Samsung has two new smartwatches on the block — the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Professional — and I’ve spent the previous week and a half with them to see in the event that they’re any good.

The Watch 5 builds on the formulation of the Watch 4 with an analogous design, longer battery life and some new tips. In the meantime, the Watch 5 Professional takes issues up a notch with an excellent larger battery, a titanium design and new GPX options for individuals who spend numerous time outdoors.

On paper, it’s straightforward to inform that these watches are designed for various functions: The Watch 5 is the mainstream smartwatch, and the Watch 5 Professional tries to focus on a distinct segment. Nonetheless, in follow, it’s onerous to grasp why somebody would spend $449 for a Watch 5 Professional as a substitute of $279 or $309 for a Watch 5. The benefits the 5 Professional brings to the desk aren’t that vital, and the cumbersome design of the 5 Professional can simply be a turnoff.

Learn on to seek out out what we considered Samsung’s newest flagship smartwatches.

The Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Professional are very comparable watches by way of specs and options, however they’re designed for various functions. Samsung is positioning the Watch 5 because the watch for each type of consumer — from those that simply need notifications on their wrist to common health buffs — whereas the 5 Professional is geared towards those that want a watch that may stand up to extra rigorous situations.

These variations stem first from the supplies every watch makes use of for its development. The Watch 5 comes with an Armor Aluminum chassis and significantly skinny type issue. In the meantime, the Watch 5 Professional boasts a titanium enclosure that’s so much bulkier and extra sturdy. It’s rather more consistent with what corporations like Garmin and G-Shock provide on their watches, though the 5 Professional isn’t fairly as sturdy. Each the 5 and 5 Professional are IP68 and 5 ATM rated for mud and water resistance.

The Galaxy Watch 5 sequence options Sapphire Crystal shows, which makes them 60% stronger and fewer more likely to crack or get scratched in on a regular basis use. The Watch 5 Professional provides some further safety by elevating the bezel above the display screen.

Talking of which, the Galaxy Watch 5 boasts both a 1.2-inch or 1.4-inch Tremendous AMOLED show, relying on which dimension you go for. They ship with resolutions of 396 x 396 and 450 x 450, respectively. The Watch 5 Professional will get the identical 1.4-inch show regardless of its barely bigger 45mm dimension.

Batteries additionally differ between the watches. The 40mm Watch 5 has a 284mAh cell, whereas the 44mm boasts a 410mAh cell. They’re every 13% bigger than what was within the Watch 4 line final 12 months. Those that need the most important battery will discover it within the Watch 5 Professional, which comes with a 590mAh cell, a 60% dimension improve.

Past the {hardware}, the software program on the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Professional is extremely comparable. Each fashions ship with Put on OS 3.5 and provide an almost equivalent set of health options, placing apart the 5 Professional’s bonus GPS monitoring options.

Good screens and extra useful designs

Should you really feel such as you’ve seen the Galaxy Watch 5 earlier than, you’re not mistaken. The design of the watch is mainly equivalent to the Watch 4 from final 12 months, all the way down to the case and show sizes. I obtained the Graphite mannequin, which is identical end as my Watch 4, and after they’re turned off, it’s extraordinarily onerous to inform them aside.

Thoughts you, that’s not a foul factor. The Watch 4 already has an excellent design, so it’s no huge deal to see Samsung repeat it this 12 months. There’s one bodily distinction value stating, additionally discovered on the Watch 5 Professional: the form of the sensors on the underside. Samsung made them barely curvier this 12 months so that they sit a bit deeper in your wrist. This helps to enhance their accuracy.

Each watches are additionally lots sturdy, the Watch 5 Professional particularly. I used to be capable of go kayaking with the 5 Professional, due to its 5 ATM and IP68 scores, that are additionally on the Watch 5. I used the water lock function to lock the touchscreen to keep away from any unintended faucets from water drops, and it was high-quality once I rinsed off all of the salt with contemporary water once I obtained house.

