begin scanning for devices. Just make sure you have your wireless headphones in Bluetooth pairing mode and you should be good to go. In testing, I had no problem connecting a pair of OnePlus Buds with the watch.
To take a screenshot on the watch, press the Home and Back keys at the same time. Screenshots are automatically synced to your phone’s Gallery.
For security, it’s a good idea to set a screen lock pattern or pin code to prevent others from accessing your data. To do so, navigate to Settings Security.
Measure Your Body Composition
On the health front, the Watch4 series has a new three-in-one BioActive Sensor, which can not only read your heart rate and take an ECG, but also assess your body composition using a process called bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA).
Commonly used in Smart scales, BIA involves sending a low-level electrical current through your body to measure fat and other metrics. The BIA current moves quickly through tissue that contains a large amount of fluids and electrolytes like muscle and blood, and faces resistance—or impedance—moving through fat. The watch measures that impedance to assess your body composition.
After a 15-second scan, the watch displays your skeletal muscle mass, fat mass, body fat percentage, body mass index (BMI, a measure of body size based on your weight and height), body water mass, and basal metabolic rate (BMR, or the minimum necessary energy needed in an inactive state). A graph below each metric indicates whether your results fall within the low, normal, or high range.
It’s important to note that the small electric current sent through your body during BIA measurement can affect pacemakers. For this reason, you shouldn’t use the watch to measure your body composition if you have a pacemaker or any other internal medical device. There’s no evidence that this process is dangerous for pregnant women, but Samsung also warns against using the watch to measure your body composition if you’re expecting. Also keep in mind that the measurement results may be inaccurate if you’re under the age of 20.
To take a scan, navigate to the body composition tile and press Measure. It will then ask you to select your gender (there are only options for Female and Male), height, and weight. “Body composition monitoring is for fitness and wellness only, not for diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition,” the watch says.
Next, it offers instructions for taking a scan: Move the watch higher on your wrist than usual, then place the middle and ring fingers of your opposite hand on the Home and Back buttons, with your palm facing up. While taking a scan, you need to raise your arms to chest level, hold them away from your body, and make sure that your two hands aren’t touching. The position is a bit awkward, but you only need to hold it for about 15 seconds before you get your results.
For the most accurate results, it’s best to take your scan at the same time each day (preferably in the morning) on an empty stomach and with an empty bladder. Samsung says to avoid taking a scan if you’re on your menstrual cycle, “right after exercise, showering, going to a sauna, or any other activity that might make you hot.”
The first time I took a body composition scan with the Watch4 Classic, it said I had 25.1% body fat, 68.6 pounds of body water, 31.3 pounds of fat mass, 49 pounds of skeletal muscle, a BMI of 20.3, and a BMR of 1,287 calories. According to the watch, my body water was slightly low, but the rest of my body composition measurements were within the normal range.
One interesting observation: The watch reports your body water, fat mass, and skeletal muscle in pounds (whereas most Smart scales show your body water as a percentage), and when I added up these three values, the total was higher than my actual weight. A Samsung spokesperson acknowledged that those three metrics aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, so water weight can also be counted as part of muscle, for instance.
For the sake of comparison, I then stepped on two different Smart scales that also use BIA to calculate your body composition. They don’t track all of the same metrics as the watch, but I was able to directly compare my results for a few, including body fat percentage, BMI, and BMR.
The Arboleaf Smart Fitness Scale said I had 15.6% body fat, a BMI of 20.3, and a BMR of 1,403 calories. Meanwhile, the FitTrack Dara said I had 18.6% body fat, 23.6 pounds of fat mass, a BMI of 20.7, and a BMR of 1,339 calories.
Overall, the Watch4 Classic’s body fat percentage calculations were about 6.5 to 9.5 percentage points higher than the measurements from the Smart scales, which is a pretty significant difference. Meanwhile, its BMR calculation was a bit low, and its BMI calculation was pretty much spot-on compared with the scales.
“You may notice differences between your watch results and results from other body composition measurement devices,” Samsung acknowledges. The company also says watch results might be “less accurate if you have an unusual body composition, severe obesity, or a very muscular body.”
For fun, I also took a body fat scan using the Amazon Halo app, and this is where things got a bit more interesting. It said I had 25.9% body fat and 32.4 pounds of fat mass, more closely aligning with the results from the Watch4 Classic. Instead of BIA, Amazon uses your smartphone’s front-facing camera along with computer vision and machine learning technology to analyze the shape of your body and calculate your body fat percentage. Amazon says its body fat percentage tool, which requires you to stand in front of your camera in your underwear, is nearly twice as accurate as Smart scales that use BIA to estimate your body fat, though we can’t verify these claims.
Since your results can vary widely from one device to the next, I recommend picking one and sticking with it to track your changes over time. Over two days, I took about a half dozen scans using the Watch4 Classic and the results were pretty consistent, each time saying I had between 23% to 26% body fat.
This feature is neat, but I wouldn’t specifically buy the Watch4 Classic for it given the affordability of Smart scales, which track more body composition metrics than Samsung’s wearables—most notably, weight. The Wyze Smart Scale, an Editors’ Choice winner, costs less than 35, tracks 12 metrics, and has a safe mode for pregnant women and people who wear pacemakers.
Track Your Snoring and SpO2 When You Sleep
When you wear it to bed, the Watch4 will automatically track your sleep duration, stages (awake, light, deep, and REM), and calories burned. In the Samsung Health app, you can optionally enable overnight blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) readings. When paired with a compatible smartphone, the watch also lets you keep tabs on a fairly uncommon sleeping metric: snoring.
