Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Review: WATCH out Apple

This year, the Galaxy Watch five Pro is supposed for folks who need a rugged smartwatch from Samsung, with higher battery life, and durability. It additionally instructs a greater price of Rs 44,999 for the GPS version. The LTE + GPS version I even have for a review is Rs 49,999. But is the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro really well worth the money? Here's my review.

What’s Changed?

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro has a sapphire crystal display (the watch is 45mm in size only) and a titanium case. The Watch 5 Pro also features a larger 590mAh battery compared to the Watch 5's 410mAh (44mm size). I'm here. The Watch 5 Pro also supports the ability for "route-based" workouts, which allows the user to import his GPX format files from the mobile phone and receive turn-by-turn instructions.

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro also has a temperature sensor, but it doesn't seem to work right now. There is no specific purpose for this but Samsung may enable the sensor in a later update. It also comes with Samsung's BioActive sensor that can measure heart rate and more. However, the electrocardiogram function is not yet available in India, which is a shame. Why Samsung has not yet launched this in India is still a mystery.

What's good?

Display

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro's touch screen display is a bright AMOLED display. The display is plenty sharp at 450 x 450 resolution. When used indoors, I kept the brightness to minimum and it was still easily visible, in outdoor conditions I would recommend to keep the brightness at mid to high. Keep in mind that keeping the always-on display on all the time consumes more battery.

Gestures and Experience

Most navigation on the watch can be done by swiping up, down, left and right on the touchscreen. Swipe up from the bottom to open all apps. You can also access the new watch faces from the Play Store itself if you prefer. From a smartwatch perspective, there's a lot going on here. I could easily use Spotify from the watch itself, but I had to plug in my Bluetooth headphones. The Watch 5 Pro has a speaker, and with an LTE connection you can make phone calls directly through the speaker. That did make me use my phone a little less.

Fitness Tracking

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro performs really well in the fitness area. The step counting is very accurate and an improvement over what we've seen from Samsung in the past. I've also used it for swimming and the watch has been a perfect fit when it comes to accurate lap counting. I haven't been able to "hike" the watch, but I've used it a few times for long walks and short runs. This watch displays a large amount of data including heart rate zones after a training session. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro will be appealing for fitness enthusiasts.

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro also measures your body composition, showing you your percentage of body fat, BMI, fat mass, skeletal muscle, and more. This data is consistent with what I've seen from other reports though there is still a margin of error. You need to stand still with your armpits open. Samsung wants to make sure your fingers are only touching the buttons and not the rest of the watch, so it took a few tries to get this right.
The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro also has a blood oxygen monitoring option, which is quite accurate.

What's Bad?

Battery

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro has a massive 590mAh battery, but if you load it with a lot of activities, you'll probably be out of charge before the day is over. Also, leaving LTE on can drain your battery faster. Charging the Watch 5 Pro thankfully is a lot faster compared to the Watch Series 4.

Bugs and Lags

I also noticed the Watch 5 Pro's response time was a bit slow. For example, tapping the search icon when searching for an app in the Google Play Store took a few extra moments before the keyboard appeared. Rarely the watch was noticeably slower to respond to touch commands.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Verdict

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro requires a premium price of almost Rs 50,000 for the LTE version. For those looking for a premium Wear OS smartwatch that is not limited to Apple Ecosystem, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro remains a solid choice in the market.

However, you have to make sure that all the features included here are what you want in a smartwatch. This watch isn't for everyone, and the price is what makes the difference. If you play sports, hike extensively, and want all the smart features Garmin doesn't have, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is for you. But for everyone else, the cheaper Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 will be a better deal.