The Sapphire Crystal glass on each watches is a pleasant amenity and provides peace of thoughts in case you stumble upon one thing or drop your watch whereas placing it on. I loved utilizing the Tremendous AMOLED panels on each the Galaxy Watch 5 and 5 Professional, due to their vibrant colours, inky black ranges and good responsiveness. I additionally like utilizing the touch-sensitive bezel, which helps you to do issues like scroll, zoom in and extra with out blocking the display screen itself along with your finger.

Good efficiency and an easy-to-use software program expertise

The Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Professional share the identical specs because the Watch 4: an Exynos W920 dual-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. Paired with Put on OS 3.5, I discovered efficiency to be usually steady and dependable for a modern-day smartwatch.

Talking of which, Put on OS continues to function the identical method it has for the previous 12 months. You continue to get tons of customizable watch faces, customizable Tiles by swiping left and notifications that supply an excellent quantity of element. Controls are additionally the identical — you swipe left to entry Tiles, swipe proper to see your notifications, swipe down for fast controls and swipe up in your app listing. It’s very intuitive and straightforward to choose up on.

Samsung added some new accessibility options in One UI Watch 4.5 like colour filters, diminished animations and picture enhancers in addition to a “fuller” typing expertise and simpler methods to make and obtain telephone calls. I didn’t actually see any vital enhancements within the typing and calling division, however the accessibility options are very welcome.

The Watch 5 has a ton of health options and improved sleep monitoring, whereas the 5 Professional goes all in on GPX

The place the Galaxy Watch 5 and 5 Professional shine is in health. Samsung consists of the identical 3-in-1 BioActive sensor because the Watch 4 line, which mixes optical coronary heart charge, electrical coronary heart sign and bioelectrical impedance evaluation sensors right into a single unit. These sensors energy the options many come to count on from trendy smartwatches like coronary heart charge monitoring, physique composition monitoring, electrocardiogram (ECG) assist and blood oxygen ranges.

In follow, all of those options labored very well. As soon as they’re recorded by your watch, all your well being information will get transferred to the Samsung Well being app, which supplies you an in depth rundown of what it discovered. Coronary heart charge patterns, physique composition over time (together with issues like water weight), stress ranges and extra are all saved and introduced in a method that’s straightforward to digest. There are additionally tons and many exercises you possibly can choose from, so each exercise you partake in can depend towards your health objectives.

Sleep monitoring will get an improve with the Watch 5 sequence with new sleep teaching ideas to assist information you to a greater evening’s sleep. There’s additionally snore detection, blood oxygen monitoring all through the evening, sleep scores and sleep phases (for monitoring how a lot gentle and deep sleep you get). I used this function so much throughout my testing, and I used to be impressed with how a lot element it picked up. I used to be capable of see how lengthy I used to be in deep sleep every evening (admittedly not very a lot in comparison with my lighter sleeping habits), what my blood oxygen was like and even once I began loud night breathing.

That function is especially attention-grabbing. It makes use of your smartphone to start recording when it thinks you’re loud night breathing, and there was one evening the place my telephone picked up a 30-second clip. Recordings are deleted each 31 days mechanically for safety, so in case you’re curious whether or not your loud night breathing is especially loud, you’ll have a month to examine.

There’s additionally a mysterious temperature sensor on the Watch 5 that’s meant to learn the temperature of your pores and skin when you sleep, though I didn’t spot any information that alluded to that sensor getting used.

All of these health options may be discovered throughout the Galaxy Watch 5 sequence, however the Watch 5 Professional is the one mannequin that ships with the brand new GPS options Samsung has cooked up.

Particularly, the Galaxy Watch 5 Professional helps GPX, which is a kind of file that may monitor routes, waypoints and extra by recording information captured by a GPS. This lets the watch bear in mind which route you took throughout a hike or biking session — regardless of how random it’s — and offer you turn-by-turn instructions so you may get again to your beginning place.