To record this, you first need to enable snore tracking in the Samsung Health app (available in version 6.18 or higher). When setting it up, there’s an option to have your phone record your snoring audio, just in case you want proof.
Then at night, wear the watch to bed and place your phone on a stable surface within two feet of your head, with the microphone on the bottom of the handset pointed toward you. When the watch detects you’re asleep, your phone’s microphone will listen for your snoring and record it if you have that option enabled. Keep in mind that snore tracking increases battery consumption, so you’ll probably want to charge your phone while you sleep if you enable this feature.
In the morning, you can visit the sleep tile on your watch, or the Samsung Health app to view your data. After enabling snore tracking in the app and sleeping with the Note20 Ultra on my nightstand while wearing the Watch4 Classic to bed, I woke up to no snoring data. On my nightstand, I also have a Google Nest Hub Smart display that tracks snoring, and it confirmed that I didn’t make a peep. I’ve worn the watch to bed several nights since and haven’t yet received any snoring data, which I guess is a good thing, but makes it difficult to confirm that the feature actually works.
The Watch4 Classic also gives you a Sleep Score from zero to 100, based on your total sleep time, sleep cycles, movements and awakenings, physical recovery, and mental recovery. The first night I wore it to bed, the watch said I slept for 6 hours, 55 minutes and gave me a sleep score of 50, which falls below the average of 70 for women in my age range.
For that night, the watch said I had a minimum overnight SpO2 level of 84%, which seems low. In general, an SpO2 level between 95 and 100 is considered normal.
In the sleep section of the Samsung Health app, you can also view a graph of your overnight SpO2 level. For that night, the graph showed my blood oxygen saturation level dipped below 90% several times, which I doubt was actually the case.
According to the University of California San Francisco (Opens in a new window). blood oxygen saturation levels are typically lower during sleep versus when you’re awake. Even so, if your SpO2 level is greater than about 94% while awake, “it is unlikely that your saturation during sleep will fall below 88%,” the school notes.
Concerned by my minimum overnight reading, I took several on-demand SpO2 measurements using the Watch4 Classic and an Apple Watch Series 6 while awake, and all were much higher, between 98% and 100%. The following night, I wore the Watch4 Classic on one wrist, and the Apple Watch Series 6 on the other, to compare my overnight SpO2 measurements from both devices. The Watch4 Classic said my SpO2 level ranged from 93% to 100% while the Series 6 said it ranged from 91% to 100%. That initial low overnight reading seems to be an anomaly, as I haven’t seen an overnight SpO2 measurement less than 90% from the Watch4 Classic since.
Workout Tracking
The Watch4 Classic currently supports 95 different workouts, including the following default tracking options: circuit training, cycling, elliptical trainer, exercise bike, hiking, other workout, running, running coach (which I detailed in last year’s Watch3 review), swimming (outdoor), swimming (pool), treadmill, walking, and weight machine. In the Samsung Health app, you can browse the other workout tracking options—including aerobics, alpine skiing, archery, ballet, baseball, basketball, canoeing, dancing, flying disc, football, golf, hockey, jump rope, kayaking, mountain biking, pilates, rowing machine, step machine, stretching, volleyball, and yoga, to name a few—and add an additional 28 to the watch.
When tracking a workout, you can press the Back key to pause or end. If you pause tracking, just press the Back key again when you’re ready to resume.
The Watch4 series can automatically detect walking, running, elliptical usage, rowing, swimming, and dynamic workouts, a useful feature that in testing worked perfectly during walks with my dog Bradley. Just like the Apple Watch, it automatically starts tracking after you’ve been walking for about 10 minutes (and gives you credit for the time that has already elapsed).
On the downside, the new Wear OS platform doesn’t yet appear to offer much integration with Fitbit. Google has promised (Opens in a new window) to bring “the best of Fitbit,” which it now owns, to the unified smartwatch platform, including health progress tracking and on-wrist goal celebrations, but those features don’t seem to be available at the time of this writing. You can, however, still keep track of your daily activity and goals via Samsung Health.
Samsung’s Best High-End Smartwatch
The Galaxy Watch4 Classic and its more affordable sibling are the best Android-compatible smartwatches on the market, hands down. The 349.99 Classic model features a rugged stainless steel design with a rotating bezel that’s a pleasure to use. At night, it can track your snoring (when paired with a compatible smartphone) in addition to your blood oxygen saturation. It also features a body composition scanner that can help you keep an eye on your body fat percentage. And the new Wear OS platform delivers more in the way of apps, including Google Maps. Ultimately, this is the closest competitor to the Apple Watch Series 6, but since both watches are specific to either Android or iOS phones, the choice is easy to make.
That said, the Watch4 Classic falls short of earning our Editors’ Choice award, because for most people, the standard Watch4 is the better buy. It’s 100 less than the Watch4 Classic, features a functional digital bezel, and comes in green or pink in addition to black or silver. Unless you like the more rugged design of the Classic and think its rotating bezel is worth the premium, we recommend you go with the Watch4.
Also keep in mind that both models offer limited battery life and require daily charging. If you can’t deal with that, the 229.95 Fitbit Versa 3, another favorite non-Apple smartwatch, offers much better battery life and costs less, but feels a bit laggy compared with the snappy Galaxy Watch4 series.
