It's been two weeks since I got my hands on the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active (hereafter Active), and having survived the initial shock and awe, and in between switching my paired phone from iOS to Android, and after several campaigns and a reset, I think I can now look at this product with a relatively open mind and share some of my thoughts.
Too long to read : This is a product that can compete with the Apple Watch, but not beat it. Suitable for Android phone users with regular exercise habits, especially Samsung users. Not to talk about specific parameters, Active face value in the upper, functional and practical, smooth and exquisite system, the price is relatively cheap.
A few years ago, I used a first-generation Apple Watch for nearly a year when I was still using iOS primarily. I only used it as a sports bracelet due to its performance, but with a beautifully detailed screen, relatively smooth basic functionality, and up to two days of battery life, I was really quite happy with it. Once I switched my primary phone to Android, I got rid of the watch and started looking for a replacement with all the inconveniences. As a Fitbit loyalist, I chose the Fitbit Versa, a "smartwatch" shaped like an Apple Watch. It's a smartwatch, but I think it's a bit closer to the Pebble than the Apple Watch - I happen to have a Pebble 2 SE, and the two give me a very similar feeling: simple functionality, a battery life of four or five days, and a greater focus on heart rate and exercise detection. But I have to say, the poor app ecosystem, the stuttering system, and the lack of localization make me realize that the Versa is nothing more than a sports bracelet stretched and widened with a colorful screen.
My friends @Jiahao and @LumosNight bought the same watch, the Active, after purchasing the Samsung S10e, and I followed suit after much praise.
When it arrived, I was surprised at how "eco-friendly" the packaging was, a square box that could fit the watch. the Active is small and compact, but it looks and feels average in photos. I thought it was thick when I looked at the photos sent to me by Plus, but it really isn't - at least in terms of parameters. The black dial paired with the black background of the OLED gives the illusion of a large screen, which is a clever way to bring a sense of integration that's not bad, but is immediately revealed when you switch to a lighter colored dial. The screen is fine enough that even if the system font is mostly fine, my eyesight is still not grainy.
The Active's unweighted body and soft rubber strap should be specially matched for sports people. With a wave of the arm, it feels almost as light as the Versa. But when it comes down to it, the Active's rubber strap is thinner than the Versa's (20mm vs. 22mm), softer and more comfortable. It smells like rubber when you get close to it, but it's not unpleasant and dissipates within a week/proves that I'm not getting a used one. Personally, if I had a choice, I would prefer nylon or Milanese as both are more breathable in the summer.
Don't worry too much about the dials, the Active comes with a few that are simple enough to be useful, while also giving the user some room for customization. The only complaint is that the automatic dials can't be deleted or hidden, so you have to manually sort the dials you don't like and put them last. Third-party dials in general, there are three styles, business style, simple style, cute style, should be able to eat most of the user's aesthetic style. In particular, the official collaboration between Samsung and LINE has resulted in a few dials that are particularly cute, including my favorite Sally Chicken and a few other bears and rabbits, among others.
The biggest surprise was Tizen OS with One UI.
Technically, this was my first time using a Samsung product. I've heard a lot of comments about the system, mostly "laggy" and "bloated," and it wasn't until One UI came out that there was a shift. But if you think about it, if the system runs smoothly, then the bloat is no longer bloat, but rather, it's an advantage of being "full-featured". Tap into the Active's software details, and the first item is the One UI version, followed by the Tizen version. Here we can see that Samsung is not only treating One UI as a cell phone ROM, but also as a cross-platform design style and philosophy. The goal of this philosophy, I guess, is to be "beautiful", "smooth", and "user-friendly", and maybe it's actually achieved that.
If watchOS 4 is "designed for watches" and Fitbit OS is "the highest expansion of the bracelet system", then Tizen OS on the Active is "an Android-style watch system", and for an Android player like me, Tizen OS brings a lot of familiarity. For an Android player like me, Tizen OS brings a lot of familiarity. But it's not just that I like it, it's that it's well-designed.
