Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4 is the closest thing to the Apple Watch for Android users
Antonio Villas-Boas Aug 31, 2021, 11:08 PM
Antonio Villas-Boas/Insider
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Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4 series starts at $250 and is undoubtedly the best smartwatch for Android users.
The Galaxy Watch 4 is very well priced while maintaining the usual features and performance that makes it premium.
I've had some issues with the advanced ECG and BIA features, but they're not dealbreakers.
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Samsung Galaxy Watch 4
$279.99 FROM BEST BUY
Samsung's Galaxy Watch series were always among the best smartwatches Android users could buy. They consistently offer the most premium experience while maintaining a robust set of health and fitness features. But Android users still didn't have something that could quite compare to the Apple Watch's finesse and polish.
The company pushed it to another level with the Galaxy Watch 4, thanks to two key upgrades: more apps via the Samsung-designed version of the Google Wear OS smartwatch operating system, and an enticing price. Starting at $250 for the smaller 40mm model, and $330 for the larger 44mm model, the Galaxy Watch 4 easily poses some of the best value for a smartwatch when you consider just how much you get.
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Samsung also differentiates its smartwatches with advanced health tracking features, and the company added a new Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) feature that measures body composition, like skeletal muscle, basal metabolic rate, body water, and body fat percentage.
Galaxy Watch 4 specs
Display: 40mm (396 x 396) and 44mm (450 x 450)
Battery: 247mAh (40mm) and 361mAh (40mm)
Processor: 1.18GHz, dual-core, Exynos W920
Operating system: Google Wear OS powered by Samsung
Memory and storage: 1.5GB RAM and 16GB storage
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, BEIDOU, Galileo, LTE (optional)
Sensors: Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic sensor, Electrical Heart Sensor (ECG), Optical Heart Rate Sensor (HRM), Bioelectrical impedance analysis sensor, Light Sensor
Water resistance: IP68 + 5ATM
Design and comfort
Regardless of what color you choose for the aluminum frame, the Galaxy Watch 4 series has a safe, generic round design that lets your watch face make the statement rather than the aesthetics of the overall watch.
There are tons of options for watch faces and different watch hands, but one thing that bothers me is the limited color options for the faces and hands. I would have loved a green color option for the watch face below, for example, but it's not available for some reason.
The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic turned diagonally sideways, showing its physical buttons. Antonio Villas-Boas/Insider
The Galaxy Watch 4 is the thinnest and lightest smartwatch of Samsung's recent smartwatches, and it's a comfortable watch for it. The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is a little thicker, thanks to its rotating bezel. The included silicone straps are also comfortable, but they're pretty stiff — the strap sticks out quite a bit where they connect to the watch itself.
Specifically for the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic's included strap, the loops that keep the excess strap from flailing around are completely ineffective. That's a shame, and I'd feel the need to buy another strap had I bought the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.
General usage
Telling the time with the Galaxy Watch 4 is best with the always-on display
The Galaxy Watch 4 doesn't reliably show you the time when you do the "raise-your-wrist-to-tell-the-time" gesture, unless you cartoonishly exaggerate the gesture, tap the screen, press a button, or rotate the bezel on the Classic version.
The easy solution is using the always-on display mode, which reduces battery life, but the watch still lasts a full day with ease.
Notifications are helpful on the Galaxy Watch 4
Smartwatches are great for checking notifications without having to look at your phone, as well as receiving messages and making calls from the watch. When the Galaxy Watch 4 is connected to your phone via
Bluetooth
, all this works just fine.
When you're beyond your phone's Bluetooth connection, however, the Galaxy Watch connects to your WiFi network (or LTE if you opt for that option. Almost everything still works fine when the watch is connected to a WiFi network, except for phone calls, which is a shame to find. In fact, I wouldn't even get a notification for a phone call when I was outside of Bluetooth range from my phone, but text and messaging notifications came through.
There's also the occasional time when the Galaxy Watch 4 struggles to find my WiFi network, or stay connected to WiFi when I move around different parts of the house with a mesh WiFi system.
Google's Wear OS operating system, brought to you by Samsung
One of the biggest upgrades to come to the Galaxy Watch 4 series is the adoption of Google's Wear OS smartwatch operating system instead of Samsung's Tizen smartwatch (OS).
That may cause concern for anyone familiar with Google's neglected and poor Wear OS, but with Samsung's help, it's actually pretty great on the Galaxy Watch 4 series. It looks and feels like Samsung's excellent Tizen OS, but Google's Wear OS means the Galaxy Watch 4 is compatible with significantly more apps from Google's Play Store.
Health and fitness
General fitness tracking with the Galaxy Watch 4 works well
The Galaxy Watch 4 has an array of health and fitness tracking features you'd expect from a premium smartwatch, including workout tracking, heart rate monitoring, blood pressure measuring, an ECG feature, sleep tracking, blood oxygen measuring, and stress measuring.
The Galaxy Watch 4 shows its general fitness feature that includes closing the rings for footsteps and calories burned. Antonio Villas-Boas/Insider
The basic workout and fitness tracking stuff works great, but it can be a little over eager to automatically record a workout. For example, the Galaxy Watch 4 thinks I'm working out while I'm taking a shower. Perhaps I shower more aggressively than the average person? Either way, it's annoying to delete my erroneous shower workout day after day to avoid it from messing with my actual workout tracking.