It is a mixture of two new options: Route Exercise and Observe Again. I used Route Exercise to trace a motorbike trip round Ocean Metropolis, New Jersey, the place I took random flip after random flip and detours via alleyways, doing my best possible to throw the watch off. Shock shock, it had no situation utilizing Observe Again to inform me exactly the place to go to return to my beginning place. Granted, I used this function in a really open setting as a substitute of extra frequent mountain climbing and biking areas just like the woods or the facet of a mountain, however I think about this function will work reliably in these situations as effectively.

The Galaxy Watch 5 Professional is just too huge and ponderous

There’s actually no two methods about it: The Galaxy Watch 5 Professional is a really polarizing smartwatch, not less than by way of design. It’s cumbersome, it refuses to sit down flush in your wrist and anybody with a smaller wrist than mine could have a tough time maintaining it in place. The added sturdiness of the titanium physique is actually a pleasant benefit, but it surely’s clearly not meant for everybody. It might’ve been good to see a second, smaller dimension supplied for Watch 5 Professional clients.

In comparison with the Galaxy Watch 5 Professional, I a lot want the Watch 5’s type issue. It’s so much sleeker and minimalistic than the beefy, strong aesthetic the 5 Professional goes for. It’s a lot simpler to make use of the Watch 5 day by day due to that, because it tends to mix in along with your each day model a lot simpler in addition to pair with totally different bands a bit higher.

Talking of which, I’m additionally not an enormous fan of the band. Samsung consists of its new silicon and aluminum D-Buckle sport band with a magnetic clasp, and it’s solely good if it’s safe in your wrist and also you don’t do something too rigorous. It’s tough to safe it to your wrist with out having somebody help you, and the magnetic clasp can come undone fairly simply in case you knock it the correct method. Throughout a kayaking session with the 5 Professional, my wrist hit the facet of my boat and the magnet popped off, inflicting the complete watch to slip down my arm. It’s high-quality to make use of in any other case, however I wouldn’t advocate it for any sport the place your wrist would possibly continuously be knocking into issues.

Whereas efficiency is usually strong, I’ve seen that working a couple of apps on the similar time can result in slowdowns, comparable to once you’re recording a exercise and begin bouncing round your music app and settings to get your headphones fired up. I’d usually level to a scarcity of RAM because the supply for points like this, but it surely appears a bit extra believable that Put on OS is accountable.

Even after the grand overhaul it acquired final 12 months, Put on OS continues to really feel a bit unpolished. Random stutters are a bit too frequent for my liking, and duties like putting in apps take oddly lengthy quantities of time. Even frequent actions like checking the time can take a couple of tries; there have been far too many instances the place I’d elevate my wrist and the display screen simply wouldn’t activate. One UI, Samsung’s customized pores and skin for the software program, is probably going contributing to a few of this grogginess because the system has to energy it on prime of the usual Put on OS expertise.

Should you simply use the watches for notifications or monitoring health objectives (and you’ve got the always-on show enabled), you in all probability gained’t discover many of those efficiency hiccups since Samsung is ready to pull off lighter operations fairly effectively. Any heavy use of those watches, you’ll begin noticing some choppiness.

Samsung elevated the scale of the batteries within the Galaxy Watch 5 and 5 Professional, which, mixed with some under-the-hood optimizations, led the corporate to make some daring claims about how lengthy every watch would final on a full cost.

With the 44mm Watch 5’s 410mAh cell, Samsung says it’s best to rise up to 40 hours of utilization. The Watch 5 Professional’s 590mAh cell, however, is quoted to final 80 hours on a full cost. Eighty hours is a really very long time for a smartwatch to remain up and working, particularly given how frequent it’s for watches to come back with a relatively measly 18 hours of battery life (I’m you, Apple Watch).

So, are these super-long battery claims true? No, not likely.