The two physical buttons on the right side of the dial are the back and home buttons, with most of the action coming from swiping. Spreading out from the center of the dial, there's a shortcut panel at the top of the dial, notifications on the left, and widget widgets on the right, all of which can be swiped from the dial and don't rely on physical buttons. What you do need to call out is a list of apps that wrap around in a circle. This list of apps can be sorted in any order you want, or sorted by the last time you used it, making it 'most recently used first'. Double-tapping the home button is a shortcut to bring up Samsung's home assistant, Bixby, or third-party apps such as Alipay or Flashlight, etc. The design is very much like the launcher on Android, with notification panels in addition to the dials, widgets for in-app information and shortcuts, and a customizable shortcut panel with up to 18 items.
Speaking of customization, Tizen OS gives you plenty of room to customize. That's both a plus and a minus, and having too many options doesn't necessarily mean it's user-friendly. It's like some people prefer customization to the end of iOS, and some people prefer the freedom of Android, and Tizen is definitely closer to the latter in terms of its ethos.
In addition to customizing the 18-plus shortcut panels, users can customize dials and their elements, widgets and their order, apps and their order, and notifications, brightness, vibration, and other breakdowns of what a watch should be. What's remarkable is that most of the settings don't depend on the phone and can be set independently on the watch. The battery customization, for example, is divided into two modes: normal power saving (I prefer to call it bracelet mode) and time only, with the corresponding remaining usage time. This is far from enough, the battery settings in the "battery optimization suggestions" option, will batch check the position, always bright mode, raise your hand to light up the screen switch, as well as for the light up the screen timeout, vibration intensity, vibration duration, automatic heart rate detection, automatic pressure detection, and so on, some of the recommendations for the configuration of power saving. Even which items are optimized for power saving can be customized. The app permissions control has also been quite complete, such as access to calendar, phone, SMS, contacts, storage, location, network, microphone permissions, and a whole lot more.
Is this really a watch and not a phone? Open the companion Wearable app and you can even see the watch's battery status, storage, RAM and CPU usage, and clean it up. A usage-obsessed data nerd like me is going to pass out in orgasm when I see this. You can use a nine-pattern lock screen password. Tapping on the software version in the watch's settings actually turns on developer options. That's really Android.
All things considered, the Tizen system on the Active is quite detailed and well done. And to me, richness of detail is sophistication, sincerity, and technology.
Honestly, I wouldn't take any phone other than an iPhone SE on a run. If I want to achieve the ideal situation of "one watch, one headset, one easy run," the corresponding smart wearable device must meet the following criteria:
In terms of scenarios, I start at home, turn on the music, and listen to it with my Bluetooth headset. When I arrive at the park, I turn on my GPS and record my workout. After a good workout, I use the watch to buy tea and drinks to replenish my blood. There's no doubt that Active meets the needs represented by this scenario.
With all these features, a smart wearable that allows me to get out and run and have a decent experience is a smart wearable that allows me to get out and run. But for me to want to go out and run, I need to rely on the social features of Samsung Health and the friendly greetings of friends saying "you're round again". Unfortunately, in order to enter Samsung Health's "circle", you have to use a premium Samsung phone. With the incomprehensible and inexplicable emotion of such a policy, I could only watch as Plus and Lumos friended each other, motivating each other and exercising together behind my back. And as an iPhone and Pixel user, I was left alone to sweat it out.
One thing that makes up for this is the Global Challenge on the iOS client (not on Android). By participating in the Global Challenge, you can compete with nearly 20,000 users around the world. The goal of 200,000 steps a month isn't difficult, but it's not easy either. Both the total number of steps and your real-time global ranking motivate you to take one step and then another. In addition to the global challenge, another noteworthy feature is the 'Steps Leaderboard'. This is the feature that tells you the percentage of your steps, calories, and other data that you ranked among all users, same age groups, and friends over the past seven days. This interface is also available on the watch, and users can add Samsung Health's Step Leaderboard widget for a quick look.