Sleep tracking with the Galaxy Watch 4
For sleep tracking, it's impossible to tell if the Galaxy Watch 4 is properly measuring my REM, light, deep sleep, and wakefulness without comparing its readings to a medical sleep test. Still, I can tell when I've been awake, as I'm waking up a couple times a night to feed my baby, and the Galaxy Watch 4 sometimes doesn't register those waking moments well at all. It makes me doubt that the Galaxy Watch 4 is properly tracking the other sleep metrics.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Insider
Still, I guess I get an overall sense of my sleep quality — my sleep score in Samsung Health is consistently a poor 40 out of 100, which isn't surprising on account of my baby. But I don't need a smartwatch or health app to tell me I'm getting bad sleep these days.
ECG on the Galaxy Watch 4 can be hit or miss
The ECG works well, but it's extremely dependent on having the Galaxy Watch 4 properly positioned on your wrist, and there seems to be a very narrow margin for that proper position. I'd easily get inconclusive readings when the watch wasn't well positioned, and I even got a reading saying that I was experiencing atrial fibrillation.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Insider
Thankfully, cardiologist and Director of Cardiology for Dallas-based State of the Heart Cardiology, Dr. John Osborne, debunked the reading and said I wasn't experiencing atrial fibrillation. Dr. Osborne attributed the erroneous reading to a confused algorithm caused by external feedback like motion, talking, or even simply breathing. It's not uncommon for smartwatches with ECG features to be "fooled," he elaborated.
Here's what a normal ECG reading should look like:
Antonio Villas-Boas/Insider
Measuring your body with the Galaxy Watch 4 is an awkward experience
The big new piece of health-tracking tech in the Galaxy Watch 4 is the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) feature that measures body composition, like skeletal muscle, basal metabolic rate, body water, and body fat percentage.
The fancy new body measurement feature with the BIA sensors seems fairly accurate. Every reading I took showed slightly different numbers, but they were largely pretty consistent, and that's fine to give you a general idea of your body metrics.
With that said, taking a measurement was often a frustrating experience. Like the ECG feature, the BIA seems incredibly sensitive to where the watch is on your wrist to take a reading. Also, placing your middle and ring fingers on the two buttons on the side of the watch to take a body measurement is incredibly awkward.
The Galaxy Watch 4’s body measurement feature showing some of the authors body metrics, like skeletal muscle and body fat percentages. Antonio Villas-Boas/Insider
The overall takeaway here is that sleep tracking, the ECG, and BIA features are just meant to give you a general idea, and they don't replace a doctor or real medical measuring devices.
Battery life
The Galaxy Watch 4 has a solid day-and-a-half-long battery life with the always-on display mode enabled, and with general use (without workout tracking). Enabling bedtime mode when I went to sleep, which turns off the display and puts the watch into "do not disturb" mode, helped with getting that extra few hours into the next day.
Even with a good workout, the Galaxy Watch 4 will comfortably last a day until you lay it down to charge overnight. Longer workouts, especially those that use GPS like a marathon or a 100-mile bike ride, will likely considerably run down the battery.
The Galaxy Watch 4's battery life shouldn't be rated with the always-on display mode disabled, as it's such an important feature to keep on for the basic function of telling the time. You can help extend battery life into the second day by enabling bedtime mode when you go to sleep, which turns off the screen and notifications.
An angled photo of the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, which is slightly thicker than the standard Watch 4 thanks to its rotating bezel. Antonio Villas-Boas/Insider
What are your alternatives?
We don't suggest anything that runs on Google's standard Wear OS, as it feels buggy and neglected. If you're looking for a premium general use smartwatch for Android that comes with comprehensive fitness and health tracking features, Samsung's Galaxy 4 series is where we stop.
For more fitness-centered smartwatches, you can check out our choices for the best fitness trackers.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4?
Yes. It's the closest smartwatch that Android users have to the premium Apple Watch experience. The Galaxy Watch 4 even features health tools that the Apple Watch currently doesn't, namely the BIA sensor.
The bottom line
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is the obvious choice for Android users looking for a comprehensive, quality, premium smartwatch experience. No other smartwatch for Android can compare. However, it's a shame that the ECG feature is limited to Samsung phone owners.
To boot, the Galaxy Watch 4 starting at $250 for the 40mm version is also very well priced, especially for such a premium and feature-packed watch.
$279.99 FROM BEST BUY
$299.98 FROM AMAZON
Originally $309.98Save 3%
Antonio Villas-Boas
Senior Tech Reporter
Antonio is a senior tech reporter for Insider's Reviews team, where he helps lead coverage, reviews, and guides of smartphones, tablets, accessories, wearables, smart home products, as well as audio devices from Apple, Google, Samsung, OnePlus, and other major tech companies. Before joining Business Insider, Antonio was a consumer-electronics analyst at PCMag. He graduated from Colgate University in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in history. You can contact Antonio with tips and cool tech via email at: avillasboas@businessinsider.com Learn more about how our team of experts tests and reviews products at Insider here. Learn more about how we test tech and electronics.
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