In my testing, I used to be getting extra like 30 to 35 hours utilizing the Galaxy Watch 5. And with the Galaxy Watch 5 Professional, I obtained about 55 to 60 hours of utilization. Regardless of these shortcomings, in comparison with different watches just like the Apple Watch Sequence 7, that is truly wonderful battery life. The Watch 5 and 5 Professional are simply among the longest-lasting smartwatches available on the market — that’s, in case you’re prepared to regulate your utilization patterns.

What do I imply by that? Right here’s some context: I used every watch like I do another smartwatch I take a look at, continuously checking notifications, monitoring varied walks all through the day, enjoying with apps and so forth. I additionally are inclined to allow the always-on show once I’m given the chance to, and I’m often not one to go and switch off issues like Wi-Fi in order that it doesn’t intervene with the expertise.

Nonetheless, these options (plus others) are virtually required to be disabled so that you can obtain the lengthy stamina Samsung says every watch has. With the always-on show flicked on, I seen a reasonably large drop within the period of time I might use both watch earlier than it died. With Wi-Fi on, it was far worse — I couldn’t get greater than a day trip of both of them. Assume 20 to 25 hours on the Watch 5 and 35 to 45 hours on the Watch 5 Professional.

I’m reaching out to Samsung to ask why this occurs, and we’ll replace this evaluation as soon as we now have clarification.

You’ll ultimately need to recharge these watches, and Samsung says it consists of quick charging, with half-hour plugged in including 45% to the tank. In my testing, I discovered that to be true, but it surely additionally meant it took over an hour to totally recharge the Watch 5 and 5 Professional, which isn’t very quick.

As incremental an improve because the Galaxy Watch 5 sequence is, it additional cements Samsung’s smartwatch line as top-of-the-line available on the market. Now with longer battery life, extra correct health monitoring and further sturdiness, it’s sure to be as standard because the Watch 4 line was final 12 months, if no more so.

So, must you purchase one?

Should you personal a Galaxy Watch 4, there’s actually not a lot right here to justify an improve. Except you completely want a extra sturdy design just like the Watch 5 Professional has, there’s not a lot purpose to ditch your present look ahead to a brand new one. That being mentioned, anybody on the Galaxy Watch 3 or older will recognize what the Watch 5 and 5 Professional provide. You’ll get a a lot better software program expertise with Put on OS, higher battery life, a much more expansive listing of health monitoring instruments and higher sturdiness.

Should you’re coming from a kind of older watches and wish to save a couple of bucks, you could wish to contemplate a Galaxy Watch 4. Samsung is maintaining it in its lineup at $199, which makes it an excellent higher purchase than it was final 12 months because it carries numerous the identical options as the brand new Watch 5. So long as you’re cool with shorter battery life and a pair fewer software program options, the Watch 4 will meet your wants simply high-quality.

All of that being mentioned, in case you’ve determined you’re going to purchase a Watch 5 regardless, contemplate precisely what you’re on the lookout for. The Galaxy Watch 5 can do mainly the whole lot the Watch 5 Professional does (minus GPX monitoring and greater than two days of stamina) for a a lot cheaper price, and also you gained’t need to cope with the Professional’s cumbersome design. And even in case you’re cool with a beefy smartwatch in your wrist, a beginning worth of $449 remains to be fairly steep for what you get.

How the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Professional evaluate

Compatibility	Android	Android	iOS
Show choices	44mm, 40mm	45mm	45mm, 41mm
Weight	1 to 1.18 ounces	1.6 ounces	1.12 to 1.5 ounces
Water resistance	50 meters, IP68	50 meters, IP68	50 meters, IPX6
Battery life (rated)	40 hours	80 hours	18 hours
Coloration choices	Graphite, Silver, Pink Gold	Grey Titanium, Black Titanium	Midnight, Starlight, Inexperienced, Blue, Product Crimson
Worth	$279	$449	$399