Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch Active alongside its Galaxy S10 devices back in February 2019. Galaxy Watch active is a worthy successor to the Samsung Gear Sport boasting attractive design and worthwhile new features for the price. The smartwatch joined the larger, more rugged Galaxy Watch in the company’s portfolio, bringing more fitness-focused features and a simpler design.
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active takes a lot of what was great about the company’s standard smartwatch, all into a smaller package at a cheap price.
The Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active design is suitable for both working out and wearing in your daily life. Although, it’s undeniably a pared down version of the Galaxy Watch as it’s lacking a few features, but, the affordable price tag definitely make it a more attractive option for some.
Key Specifications
- 1.15GHz Exynos 9110 chipset
- 768MB RAM
- 4GB storage
- 40mm aluminium casing
- 20mm quick-release silicon straps
- Swim-proofing up to 5ATM
- IP68 certified
- MIL-STD-810G tested
- GPS, Glonass, Beidou & Galileo
- Heart rate & blood pressure monitoring
- 1.1-inch circular 360×360 AMOLED display
- Tizen OS 4.0 w/ One UI
Design
The Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active comes with a circular shape and unlike the Galaxy Watch, this device marked a pretty big design shift for Samsung’s watches. Gone was the chunky, industrial aesthetic and the fan-favorite rotating bezel. Instead, Samsung went for a much sleeker and slimmed down design.
The Watch is a lot lighter all thanks to the aluminum built. Although, most non-Apple makers tend to favour steel when making the shell of a smartwatch like this, but the Galaxy Watch Active aimed at slimness and lightness. There are no numbers around its sides, just a roughly 7mm border beyond the display and then a sliver of aluminum.
Compare to the apple watch which sports a clicky rotating bezel , the Active has gone aggressive by introducing just a touchscreen and a couple of buttons to control the watch.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active sports a 1.1 inches screen size with 360 x 360 pixels resolution. It comes with Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display type.
Galaxy Watch Active comes with a bight screen which can also be set manually, but there’s also a mode that turns it down automatically in lower light conditions. The Galaxy Watch Active is a full color display, so it looks great when you’re navigating around Tizen’s variety of apps.
There are four color choices for the Galaxy Watch Active: black, silver, blue (technically sea green) and pink. The pink band comes with a rose gold body, while the rest of the watches just come with the same color as the strap.
All of those bands are made of silicone,hence, they are comfortable in all kind of weather. the watch uses 20mm straps, which can be swapped out.
Fitness tracking
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active has great fitness tracking hardware. There’s built-in full GPS, so you can go for a run without your phone and not lose out on any data, and a heart rate sensor on the back of the watch. It even has a barometric altimeter, which works out how many flights of stairs you walk up each day when passively tracking.
The Galaxy Watch Active comes with a heart rate monitor like your average smartwatch, but it’s also capable of measuring your stress levels. It notices when your heart rate peaks, and from there it will tell you to take some time to monitor your stress, and even recommend breathing exercises for you to undertake.
The watch also comes with a blood pressure monitor. It’s capable of monitoring your blood pressure through a service called My BP Lab.
Galaxy Watch Active helps you analyze your sleep patterns and encourages you to wind down to keep you refreshed and at your best. Proactively focus more on yourself with interactive meditation and breathing exercises, powered by Calm. Day or night, Galaxy Watch Active has you covered. It is also capable of sleep tracking too. It’ll give you stats such as duration and REM.
The Galaxy Watch Active GPS tracker helps to connect easily and quickly during workouts. This Samsung watch comes featuring auto-tracking modes for 39 different activities. This include running and cycling as well as support for third-party apps like Strava.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is water resistant to 5ATM, so you can wear it in the swimming pool as well as the shower.
Specs and performance
The Galaxy Watch Activeis powered by a Exynos 9110 chipset which is a dual-core processor clocked at 1.15GHz. It’s the same tech that was inside the Galaxy Watch, and is paired with 4MB of RAM.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active comes sporting the latest version of Tizen, which a few years ago was one of the more limited smartwatch operating systems.
Although, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is more of a fitness watch, it is also a smartwatch, but not not one with all that many apps. however, additional apps can be install from the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone on the watch.
Like the Apple watch, Samsung Active has a mic and the Bixby digital assistant.The Samsung Galaxy Watch also has Samsung Pay, which you wake up by long-pressing the upper button.
Battery life
The Active only has a 230mAh battery, smaller than the 270mAh of the 42mm Galaxy Watch, and in another league to the 472mAh of the 46mm version. it can lasts for around two days before needing a recharge.
The watch will also work with other Qi wireless chargers, including phones that include the power share feature.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active Full Specifications
Network | Technology | No cellular connectivity |
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Launch | Announced | 2019, February |
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Status | Available. Released 2019, April |
Body | Dimensions | 39.5 x 39.5 x 10.5 mm (1.56 x 1.56 x 0.41 in) |
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Weight | 25 g (0.88 oz) | |
SIM | No | |
Samsung Pay MIL-STD-810G 50m waterproof (IP68) Compatible with standard 20mm straps |
Display | Type | Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
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Size | 1.1 inches, 9.2 cm2 (~58.8% screen-to-body ratio) | |
Resolution | 360 x 360 pixels, 1:1 ratio (~302 ppi density) | |
Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 | |
Always-on display |
Platform | OS | Tizen-based wearable OS 4.0 |
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Chipset | Exynos 9110 (10 nm) | |
CPU | Dual-core 1.15 GHz Cortex-A53 | |
GPU | Mali-T720 |
Memory | Card slot | No |
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Internal | 4 GB, 768 MB RAM |
Camera | No |
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Sound | Loudspeaker | Yes |
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3.5mm jack | No |
Comms | WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n |
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Bluetooth | 4.2, A2DP, LE | |
GPS | Yes, with GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS | |
NFC | Yes | |
Radio | No | |
USB | No |
Features | Sensors | Accelerometer, gyro, heart rate, barometer |
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Natural language commands and dictation |
Battery | Non-removable Li-Ion 230 mAh battery | |
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Charging | Qi wireless charging |
Misc | Colors | Silver, Black, Rose Gold, Sea Green |
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