It's a shame that Samsung's motivational approach to this data focuses on steps, when in reality, if your heart rate isn't high enough, taking that many steps doesn't necessarily really produce much of a fitness effect. An active, sunny teenager like me will undoubtedly be at the forefront of step counts across the globe, and using data to explicitly tell me that fact is just adding to my pride.
Finally, my personal opinion on the accuracy of the exercise data, or "what the heck I'm buying this thing for". Accuracy of exercise data is not as important as I originally thought. Accurate measurements are good, and very good, but what's the point of being slightly inaccurate? As long as it motivates me to exercise more and live a healthier lifestyle, the purpose of buying these wearable devices is fulfilled in my opinion. It's the design of the features that should be at the center of each manufacturer's efforts to motivate users. I'm still a fan of Apple's approach, and I can still remember when I would purposely walk long distances to make sure I got three laps in every day, and when I would run as hard as I could to get a certain badge (and then realize I ran on the wrong date). Looking back, I think the healthiest times I've had were when I wore my Apple Watch. And that's how a brand's reputation is shaped by what countless users say.
Go Samsung!
Heart rate is the most important data for me when I wear this type of device, and while step counting can be inaccurate, heart rate can't. Active occasionally encounters heart rate inaccuracy, and I've complained about it in my Twitter feed. When I'm sprinting around the playground with my heart pounding, it's frustrating to see my watch displaying a heart rate of only 139, as if I'm a male gorilla failing to please a female gorilla.
Another failure is the lack of visualization of heart rate data. Samsung has popularized the resting heart rate, the average resting heart rate range for both genders, and the exercise heart rate range in the heart rate section, but by default it gives all scenarios of heart rate data, and only gives vague values like minimum, maximum, and average. The display of such values is just like the client of a domestic bracelet, with little practical value. You can switch to specific scenarios such as "at rest", "during", "after", etc., but why can't this informative data just be displayed in the default interface?
The resting heart rate value is only given when the heart rate "continuous" detection is turned on, but it's not really continuous all the time. When the user is stationary, the watch will take a measurement once every ten minutes as with the 'frequent' detection, and as soon as the user starts exercising, it will start taking continuous measurements. This is why the watch is more power hungry during an active day.
PS: Just to be clear, I don't think it's the absolute value of the heart rate that's important to look at, it's the change in the heart rate value over a long period of time, the relative value, and Samsung has made it clear that this is for fitness, not medical, and that I'm asking for accuracy in the fitness dimension.
First of all, the account problem, because the network security law Samsung migrated servers to the mainland, which creates a series of inexplicable problems. First of all, the activation of the time I directly use Android, registered is also the mainland cell phone number, the account area is also shown in China, but it is prompted by the inability to synchronize, you need to register the account in China. I switched to a different version of the client and the network conditions did not solve the problem, and finally switched to the iPhone to get around it. After getting around it, it works fine on the Android client.
Another annoying thing is that after migrating from iPhone to Android, a notification keeps popping up on my watch asking me to agree to the updated TOS, but there's nothing in the link that requires me to agree. This notification keeps popping up every time I reconnect to my phone over and over again. I'm assuming it's something to do with my network environment, but I ended up resolving it by logging into the watch using another account.
My advice would be to make sure that the activation is set up in a proper network environment. None of these types of issues should really be happening, and not all of them are Samsung's responsibility. Also, I don't think I need to explicitly say what happens when the servers are on the mainland.
It's not recommended that iOS users buy the Active, because there are better Apple Watches out there, and from my experience, pairing with iOS takes away a lot of functionality - you can't reply to notifications, you can't make calls, you can't send or receive text messages, you can't back up most of your data, you can't take screenshots back to your phone, and you need to use a computer to sync even your music. There's no doubt that these missing features are due to the closed nature of iOS.
In addition to the social features, Spotify, which comes pre-installed abroad, is also missing from the national lineup, and the apps on the national region are in shambles. It's an understandable, but unfortunate, lockdown policy.
Beyond that, is it really that good?
Yes, it's good enough. If you're switching from iOS to Android and looking for an alternative to the Apple Watch, the Active is a pretty great option.